Phew...Holiday Market is Over!

After 7 days of vending here in Eugene at the Holiday Market, all I wanna do is curl up in bed with a cuppa tea and my computer. I talked to enough people in those 7 days to last me all year!! Here's our annual market family portrait...me and Julia are hiding there on the left towards the back, wearing hats. We are tiny!


We didn't lose money at market this year but we made about 1/5th of what we'd hoped. Crafting is risky business, especially with the economy the way it is. We were trying out a lot of new designs for the first time so that was a gamble. People really seemed to like the stuff but not the price tag. We're beginning to wonder if handmade clothing is the right direction for us at all. Watching our neighbors sell $10 sweatshop t-shirts all day is kinda demoralizing.

Our biggest sellers were our flower headscarves and the regular fleece/felt scarves - (Both under $20).

It didn't help that it was snowing and icing for the better part of the market. Here in Oregon we're snow wussies...just a few inches and no one wants to drive or go anywhere.

It was really nice to meet up with a lot of our crafty friends here in Eugene. We miss the sense of community you get at market - everyone choosing a different path together, supporting each other, celebrating successes and trying to figure out how to remedy failures. It actually makes you feel like you're not crazy for trying to follow your dreams!

In other news, I wiped out on the ice while carrying one of my booth's tubs and dislocated my finger. Obviously, I can still type!! Oh, poor fingy - it went sideways at the second knuckle down and I had to go to the ER to get them to put it right again. Hopefully I'll be playing banjo again within a few weeks.

I'm so thankful that it wasn't any worse but all in all, we've been feeling a little unlucky lately. Hopefully things will start lookin' up as we head back to CA. I feel like things have been crazy for a while and I'm looking forward to settling back into a nice comfortable routine in our bus. Mom has been babysitting Luna and taking really good care of her (thanks Mom!!) and I'm excited to get back. Hopefully we'll hear about J's possible job opportunity in Santa Cruz soon, too - then we'll really know what we're doing, when and where. If that doesn't work out....we're thinking roadtrip. Epic roadtrip. =)

New Winter Wrap Skirts at Patchwork Underground!

(Click Here to see the new Skirts!)

Howdy all....as many of you know, our bus building and driving is on seasonal hiatus. The sewing machines are out, the patterns are cut and the X-mas holiday shopping/crafting season is well underway!!! We've been busy bees crafting up a whole new line of wrap skirts, fleece scarves and woodcut journals for everyone's holiday enjoyment.

Once market is all over and we're millionaires (ha ha ha), we're going to knuckle down and get on with the veg conversion. We promise to post details here asap! =)

Santa Cruz Mountains Transitions

Hello everyone! It's been quite a while since we've last posted - bus-life is still good. We've been hunkering-down in the Santa Cruz mountains for the last few months. We thought we'd be well on our way with our veg-conversion by now, but after finally settling and re-orienting here in sunny California, we realized that in fact Holiday Market was just around the corner! We've been busting out tons of new products to sell at this year's crafts fair - we'll be vending Dec. 13-14 and 20-24 in Eugene, OR. Come see us if you're in town!

There hasn't been too much major bus construction since we've been down here, mostly a lot of dreaming and many random repairs. The first big storm we had this Autumn, our wall flooded again. We tried leveling the bus better, but water somehow was still getting down into the wall and making all our lovely eco-insulation soggy. We've had to take the wall down more times than I care to recall now and air things out. But, I think we finally figured out the problem. We think that when the bus is even just a tiny bit un-level, water drips right into the side window channels and overflows the inside ledge. We did some more caulking so hopefully we won't have any more troubles.

Other miscellaneous bus things - we replaced our composting toilet vent-cap finally. No more funky back draft when we drive. Another dream/plan that's been in the works: once we get a more settled spot, we're going to build a small scale constructed wetlands to treat our grey water! I did some initial research about this and it is quite excited. Once we seriously get into it I'll post more specifics.

We've been keeping things toasty warm with our wood-stove. We scored a nice stash of firewood. Here's a pic of it it keeping dry underneath the homestead:



Well, that's it for now. The last few months we've been mountain-living home-bodies. It's been nice. We're both looking forward to figuring out our next steps after Holiday Market (it is pretty all-consuming at this moment). Many warm solstice wishes to everyone!!

