Noodle Soup Meiosis – Propagating Tiny House Communities

Posted on July 15, 2014 by mcpletcher — 2 Comments

A tiny house community, such as Noodle Soup Village – Lite, which is based on the grander Noodle Soup Village – A Tiny House Community, is a model that could be reproduced elsewhere.  Even though all of this is just words, and no action has been taken to bring it to fruition, I see the most responsible thing to do is make some plans for the future.  To draw out some possible outcomes , instead of just going into the thing all willy nilly, would help to avert a catastrophic breakdown if there is conflict within the community over finances, shared responsibilities,  goals set forth, and so on.  In time, I’d like to hash out something like a village charter, bi-laws, code of ethics, whatever.  For now, I’d like to stick to the fun pipe dreams.  Let’s get right down to it, shall we?!

One possible outcome to landing a piece of property suitable to park a few tiny houses, is for one or two individuals to purchase a house with a sizable back yard, and then rent space to a handful of tiny house people.  If done with the right people, and the right land owner, this is a quite reasonable proposal.  Now, I’d prefer if the landowner intended to live in a tiny house in the backyard with the rest of the crazies, thus leaving the main house for communal activities, washing clothes, guest rooms, etcetera.  An arrangement like this would be better for the community, I think, because everyone living on the property is in the same mindset of minimalism and sustainable lifestyles.  The alternative might create some tension unless their were an agreement that a certain portion of the house was delegated for community use.  I don’t favor this option.

I don’t suppose there would be anything wrong with most of the tiny house people paying rent to a landowner, but a superior arrangement exists. Read more ›

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Posted in Dwelling, Personal, Philosophy, The Squatch, Tiny House

Noodle Soup Village – Lite

Posted on July 14, 2014 by mcpletcher — 2 Comments

As much as I’d like to build a tiny house community, like Noodle Soup Village, zoning and legal definitions of what is habitable are going to inhibit that dream.  A large scale endeavor like that is also wildly expensive, due to infrastructure needs on an empty lot.  This is why I propose a “lite” version, which would have many of the communal opportunities, albeit on a smaller scale, without the legal hurdles which would need jumped, and the exorbitant costs.

As I see it, there are three options:

  1. Purchase an existing RV park, and convert it into a tiny house community.  This might overcome some of the zoning and legal problems, and save money on infrastructure. — Problem is, the purchase price would be high, and the location in a city would not be ideal.
  2. Purchase an empty lot, and build from scratch.  — Very high costs, with battles over infrastructure and zoning from the city are problems.
  3. Purchase a medium sized lot with a home on it, and live in the back yard.  — Quasi-legal, less ambitious, doesn’t change the outdated laws, and fewer homes could be placed on the lot.

I favor the third option for a few reasons:

  • The up front costs are lower
  • Fewer questions from the community since the house looks lived in
  • Much of the infrastructure needs are met.
  • Fresh water, sewer, electricity, gas, shower facilities, toilet, washing machine
  • Mailing address / mailbox
  • Some privacy (even though we want to be open about it!)
  • Communal spaces for cooking, craft work, entertainment, maintenance and repair
  • Guest rooms
  • A place for food storage

 

Parking a few tiny houses in the back yard of an existing home, would offer much more protection from possible zoning violations, than simply setting them up on an empty lot.  If anyone asks, we’re just living in our RVs temporarily while we remodel the big house, a remodel that never ends.  As long as we don’t bother anybody, be respectful to the neighbors, and address any concerns they may have, such as a visual complaints resolved with a fence or green barrier, I don’t see the problem with this.

I see the lite version being an experiment in tiny house living and communal responsibility.  Granted, it won’t be a large village, or one I would advertise workshops in necessarily, but it can be done.  I’m sure of it.

-M.C. Pletcher

 

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Posted in Dwelling, Personal, Philosophy, The Squatch, Tiny House

Edification in a Tiny House Community

Posted on July 13, 2014 by mcpletcher — 2 Comments

A tiny house community such as Noodle Soup Village, offers the opportunity to create a small society within the larger one where respect for one another and the Earth is priority number one.  In order to develop respect, one needs trust.  Trust that your personal possessions are safe and secure.  Trust that fellow villagers protect you and yours, the same as they protect themselves and their own; common goals with like-minded people where competition and self interest are left at the door, a psychological condition best discarded to the annals of history like organized religion, monarchies, and racism.  Self interest is acceptable when a society realizes that doing good for all is good for the individual, and then:  That is birth of an empathic, enlightened culture, concerned with it’s own survival.

