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Tips to keep your home secure while you're on the road.

StressLess Camping Podcast

How do you keep your home safe while you’re StressLess Camping?

To help answer this excellent question posed by Ron & Wendy we welcome back Michael, who has worked with the police and private security companies. Michael watches over our house while we are gone. He and Tony offer some tips to keep your house safe when you are away stressless camping.

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The report from Modern Campground on trends: https://moderncampground.com/mc-hospitality-highlights-february-2025/

Our collection of articles about RV and personal safety

If you’re confused about solar, battery power or just want to upgrade your RV we have found the solutions from ABC Upfitters are both reliable and exceptional.

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Automated transcript of StressLess Camping RV podcast episode 296

Note: the brains behind the AI that we use to generate these transcripts couldn’t tell the difference between Michael’s voice and Tony’s.

This week on the Stressless Camping Podcast, I welcome back my buddy Michael, and Michael has worked around law enforcement and in private security, and we had a great idea from Ron and Wendy about keeping your home safe when you're on the road. So that's what we're gonna talk about this week. In fact, Michael watches over our place while we're gone. I do. So we're going to crack a beer. Cheers. Cheers.

Of course. We have this week's podcast along with the notes, resources and everything else at our home on the web@stresslesscamping.com. And I get a lot of crazy press releases and such. And we got a press release on camping trends. And this Camping Trends article was interesting because it says <laugh>, right? It said people are interested in forest bathing and overland. Okay, overlanding, I get, but foraging and forest bathing, are they taking leaves and <laugh> rubbing it all over their bodies?

I don't know. But anyway, we'll link to that. Although overland, I get a hundred percent, because both of us are big over lenders. We both have pretty serious solar and lithium systems. And as you know, if you've listened to this podcast at all, we are big fans of the systems from a, b, C Upfitters who provide reliable master volt solar and lithium systems. In fact, last night I was sleeping in my camper, not because I said or did something dumb, but because Peggy's mom and sister were staying with us.

So they're all off, which is how Michael volunteered to come and, and be my co-host this week and everything as usual. I don't even think about that system. It just works great. Everything is just always the way it should be. So if you want a reliable solar and lithium system for your camper, perhaps consider giving a BC upfitters a call at (574) 333-3225. Well, let's stay safe.

Alright, by the way, today's beer is belching Beaver peanut. Buttermilk stout. And I even have my belching beaver t-shirt on. I, I don't know if I'm a fan of flavored beers per se, but by gosh, this is some good stuff. This is actually really good. Have you given this to me before? I think so. I don't think so. This is, it's hard for me to find here in New Mexico, but we were in southern California and I I went to the liquor store and bought a bunch of it.

So it tastes like a peanut butter cup. Yeah. Yeah. Peanut butter, milk style. Good stuff. Yes, please. There's one more. I, once I, I get the six packs. They're not, they don't stay very long. <laugh> can, I can't imagine. Yeah. Well, so Ron and Wendy came up with this idea. They're like, how do you keep your house safe while you're gone? And so, well, one of the ways is Michael comes and visits <laugh>.

This guy right here. I I can't promise that he will come and visit your house, <laugh>.

Well, depends. Right? I will. Where you are and how much he got. Yep. But we we're very fortunate in the friends that we have and Michael swings by here and there, and we get notices that packages arrive. It's always, you order something and you're like, oh, it'll be here in two days. And then, but we have to leave in, you know, four days and a week later, the stinking package <laugh>, you're like, what do I do? I remember, I know. I let you know, Hey, there's a package and it was snowing. And you're like, well, it's just going to sit there.

<laugh>,

I've lugged air conditioners in your garage. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I've lugged bikes. I think even your rec tech now. Yeah. Oh yeah. The, the smoker. The smoker, yep. Yeah. It's always the heaviest stuff shows up when we leave. That's fine. I don't, I don't plan it. That's what friends are for. Yeah. But I appreciate you. Anyway. So a few things that we had, I, we kind of made a list here and we'll share that in our show notes. But one of those, Peggy wrote this, stop your newspaper service.

Who the heck has a newspaper service nowadays? I <laugh>. I don't know, but I mean, if you're still reading the newspaper, I love the newspaper. I do too. But, but do you get up in your jammies and walk out with your coffee to get your newspaper? I don't know, maybe your minion slippers and I, yeah, I dunno.

