Week in Pictures

Cassidy Fry loves Transit Antenna.

Another week has whizzed by. As our departure date (Nov 1st) to pick up solar panels in NC becomes increasingly unrealistic, our life continues to expand and contract. Opposing forces of liberation and stress - a sense of freedom twinned ironically with an increasingly confined space - speed us toward the inexorable 'cracking' of our old routines like desert rocks. If we had to we could drive away tonight, but things would fly from our shelves, shake loose in our luggage bays and we only have enough fuel for about 180 miles. None of this would matter of course because our dry rotted tires would probably blow out no further than the end of the road. Nonetheless, the notion is tempting. Erring on the side of caution, however, we'll spending the next week getting things in order - filtering veg and tying things down - and attempting to quell our impatience, but as the weather continues to cool, the threat of economically catalyzed martial law looms, and the ground surrounding the bus becomes increasingly compacted and lifeless, our urge to take off becomes all the more.. well, urgent.

After last Sunday's post, Muriel hosted a seedling sale at her farm next to our bus.

On Monday morning we just hung out (gravity boots donated by Kathleen Burko, sarong from Fiji).

Then the kids helped Muriel harvest peanuts.

Mateo got savage new hair.

And Harper discovered the emergency roof hatch - bungee to come.

Later in the week we were visted by a giant moth.

And yesterday we finished building out our over-head storage.

Harper took exception to this...

...and not even coaxing with sanitary towels could persuade her to come down.

As far as we know she might still be up there!

 

 

Visit us on our main site... www.transitantenna.com

Money Lessons

Making, organizing, trading, owing and spending money has been a large part of our life. Mateo has become increasingly interested in making and spending his own money. When he asks for something he sees on TV or at the store, I now allow him to make his own decision about spending his money. I have been able to introduce to him the ways that advertising and marketing work. He is able to make confident decisions about whether a "product" is worth spending money on - What is it made from? Will it break quickly? Will it hold my attention long? What is the value? Is it healthy for me? Is this something I want to gain a certain type of knowledge from or is it just for fun? These are questions that we make as adults everyday and these are questions that he should also start to consider. I don't want him to take the things available to him for granted, but instead make wise choices about whether these "wants" are necessary.

This discussion about money has been going on for a while. We started out by making a wallet several months ago. At first we considered buying one but Mateo decided that he wanted a wallet that was like his fathers - a duct-tape wallet.

So we went to work selecting a colored tape and coming up with a functional design. We included an area for the bills, but instead of card slots we opted for a Velcro pocket for loose change and the occasional salvaged-treasure find.

Our summer in a Europe added to Mateo's money lesson since he had to consider other currencies. Euros, pounds, and dollars all became a little overwhelming so he designated different pouches and zip-purses for each type of currency. And while, being only five years old, he couldn't quite grasp conversion rates, he at least now understands that countries have a different currency and value systems.

My little entrepreneur is still furthering his interest by working. Every Sunday he sets up a lemonade stand that runs along a side our friend Jason's BBQ days. Its become a regular hit. This past Sunday, however, Mateo moved his location to Muriel's Little River Market Garden (an amazing local project located on the same property as our bus), and not only did he help with selling plant seedlings, he also sold lemongrass tea and lemonade.

Through his lemonade business we practice our math skills - addition, subtraction, decimals - and learn their use in everyday life. He also understands that sometimes you need to spend a little money to make a little money.

Mateo is very proud of the money he has made and frequent pulls it out and shows it off to his friends. And although we sometimes worry about his recent obsession I know that he has every reason to be proud of accomplishments. Just last week Mateo was buying himself a snack at our weekly homeschool coop group, where we take a Lego class, and he decided to buy Sofia (his aunt and my 4 year old sister) a snack as well. Without any hesitation he offered to buy her something and gave her big hug and said, "because I love you Sofia!" I was proud to see him on the right track and not only learning about the value of money and his sense of independence through it, but also about generosity too.

Seeing my little man mature is rewarding, but, as is often the case with parenting, pride and concern go hand in hand (not to mention embarrassment). After a particularly successful day of lemonade selling, Mateo turned to one of our friends who happened to be helping him at the time and quite frankly asked to see her breasts. When she refused, explaining that she felt it wouldn't be appropriate, Mateo offered her money. Naturally we had a long talk about this and while I neglected to probe too deeply into his motivations and the motivations of adults in similar situations we did cover the basics ofrespect between people and the misuse of the power of currency.

