The Rig

Per Brendan's request, here are some pics of the rig. Kind of Beverly Hillbillies style. But we've been known to sport a lot more hillbilly than this. This is pretty high-class for us. ;-)

The Once-A-Travel-Trailer-Turned-Flatbed-Turned-Cargo Trailer-Trailer. The Hot Contractor just finished building this a couple days ago. It has all our remaining possessions inside. I kinda think we should spray paint "U-Haul" on the side. What do you think? Too W.T.?






Here's what it looked like as a flatbed trailer.






Here's The Beast





The veggie kit just arrived today, so The Hot Contractor will begin installing it tomorrow. I'm not gonna show you a picture of the tailgate. That's because the other day, when I went to the RV store, I was backing up, and backed right into their big ol' sign out front. The guy working there came out laughing and said, "Haha...Everyone does that!". I wasn't laughing when I looked at the tailgate. Oh, well. The sign was fine, by the way.


Here's the Travel Trailer.





Home Sweet Home.

We're hoping to finish the veggie conversion, and some other essential repairs by next Tuesday or Wednesday. We'll then head down to Santa Barbara to visit some friends for a few days.

Liver.

I've had this liver from our steer we butchered last year sitting in my fridge, not knowing what to do with it. We don't love the taste and texture of it, but we know what an amazing, healing, nourishing, sacred food it is, and didn't want to waste it.

So, last week, we were introduced to another family who is doing what we're doing...traveling the country. (All this random info really does apply to my liver story, I promise). They happen to be in the area while we're here, and our local Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader introduced us. She knew we had lots in common, and thought we might enjoy meeting each other. It didn't take us long to hit it off with these people (three days before they were leaving town). We tried to squeeze in as much time together as possible with our new friends. We became Facebook friends, and they read my blog.

The day after they read my blog, we were all hanging out at a park so our kids could roam while we talked. We told them of our liver quandary. Nate, the dad, said, "Why don't you encapsulate it!" (He had read my post about placenta encapsulation). I think he was joking, but maybe half serious too. Anyway, I realized what a brilliant idea he had!! Why hadn't I thought of that???

Needless to say, the liver chunks are in my dehydrator now. :-P

The Jesus Motor

That's what The Hot Contractor likes to call the engine that's in this big ol' truck we bought. It's a 1998, 1-ton, GMC, duly, crew-cab, long-bed, diesel truck. It's a beast! We are going to convert it to veggie oil ASAP.

As I'm typing, we are on the road, traveling from Santa Cruz to Oroville. All our stuff is packed in The Hot Contractor's aunt's barn in Oroville. She needs the barn back, so we're going to pack our stuff on our flat bed trailer, to be picked up by The Hot Contractor once we settle somewhere.

(The story of the flatbed: The Hot Contractor was chopping down a tree for someone on Freecycle after we'd offered his chopping services in exchange for their firewood. They joked with him about taking their moldy old, nasty disgusting, 20-foot travel trailer off their property. He did. Then he spent two days tearing it apart with a hammer and a nail puller. He then built it into a beautiful, 20-foot, flat-bed trailer. Not only is he crafty, but he's oh-so-frugal too. My dream man. And now he's going to convert it into an 8' x 8' x 20' cargo trailer to haul our stuff across the country.)

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog...

This whole process of converting from the motor home to a truck and trailer was a bit more work than we planned on. Let's just say it's been a crazy month! But we made it! Whew! And we're finally on the road. Having this to look forward to has been motivation as we were feeling so overwhelmed.

The last three or four weeks, The Hot Contractor has spent many hours (usually from 10 pm to 2 am) researching veggie oil conversions and bio diesel processors. We went from wanting to convert the engine to veggie oil, to wanting to create a mobile bio diesel processing kit for the back of the truck, to now wanting to do veggie oil again. We've had to weigh the costs of time, space, money, availability, efficiency, and more. Since we plan on this fuel conversion being a permanent thing, we want to do it right and well. I'm so proud of The Hot Contractor for all the work (and time!) he has put into educating himself on this. He's now ready to install the veggie kit once it arrives.