Hey, but if you have a newspaper, stop it. Stop, stop it. That is a good point. Yeah. Also, you can get a free account on the, at the post office usps.gov, and you can actually get notified of what mail You can see, you know what all mail's coming, but you can also turn your mail on and off. You know, a lot of this depends on how much you're gone. Yes. So if you're gone a lot like we are, we try to get everything to go to a PO box.

And we used to have that America's mailbox mail service <affirmative>. That was good because they would scan your, you know, they'd say, Hey, look what's coming? And you know, most of it's junk. Most of it's junk. So it just throw it away. Just restrict. Well, you could have them open things too. They'll open it and if it's like a bill or something, they'll scan it and send it to you.

Or if you're traveling, you know, if you're, especially if you're a full-time rvr, if you're traveling, then they can overnight your mail to you. The important stuff. So. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we, at our house, we do use the online service. So every morning I do get an email with pictures of what our upcoming mail is. Yeah. It's very easy then to also put a pause or hold or whatever they call it on there. Yeah. It's, that's a great service.

And it's free. Yeah. So I, I've had my mailbox broken into before. Oh, you have? Yeah. Not, not at our current house, but many years ago. And having that ability, a just for your own mental wellbeing, knowing that your mail's not gonna get stolen, but also knowing what's coming so you can be prepared for it. Yeah. Like taxes and the stuff you don't want.

Right. The junk mail, you're like, oh gosh. Oh, the junk mail. Right. <laugh> taxes, bank statements, junk mail. Yeah. Pretty much. That's what you get in the, in the, because you can, if you haven't done a lot of your important mail by electronics nowadays, you know, I mean, most bills and stuff you can have electronically delivered and then you could just get that anywhere. Correct. So you dread opening your email in the morning and seeing how much you owe. Yeah. <laugh> <laugh>.

Well that was gonna be my next statement too, is convert whatever bills you get paper-wise, go paperless and then you can just pay them online. Well, and I was listening to a podcast about safety and security, and apparently post office boxes, mailboxes, like corner mailboxes are getting broken into left and right. So mail isn't really all that secure anymore. It's not. Our mailbox is directly across from our house.

Oh, that's right. So it's very convenient. But I mean, those boxes are just very thin metal and just the pry bar is gonna pop 'em right open. So, yep. So I, even when we're home, I check my mail every single day. And if we're gonna drop something in the mail, like a card to a nephew or whatever, that might have some money in it. We wait until that morning to, to drop it. No, that's a good idea. That way it doesn't get broken into overnight. And then the thief steals that. And apparently there's a lot of check washing going on too, where like, if you mail someone a check, it's not uncommon that they take the check your signature's already on it, they could change the payee and the amount, and now all of a sudden you're like, I didn't write a $2,000 check to the Apple store.

You write checks. No. Okay. That's, but I'm just saying that's something that's common. Yeah. I write checks for my newspaper subscription, <laugh>. Oh man. But I think the biggest, most important thing is safety and security wise is actually protecting your home itself. Right? Absolutely. And, and that's, that's most important to me. You know, so having a good surveillance camera set up. Of course there's the things like the water and and gas and you know, utility wise, that's more for safety of the house, protecting the house from damage, but protecting it from criminals, protecting it from any unwanted people.

A good security system is very important. And you guys have a very good security system here. Yeah. Well one of the things, one of the aspects of that is we have cameras and you know, a lot of these cameras you buy are hardwired and then if the power goes out, you have nothing.

Yeah. So among the cameras we have are a number of solar powered, battery operated cameras. So even if, you know, we come from Northern California where they would shut off the power. So we, we bought these at the resort even. And if the power goes off, they're still working. And the ones that we have, I'll put a link in the show notes, have a little chip in them so they record on the camera and they also will transmit someone's at the door or whatever.

Yeah. And you can actually speak with whoever's there. We've done that more than once. <laugh>. Yeah. So I mean, just having a good surveillance camera set up is important. But if power goes out, you're kind of SOL. So having solar powered cameras, stuff like, that's very important. Granite cameras don't stop people. Nope. It might persuade them to avoid your house. Or they might just rip the camera down or they might just cover up their face and think they're Yeah.

