Living the Dream… or at least following it

      People  are  asking  me " Why  do you want  such a  big  trailer" and " I wouldn't  want to  pull that thing"  and  this  and  that… So, I thought  that  I'd  take this  post  to explain a little bit for those  that  haven't  been following  along  or  for those  that  don't  really  know  us.
      Peg and  I have  had a  "dream" to ride our  horses in so many  of  the  beautiful spots  that  this great  Country and  Canada  has  to offer for  many  years. Because  of  Work restraints  of  my  previous job and the  fact that we take  care of 14  horses on our  place made it hard for us to get away  for any length of time.
      Last year, We were able to get away from the  farm and  our  jobs  for 21 days to test the waters and  see  if the "dream" was  truly doable. We planned and  prepared  for many  months  prior  to our  departure to Arizona in March. We met  up with  fellow  Back Country  Horsemen members Kelly  Brooke Allen and  Ron Stolp of BC and  their  friend  Darrell Brown in Wickenburg out  on BLM land   where we camped and  rode  with our horses. We  had  the  time  of  our  lives.

We rode several different areas and covered many miles on horseback. We met  new  and  lasting  friends on that  trip all who share  a common interest; Camping  with their  Horses and  enjoying life!
       So, Back to the  original question, Why  such a big trailer. As you can see  from the  photo above, an 8 foot  camper  would  become  a bit  cramped living  in it  for 5-6  months  a year  with another  person. The 4  horse  trailer  however  was  perfect  for 2  horses  to an extended trip. We  used  2 stalls for storage in the  horse trailer. That  is the  reason why we  decided to go ahead  with the 4 horse trailer. In the  coming months  you'll see how we  transform this trailer into a home capable  of  living  off of the  grid and free  of things that  we've all become  so dependent  on in our  lives.
       This  isn't  for everyone we know. We've  been researching Full time  Rv living  for a few  years  now and  although  we  don't  pretend  to have all of the  answers, We are  confident  that this is something  that we  both want to do. We did  alot of shopping around  for a Living  Quarters (LQ) horse  trailer that would  be  comfortable and within our  budget and  looked at  many different  models and  manufacturers. We chose a  Lakota Charger edition. Storage in the  LQ was a paramount  concern for both of us. The  Lakota  has  lots of  cabinets and  it's  light compared to other manufacturers.
       Our  model is a 15'6" Short wall  model with a 6' slide out. The  slide makes  all of the  difference in the world  as  far as room inside. Another  feature  that we  really  liked about this  model is that it has a rear  kitchen in it. The  kitchen is equipped with a 3  burner stove with an oven, a micro wave oven and  a large  RV refrigerator.
       We had  the  Air Conditioner  removed  when we  ordered this form the factory and  had  3  Fantastic fans installed  instead. We plan to install 750 watts of Solar panels on the roof so we needed to have as much space available as we  could. The panels  when coupled  with the  upgraded  battery  bank, will produce  enough energy  to run anything  that we plan on running. We will be able to live off of the  grid  with this  trailer and  not be  dependant  on electricity.
      We understand that this  trailer  may  not  be able to go everywhere that We  would like to travel with the  horses but, It will be able to go to a lot of them. The  thing  that we  had to stay  focussed on was the  fact that we would  be  in this trailer  traveling  for a  minimum of  5-6 months  yearly.
      I hope you'll find this  blog  entertaining  and  educational and  follow us as  we  live  this  dream...

Well it's been almost a year  since  I've written anything  on this  blog and  it really  hasn't  been because I didn't  have  anything to talk about. A lot  has  happened in the  past  year.
We went on several great  horse  camping  trips and  spent  a lot of time  at  our  Cowboy  Campsite.
         I officially retired  from 30 years  at the  County Road Dept. and now  we  are  planning  on going  Full time with  our  horses on the  road. Our  plan is  to travel South in the  cold  winter  months and  come  back North  in the  Spring and  Summer  months. We decided  that it would  be much easier  if  we  did that  in a  LQ horse trailer instead  of the  camper/ Bumper pull trailer  like we  did last  year.
So, we went out  and bought a new  LQ trailer by  Lakota

I plan on sharing  the  process of we  are  doing as  far as the  planning  and  preparing  this  trailer and  what  we  need  to do to get ready  for our  life  on the road. I hope that  you'll find  it  interesting and this blog  gives you insite  of what is involved  in living  the  dream.