My Life Before the Farm

Or "My Life in the Trailer in the Backwoods of Loxahatchee", but that's a bit of a mouth full.

I went to school in West Palm Beach, Florida where, through mutual friends, I met Art. Because the rent on our apartment was insane, we decided to move out to his trailer in Loxahatchee. Loxahatchee is a suburb of West Palm Beach; that makes it sound nicer than it is. It's more like the white trash second cousin to West Palm Beach. But I digress.

The trailer we lived in was not, as many of you are probably thinking, a mobile home. This was a twenty-six foot travel trailer; the kind you might take camping but not the kind you might live in. The redeeming quality of this was rent was $100 a month. My mom came to visit before we moved in and, thanks to her, we put up 10x20 carport and wrapped screen around it to make a nice screened in porch. This came in handy as the trailer had about 100 square feet and most of that was taken up by the couch, counters and the bed. We did have electricity, phone and running water; a couple of years prior, Art and his friend Chuck (who owned the five acres we lived on) placed a barrel in a tree and pumped water up to the barrel for better pressure. There was a well, but before that the water came from the pond that was also on the property. Since the well pump was not automatic, every other day or so I had to trudge over to a shed (making sure to avoid the fire ant hills) flip the switch for the well pump, and wait for the barrel to fill up.

I really enjoyed living in the trailer... for the most part. Some things you had to get used to (like Dallas, bugs and lions; all will be explained in later posts) and it certainly gave me some great stories!

The screened in porch (pay no attention to the crazy lady in her pajamas)

Art's garage. Yes, that is an upside down boat

Art's Charger- you can see the trailer behind it. You'll notice the strange looking cover. Art built that out of rebar and tarps to help protect the trailer. It's all about resale value!