You know, after towards you. So after, after we sold the resort, someone stole one of the cameras. <laugh>, did they install that? Their house. And could you watch it? I don't know. <laugh>, how great would that have been? <laugh>? No. Right. Hey, I see you <laugh>.

That would've been funny. That would've been funny. But I also, we turn off our water. Well, we turn off our water in our trailer when we go away from the campsite, but we also shut the water off here, <affirmative>. And it's just good to know how to shut off your water because you know, if you're gone and there's a leak, it could destroy your house. Yep. So especially if the hot water heater gives out, or, which is not uncommon. No. So no. So depending on where your hot water heater is, you might need to consider, you know, putting while you're gone or even while you're home, one of those sensors that detects, you know, moisture.

We have those not only in the, where the water heater is, but also all over the trailer. Yes. Those things are, and of course it always happens at like three in the morning.

It's like, what's the, oh man, the water sensor is going off like, just like a smoke alarm. Yeah. Starts chirping at three o'clock in the morning. Yeah. I think somewhere there's a conspiracy of we're gonna, we're gonna have these things go off in the middle of the night. <laugh> their lifespan runs out in the middle of the night. Yeah. It's planned. Yes. Another thing that we utilize, and not everybody can, depending on your house, where you live, I mean Tony and Peggy, where you live, you don't have neighbors. Nope.

On purpose. And that's a great thing. It does give me a little bit of cause of fear. That's why check on your house so much and we really appreciate it. But communicating with your neighbors, communicating with your neighbors, even if you aren't best friends, but create that rapport with them. We have a rapport with our neighbors.

We don't talk all the time. We don't see each other all the time. But we also understand we want to keep each other safe. And when we travel, I reach out to them, let them know, Hey, we're gonna be gone. These are the people that are allowed or not allowed to be here. If you see them, let us know. And they're very good at communicating with us. And also, like at our house, because we have a side gate where we park our rig when we leave, I always like to keep that gate blocked 'cause I don't want anybody to be able to access our backyard.

But the biggest thing is just communicate with your neighbors. If you have multiple cars, maybe move them to put them in a more protective location. If you do have gates or if you have equipment in your backyard, you don't want stolen like tractors.

Like tractors. When we had our tractors in the backyard, I, and we would leave. I would always park one of our vehicles in front of the gate because somebody could just break open the gate and drive off with our tractor. I know you blocked me. Yeah. I did block you <laugh> because I didn't trust you. <laugh> for good. Cause there we go. I love driving your tractor, but also, you know, beyond communicating with your neighbors. We have now with so many automations of, of your home, you can create, you know, timers for lights.

You can control them via the wifi. You guys are always blasting Jimmy Buffet while you guys are gone. It's actually living the RV dream. Okay. On the old podcast, I have the whole collection. John and Kathy are, are keeping the house company while we're gone. When I come by to drop off your mail or to collect your packages, sometimes I just sit and listen.

Hey. Alright, <laugh>. But having music turn on, turn off throughout the day. Lights like in home alone. <affirmative> the, the movie. Yeah. Kevin McAllister did a great job making it look like people were in his home. You need, you need those cardboard cutouts. Yes. Like spinning around or Yes. Or get one of those things like outside the car dealership, you might get the police called on you 'cause they look kind of wacky. Look like there might be a fight inside.

Yeah. Right. I never thought of that, but, but it's just stuff like that auto automate your home if you're able to, it's cheap. Our plugs for some of our lights, I can control 'em with our voice or I can control 'em with our app and we have them set on to turn off and to turn on at certain times of the day. And, and that just creates the illusion, hopefully if people are watching your home, that there's still activity there.

Yeah. And, and it's also not bad to have people go by and, you know, check the mail if you have a regular mailbox or you know, if you do have plants that need watering, you know, to help with that because it shows movement at the house. So you're less likely to be Yeah. Don't let all your plants die out in front. Correct. Or whatever. <laugh>. I mean, of course us, there are no plants here to die, but, you know, have, have things watered or, you know, so easy to automate stuff now.

It really is. It really is. The automation for homes is, is incredible. Yeah. And it's, and it can even be semi-random so that it does look like there's someone home. Yep. Exactly. Another thing I like, you know, back to the battery powered solar powered stuff, we also have a lot of battery, solar powered motion sensing lights.