- Julia

Patchwork goodies make the wheels on our bus go round and round....

We are alive and well in the Santa Cruz mountains staying with one of our bestest friends, David. Lately, most of our time has been taken up with minor bus repairs/improvements and long (city) bus rides into town. Veggie conversion is imminent. Funding is necessary hence the plug for my biz...I've been sewing a lot lately....how many head scarves before we can afford a 12v inline heater? hmm.... Plans have been drawn and will be uploaded very soon for your enjoyment! And now, a word from our sponsers. Us. =)

............

New Stuff at patchworkunderground.com !

Felt flower headscarves and patchwork headscarves and $20 corduroy shoulder bags...Oh my!

I'm stoked to finally have my gorgeous flower and patchwork headscarves online! I've been selling these locally at Saturday market and people really seem to enjoy them. I haven't seen one person try them on and look bad....you just can't. How can you go wrong with a big ol' felt flower? You just can't help but smile. =)

Also....my infamous $20 corduroy shoulder bags are online now too!! These babies are awesome. Small pocket is for goodies, big pocket is big enough for books and a few apples. Serged seams reinforced in key spots with frayblock AND the extra-long strap is extra-secured with lots of reinforced stitching. Cheap: yes! Twinky? HECK NO!

Hope folks enjoy the new stuff!

<3>

Tales from the Road

Julia here with Erin taking over somewhere in the middle.

Well, the first part of our road adventure has come to a close. We arrived in Santa Rosa, CA on Monday after many days anchoring out in the weird and beautiful spots of Oregon and California. We took so many random pictures that we put them into an album you can link to from the Flickr icon on the right side of this blog.

Let's see if I can recount some of our journey from where we left off on the last post. We spent the weekend before this last one out on the Rogue River just outside of Grants Pass. We thought we would stay at this one free BLM spot, but after we got back from town that Friday, our amazing isolated paradise had been inundated with drunk guys. So we decided to suck it up and pay out for two nights at a nearby state campground, Indian Mary.

It was a pretty silly place with many gawking RVers but it was good to not worry about drunk people messing with us and fill up our water tank. We learned that the park used to belong to "Indian Mary" herself and it apparently was famous for being the smallest reservation in the country. Her father was granted the land when he snitched out his tribe's planned attack on a nearby village. She ran a ferry for settlers across the Rogue River for a time until they built a bridge and put her out of business. The bridge fell within a year (wonder why?) but they built a new one. Then the state took her riverside reservation and made an RV park out of it.

After two nights there, we moved to another free spot further up the river on Sunday night, above Rand Boat ramp. Had the place to ourselves. First thing Monday morning, we headed over to Pacific Truck and Trailer just before Merlin Rd. hits I-5 and got our air brake hose fixed. Super easy. $50 installed. From there, we headed down to Grants pass to try and score a California Atlas - we've been having lots of fun with our atlases. Walmart et al was sensory overload after being in the woods for days. We got out of there in a hurry.

Before choosing our destination for the night, we briefly entertained the idea of visiting one of the women's land farms in Oregon. We found a listing for one called Womanshare outside of Grants Pass. They were very nice on the phone but said that 32 feet is pushing it for their turn-around. Next time we really want to plan our trip around women's lands but it didn't work out this time. Onward. We broke off at Grants Pass onto the 199 S. that would eventually hook up with 101 S. We made it as far as Cave Junction that first day and parked behind Puff n' Stuff to stock up on food, diesel and ice. Never seen so many methheads in one grocery store but, hey, they had organic tortilla chips.

We took the Oregon Caves Hwy for a few miles and camped at Grayback campground for the night. The campground host was pretty awesome and filled us in on some of the local history. We learned that there was a huge influx of hippies that came to the area in the late 60's to set up "mining claims" up and down the river. We've been hearing for a while that getting a mining claim was (and is?) a cheap and easy way to get a piece of land. The forest service wasn't too enthusiastic about the homemade cabins springing up along the river so in 1968, Johnson wrote the Wild and Scenic River Act. I think the Rogue River got included into it in 1971. They took away back-to-the-landers spots and hired other hippies to burn down all the cabins and scatter all the stones from the fences. I had never heard about this kind of thing before and thought it was pretty interesting. Yet another example of the system polarizing two issues to keep the movement down: environmental protection vs. alternative living.