Everyone dies, and you can’t can’t take any of your material possessions with you.  You don’t own anything, you only borrow it from the future, so why not return the world in a better condition than when you started with it?  Instead of dwelling on the past and worrying about what the future may hold, let us learn from the past, and use that knowledge to make a new and exciting world.  What matters is what you do today.  This day.  Right now.  I write this having slept in with a hangover, farted around on youtube, contemplated working on the Squatch, and will likely end up writing a bit more, watching a movie or two, and finish off the day telling myself I will accomplish more tomorrow.  Part of living, is seeing the world around you change, but I think the good life is seeing changes you made on the world.

I like to design and build things.  It took me years to realize how much the environment I lived in was detrimental to my progress and personal development.  With positive feedback and support from other motivated and excited individuals, I find my attitude and general state of happiness is improving.  Positivity is abundant in Portland, yet I still feel like I’m still outside that community.  That is why I seek to create a community of people with similar goals, the more ambitious, the more crazy, the more impossible; all the better.

Competition and self interest are not innate, unalterable traits of human beings.  Compassion, empathy and kindness are just as likely in the right environment.  A tiny house community seems to me ideal for this environment.  A few people in a few tiny houses, with few possessions, all packed tightly together that share resources, surpluses, responsibilities, knowledge, dreams, passions and goals, will grow with one another in such a way as to bring about the best traits in each other and grow out of the worst.

-M.C. Pletcher

 

 

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Posted in Dwelling, Personal, Philosophy, The Squatch, Tiny House

Noodle Soup Village – A Tiny House Community

Posted on July 12, 2014 by mcpletcher — 7 Comments

For twenty eight years I’ve been searching for something.  A mission, a purpose, a place to call home.  I’ve been searching in myself, in others, in culture, books, careers, and geographic locations.  I seek a lifestyle in which my actions are complimented by that of others for the common good of all.  This is community.  Relationships.  Sharing.  Caring.  Consoling.  Building.  Growing. Development.  Strength.  Harmony.  Organized living.  I’m looking to matter as a member of society, to see my efforts build safety, security, and prosperity.  I want to know my neighbors, not just in passing small talk or weekend benders, but to feel connected such that I am as welcome in their home, as they are in mine.  I want to better the world, but first I must better myself and the lives of the people around me, and the rest will follow.  To set an example of what is possible.  To demonstrate what can be done when you cast away doubt and ridicule; doing the right thing and doing it all the damn time!

I don’t know if this is true, but it sounds good:  Human beings live best in groups of 20 to 30 people.  I mean, anthropologically, people lived in small groups and not nations of 300 million.  You can’t possibly know millions of people, nor agree on values or lifestyle.  I was chatting with a very wise internet friend about this, Eddy.  He has a blog on WordPress too you should check out:  http://eddyfy.net/.  There’s a lot of bullshit “back in the good ol’ days” stuff that is used largely by social conservatives attempting to control your lifestyle, and bend it to their vision, as fascists tend to to with fairytale narratives.  But, one thing I can say is true about the old days, is that people knew their neighbors, and could rely on some of them when the shit hit the fan, or even just for the cliche “cup of sugar”.  That’s the very least of what I seek:  community.

This is about what that community might look like, both in the idealized fashion created by my brain meat, and also the more realistic short term steps that can be taken to feel it all out and test the waters of communal living.  First, a dream.

Noodle Soup Village

What I imagine is a small plot of land on which 10 or 15 tiny homes are parked in an urban community.  Why urban?  Because I live in Portland, and I like it here.  There’s already a lot of cool stuff going on here, with amazing cultural expression, awesome food, a love of nature, and friendly people.  This could just as easily take place in a rural area, but this is my dream, so let’s get down to brass tacks.