And those are, again, if, if someone cuts the power to the house or the, there's no power in the neighborhood, they still work <affirmative> and the new ones are really bright and really good. So we had a neighbor a couple years ago, his kept turning on, he was two doors down from us, but when we, when we were in our backyard, I think you guys were actually there a couple times it would activate and he had his voice to where it said, oh whatever, it would say, you're in my backyard, get out, or whatever it was. And I had to tell him I love the guy, but I had to tell him Correct it because it's being triggered from two doors away.

And Well, that's Brian and Patrick too. When you walk up on their house, it says you are being recorded. Yes. <laugh>. And it's, which is kind of cool.

It puts 'em on alert. And that's the one thing a criminal doesn't want to want is attention. Right. They're always looking for the easiest target, as it were. And, and most burglaries are likely gonna happen during the day, not at night. Hmm. So that, that, that's because people are less likely to be home during the day. They're more likely to be home at night. So if you can create some sort of, you know, appearance that people are coming and going that way, if you do get your newspaper delivered and you don't stop it, have somebody pick up your newspaper.

'cause if you see a pile of 10 newspapers in your driveway Yeah. Obviously someone's not and somebody's casing, you know, they have an inclination that you're not home. Yep. Yeah. And other things, look for things outta place. Make sure there's no, you know, those guys who come by, put the flyers on your doorknob. <affirmative>. That's another good thing about, about having a friend come by is you can take that junk off the door. Yep.

Things like that. So these are good tips and boy, we really appreciate the suggestion. Of course. If you have a suggestion for us for something to cover, please don't hesitate. We're always looking for a great topic. And this certainly was one, and I was very fortunate that, that Michael was able to come and join me. But also that Peggy left me unsupervised for a whole week. A whole week. So I'm also Tony's babysitter. Yeah. Pretty much. Yeah. So there you go.

And, and how do we start by opening a belching beaver peanut butter milk style. So yeah, cheers. Cheers. We have a destination too. And while, what was it, three weeks ago, two weeks ago, whatever. Peggy and I went back. But you and I and you wife and of course Peggy all went to Verde Valley. Verde Ranch. Verde Ranch. Yes. It's nice. There it is.

That campground is, is pretty fancy. They have, all of the buildings are new. It's, it's really well kept. The prices are very accommodating for a budget. I mean, they're not $35 a night prices. No. But, but with a year round hot tub, year round pool. And they have all these games too, like pool and foosball and Jenga and, and they have really nice shower houses and such. Yes. And they do group activities too.

You know, during when we were there, we were there in January of 24 and March of 24, they had night sky, you know. Oh, that's great stuff. They had, they had food trucks. They, they're, they're always doing something. And it's also close to Jerome, which is a lot of fun. It is. We went, we, we met up with Scott and Alicia there, and they're like, Hey, have you ever been to a haunted hamburger?

And I'm used to that barbecue place 'cause you know, who doesn't like barbecue? And so I'm like, eh, hamburger place. All right, we'll go. Oh my gosh, it was so good. What did you get? I got meatloaf. I know <laugh>. But Scott, you're a burger joint and you got meatloaf, eh, but Scott got their hamburger and I have this great picture I have to share with you of Scott eating that hamburger. It was, it was just pure joy. Yeah. And then Alicia got a bloody Mary.

Yeah. And it had like an egg. And I saw the picture of it. Bacon and, oh, it, it was, and then at the end we're all full from, the service was fantastic. The food was fantastic. It was clearly the, clearly this place is very well run. And at the end the server comes up and she says, Hey, do you guys want dessert?

Of course. We're like, oh God, none of us could eat dessert. And she and just, I always wanna be on his room. Room right over here for dessert. Well, especially chocolate peanut butter pie. Okay. Oh, it was the best chocolate peanut butter pie I've ever eaten. Yeah. Was so good. And so we had that. And the views from Jerome are, are beautiful and they really are. And then you could also go to Sedona from there, <affirmative>. Oh. And we went to Tui GOs with you guys. Tu go. Yeah. No, we, we did Montezuma's Castle.