The campground host who told us all this history had his cabin burned down, too, even though the old time miners "took a shining to him" (his words) and assured the forest service that he was actually in the creek panning everyday and that he was producing enough mineral to be legit according to the prudent man act. All true. Fast forward - now our gracious host is a world renowned camp ground host and mushroom expert - check out his website: http://www.matsiman.com.

We did a lot of thinking about all this history as we continued our journey. We decided to camp just past Grayback up a forest service road for the next night. I did some sewing to bulk up stock and get ready for a website update and we listened for passing cars. You could hear them coming miles away from where we were. The second night we got spooked by two drunk guys in a pickup truck driving like maniacs, whipping around the forest, passing us and slowing down and speeding away up a split road, racing back down and cruising us again.

We camped at Grayback again and then left in the morning, picked up ice in Cave Junction and decided not to go to the Hope Mountain Barter Faire for lack of funds. Then we cruised down into CA and stopped at a free campground called Madrona, next to the Smith river, where we met Micheal and his bus. Micheal's been living in his bus for the last 30 years and it is a life work. He was a really awesome guy and a total inspiration to us. We have renewed bus building energy and got a lot of good ideas on bus decorations and destinations from him. Seeing Micheal and his bus really reaffirmed our passion for buses and bus people. We feel lucky and blessed to have gotten the opportunity to meet an old timer who hasn't given up or forgotten joy. Thanks Micheal!! Oddly enough, Micheal also talked about mining claims and noted better times for busfolk before "our rights were taken away" by the Forest Service. I guess we were not the hardcore hippie historians we thought we were because here was a huge hole in our historical knowledge. Fellow novice hippie historians take note. More research to be done?

After swimming in the Smith River and hanging out at Madrona for 2 days, we moved on to the redwoods. We camped first at Prairie Creek and then at Burlingame in the Humbolt Redwood Forest. The redwoods are completely amazing - not even gonna try to describe them here. We even saw elk! AND Wowie! CA campgrounds are so much fancier than OR campgrounds. Hot, spa-like tiled showers? Free maps, information brochures and adequate (excessive?) signage that actually tells you what is happening on trails? PHONES? Visitor's centers? Recycling bins? It was all great until...$8 firewood?! $10 6-packs?! Ahh, California. How I'd forgotten.

We got more and more anxious as we drove closer to the Bay Area. People started cutting in front of the bus, using any old lane for passing and generally being silly drivers. The roads were the worst we'd seen on the whole trip - rutted and bumpy doesn't really cover how they feel in the bus. And then, getting closer to Santa Rosa - dead stop on the 101 in the middle of the freeway. I forgot that's normal.

The trip in a nutshell: most fun we've had in a long time. Bringing your home with you wherever you go is mindblowing in ways we didn't expect; the bus makes a lot of people really excited and happy and when it doesn't its pretty funny; there is a significant portion of the middle aged population who respond to the bus with an instinctive peace sign; bus people love to see other bus people; hitchhikers feel totally entitled to a ride on your big hippy bus and take it pretty hard if you reject them; diesel is cheaper in CA.

Anyway, we are very excited to get to Santa Cruz on Monday and start in on our veggie conversion so stay tuned! Many veggie details to come....

On the Road Again...for the First Time!

Day #4 of our adventures in goin' south!

Right now we're in an internet cafe in Merlin, OR outside of the Rouge River BLM land near Grants Pass, OR. We're having an awesome time - it feels so good to be out and about experiencing our home in all these different places. Much relaxation happening.

I'm also getting lots of driving practice in! She can sort of keep pace with the semis on the I-5. The only fatalities so far are the many bugs caught in our radiator.



Here's our first camping spot on the North Umpqua river off of hwy 138.





We were planning on taking 138 through to Crater Lake and hooking onto the 97. Unfortunately, there's a big wildfire up in those parts and the road is blocked! Travelers take note!

While we were there we hiked up to see the "McDonald homestead"....it was 4 miles uphill but it was worth it!



After camping there 2 nights, we went up to the road closure on the 138 to figure out what the heck was going on with all this smoke, fire and closed road rumors. We thought they would tell us that the road would open in a couple days. We were wrong. They told us it might be weeks before the road opened because the fire was only "8/30 contained" (whatever that means) and to turn around and backtrack back to the I-5 . We turned her around and sent our best wishes for a safe and swift end to the fire. The folks up in Dry Creek are worried about losing their homes to this thing.