Also See:  Mobile Minimalism,  Living Small in a Big World,  A Winnebago for the End of Days, Living Arrangements in the Zombie Apocalypse, Minimalism by Distillation

Several small, mainly mobile houses are set on a small plot of land, within easy biking distance from the cultural center of the city.  They are, of course, oriented in such a way as to take the best advantage of the sun for the purposes of solar heating/cooling, and energy collection. Read more ›

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Posted in Dehumidifiers, Dwelling, Hot Water, Humanure, Personal, Philosophy, Refrigeration, Refrigerator, The Squatch, Tiny House, Water

Foot Pedal Sinks in the Squatch

Posted on July 8, 2014 by mcpletcher — 2 Comments

When do you need water flow in the home?  When you want to get something wet, of course.  If the sink is running and the water is flowing right down the drain, that’s called waste.  Most household sinks have two valves or a single lever that determines flow rate and temperature.  That requires reaching to turn the water on and off as you needs it.  Not terribly inconvenient, but when your hands are full, such as when rinsing dishes, you might tend to leave the cold water run.  There is a simple solution.  Use your feet.

I’ve been measuring water consumption, and trying to find ways to reduce it.  When taking a 6.0 liter shower (which isn’t very much), a half liter here or there wasted to wash hands or rinse dishes, adds up over time.  There’s also the fact that reaching back and forth to turn the water on and off at the sink spreads dirt, soap scum and disease.  Meanwhile, I have these two feet I’m standing on, not doing anything.

Foot pedal operated sinks aren’t new, they’re found in medical facilities, food processing facilities, and anywhere else sanitation is a concern.  My purpose is primarily conservation and convenience.

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Foot pedal valves are available, but they are heavy, clunky, and hard to adapt to household use, other than a basement utility sink or the like.  Worse yet, an RV is already limited in space, and “toe-in” style cabinets are not common due to height and volume limitations.  The solution, I figured, was an electric valve with a foot operated switch.  Water solenoid valves are commonly available (there’s probably one in your washing machine, dishwasher, or ice maker), and are relatively inexpensive.  Common 120VAC or 12VDC coils can be found.  The Squatch has a 12VDC power system, so this was the type of valve I purchased.  I got some cheaper brass constructed valves from newegg.com, but even cheaper plastic versions would work equally as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I simply adapted the valves to “push-fit” style fittings and spliced them into the cold water lines on both my kitchen sink and bathroom sink.  A process that literally takes seconds.  A couple of wires, an in line fuse, and a switch, is all it takes then.

The Switch

Any momentary switch will do.  I chose a springy limit switch.  The type Read more ›

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Posted in Dwelling, Hot Water, The Squatch, Water

Water Meters Under the Sink!

Posted on July 8, 2014 by mcpletcher — 2 Comments

The first step towards reducing water consumption, is to know how much you are using in the first place.  See Fresh Water Stewardship.  My water system is simple in the Squatch; it has a 66 gallon tank, a 12VDC pressure pump, an accumulator tank, and now, two mechanical water meters.  I found these meters on Ebay.  They’re from a company called “B Meter”.  The GSD5 product was one of the cheaper models, having no pulse output for an electronic counter.  Here’s a link to the company website:  http://www.bmeters.com/en/single-jet-water-meter.htm

BMETER_GSD5

The dial is magnetically coupled to the paddle wheel in the brass body, such that there is no water contact.  I’m quite pleased with them.  The dial can be rotated 360 degrees for easy reading whether the meter is installed Read more ›

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Posted in Dwelling, Hot Water, The Squatch, Water

The Appearance of Minimalism

Posted on June 30, 2014 by mcpletcher — 3 Comments

Minimalism is concept I’m trying to embrace fully.  But, like so many ideas, it means different things to different people.  Most minimalists would agree that however you define it, material possessions encompass most of the concept.  Getting rid of stuff, basically.  Clearing out the closet full of crap you haven’t touched in years.  Giving away books you always meant to read, but never did.  Ridding yourself of clutter.  I prefer minimalism through distillation.