Oh, that's right. But Tutu GOs pretty cool too. I mean, it's 30 minutes, maybe an hour. Yeah. So it's, it's a neat place to go. Yeah. And a lot of, you know, you can stay at the campground and it's everything is there. Yeah. Or you can go and there's so many, there's so much to do there with Jerome, with Cottonwood.

Cottonwood I think is one of our favorite little communities right around there. Really good Italian joint there. Hmm. With oh, pesto, deviled eggs. Oh man. With bacon on top. Oh yes. But we love Jerome. I mean, it's cute. It's, it's gonna get yourself a calf workout. Yeah. <laugh> going through there because it's so Yeah. Everything's on the hillside on the side of a hill. Yeah. Something I liked at the, there's, you know, the, as a lot of these old communities, it, it came out of a mine and it was a copper mine and there's a place you can go and stand on like this piece of glass and looked down.

I think you looked down like 1200 feet. Yeah. It's insane. It's, can you imagine like being the people getting lowered into those mines and there the house, there's a house you can tour that's a museum now.

And they have all this old cool stuff that they had when it was active. So including central vacuum. Oh. So yeah. Cool. Well I'm glad to be living now and not back then. Yes, me too. Yes. Yeah. A hundred percent Plus we're still alive. Yes, we are. Yeah. So that's, that's a plus. That's always a good thing. <laugh>. Yes. Well, cool. Well, I guess our next thing is a gadget. And Michael will attest to this because we've gone camping a bunch of times. My thing is at night when it gets cold and the campfire comes on, I don't like that my front is hot and my back is not.

Right. And so turn around, put me on a spit. Yes. There you go. Spin me round and round <laugh> and then just start shaving off parts of you and Yeah. <laugh>. But I got a solution a few, I don't know, what was it, a couple months ago, Peggy got a jacket from a company called tis.

And I liked it, but I didn't get one because I made the mistake of thinking they were all down jackets and I'm allergic. And that would not be fun. Okay. But then they reached out and they're like, no, no, we have plenty of choices. And I looked on their website and I saw this jacket that was like, oh, I gotta get this. And it's a, it's called a three in one. So what it is is it's like a fleece jacket that's heated there. I'll be Vanna White. All right. It's a fleece jacket.

And then there's a rain jacket that goes over it and it uses a battery pack and they claim, I believe, up to eight hours of warmth on the heated jacket. And then there's also a USB port that you can charge like a phone or something. Okay. So it's like a power bank for a phone.

Yeah. And to warm your booty. Yeah. Well actually it doesn't get that low warm back. Yeah, it warms your back. But I will now actually participate in campfires because I miss the fellowship. But Stressless campers, you heard it all here. Yeah. He's not bouncing on a Right. I'm not gonna do that. What is it called? The Irish goodbye. Where he's just like, all of a sudden it's like, Hey, where'd Tony go? It's happened many times. Many times. We're having a good time. We look around and No Tony. No Tony. Or we see his rear end headed towards the rig <laugh>.

So anyway, this is gonna be my, in the, I always have a jacket or two in the truck, one for rain and one for warmth. And now I have, we got warmth. This whole thing. The fleece could go inside the rain jacket and there are buttons that hold it.

I, I think the quality of these things is really good. So Looks good. I'll put a link in the show notes. We also have a discount to NUAs. So Yeah. I took advantage of our own discount. Yeah. I might even consider getting one because having that little extra bit of warmth. 'cause we do a lot of hiking. Yes, you do. Mickey and I do. And having a little bit of extra warmth that you can control while you're hiking. 'cause we prefer to hike when it's cold. Right. Yeah. You could start out in the morning with the heat and then step the heat down.

'cause I believe there are three levels of heat. Yeah. And so you can step the heat down and then eventually Very cool. A little more heat. Very cool. Well, earlier we cited that report that said, you know, some of you are out there foraging and bathing in the <laugh>, in the forest <laugh>.

We have a trailer that might be good for that. It's the Flagstaff ePRO E 12 SA a a. It's a teardrop, but it's a square teardrop. So the back has like a big hatchback that flips up and there's a little kitchen back there with a flat top griddle. This thing had heat and air conditioning, which you don't usually see in a teardrop was really well made. And if you've been following our RV reviews for a while, you know we do that RV report card and most RVs don't get above a four out of five.

