Category: Busventure

Keeping Kids Busy

These last few weeks I’ve felt like a piece of elastic stretched between two incompatible opposites: a child’s world and the world of power tools and sharp, pointy and fragile things.

In between helping build I run to check on children or set them up with some game or something which will keep them busy for a few minutes.

We’ve built a cubby house under a tree where they happily and imaginatively hang out together, set up a playground using things around the yard, encourage lots of sand-pit, collecting and dirt-digging play, but by far the best game we’ve come up with is The Expedition.

Here’s how it goes:

1. Draw a map

2. Make some ‘treasure’. I put two teaspoons into a ‘treasure chest’ which they found in their sandpit then hid two fruit & jelly cups in their cubby house.

3. Hand the map over to the kids

4. Off they go!

July 23, 2013
Large House vs Small House

Most of you following this blog will know that we are making the shift from a small rental house to an un petite bus-house. A bus-house with an uber generous 23 square metres of living space on board.

Australia has one of the largest house sizes in the world with free standing house sizes sitting at about 243m2. With an average of only 2.66 people living in these large houses that leaves a lot of free space.

While the UK has a very small house size (at an average of 76m2). That popular program Grand Designs often raises the hopeless case of their upper-middle-class renovators and self builders in finding those ‘hard to find’ bits of land for their dream houses, these people manage, in increasingly creative ways, to fill vacant blocks with floors and walls and rooves. These vacuous spaces are then relegated to housing just a couple of bodies on a regular basis.

In an increasingly populated world people seem to continue to want their own space.

Australia has a lot of space and I guess that is why our homes are bigger, but to what end?

What is the use of these large expanses of dead space, which are designed to consume things instead of produce things?

I have been resisting normalised compulsive spending urges since knowing we were drastically reducing our house size.

In a home this tiny every little object matters and every square centimetre of storage must be seized upon. The ‘bedrooms’ are only as large as they need to be. Both kids have a private space, their bunks, which equal about 2 square metres each, with room enough only to sit. Every part of the bus is shared, except for the drivers seat, we have only one table with enough room only for us four, and there is one lounge. Our living space however will be huge. It will be the great Australian outdoors. In this bus the outdoors are very close. I was sitting in it yesterday while the rain poured down and it felt very much like I was sitting inside a waterfall. It was beautiful and sensory and I relish that kind of living.

Downsizing does not feel cramped or like a negative lifestyle shift. It is better! It is better than living where we were. With a cut in living space comes a closeness to the outdoors and a reduction in things that we never really needed in the first place. Cutting down on space, and ergo things, should not scare anyone. It is quite liberating.

A big benefit of renovating a very small area is the way in which we can inject quality into it. Rather than a big kitchen, for example, we can have a well designed, well made kitchen with a high standard of materials.

This last point is very important to me in my quest for a sustainable life. Ultimately a sustainable life is not fast or big or full of things or expensive, but it is a life of excellence. That is the strength of sustainable living.

I would be rather interested to see the trend of housing in Australia in the future. I wonder if a nomadic lifestyle, like ours, might become more popular as house prices continue to soar, I hope people will learn to live in smaller spaces, leaving more room to live outside.

July 22, 2013
Slow steps forwards

We have taken two steps backwards and another forwards. For some reason – we think it might be some latent paint stripper, which somehow made it through the paint prepping stage – the paint in a few areas blistered and came off.

But, if there’s anything I’ve learnt from Grand Designs it is that building projects come with inherent setbacks, additional costs and continual time delays.

So when I look at our project and am overwhelmed by all the many details that will need starting and completing before we can finally move in and call it home, I remember all those people who have felt the same and broadcast these feelings to the world through this and other such programs. Thanks you people.

If we do fail – which we won’t – I can also remember: “If you never fail at something you were never doing anything interesting.”

July 14, 2013
Present

I flipped out yesterday when I realised we’d been here for three months already. I was so naive to think we’d possibly be done by then. Very obviously I’ve never built anything much before.

Today I found I’d missed a month and it has only been two months and really, to give myself more wiggle room, you can’t really count three or four of those weeks as we’ve been to Canberra and back over a couple of those weeks – to get money and stuff.

