(wind blowing)
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Oops we did it again. I thought we had the winter RV living under control but,
apparently not. We woke up and the pipes were frozen again. -We had this happen before, we
made a video about it, and of course we thought, 'hey we're professionals now' because we made a
YouTube video about preparing your RV for winter. Just click the link. Is it up here?
Yep, it's up there. So click the link if you want to know what we're talking about but guys, if it's
your first time here we're HappilyEverHanks, I'm Renee.
-What's up, I am Kyle, and thanks for joining us.
We're all about RV living and showing you all of our failures to make sure you have a successful RV
life when you hit the road. So we're showing you all about winter RV living this episode and we're
taking it to the extreme. So extreme, I might add, that we actually skirted our RV. Oh my gosh.
We have skirted the RV, and we're gonna talk about that. Can we get a round of applause?
(applause)
Thank you. -Thank you
guys you didn't have to do that. -That was really nice.
Happy new year to you hopefully it is the best year yet.
Yes. -Oh man. -I think we're all ready for 2021 to roll in.
-I think so. And if any of you are out there
RV living during winter and as crazy as we are. Good luck. -So let me just give
you a little story of what's going on with our lives right now. So we have family on both sides
of the country. California and Pennsylvania. -Yes Great it couldn't have been like halfway? Umm
Oh that's my fault? It was Pennsylvania's turn to have Christmas this year so
we decided let's make our
way across country and hopefully get here before Christmas and we did.
It's super hot out right now
you got to stay hydrated. But if you do need your water to stay cold...
Done. -Wow. -Done. -I didn't know that future came with these trucks.
-Yeah it's a new feature, 2017. Not bad.
How do we celebrate New Year's Eve? You know, we live in an RV and we don't have cable.
I don't know, it's just it's like every other night we just put something on tv and hang out.
Oh yeah, totally. We're just chilling. Netflix and chilling. -Um, but going back.
But we um are actually staying on my friend's property. My
friend that I went to nursing school and high school with.
And they were so nice to say 'hey we got hookups you guys can come stay with us'
and you know, -Yeah. -They're just metering the electricity we use and oh my gosh it's like the
best RV park I've ever been to. So good. I mean they're like we only have 30 amp and then I'm like
awesome, he's like.. -Perfect. -But wait, I'm gonna get you 50 and i'm like...
They installed a 50 amp breaker box, for us. Within the first week of getting here
the temperatures dropped to very very low. We were not ready.
I got the propane switched over so it should be good.
Are we ready for our trek to have go have dinner. -Yeah
hashtag no more frozen pipes.
No more frozen pipes. -We're just going to have dinner. -With a plate of lasagna.
(laughing)
We just got here, we were trying to see everybody. We were trying to get Christmas shopping done and
we knew we wanted to skirt the RV eventually for the cold temperatures in January but...
-Yeah when are we ever ready? I just feel like
we're always caught off guard. I don't know what's going on here.
We're trying our hardest but we just got
slammed with a snowstorm, that was insane. Freezing temps and
a snowstorm. Foot and a half, and let me tell you
I had to stay on top of sweeping off the camper and
Dexter was just..
-Nice and cozy inside here. -Gotta keep the kids happy right? We survived, the RV
pipes were frozen temporarily but luckily the next day was generous enough to get above freezing.
The camper was able to catch up
and we were able to get those pipes unfrozen. And then Renee was like,
'maybe we should skirt the RV'. I'm like, babe it's,
it's not necessary. Okay so, let's give you a little
context on the situation. I'm more the guy of like you really have to sell me on something because
I'm not wanting to throw the money at it right now. I mean,
people are like well you're absolutely
insane to think you don't need skirting, Kyle. Yes, I
understand that but..-Insane is right. -I was worried because..
I don't know how long we're gonna stay here in
Pennsylvania. I don't know when we're gonna hit the road again.
If you're gonna be in really cold temperatures, it's really important to throw that
money into skirting. Especially if you're not going anywhere for
a while. I know a lot of people are travel nurses who watch this.