Right. This thing, after looking at the numbers, it was four and a half out of five. I don't remember an RV getting that high a score before. But it's inside the sleeping area. You know, teardrop is like, it's a bed on a kitchen and the kitchen's outdoors. So the outdoors kitchen, there's a hatchback that flips up.

So you're kind of protected from the elements that way. And it actually has an awning too. So you get decent protection. Okay. You're still outside. Yeah. The inside, the sleeping part has like a gaucho, which is like a folding couch. That's the bed. But at least you have a place to sit. Yeah. And there's some cabinets. This does have an outside shower with hot and cold water. So if you're not bathing in the stream seat <laugh> take showers outside. Forage bathing. Was it? Yeah. Forging and bathe and stream.

I don't remember what they said, but yeah, so, but I was really impressed. I like that there's brakes on the wheels. So instead of That's nice needing wheel chocks. It just has little brakes that lock a neat thing. We have a full review@stresslesscamping.com so if that's your thing and, and you want something small, this is probably one of the best teardrop style tra trailers I've seen.

You know what? For me, if it gets me off the ground, that's where I'm happy. Yeah. And you could, you have a couch, so if it's raining, you could sit in the couch. Yeah. So yeah, I can deal with the flip of outdoor kitchen, you know, but I need to be off the ground when I'm sleeping. Yeah, yeah. I've, I've, I'm done with <laugh> with regular camping. Yeah. Tent camping. Tent camping. Did it been there. Grew up doing it. But as an adult, I like my conveniences. And that's a bed and that's an enclosure.

Yeah. Now one thing this did not have was a potty, but you know, we, when we went tent camping, the world is our toilet. Right? It is. But, but not our wives <laugh>. That is true. So, but we, when we went tent camping, we brought that portable toilet and the tent, the toilet tent.

Yeah. And you could use that for the shower too. And you're all, you're all set. So it works. I mean that's good for the overlanding type stuff. Yeah. And it had, the suspension was gave a lot of ground clearance and such, so neat little neat little trailer. It fits right in with that survey. Yeah. Yeah. Those E pros are, I mean, all of those E pros are neat little rigs. Anyways. Yeah, it came with 200 watts of solar and, and an 1800 watt inverter. That's, that's pretty much. And I think the MS rrp was around 20,022.

I don't, it's, it's there in the, it's stressless camping.com. That's not bad at all. No, it really was. I was amazed with the build quality and what you got for the money. Cool. Well last of all, we have our question of the week and we ask you what exciting plans you have for your 2025 stresses.

Camping adventures at our fun and friendly stresses, camping stresses, campers, Facebook group. You guys knocked it out of the park. There's a great number of answers. Go there and check it out. But this week we have a fun one for you. What's the quirkiest thing you've seen in your adventures bonus? Well, besides me, oh, sorry. Bonus if you have photos and I will post a photo. I, gosh, we've seen so many weird things, but there's one I have in mind.

We'll post that with a Dupers tourist trap. It was literally called Dupers Tourist Trap. <laugh>. Is it up there with like Uranus in the wall? Oh yeah. Or worse. But Uranus is almost tame compared to Dupers. You could go in and outhouse and have your head pop out the toilet <laugh>.

Alright. Trying to think. Uranus head pop out a toilet. I mean there's a running thing. I'm kind go together there. This is the theme here. Oh man, that's probably why we're the butt of so many jokes. <laugh>. Well you can answer that question and ask your own questions that are fun and friendly. Stressless campers, Facebook group. Don't forget, at our website you'll find discounts deals. Oh, I totally redid the discounts and deals section.

There's some new stuff there. We have polished up and tightened up a lot of stuff. We now have discounts on portable power stations and a bunch of other stuff. So check it out stressless camping.com. You'll find notes for this episode, including that survey. Of course, you know, you can find us in all the social places and we appreciate your comments, your likes, your subscribes, all of that. Thank you so much for being here again this week. We are closing in on our 300th episode.

We have plans. In fact, if you're gonna be at the FMCA rally in Perry, Georgia in March, you can participate in our 300th episode. I know. Exciting stuff the long ways. Well with that, thank you so much for joining us, Michael, always a pleasure to hang out with you and have some beers. Most of all, Stressless camping.