So I feel slightly better about it all, but still: It’s July in four days! We were never meant to be here in July, we are supposed to be sunning ourselves on Byron Bay’s beaches.

Well, I don’t mind to be honest. To me life has changed already. I am where I am supposed to be right now, I’ve put some new lenses on and that is the main thing. I’ve got on some glasses that say I don’t have to be held back by circumstance or lack of funds or lifestyle choices (i.e. choosing to drop an income to stay home with the babies). We were heading into a serious rut of hubby working 12 hour days, stress levels hitting the stratosphere daily and always reaching for what was not there. Instead of enjoying the right here right now we reached, desperately, toward the next weekend or holiday. We were crushed by the fact that we could not afford to buy a house, at least none less than 60 minutes drive from work-central.

So we canvassed our options and it began with a push back into school.

This was not always going to be the next step in a linear career. It was a breather. A time to realign our orbit. Cutting the chain from the foot to ‘the man’ drew a bit of blood and sweat, but it was done and space from a high-pressure job with no time to think was filled by books and brain work.

We found we could live on a measly income and that was a real freedom.

With the next brainwave then of living on a bus and traveling Australia all my latent travel bugs had a party. Knowing we were leaving I began slowly de-cluttering our rental and when we moved we were able to fit most of our wordly possessions into two over-sized utes.

The mental release came then as we turned our backs on strugglesville (it was that for us) and toward a creative life, one where we create our life. And for us it starts with building our own home on wheels. We choose our way within our limits, but at least we have choice. Our own hands do the banging and sawing and gluing and sanding. Every time I take note of what I am doing I think that this is something I will be immensely proud of in the future. I think sometimes that it would probably be simpler or easier to earn the money to buy a ready-made mobile home or even a house and land package but it would not nearly be as fun and it would not nearly be as personally satisfying as putting our own hands to the task. This bus is both a creative endeavour and also a very practical and useful asset, my favourite kind of ‘art’ project. So I am actually immensely grateful for having a very clever husband who is very skillful in many, many areas who I can do things like this with.

When it all comes down to it I would rather be doing this with him than have him working for 12 hours a day in a very separate environment and having to reconnect our relationship after a day of disconnect. Every day.

Today the kids and I watched Wallace and Gromit: A Grand Day Out. I think when we began this project I expected to whip our bus together the way W&G whipped their rocket together. In a day. Yes, I got my building cues from a British animation. At least it was a good one. I have found that at least we are resembling one aspect of that show. I am definitely like Wallace. I go at it with loads of enthusiasm and very little ability. I get into messes and Henry, like the intellectual Gromit, rescues me from my mistakes and is the one who actually makes it work. Together we are a good team! Or at least I think so.

Our rocket to the moon may not go up in a day or be so spectacular or defy physics so much, but one day it will really be real. Hopefully very soon.

June 27, 2013
Young

We’re still here. Hoeing the garden. Feeding the ducks. Chasing cats. Spotlighting possums.

Testing our solar hot water. It works.

Finding tunes to work by.

Another lovely view from our roof.

I was doing this. It’s done now! And painted. It looks handsome with a hat.

This hen is no longer. A fox got to her. The last of the thirty that once were…

Somehow the ducks live on. Probably because they are inseparable.

I love ducks! They ‘quack quack quack’ and wiggle their bottoms into their pen. Cute.

Anyone for cheap insulation? We are stuffing the foam from banged up fridge doors and wind surfboards – of all things! – into the walls and filling the gaps with expandafoam. It works.

Our grey goose. Top is white and the side is just hanging in there until we get around to it. All in good time my friends.

This lifestyle is nice. I was tramping the wheelbarrow past the duck pen through the wet grass and wholeness filled me. If you’ve never tried this kind of lifestyle, don’t knock it. It really is fulfilling. Being involved in nature – that place that is essential to survival, that place from which all our nourishment comes from, air, food, water – is extremely grounding.

Hard work of the physical kind eliminates boredom, makes us use our bodies for what they were made for – just to be used! To do things! – reduces depression, stops us thinking about our problems and withdrawing into ourselves. I can’t see anything but good to be gotten out of hard work and caring for the things the people the land the animals all around us.