So we backtracked and drove a couple hours south on the I-5 to the Rogue River BLM land outside of Merlin. Awesome! Washed my hair in this river. =)

Our sweet parkin' spot....


The bad news is that we need a new air hose for our front left brake. We were idiots and let it get worn on this loose access flap that should have been secured better. Ooops. Now we know what "that noise" was. Its not leaking air (yet) but we want to get it fixed. Tried to do it here in Merlin but we were told it would be best to go on to this truck stop in Medford where they can make up the hose for us on the spot. We're going to stay over here for the weekend until Monday and make an early morning push then for Medford with a watchful eye on the air pressure. =)

We are really wanting a 12v fan in the cockpit right about now.....

Thanks all for the encouragement! xoxoxoo

Will keep ya'll updated.

Preparing for Departure

Ooooo-ooo: prudy new tires and wheels!!



Annnd....we got our first tag! Thanks for nothing "husk."

My fellow Americans, I ask you: When will we stop selling fatty sharpies to rouge middle schoolers?

Anyway, we're going to paint it over (white) and paint all our lovely "chrome" (read: sheet metal) accents to match at the same time. We want to get it done today before we leave in an effort to make the bus less scary-looking.



In addition to getting new tires, we took the bus to Schweitzer's automotive to get the rear differential oil level checked and also have someone look at the transmission. It was acting weird...maybe?...we weren't sure so we thought it might be prudent to have someone look at it. The rear diff thing was Spencer's idea. The guys at Shweitzer's turned out to be very cool. The rear diff was fine (we could have checked it ourselves....oh well...just trying to be cautious this first time around) and the tranny was fine except some anonymous idiot (me) over-filled the fluid. Good to know. =)

Enough about other people messing with our bus. Back to us monkeys. In addition to painting those less desirable parts of our bus today, we are also going to replace our hood support wire. You can see in the pic here that its just hanging on by a thread...


Yesterday we replaced our engine temp gauge. Here's the broken one:


Here's the back of it...turns out that the wire coming into the bottom of it isn't a wire at all...its a tiny tube....filled with ether?!....that can be really nasty if you cut into it. (Thanks for letting me know, friendly Knechts guy!) Guess who came ::this close:: to cutting into it before she knew better? Just goes to show...if you don't know...don't cut it.


Here's where that ether tube connects into the back of the engine.


So we bought a replacement gauge at Knechts. The tube and the gauge are all one thing - they can't be disconnected from one another. That means we had to replace the whole thing.

We struggled for a while to try to get that bushing on the engine undone but eventually gave up...goddamn it was tight and in a *&^%ed up spot...and we didn't have the right sized wrench...(note to self: get complete wrench set NOW) ...luckily there happened to be a house guest staying with Julia's mom who not only had the right wrench but was also stronger than us. Yay.

But once it was installed, we weren't sure if it was working. Rev the engine as we might, it wasn't moving.

So we took the bus up over the hill out to Lane Community College...it's sort of a pseudo-freeway to get out there so that was good practice. We topped out at about 30 mph going up that hill. (Seriously.) I see a lot of driving-in-the-slow-lane-with-my-hazards-on in my future.

We also got to test out the lower gears. Don't ask me why they designed it like this but it's a stretch to reach the gear shifter from the driver's seat. I felt lucky to have such a competent co-pilot next to me because Julia was shifting gears for me like a pro. (Don't forget, its an automatic, folks!)

Lo and behold, sometime during the drive the engine temp gauge sprung to life. We were hovering around 180 degrees the whole time which seems good to me.

So once the sketchy parts of our bus are painted over and that little wire is replaced, we'll be good to go. I finally caved to the pressure and agreed to get a pre-paid cellphone for emergencies. (I hold it 3 feet away from me and use it with the speakerphone on....and keep it turned off the rest of the time...you know they can't prove it's dangerous....but they can't prove its safe either!) Also on our to-do list: clean the garage (total disaster area), sort out our tools, load up extra stuff we need to take down to CA for storage, clean cockpit (its covered in a good layer of grease/dust), install the bike rack thingy on the back of the bus, buy a decent CA/Oregon atlas and go food shopping.