-Yeah. -And if you're going to be on assignment and it's going to be
below freezing,
even though you have.. you might have a enclosed underbelly. -Yeah. -It's still a good idea
to skirt around because so much of that cold air gets underneath the RV, and it's gonna save you
on propane costs. Even though you might have to put a couple hundred dollars into the skirting.
You can save so much when it comes to heating.
When's winter? In like a day or two? -Yeah. -Okay.
I mean we have not been going through nearly as much propane as we did before so that was good.
Our 30 pounders were like kicking in like a little over two days both of them. It was just
constantly pumping out the hot air it's like...
(furnace sound)
It's like it was like a rock concert in here with the propane.
(furnace sound)
We even put this kind of like foil,
bubble wrapping on the windows to kind of help with the heat loss.
It's called Reflectix, and people use it for hot and cold. -Nice. -So,
I have it in the description for our winter RV
video but I will also put it in the description for this video,
and we'll show you what we're talking about. -Well, aren't you just amazing?
Well let's talk about what we actually did for skirting
because I think everyone wants to know how much did we
put into this?
-Cool. -Right? I know you're thinking that. Because you can get the fancy, dancy, lancy
RV skirting for like a thousand dollars, it could be two thousand dollars. It could be two thousand
dollars if you have someone come install it for you. -Yeah. -No,
we decided to do the whole redneck way.
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We got the foam, foil insulation at Lowe's? -Yeah, three-quarter inch. No, it was a half.
Half inch. We ended up using nine, 4 x 8, half inch foam boards.
I think between the foam boards and the Reflectix
and the foil tape it was about two hundred dollars.
So not bad. You could pay two hundred dollars to have it kind of look a little redneck like us,
or you can have someone do it, for you or do the RV skirting for like a thousand dollars.
We're gonna take the cheaper way. If you guys actually
have had professional skirting done, can you throw us like a
link or a company you suggest down in the comments so we kind of have an idea where to go.
We're going to want to do it the right way so help us out, throw a link down in the comments.
I mean if you guys have just stumbled upon this way of
living this lifestyle and you're kind of like
I'm a little confused but I'm kind of intrigued,
make sure to check out this video up here. We just did like a
sweet video breaking down the five things we wish we knew before getting into full-time RV living.
If you're interested, we'll have a link up there and you can kind of see our struggles and what we
had to endure over the past four years.
-Nice. -This new year is right around the corner, it's actually happening tonight
so yeah, that's pretty close. That is right around the corner. -Yeah. Happy New Year.
Okay. Now that the new year is.. do you have a question or can I help you with something?
I'll save it for later.
-We wanted to talk a little bit about what we've been up to with this Christmas here and boy, were
some traditions stumbled upon in Renee's side of the family. Let us in on the inside scoop there,
honey. -Traditions, everyone has traditions all over the country. And one of them is called Boilo.
I would say, it's like a hot toddy on steroids. Okay. -It's basically like uh.. some people
do like apple pie boilo.
You know how some people do like their moonshine um recipes. This isn't made
with moonshine it's actually made with like really strong grain alcohol and whiskey. But you make it
in bulk amounts, you put a lot of crazy ingredients in
there. But if you guys are curious to the recipe
I use to make this, let me know and I'll send you the Pinterest link that I've used.
We didn't actually make this growing up,
but I've been to a lot of people's homes where they would make boilo
and you know I decided let's let's make this we made it last year in our RV.
This year we decided to
make it on Christmas day at my parents and
it was a little strong. -It was strong, it was good. -Yeah.
It's a nice sipping drink just don't take too heavy a breath because it is a hot drink, you
want to have it like a little bit warm,
but not strong enough to burn off all the alcohol. -Yeah, you just warm it up a little.
-But that steam, like when you take a sip you're just like.. -Oh yeah.
Like it's like, you're like inhaling it but super good.
