Rich's News from Camp Webegone
I had a request to outline the costs of
camp hosting. Which is an interesting exercise.
And I find it difficult. Like home ownership there are costs
over and above your day-to-day expenses. I think of the trailer much
like a house. You always have repairs. Things wear out.
Maintenance happens, and how do you track that without doing averages? I don't think I will
have a good idea until we use it for several years. But a wild shot
is maintenance is $200 a year.
Utilities are less. Even running the
generator in cold weather is less than heating our home in Portland,
and certainly the cost of water is much less. (We also use a lot
less water). I figure the propane and gas for the generator are
around $50 a month and water is the cost of two miles of driving once
a week. Of course we spend nothing for our space here. I figured
that in Portland my house expenses including utilities was around
$500 a month. At least for 4 months we are paying way less. But the
trailer depreciates and sometimes houses don't.
Food expenses are
pretty much the same although we have eaten out more often as we take
a day to go shopping and have visitors that we go with to
restaurants. (Also just to treat ourselves.) During hot days we may be
tempted to go to the ice cream store.
Laundry is an expense we did not have.
But we do not buy and maintain a washer and dryer… Still, I do think that would end up costing more, normally. But since Cheryl is not doing massage we only
to 3-4 loads once a week, whereas at home it was much more because of
massage sheets.
So overall, I think living like this is much less expensive, in
the long run. But startup is financially intense.
Cheryl's News from Camp Webegone
Besides financial costs, there are
emotional and psychological costs. Being away from family and friends
for four months is a huge emotional loss/cost. I think of my
ancestors who left their family and friends in the 1600's and 1800's
and never had contact with them again. I don't know how they managed
the grief and longing for physical connection with family and
friends. Of course, they may have been focused on an adventure in a
new land. What I do know is that for myself I need a different plan.
A plan that includes a trip to visit family and friends sometime
during the summer.
Hosting at Natural Bridge Campground
fully feeds our spiritual selves. On sunny warm days spending our
time outdoors nourishes our spirit. On rainy cold days, when Rich and
I are confined inside our 18-foot trailer, those aspects of our
personalities that are opposite flash up right in our faces. No going
off to an office to work to escape. No going to a different room in
the house to create space and separation. No way to avoid those pesky
differences. For Rich and I these relationship issues are a work in
progress. A work in progress looking at winter confined within a
small room (the trailer). Stay tuned.
There are environmental costs also.
There is absolutely no recycling available. With each glass container
put in the garbage, a whimper of sadness. With each tin can, a
shudder. With milk and such containers, a plea for forgiveness. And
there is the vast amount of paper we burn. It is really hard. I've
considered saving all the recycling, bringing it back to Portland, and recycling it in the fall. The
image of the pickup truck filled with four months of recycling
instead of food and supplies sobers me up quickly.
We drive a lot
more, too. A lot more. Petroleum fumes and ancient dinosaurs spew out
our exhaust pipe. Rich and I will need to lead angelic lives to
compensate for our summer footprint.
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