Anyway, it is fulfilling and I am finding it a refreshingly honest way to live. I could see myself tramping around a paddock to feed the ducks, muck out the pigs, grow some crops. It’s fun getting dirty. I’d like to turn some of this lovely soil into food before we hop on our bus and tootle off.

June 19, 2013
Bus Update

I know so many of you want to know how progress on our bus is going and although we are taking bets on when she will actually be ready, I will have you know: things are coming together and we may yet surprise you all…and ourselves.

Here is the children’s playground of choice while Henry and I work. I like having them so near to us while we work and I try to involve them when I can, but when the job involves toxic fumes or power tools then it’s definitely a no-no to even think it.

A big job, which took me all of a day to do, was to get into every crevice and vacuum up the accumulated dust of 35 years. It was only slightly rewarding as most things looked the same after the vacuum.

This has been a time of firsts, first time angle grinding, first time using a table saw, first time drilling, first time belt sanding, first time using that paint chiselling power tool thingummyjig and first time using a rivet gun. Using the rivet gun was rather fun and I now know how rivets work – never knew that before – I likened it to craft, but the boys did not like that at all.

Here below is our fantastic insulation and my(then Henrys takeover) job of riveting a panel BACK ON, no way, we are up to that stage! eee.

My main activity over the past week has been bogging, sanding, vacuuming the floor and then rebogging, resanding, revacuuming the floor.

But, in the end all those patches turned into one large patch of white. A clean slate. That floor is now ready to build onto.

For the moment my driving ‘cab’ now looks like this:

But, be not deceived, this is actual partial progress. Even though this looks worse than it did it is actually better off as it is being improved.

We are now focusing on the roof, here is our ladder to the sky:

Henry’s plans, being sketched out on roof paint, and it did not take him long. In less than a day he designed, drew up and pieced together our decking base. A few days later his mate welded it, and but for a coat of paint on the roof they are ready for installation!

Here are the draws to our bed. Just a’waiting.

Have you ever seen a country home basement?

Well.

Forget Country Style, Real Living or Vogue. This is the real deal:

That is one practical, lived in, full of ‘stuff’ basement.

Dear Aunty Glenda had a home day today and she and the kids curled up and got cosy.

Why so engrossed?

Oh, the one and only of course! They went on their very own ‘Dora’ explore. Glenda drew up a map which even had the Dora formula of three locations: Home. Creek. Park! It was brilliant. Then I joined them and we all went on this explore together. Mid way I asked: ‘Where do we go next?’ and this is when I discovered this map. ‘Wait a minute,’ said Sophia so matter-of-factly, ‘I will just look at our map.’ And so she did and next we had to go over the creek. Which we did. Then we found the creaky, squeaky park and had a play. The kids have been missing our next-door park which we had in Sutton. We were there every evening during Summer, so it’s a big deal not to have one here. Not that there is any lack of fun to be had around these parts.

Finally, today and tomorrow we are doing roof work. We are hoping to get all of this done by about midday tomorrow because…

…these babies arrived today!

Finally! We are a proud Solar Owning Family. It actually feels really good to own our very own power generators. It feels amazing. We were the Computer Generation. Our kids are the Renewable Energy Generation! That is absolutely wonderful.

(a bit squinty, the sun was shining right into our eyes, and right onto those panels, just where we want it.)

May 1, 2013
Down below the paddock

Down below the paddock there is a creek which bends around a sharp corner in a fenced off no-mans-land. The first time I ever stayed at Henrys parents place, before Henry and I were ‘together’, we walked down here together very early one morning before anyone else was awake – incredible now that I know Henry, and I know he is not a morning person – So it’s a bit magical for me even though it is just a stagnant creek. It is a lovely little place. A bird haven. I have seen the White-Faced Heron, the Australian White Ibis, among the usual Australian birds. This little square paradise of secluded Australian bushland is full of birdsong.

The little cat here, Socks, follows us all the way down, if Sophia lets her walk. She mews around while the kids climb and balance and jump off of the large, fallen tree.

We’ve spent a little while adjusting. The kids settling into their new beds (a few unsettled nights), me adjusting to the large amounts of meat! Working boys need meat, apparently! There was a bit of a whinge after I almost served up my vegetarian curry feast two days in a row. Haha. Grandma came to the rescue with sausages!