I’ve been purging, yes.  Distilling my possessions down to the quality stuff that I really like and is of regular use.  No, I’m not anywhere close to the point I’d like to be, but minimalism is more of a lifelong habit, than something you do once over the weekend with a few trips to the library and Goodwill.  Sure, I still have a collection of tools I use sparingly or never at all, and after  a few years I’ll decide what stays and what goes.  Tools represent the majority of quality items that bring me continual joy in the world, allowing me to manipulate it in ways that fulfill my needs.  They also allow me to build a life that more closely aligns with what I consider minimalism to be.  See The Prodigious Purge

You see, there are these folks out there do these 200 possession challenges where they count every single things they own and keep that number under 200, or some other ridiculously low figure.  Find a new shirt at a yard sale?  Got to get rid of one in the closet.  (If they have a closet).  Decide to take up the Banjo?  Toothbrush has to be tossed out, Read more ›

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Posted in Dwelling, Hot Water, Humanure, Personal, Philosophy, The Squatch, Water

Stewards of the Earth

Posted on June 13, 2014 by mcpletcher — 2 Comments

Some folks view technology as a sign of changing times.  Of impending unemployment by displacement, ubiquitous colorful screens, a phone thats beeping and buzzing, makes you just want to give it a good chuck sometimes.  But, you don’t do you?  You can’t.  Go ahead, pull it out and check again for updates.  God damn updates.  Silence is so rare anymore.  I talk like I’m an old man.  I’m 28.  Damn near dead for a prehistoric man, but by modern standards, I’ve got a good 40+ years ahead of me for ‘Shares’, ‘Likes’ and ‘Pokes’.  Whatever happened to ‘Pokes’ anyway?  Do you have any idea how many server farms it takes to manage the friggin ‘Pokes’!?  No wonder the aliens never land and say ‘Hello’.         I can’t believe I’m typing this drivel.

Get on with it!

Myself, I feel that technology is any manipulation of our physical reality which serves to make life a bit more livable.  We often envision gizmos and gadgets that whirl and beep, but the simplest thing such as a hand tool is very much technology.  It is neither good nor bad, for such labels are superstitious, ridiculous, and rooted in ignorance.  Technology is how human beings seem to deal with the world around us.  The universe is a very hostile place, constantly ‘trying’ to kill us due to the fact that there are a wide range conditions in which it can be organized.  Energy levels range from intense heat and radiation of a supernova to low level cold of deep space.  Matter can be compressed to the singularity of a black hole or found as rare as an atom or two per cubic meter.  Life has evolved within a very narrow range of these conditions in our corner of the cosmos, and has remained that way, more or less, throughout the history of life as we know it. This is by no means an accident.  Not to say that a god or divine force cast away the demons and hostilty that the universe can produce; quite wrong.  That’s just silly.  Rather, life has shaped this planet into a home that is relatively stable compared to how it started.  Sure, there’s hurricanes, tsunamis, droughts, plagues, and all other manner of nasty things that can come your way, but it’s still pretty nice don’t you think?  I mean, trying living on the friggin moon.  When we got started working this planet into shape, and I do mean we.  Life.  The ooey gooey sticky stuff smeared across the whole Earth that is all fantastically intertwined.  When we got started on it, this place was a shit hole.  Yes, I said it.  It was awful.  You wouldn’t last a minute.  You would literally die within a minute.  There wasn’t any oxygen in the air or sea.  Death rays from the sun would shower down upon you, as there was no ozone layer.    Rain would no doubt result in torrential flash floods as there were no trees or topsoil to absorb the run off.  Let’s not forget the raining fire fall from space.  And, there was certainly nothing to eat.

Read more ›

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Water Pressure Tank and a Hide Away Table

Posted on June 8, 2014 by mcpletcher — 2 Comments

I’ve been showering in the Squatch lately, and I have to say:  I love it!  To many people, the small motorhome bathroom is too cramped and claustrophobic, but I think it’s cozy and efficient.  Everything is within arm’s reach and the small space forces me to design the use of the available volume to maximize it’s utility.  The pressure from the water pump isn’t great, but its enough for me to take a decent shower.  I’ve been doing the NAVY shower thing.  Get wet, turn water off, suds up and scrub, turn water on, and rinse.  How much water this uses, I don’t know, but once I have a water meter installed, I can determine just that.