One of the things that was so stressful about this process for us was when we took it to a bio diesel mechanic (who does the conversions). He evaluated our motor, and told The Hot Contractor that we need a new one. He said this one "might last 300 more miles." The compression test showed it was basically running on six out of the eight cylinders. We looked into buying a new engine, having one shipped across the country, buying another truck that had a usable engine, yada yada. None of these options were cheap, and all of them required us to stay in Santa Cruz longer than we wanted to. So, we decided to just go for it on this engine. We're gonna milk every last mile out of this thing! If it breaks down in the middle of the country, we'll deal with it then. We figure it will just add to the adventure. The Hot Contractor likes to call it "The Jesus Motor" because it was given the doomsday prognosis of "maybe going another 300 miles".

And that was 700 miles ago.

New Plans!

For the last few weeks, The Hot Contractor and I have been watching gas prices rise, listening to some economists we follow predict that gas will reach $5/ gallon in the next few months, and crunching the numbers on our trip budget. It didn't all add up.

We decided to buy a travel trailer and a diesel truck which we can convert to veggie oil, and sell our motor home. I know, sad to say goodbye to her. After remodeling her, birthing my son in her, and enjoying her cute coziness, it is hard. But we will be ok. ;-)

So last weekend we got a travel trailer and moved into it. And this week we decided on a truck to buy, and are currently in Bakersfield, CA (AKA "the armpit" of California), picking up our new truck. The new travel trailer is not so cute, but it "has good bones" (as my Hot Contractor likes to say), and we are loving the layout (like the dining room table we can all sit down at). We may paint it and fix up a little at some point, but there's no time to do it now.

The Hot Contractor has been researching biodiesel conversion, and learning a ton. We're super excited about using vegetable oil from restaurants to fuel our vehicle.

This plan should allow us to not be held back by the rising fuel costs, and to have a little more play, and a lot less work while on the road. We always like that!

And for an added bonus, this truck holds all five of us (plus our dog Sugar), and will be a great work truck for The Hot Contractor once we get to our destination. We know someone who traveled the country in a converted motor home for months, and spent less than $200 on fuel. I think the fuel cost savings we are going to experience will be amazing.

Our current plan is to leave Santa Cruz in four weeks, go back to Oroville and pack up our belongings for a week, then head out. We will head to Idaho for a couple weeks, after visiting some friends in Southern California.

Can't wait!

Life and Death

I haven't told but one person about this, but eight days ago, my dad passed away from Alzheimer's disease.  I've known this day was coming for about eight years...when I first started realizing there was something going on with his memory.  I've had a long time to prepare for this, and mourn.  To be honest, I've barely cried, or felt much sorrow over his passing.  And part of me feels like I should feel more sad.  I've really been processing my feelings, and if it's ok to be ok with death. I think our culture has a fear of death.  Other cultures accept it.  Mourn, but accept it as a normal process of life.  It's the circle closing. I want to be more like that.

My dad was 74 years old.  It was his time.  His turn.  I feel completely different about my dad's death, than I did two years ago, with my 36-year-old brother's death.  That felt so premature, and unnecessary.  Especially since it was two people who chose to take Andy's life.  It didn't feel like it should be his turn.  I guess ultimately, God knows the number of our days, and knew Andy would die at 36 years old, at the hands of two criminals.  But it still felt so hard to accept.  I don't feel that way this time.

I think that's ok.

I know I did everything I could for my dad while he was alive.  I have no regrets.  I know he's at peace now, and I believe he's in a better place. 

The irony about it all is that my brother died when Little Brother was two weeks old.  And my dad died when Baby Brother was seven days old.  This whole life/death juxtaposition is once again at the forefront of my mind.  And it's ok.  I'm thankful for life, and celebrating it.  And am accepting that lives end, and death is the completion of that cycle.  It really is ok.