It’s a great big place to be rattling around in, there’s enough room that no one ever has to step on anyone else’s toes. The kids have room to spread out their messes in the loungeroom, which is only ever used to watch TV on the massive screen. They have also been absorbing the busyness of the place. Grandma is a busy beaver. She has a quiet energy and it’s been great for Sophia to see that everyone is doing some work, and so she is getting in on the act. One night this week she let herself out on to the verandah after dinner. ‘It’s dark out there, Sophia, what do you need to go outside for?’ Asked Grandma. ‘I need to clean up my mess!’ She stated with great decision.

I gave it the raised eyebrow of approval and slight incredulity. This is a great leap forward. A social conscience is developing.

There is a lot for little kids to help with around here and between us we manage to keep them pretty occupied, or they keep themselves occupied and we are avoiding the TV as much as we can while I pick up some work on the bus, and help out around the house as I can.

Grandma is incredibly hospitable, and I am so grateful for her generosity and easy hospitality. I hope I can be just like it in my later years (if not now, of course.)

So dear friends came down for a couple of nights and again I am grateful as their presence, and Kyle’s hard work, gave us impetus to get into the bus. Now the ball is rolling and we have a solar hot water system coming, a fridge purchased, a solar system waiting to be bought and a deck almost made. I have paint waiting to be applied to the roof and we’ve bogged the floor ready for it to be painted also. The bed is about halfway made and I feel like all guns are firing and this bus will be built in no time!! It’s good to be positive, friends. :)

Here are some pics, because I know you like them.

I’ll take some really interesting bus photos for you today so you can see our progress. ;)

xo

A pre bedtime play with a new/old toy.

Here is part of the ‘orchard’. They have plum, quince, mulberry, apple, loquot, apricot, peach, nectarine and of course, cherry trees. I guess it would be criminal to live in Young and not have a cherry tree!

This part of the orchard is shining next to the rest of it. For the past year they’ve had chooks and ducks in this section and you can really tell that the trees are loving this symbiotic relationship. The trees attract the bugs and the birds eat the bugs. The poor bugs just suffer. The soil must also be thriving with all that poo and the trees are just so much better off for it. The difference is obvious.

Here we go, past the orchard down that long fence line right to the bottom of the paddock.

And Socks and Sophia. That cat is a miracle and Soph is learning to be gentle…

The big house past the orchard.

The chook shed looking across the width of their block of land.

Here’s our baby. The bus. Our friend said, ‘I don’t know if you could get better than that (colour wise).’ and she could be right. Apricot forever may she remain.

It was a rather wet morning this morning and I totally underestimated how sopping our feet would get.

‘Carry me, mummy! It’s too wet!’

Here we are, looking up toward the house from the very bottom.

And wet shoes and wet pants were kicked off to end that mornings little endeavour.

Another, sunnier, day we made it down to the creek.

Gunny with his little friend. She said to me when she arrived: ‘Where’s Gunny?’ and then ‘Gunny is “Gunsar”‘, yes, dear, you can call him ‘Gunsar’.

We made willow swings. I have a favourite memory of doing this in the willows near my home as a child. We tied two thick bunches of willow together to make a crude, bouncing swing. It was magical being up in the tree, surrounded only by leaves.

And of course, willow crowns.

Some kind of willow fairy.

Me being a bemused model. I don’t think I could ever be a model I don’t take myself or my looks seriously enough! Besides the not being a size 6 of course…

The end.

The sweetheart. Gunny had stalled – as he often does – and was sort of chirping about it. ‘Mummy, it’s too far.’ I probably called ‘come on, you can do it!’ (He does get a bit lazy sometimes, comes of being the youngest and me not having my arms full with the next baby).

I was thinking about the sun and the trees and seeing if I could get a nice picture of him in the field, meanwhile Sophia traipsed down and took him by the hand, helping him up the paddock. What a lovely sister she is.