The Pressure Tank

What bugs me about the water system is that as soon as there is a pressure drop (I open a faucet), the pump immediately kicks on. As I see it, this can’t be efficient.  I grew up with well water and we always had a pressure tank.  That is, a metal tank that holds several gallons of water at the system pressure by the pneumatic action of an inflated diaphragm within the tank.  Essentially a balloon of air within a water tank.  This provides a bit of “cushion”for the water pump to push against.  Without any faucet open, the pump will run until enough water is pumped into the tank squeezing the air volume down to the point where the pressure exerted by the diaphragm onto the tank water is more than the pump cut-out pressure, and the pump shuts off.  When a faucet is opened, the diaphragm will push the water out of the tank until the air pressure, and thus the water pressure, drops below the pump cut-in pressure, and then the pump kicks back on until it once again reaches cut-out pressure.  This way, the pump runs for longer periods of time per cycle, rather than in short bursts, starting and stopping.  These tanks are normally installed by a tee fitting after the pump and before the faucets.

water lines under sink

And that is exactly how I intended to install it, but since the pressured line from the pump comes up through the floor near the middle of the coach, it made it difficult to plumb the tank in right there.  It’s a bad spot and prime real estate for storage.  I chose to strap the tank underneath the kitchen counter in an  area that wasn’t easily accessible for storage purposes.  The pressured line originally ran to a series of tees starting with the water heater, on to the kitchen sink, the outside spigot, and finally the bathroom.  I chose to divert the line up to the pressure tanks and then down to a tee in the middle of the system.  Originally I was going to just tee the pressure tank in the middle of the system and leave the pressure pump line feed where it was.  I opted against this because at certain times when water was being used and the pump kicks on due to low system pressure, the water in the line would suddenly change direction.  That is a bad idea for a number of reasons, the least of which is just bad design.

pressure tank under sink

So anyway, I used some PEX tubing and a few push together fittings to do the job.  First time using these things and I have to say I really like them.  I installed one shut off valve directly after the tank.  Without a pressure tank, I could just shut off the pump in the event of a plumbing leak somewhere.  With the tank installed, there could be two gallons or more of water pressured from the tank, regardless of pump operation.  Shut offs are good.  Install shut offs. Read more ›

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Posted in Dwelling, Hot Water, The Squatch, Water

Our New Home: The Squatch

Posted on May 27, 2014 by mcpletcher — 5 Comments

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything.  Partly becasue I’ve been so busy with our new (to us) RV.  I actually have a ton of stuff to share, and soon I hope to get it all out there in a clear and useful manner.

Well, first off, I have to address the Bigfoot in the room.  Yes, I said Bigfoot.  We recently purchased a 1999 30ft. Bigfoot Motorhome from a private seller in Hillsboro, OR.  It has about 45,000 miles on it and all in all, it’s in great shape.  This is going to be our new home:

 

bigfoot motorhome.jpeg

bigfoot living room.jpg

bigfoot kitchen.jpg

bigfoot bedroom 2.jpg

bigfoot rear room.jpg

bigfoot bathroom.jpg

The coach was built in British Columbia and marketed as an all seasons motorhome.  Compared to the Winnebago brands, and they go by many names, this thing has an aluminum frame, 1.5″ Polystyrene insulated walls and floor, 1″ or more in the roof, and 3/4″ to 1″ in the basement compartments.  The windows are all thermalpane sliding glass.  There are two vinyl skylights, one in the living room and one over the shower.   The exterior is fiberglass with a one piece rubber roof system.  Other than the larger than normal tub/shower, the rest of the features are fairly common in a motorhome.  Adsorption refrigerator, LP water heater, LP forced air heater, LP stove and oven, marine toilet, roof mount ducted A/C unit, gasoline generator, and so on. Read more ›

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Posted in Dwelling, Personal, The Squatch

Trustworthy, But Not Creditworthy

Posted on January 1, 2014 by mcpletcher — Leave a comment

I relish change.  Embrace it.  I seek it out.  I’m not a “fly by the seat of my pants” kind of guy that will just jump into any situation without mulling it over, but with some thorough planning I try to push the boundaries of my comfort zone.

Recently (in the last few months) I’ve been planning a slightly different lifestyle by moving into a 30 foot Class C RV.  We had it all planned out; we knew what we were looking for in layout, features, price point, a place to park it, just about everything.  Except the financing.