You know, just like a hot toddy would, this will
wipe out any flu you have. -Okay. -And another tradition on top of all this that Renee
introduced us to,
it was actually her grandpa. Her grandpa makes this stuff what's it called bonya mana? Bagna
Cauda. -Have you guys heard of this one. -I had to google it. -Yeah, we had to google it.
I don't know how to spell it. I don't know how to say it. I
don't even know what's in it hardly. Can you clarify?
My grandpa has been making it for like over 80 years. It is basically a mixture of anchovies
and lots of
butter, lots of heavy whipping cream,
garlic. It's so.. I know it sounds, I know the threw you off with
anchovies but it's super super good. You know, you mix vegetables with it you have bread with it.
It's really creamy and if you've ever heard of bagna cauda, or you're just like,
I need to know more about this what's going on, just put it in the comments down below because
this is a family tradition, that we have this every Christmas Eve.
-I wouldn't say you eat like a ton of it but it's you
know it's a nice little,
little appy-teaser. -Yeah Snacky snack so. -Well you could just like, you could
have it and you could still breathe after, which is good.
Well that's a plus. -There's a lot of holiday meals
where you feel like you eat too much and then you can't breathe after so this is.. -Nice,
that is spot on there sister.
We also um, every Christmas Eve, at my parents house,
play a yankee swap game. -Oh my goodness gracious. I'm sure everyone's played yankee swap or
gift exchange. And then we also did, on Christmas day,
an actual secret santa exchange, and that was fun.
-Yeah, that was pretty cool actually. It turned out a
lot better than I imagined it would so. -Yeah,
everyone got what they asked for and it was so much fun.
Well, it was fun for everyone and uh you know we all picked a name out of the hat and Renee
happened to get my name so, instead of getting the things I asked for, she took it upon herself
to get the things she thought we needed like some nice, extra wheel chocks. -Better wheel chocks.
And what else did you get me? -Slide out treatment.
-Good stuff, we don't even know what we're doing here.
We're hanging out in Pennsylvania for like, a little bit. We don't really have a
solid time frame. But we are looking to just kind of hunker down. Hunker. Is that a word?
Hunker down. We're looking to hunker down and save some money for a little bit just kind of kick it
here be near family for a little while before we hit the road again for our 2021 adventures. -Woo!
Yeah, we're excited to pick up and go. -Yeah. -And see some new places for the new year,
so definitely make sure you stick around and if you haven't subscribed, hit the subscribe button
and the notification bell because that way you could stay on top of what our adventures are and,
if you want to still see us mess up because everyone makes mistakes then we do plenty of that
stuff with full-time RV living. (laughing) We'll make you
feel good about yourself. -Yeah.
Yep, so here's to a warm winter for us and for you if you
are RV living and if you guys headed south like normal people do,
well, I hope you stay cool or stay just moderate. -I know what you're saying why are you up north?
You should be south. But I think we just decided,
with how crazy this year is, that maybe we should just
during the winter, kind of stay in one location for a
longer period of time instead of driving all over.
Yeah I mean, expenses build up quickly and like, being at a different RV park each night, gas
considerations stuff like that, it can all add up fast. And if you guys are looking to get in the RV
living game or maybe you guys have already been RV living and you already know the struggles of going
back through all of your old stuff especially after downsizing into this little home on wheels.
Then you'll be intrigued to find what we have in store and what things we are going to run into
later on down.. later on down the road. -Down the road. -So yeah, we're gonna keep it real.
We're gonna kind of go through all of our old stuff,
hopefully get some things sold, maybe make a little extra
cash. -Yeah. -And not just let everything sit in storage you know you just don't want it to
sit there and rot. I mean we're not using it so let's get rid of it, I don't know.
But were gonna check out some stuff while we're here.
We're gonna be able to see family, we're gonna get some
other things rolled out with our platform so stay tuned for that guys, we are so excited,
for what's to come with HappilyEverHanks. We can't wait to show you. Guys, stay tuned.
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