April 28, 2013
These days

Last week was a very tiring one. I won’t say ‘the most tiring of my life’ because that would not necessarily be true. There are many momentous moments in life and ones that tucker you out more than moving house like having a new baby – or for that matter just being pregnant, starting a new job, travelling away from home or organising a wedding, but the thing about moving house is that there is very little that is pleasant about it. Sure, perhaps the only good thing is that new house, but it’s just another house. You’ve just changed houses. In our case it’s not yet even another house (or bus, let’s just say), though it is extremely nice to be living in this large house on this large property in rural NSW. The aftermath of moving follows you like a stray dog. That final house inspection, changing addresses with thirty-odd interested parties & unpacking those boxes. I still can’t quite believe that that house I’ve known for so long, those couches, that home of my children’s first years is mine no longer! (Not that it ever truly was.)

With routine and rhythm thrown out the car window as we drove off into the sunset we are facing a varied reality.

Time at mum & dads was brief as we were out at Sutton every day for five days packing and cleaning. Thankfully I managed to spend a bit of time walking with the kids in the bush and on the oval of my youth.

Mum was so good to watch my kids, with no complaints as ever, but by the end she was exhausted. I don’t know if I could’ve done it without that patient help.

We passed this guy as we walked down to the oval. I was struck by his presence as I realised that this fellow, selling ‘fresh flowers’, has been here in his van – possibly even the same van! – every day since I can remember – 20 odd years! It is an anomaly in this day of fast changing, fast paced, high profile, ambitious careers. I was struck and I was also thankful. It is so nice to have something that remains steady and unchanging – even if just for one lifetime.

The end of the week came, house inspection over, I took the kids to see our old house on the way out of town for closure’s sake, and as we headed out we literally drove off into the sunset.

It sunk into me and I thought:

‘This feels good. This is right. This is what we need right now.’

Though it is somewhat bittersweet, with relationships I will miss, people I will long for. I still feel that for me, for my family, this is the logical, natural and proper course forward for us.

I drove away and I felt the walls fall off my life.

April 17, 2013
Have Bus Will Travel!

Here it is!

Beautiful Big Bedford. It has come in the nick of time, at the perfect time and is exactly what we were looking for. After doing over 3000 kms up and down the south east of Australia (from Taree to Melbourne) in the past week we ended up finding our ideal bus only 15 minutes from Henrys familys place, where we have parked it for all the adjustments we will need to make to get it registered and in running order. In the end we did not compromise on any of the essentials that we wanted which were: Fair price, Bedford, Diesel Engine in good condition, sturdy rust-free body, and minimally fitted out – as we would strip it anyway.

We are not kidding ourselves, this is not the end, only the beginning! There is a lot of work to be done, & still lots of research (though we are pretty informed by now!), finally though, action can be taken. We can begin kitting it out, moving out and moving in.

Apart from repainting the exterior we will also strip the entire interior, except for the framing which divides the main bedroom from the bunk & bathroom area and the kitchen and living area – all of that just so happens to be in the exact spots we were planning on putting them – fancy that! We are going for a clean and neutral look with all of the inbuilt furnishings; light wood floors, beige walls. We are thinking textured wallpaper for some feature areas (the curved part of the roof), most of the character will come from rugs within and the adjustable furnishings. Because it is such a small space it is completely necessary to keep things streamlined, light and bright in there. We are looking forward to buying our own stove and cooktop, LED Lights, solar panels, installing our own plumbing including a composting toilet and Henry has ideas for a passive solar ‘air conditioner’ he is inventing, and basically being able to alter things to be exactly the way that we want them. What a luxury after six+ years of renting!

It’s a lot of fun to be able to do all this debt free within our budget. Though home ownership is sometime in the future for us I am trusting that the time to rustle up the money for that will come. With houses and land so expensive in Australia I feel good about looking outside the box in order to move forward whilst having an adventure at the same time.

Living in a bus will suit our family down to the ground. I watched my children running and jumping around our bus when we brought it home (‘home’ which is now less about ‘where’ and more about ‘who’), and I thought, ‘this suits my kids perfectly!’, with their wild hair, their boundless energy and inquisitiveness.

Sophia shouted ‘Oolevoir’ (Translation: Au revoir) out the window and we really will be saying that in just a few months. But not yet. And not here in this space at least.

January 15, 2013