Post 131: Bring on the Canadian Winter!

We Made a Decision – Full time RVing in a Canadian Winter!

We have been at Sharbot Lake Ontario for over a month now and enjoying every minute. So much so, we have decided to experience our first Canadian Winter as Full Time RVers. There are several reasons for this decision, but we won’t get into the reasons here in this blog.

About this time last year we left Canada and headed south to United States to enjoy the warmer weather. Although we both wanted to head south again this winter, we decided to enjoy the winter here in Canada. I’m sure we will miss going south to some degree, however we are excited about remaining here in Sharbot Lake. Enjoying what a Canadian Winter has to offer and most importantly, being close to our family.

We know there are going to be challenges, the three biggest issues that come to mind are; staying warm, keeping the water pipes from freezing and avoiding condensation build up. We believe we have plans to address these concerns, but time will tell lol.

Putting aside the concerns, there is so much to look forward to!

Snow

Canadian Winter
Winter in the country.

What can we do with snow or in snow? Well, living in Canada for 62 winters, we have done many different activities and we hope to do some or all of them again this winter; Downhill skiing, Snowboarding, Cross country skiing and/or Snowshoeing. Or if the weather is storming and frigid, sitting in front of the wood stove watching the snow blow outside with a warm toddie in hand! Once we figure out how to make toddies lol.

Then there are the romantic walks together with the pups. Big fluffy snowflakes falling all around us, watching the dogs frolicking around in the knee deep snow!

The icing on the cake so to speak – and the one thing we missed last winter, was a White Christmas with our family!

Sub zero temperatures

With the colder weather, water freezes and skating on frozen lakes and rivers becomes possible! We are also looking forward to the opportunity of taking photographs of ice crystals, snow, ice fishing huts and other wintery sights. Not to mention the wildlife! Maybe we will get our kids and grandkids up and do some old fashioned tobogganing! We are getting excited just thinking about all the fun we are going to have.

Will be enjoying what mother nature has to offer!

Sharing our experiences

On a slightly different topic, when we became full time RVers 18 months ago, there was a wealth of information on the internet on how to become full time RVers. We found applications and websites that helped us find boondocking spots, public and state campgrounds and private campgrounds. We used most of them with great success. Although these applications and websites work in Canada, the focus was mainly warm weather camping – there was very little data within the applications for winter camping (if anyone is aware of websites / applications that focus on winter camping for RVs, please leave us a comment).

There are a few hearty soles that have / are full time RVing in Canada. But not many – at least not many that are sharing the information on the internet or that qw have found in our searches. Two sites we have found are:

Youtube: Canadian RV Life

Website: Full Time Canada

Sure there are private trailer parks that provide winter camping with full hookups, but that is not what we plan on doing. We plan on ‘boondocking’ or ‘dry camping’ this winter and sharing what we learning and our experiences with anyone who cares to follow our blogs.

Upcoming Blogs

What can our readers expect? In addition to our blogs on our day trips and daily experiences, we will be creating a group of posts focusing on dry camping in the winter. Although the topics will evolve as time passes, here are a few topics we will be covering:

  • Converting to a composting toilet
    • eliminates ‘black’ water
    • reduces fresh water consumption (considerability)
  • Building and installing a wood stove
    • propane heaters introduce condensation into the trailer, wood stoves heat the trailer without introducing condensation – a huge benefit!
  • Insulating the ‘basement’
  • How to stop the water pipes from freezing
  • How to find and store fresh water
  • Keeping our generator running and protected from the elements

I’m sure other topics will come up and we will be sure to document them here in our blog.

Please follow us as we experience our first Canadian Winter!

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