“The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men,
Robert Burns, Collected Poems of Robert Burns
Gang aft agley.
When I began this blog, I was planning to live in the Arfpod for 6 months. Maybe even 8 months. RV nomad? Nah, I would just have fun for a few months. I would dabble in the full time RV lifestyle until I found suitable Alberta land to build a cabin and a dog training facility. Well. That was the plan back before the Covid pandemic put a stranglehold on normal life. And well, you know. The best laid plans….
Change is inevitable…
Yes, Covid changed the way I thought. The pandemic forced me to shut my business down, cancel trick dog shows, and embrace a pretty sedentary life writing, making little how to videos for my Youtube channel and painting. Of course I trained my own dogs. But group puppy classes and even private dog training consultations had to be put on hold, or done by Zoom. It was a whole different thing; learning how to use another spanking new technology.
Change on the Winds
Alberta skies are just a magnificent thing. They rarely change less than every day. The thing that pushes the change are sudden 60 kmph wind gusts out of no where. Followed by lightening cracking the whole place like a bad lightbulb. The thunder that followed would literally shake my trailer as it bellowed the imminence or presence of a giant storm, even though five minutes ago it was a sunny, warm, summer day. The awning would have to be rolled up fast, before the wind ripped it from the trailer. These storms would have me and the dogs huddling inside and praying it didn’t hail. We were actually lucky to have missed the baseball sized hail Alberta is famous for. Soon it would be winter. Alberta winters are notoriously bitter. Not much to look forward to.
Adjusting
And so It re-occured to me (it had occurred to me before) that I was definitely too soft. Too wimpy. Too addicted to winter walks and bike rides and watching the ocean surf swell in relatively mild winter storms. It also occurred to me that I could train dogs anywhere, with the benefits that modern technology has inflicted on me. These days I can train dogs and run dog training classes wherever I am. The fear of freedom in movement, in thought, and in living has been shed and left somewhere in the 1000’s of miles I travelled in 2020.
We all adapt to our lives and for most of my adult life I adapted to working stupid long hours to maintain ownership of a house. The North American dream. The price I paid was much more than the money I gave to the bank, the hydro company, and all the other companies that made it possible to own a house. The price I paid was years of life fraught with stress and sometimes barely tolerable anxiety as I ran hard in the hamster wheel of economic strife.
In the end, the house became a repository for the many cool things I collected over the years, as well as a place to store the things we needed to care for a house and a farm. It was hard giving up all those things at first. I sold things, and donated stuff. I gave my treasured art collection to my children. And then, I started to feel an unburdened freedom that I haven’t felt before. WIthout stuff, I don’t need a place to store it.
Embracing life as an RV nomad
I love full time RV nomad life in the Arfpod. This little RV has just enough space for me and the dogs. Why mess with the happiness and freedom I have found in my rolling home. I no longer had any desire for roots. I came back to the coast for the winter. My seaside camp-spot under the eagle trees at Helen’s became my winter roost. In summer, I can travel back to the prairies for more adventures and grandkid cuddles. In memory of my dear Dad, I fully intend to spoil them and tell them the stories he told me, and the stories I learned (or made up) along this big, wide, wonderful River of Life.
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