Money will be a lifetime lesson, but for now I simply want him to learn that money comes and goes, can't buy love and should not define you as a person.

Follow our bus project on our main website at www.transitantenna.com

Summer days in England

Tucked away in the North East of England, far from the chaos of our bus, we are settling in well to a routine of effortless, breezy days, fresh linens and soft green lawns. The newness of this environment has been invigorating and Mateo is bubbling over with excitement and enthusiasm. We have been keeping busy with projects and many, many field trips. Yesterday we where out in the countryside (Scarcliff in Derbyshire) having a dinner at the house of some family friend. After an early alfresco dinner I spotted a field of wheat and all at once with complete abandonment Mateo and I ran!

We ran far and were overcome with a powerful sense of freedom.

We found magical horses...

Made grass angels...

Played music...

and walked back very hot and very happy! We were like the two bright-red poppies wild in the wheat field. I will cherish this day with my little boy always.

More to come...


Check out more about the bus and our project at www.transitantenna.com

Rope Ladder

We're almost there guys. The interior is down to the moldings, we begin staining and varnishing tomorrow and it might have been the heat, but I swear I saw Tom staring blankly at some plumbing earlier. The progress has come on quick these last few weeks, despite the intense heat, and Mateo is relishing his new loft bedroom. Tired of having to ask our help everytime he wants to get up there he insisted on making a ladder. Here's how it went.

After opting for a rope ladder as opposed to cutting holes in a plank as we had first intended we set about locating some rope. The stuff holding up our long-since-redundant hammock in Tom's shambolic wood yard seemed ideal.

Next, after deciding that we didn't want to spend any money we went for bamboo. Luckily these choice specimen have been littering our yard for months so we grabbed them and headed for the shop.

Thankfully no carpenter ants living inside the bamboo came out as we were setting up. With the sun beating down we lazily prepared the essentials. For anyone wanting to recreate this project they were: rope, sticks of some description, drill with drill bit same diameter as rope, saw.

Bamboo can be tricky to work with. It grows in sections, each of which is sealed from the other by a kind of a knuckle. When making the ladder we had to make a choice about whether we wanted the ends of the rungs to be open or sealed. After cutting it we were able to see how it was inside, and realizing that there would be a lot of waste if we went with the sealed option, we decided to cut either side of the knuckles leaving the rungs open-ended. Just how we like things! (That blue on Mateo's face is chalk. I enjoyed a lie in this morning and when I woke up everyone, including the baby, looked like postmortem clowns).

With the pieces generally cut to size we then had to clean them up. There are probably many ways to go about this, but the easiest Tom found was to nip the rough bits off with the chop saw. This however is not advisable as when the material is not properly secured the saw blade can stick causing the material to kick back, which if you're unlucky can pull your hand into the path of the sharp and rapidly rotating blade.

To my amazement no one was hurt. Just as well, we haven't had health insurance for years!

The next stage is to drill holes in either side of each rung. At this juncture it is important to envisage which side of the rung will be your top and which will be your bottom. We chose the most concave side to be our top. Holes must then be drilled vertically through each end of the rung. We went with the gold Dewalt bit, its for metal really, but the other one was just too big.

Et voila!

Next up, carpenter ants or not, you probably need to finish the rungs. If using nice bamboo you might want to keep its natural waxy luster, but as ours had been alternately sodden and baked out by our trash cans since the winter we didn't have much to lose. Back at the house we gathered some scraps of sand paper and got to work.

Also, with bamboo, it has this furry stuff that grows on the inside that could get gross so we dragged a pair of Tom's old boxers through the holes to rid them of their funk.

Mateo liked this part.

Bad bug time then descended upon us, forcing us to flee inside from swarms of hungry mosquitoes. Once safe within we set about threading the rope through the rungs.

Mateo seemed to get the order this needed to be done in quite well. Start from the bottom, knot first then rung. Check the spacing, another knot, followed by another rung and so on. At this stage it is important to know exactly how long your ladder needs to be. Maybe placing the rungs out will help decide the order and always leave yourself more rope than you think you need as the knots use up quite a bit. Also, depending on the type of rope you use, it might be helpful to put some tape at the ends to stop it fraying.

With the ladder lashed together it was time to test it.

Impatient to see results we headed back to the bus.

Installing the ladder was simple, if not sweaty. All we did was drill four holes, two top and two bottom, and thread the rope through, knotting it at the back. Of course, everyone wanted to help!

And there you have it. One awesome rope ladder...

and one happy camper/jungle boy...