Our estimated time of departure from Eugene is tomorrow or the next day depending on how fast we can get our stuff together.

Exciting!

A quick word from Julia: We're planning on driving east from Eugene on Hwy 58 and then hook up with hwy 97 so that we can check out Eastern Oregon a bit on the way down (and avoid some of the intense mountain passes on the I-5). That route hooks back up to the 5 around Weed. We want to take our time and do a little tripping around, so if anyone knows of any cool spots to stop on the way down we'd love to hear about it! This will be our first experience taking the rig on the road, finding places to park over night, and hopefully even doing some nature boondocking. Let us know if you have any tips! thanks.

Out and About

So, after battening down the hatches, we moved the bus out of what we have lovingly called "the hole."

This is a view from the hole...looking down the 90 degree bend in the driveway and out onto the street, where we have temporarily parked the bus.


As some of you know, this is what happened last time I tried to drive up this driveway:




(Note: Our fellow bus friend, Spencer, deserves a shout-out for his heroic manuevering skills that got us out of the hole in one piece this time around. Thanks Spencer!)

After taking her out of the hole, we went straight to Green Eye Automotive in Eugene, OR to have them give us an estimate for doing the veggie conversion. Spent the night. Turns out the dude who owns it sucks. Not only was he trying to rip us off ($3,900?!?!?!?!?????) but he made a point of being a flaming asshole to us while he did it. It was very disappointing to see so little respect for the ladies at such a "progressive" and "enviornmentally friendly" local business. F you, Clark! We're keeping our money and we decided to do it our own goddamn selves. And speaking of bullshit: before we drive it down to CA, we are going to need a new vent cap for the composting toilet. We discovered the hard way that driving with a vent open in 360 degrees causes a back draft. Imagine that...

So yeah, the new plan is to get new wheels and tires ($2200...yikes!) tomorrow at Wyatt's and leave Eugene and make it to CA on regular old evil diesel. It's not ideal. Truth is, we don't have the time or place to convert it here and we've got friends who are interested in helping down in CA so that would make it more fun/educational.

In other news, turns out the stovepipe industry is trying to poison you. After spending a lot of time last winter wondering "what's that other smell?" when I lit up my wood stove, a family friend (thanks, Greg!) let us know that they've recently started painting black stove pipe with nasty paint that releases noxious fumes when it gets hot. Real intelligent. When Greg was installing his wood stove, he spent a day calling around to find what he called "blue pipe" (the old school, non-noxious stuff that got replaced with black pipe) and was unable to find it anywhere. He settled for black pipe and spent an afternoon going over his new pipe with his propane torch to try to do its nasty thing before he put it in his house. After that, the smell went away.

We didn't think we could have enough patience to go over every inch with our torch so we decided to have a bonfire.




We left the pipes in there for a couple hours and made sure that every part of them glowed red by moving them around with sticks every now and then. Boonie, our spiritual leader/kitty also participated.


In still other news, the water mains up the street broke and created a river for a couple hours underneath our bus. Thank goodness for wheel chocks. Never thought I would see water move an asphalt street up 5 inches in the air or see an asphalt water volcano. It was pretty awesome. We also got to see a pageant of the city's International trucks in action. Very exciting.



Tomorrow: new wheels and tires! Bye-bye split rims.

adventures in making the bus SECURE...and cute

So lately we've been securing the bus for MOVEMENT!

That means lots of this:
And this:


We also had yet another leaking incident. Same wall, different spot. Can't tell where or why but I can tell you that I caulkled the crap out of the left-hand side of my bus.

See each of those rivet lines? Well, there's caulk in them now.


We also finalized my sewing space!!


Can you believe I paired down my lace collection to just TWO tiny drawers? This down from 2 garbage-bags-full.


My treadle is secured with tie down points screwed into the floor joists and 2 tie downs through the cast iron base for driving. We had to choose our points wisely so that we didn't bend the base or put any undue pressure on sensitive parts of the cabinet. There's also a length of 2x2 on its side inbetween the two feet that rest along the wall. That should keep it from moving side-to-side (or from the bus' point of view, forwards and backwards).


Here is is with both tables open! A seamstress' dream. It's more room than most of us have to sew in "real" homes. I have an old cutting board to put on top of the opening in the treadle in case I want to put my electric machine or serger there instead.


