On the road again

Here we are, finally leaving! Originally planned for Saturday. Saturday's plan became Sunday and Sunday's plan became Monday. Monday it is! Very conveniently on the shortest day of the year since we decided to make up for lost time and drive straight through to Joshua Tree. 20 hours and most of which will be in the dark.

I'm reminded much of our boat trips: 3 hour shifts, sleeping next to the hum of the diesel engine, stopping occasionally to fill the beast. Fortunately this time we don't have to fill her from jerry cans whilst rolling in the incessant waves of the Pacific. Oh and we're going the speed of light compared to the boat. We'll do in less than a day what took us over 2 months on the boat.

I'm waiting to see if Jason can pee off the truck like he peed off the boat. I'll keep you updated.

Shipping Container buildout

Once upon a time there was a forest

And then a mean tractor named Clementine knocked it down

She took a long, careful time, leveling out a spot

And adding gravel

So the shipping container could have a happy home

His name was the Green Turtle.  He didn't move very fast.

Clementine helped the man build out the inside.  She was the most expensive sawhorse ever made.

First there were studs

And then a workbench

The man worked day and night

But finally one day, he finished

And he was able to fill his shipping container with stuff.  And he lived happily ever after.

The End.

Cruiser friends come to visit

Cynthia and Butch, some dear friends that we met in the Sea of Cortez came up to visit from Portland.  They worked their butts off helping us chip wood for an entire, extremely loud day.  We love them for that.  But we love them even more for bringing us water.  Without even asking.  

I'm not sure we've ever been so dirty, but fortunately, we recently bought a broom - oh yeah - we own a full size broom!!

Definition of water

I was telling my sisters all about the RV adventures and wrote them this note recently:

We are moved in to the RV - exciting! Still pooping in the woods but the composting toilet should arrive any day now so that's super exciting. Oh and we have water! (And by water I mean we have it if we fill up jerry cans at a friend's house and then pour it into the tank). But Ken and Susan are getting their well drilled Thursday so there's a possibility of closer water on the horizon. Electricity however is another story. It's looking like cold showers and hand pumping the well for another few months at least. At this rate, mom might come visit in 2018. :)

Response from another friend?

Her definition of having water and my definition are so different.

The latest aquisition

We love camping.  So much.  But sleeping on the ground gets old after a while.

Campsite before:

So we bought a fancy mattress that came with a kitchen and lots of storage - yay!!

Campsite after:

Ta-Ractor

Yup.  He got one.  He can die happy now.  I foresee one of 2 things happening: either he will build 14 houses with this thing on our property or he'll never build any because he's too busy digging holes, filling them back in and knocking down trees.

Welcome Clementine the tractor to our family

House evolution

As much fun as it was to design our own house, we spent some time interviewing architects and then we got seriously nauseous at the $30-40k price tag we were getting for designing a custom build.

Saved by the interwebs after about a month of searching for stock plans and we finally came across this one that we love love love (even more than what we were designing from scratch!)

Our criteria was:

• Small (under 1200 ft2)
• Lofted or other elevation change inside the house
• Open kitchen/dining/living room plan
• Very well-insulated - we'd love to get to net-zero with solar
• Great southern exposure windows for passive solar heating
• Not too hard to build
• Fits in with the surrounding land

 

Love it!

We will likely do some modifications to the plan such as:

• Full basement/stairs
• Window seat
• Nanawall

SO.  LOVE.  THIS.  HOUSE.