This blog is dedicated to our homeschooling, but for more information on our bus project please go to www.transitantenna.com

Ojos de Dios

or 'God's eye' is a craft that I remember making as a child and always enjoyed for its beauty and simplicity. Originating in Mexico the Huichol people call their God's eyes 'Sikuli.' which means "the power to see and understand things unknown." When a child is born the central eye is woven by the father, then one eye is added for every year of the child's life until the child reaches the age of five. The result is a mysterious and magical object.

To make one you will need two sticks or branches and yarn or similar material that can be used for weaving.

Secure the two branches together with a knot from the end of your yarn.

Begin weaving the yarn around your sticks, looping round each branch.

The God's Eyes will grow and take form.

Here is the one I worked on - I weaved the yarn so that both sides are the same and there is neither a front or a back.

Mateo really enjoyed making these and was confident doing it without my assistance. He was very proud of his creation and instantly felt the magical pull of his God's eye and displayed it over his bed to protect him.

Check out this guys very impressive God's Eye here.

This blog is dedicated to our homeschooling, but for more information on our bus project please go to www.transitantenna.com

Toy Making: TREEHOUSE

For Mateo's recent birthday this past March, Tom and I decided to make him something special- a beautiful woodland Treehouse. In trying to avoid getting sucked into buying expensive wood toys we took a leap and created something ourselves. We stayed up late nights working on our little project in secret and found ourselves delving deep into a magical woodland world. It is so satisfying to see your children play with toys that you made for them with your own hands.

To make a treehouse yourself you will need some basic wood working skills under your belt and more importantly, access to tools. We found that making the treehouse was an organic process and will vary depending on the wood that you find.

In total, the whole project took us 15hours to complete, including all the little details like the hammock, ladder, swing etc.

Tools and Supplies you'll need:

Miter saw , jig saw, drill with bits, router, sander, wood screws, wood glue, dowel rod, string and yarn (for the hammock, ladder and swing), some 1/2 inch (approximately) planks and a selection of beautiful hard wood branches.

We gathered all the branches we could find that might make the right fit for our Treehouse. Make sure any wood you find is fully dry and not still green. Wood should not have any mold or decay.

Use the jig saw to cut out the shape you want for your base floor and back wall (optional). As we need to attach the treehouse somewhere in the bus we went with a back wall and added a window as a little architectural element. The window can be cut with the jig saw if you first make a large hole with your drill - large enough to put the jig saw blade in.

After cutting the planks to shape we used the router on the edges. A variety of 'bits' are with the router to make different edges, but we went with a simple rounding tool. The result is a really nice (and more importantly safe for little hands) finish. Finish this phase of the process by sanding your pieces.

Once our base floor and back wall was finished we started to think structurally. We cut a gnarled piece of wood to sit flat top and bottom on our base and then figured out its placing.

We screwed in our back wall to the back edge of our floor. Note: Make sure to pre-drill your holes to avoid splitting wood - especially in to your branches.

To avoid unsightly screws the branches on the first level should be screwed in from the bottom. The second level is little trickier. Here your branches need to be set in place with a combination of screws and glued dowels. We screwed through the second level into the first branch to secure it from the top, then pre drilled holes in the second level and the second branch. Into both sets of holes we put glue and into the holes on the second level we inserted dowel pieces. Our second branch went on top of this and the dowels from the second level went up into its holes. Everything is set with wood glue for extra strength. The third level is set in the same way as the second level.

In the end we made a total of four floors, each suspended and supported by various cool bits of wood. The process is itself one of play, deciding where to add or remove branches until settling on a final design.

When the structure is complete then you can focus on the trimmings. We cut a staircase out with a jig saw then sanded it. It is set in place with a screw from the bottom and wood glue at the top. You could also use a stack of wood rounds, but this worked best for us.

This little woodland Mama hangs from the wood and rope ladder made with string and left over wood dowel. We bought the woodland family and baskets from Magic Cabin.

We added a branch that extends out for our swing.

The ropes are made from thin hemp which I braided together. I wrapped them around a wooden dowel and then fed the rope through holes that we drilled into our branch.

The swing itself is a small cut off from a wood round. The swing is set in place with a knot at the bottom of the rope.

We even cut a "mouse leather hide" for the floor. Also note the blue in the window. The chairs were purchased from Fairy Furnishings.

Mateo was pretty impressed. I was too! I hope this woodland home stays in our family for generations!

Check us out at www.transitantenna.com