I converted the 2nd sewing table (the plain one - NOT my redeye singer) into a storage cabinet. I found it - with old (*&#ed machine and all - on the sidewalk. Took it home, trashed the machine, put a false floor in it and now it's a table/cabinet. I have room for 2 baskets of notions underneath my thread holder!

We also made the wall opposite the sewing space GORGEOUS. Fabric on the right, coats, shoes and bags on the left:


From another angle:

Close-up of the purdy shoe holder I made in my new sewing space:


What it all looks like in context:


I also used my new sewing space to make cover-up curtains for the shelves. I think it makes it feel more tidy and organized. Out of sight, out of mind.


Here's another random DIY attempt of late: banjo case. Think fake velvet + cardboard + staples + old cushion insides + old towel + guerrilla tape + bent aluminum ribs + brads + webbing (for hinges) + ribbon (for closures)....the outside is even uglier than the inside but, hey, it works!


I'll leave you with a glam/bikerdyke shot of me next to our stowed table:

New Wrap Skirts at Patchwork Underground!

Quick plug for the biz: I posted a ton of brand new, super-cute wrap skirts today!

Check them out here: http://www.patchworkunderground.com/skirts.html

Let me know what you think of the new site layout, too. I added a bunch of thumbnails to make everything easier to navigate. Hope you like it. =) Stay tuned for a new and improved gallery page.

Wishing you the best in late summer fun!

Shelves, walls and doors

We've been busy bees these last few summer-end days. Getting out and working on the bus has felt really great after talking for weeks about the projects we want to get done but never having the time to do them. Every new thing we complete truly feels like a giant step towards getting our bus mobile. We've been focusing most of our energy on tying up loose ends, creating places to store all our "stuff" and securing everything for the coming earthquake of trundling down the road. We're gearing up to move to a new spot in Eugene hopefully within a few weeks.

In other news, we've been getting a chance to work on some exciting side-projects lately. Erin is writing a how-to article for Threads Magazine and she's also been working with Ecobuilding Collaborative of Oregon on a fiber-related research and design project. I've been doing some work with this website called The Point, dabbling in the world of online social network organizing - you can see my two campaigns on the bottom of our links, feel free to join if you're interested!

On to the pictures:


Here is part of our unfinished new wall. Drop dead gorgeous, right? =) We took out the three windows behind the wood stove and closet to help with keeping the bus cool/warm. Sheet metal on the outside again with our fancy recycled denim insulation and a moisture barrier. Then plywood. We'll put up more wonderboard before we use the stove.


Here's our new living room shelf.


Detail of our new securement for our main shelf. When we're driving, we'll put bungee cords up between these eyelets to keep all the stuff in. We have these funny metal grids we can weave into the bungees at certain spots, too. See all those sideways books? We'll put a metal grid over stuff like that to keep it from sliding inbetween the bungees. Erin wants to make some curtains to go over the shelves so that we don't have to look at piles of stuff all the time.


Framed in kitchen shelf!! We've been wanting this one for a long time. You don't realize how much of a difference it makes to actually have somewhere to put your things. We haven't decided how we want to finish it yet. Bungees? Doors? Hmmm....We have been wanting to invest in wooden plates and bowls for a while so that we don't have to worry about ceramic breaking. Yet to come.


Another angle of the kitchen cabinet.




The full "range hood" effect - we still need to replace the fan with a quieter one (ours sounds like an airplane taking off) and also install some mechanism for closing it off. We eventually want to decorate the heat shield....metal cutouts? Flowers? Circles? Decorative grille? Flames?


Our new bi-fold bathroom door that we got from Bring Recycling. The old one didn't work out too well because it was hollow, so the hinges didn't actually stay on. This one's solid wood and pretty classy. We even recessed the hinges into the wall. Oooo-ooo.


Interior view of our newly re-vamped bathroom. We put those cute shelves up (more shelves!) and fixed the whole composting chamber section (not shown). We basically had to re-do the whole thing. We took out the false floor that used to be there and lowered the buckets/trays to sit on the floor. That way, there was enough clearance for the whole funnel & fittings & hose apparatus for the diverter. Yay! Works a lot better. We ended up taking a gallon milk jug and cutting the bottom off, flipping it around, cutting off the handle and sealing off the hole and super gluing it onto a PVC coupler. Works good.