I don’t like debt.  I don’t do debt.  I’ve had very little debt in the past.  I pay cash, even for large items.  However, the plan for this lifestyle change was made a little more suddenly than my disposable cash would allow.  We would need a small loan.  Surprisingly, even with credit scores of 806 and steady jobs, we were rejected repeatedly.  (Unless we were willing to accept an interest rate of 22.99%.  Yeah.)  The reasons given were anything from:  a policy against RV loans for full timing, a lack of credit history, limited time living in state, limited time at our current jobs, and so on.

We’ll just have to try our hometown bank 2700 miles away, I guess.  Meanwhile, we’ll keep paying $900 a month rent to occupy a space neither one of us enjoy anymore.  I was running around like a madman cleaning, purging, selling, trying to get ready for the move.  Well, I’ve been taking a break from all of that, but now it’s a new year (by someone’s arbitrary definition), and it’s time to continue purging.  By early March I hope to have found the financing we need, and then we’ll have saved a much large down payment.

To change!  Happy New Year!

-M.C. Pletcher

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Posted in Dwelling, Personal

The Rolling Workshop

Posted on November 30, 2013 by mcpletcher — 1 Comment

In an effort to live the mobile lifestyle, I’ve purchased an enclosed trailer to use for additional storage space and a workshop area.  The intention is to tow this trailer behind a Class C motorhome.  More on the motorhome at Mobile Minimalism, A Winnebago For The End Of Days, and Dreams With Wheels.  I have a desire to live a more minimalist lifestyle.  The fact I need to tow my crap behind my home shows I have a ways to go.  However, fitting our lives into a 30 foot motorhome and a 7 x 14 trailer is still quite a feat for two people that intended to homestead on a piece of property in West Virginia.  Instead, we’re eliminating the seemingly unnecessary and redundant possessions for the useful and practical ones.  We could almost get away from the need for a trailer except for my habit of fixing and building things.  To acomodate this habit, I require some tools, supplies and a workspace.  That is the trailer.

I went for a 7 x 14 foot enclosed trailer with two 3500 pound axles.  So the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating is 7000 pounds.  The trailer itself weighs about 2200 pounds.  A single axle trailer is lighter, but has severely reduced cargo capacity and generally less room and height.  I think a dual axle trailer is going to be easier to distribute weight evenly in it for safe towing.  The dimensions I settled on balanced the need for space, cargo capacity and price.  For another $500 or so, I could’ve gotten an 8.5 foot wide model that had the wheels wells protruding into the interior.  I decided against this because i didn’t really want the additional floor space.  7 feet was enough, and more space will just translate to more stuff. Also, the 7 foot wide model is simply more aesthetically please to me.  Important?  Yes.

7 x 14 foot enclosed trailer.
One coat of latex primer and three coats of Burnt Cinnamon latex paint.
Cam Bar Door Lock. It didn’t come with one on the side door, so I bought one online for $29 and installed it myself. I had to buy some bolts and cut some metal plates for the interior.
Workbench in and designing shelves.
2×2 construction, self tapping screws to the steel wall studs.
Door up.
Toolbox installed
Shelf bottoms in
A mess.
Less of a mess.
Over bench shelving
I can’t use the top section of the toolbox, but this is better anyway.

So, I got the model with the ramp door rather than the barn doors because I thought the ramp could be useful as a porch to for additional floorspace when working on a larger project.  The company that I bought it from gave me two foam blocks that hold up the ramp at a nice height for this purpose.

The side door of the trailer had no cam bar door lock, but it does have a nice RV stile door latch, a feature other manufacturers didn’t.  For security purposes, I installed my own cam bar purchased on Ebay.  Then it was just a matter of buying some bolts, silicone, and bar stock to make plates for the inside.  All together, a half hour installation.

The day I brought it home, we taped stuff off on the inside and the ramp door, then applied a coat of latex primer.  Three coats of paint followed.  I’m quite happy with the durability of the finish even though I opted against oil base.

A few sets of shelves, the workbench, the toolbox bolted in, a closet door installed later, I’m getting into finding specific places for my tools and stuff.  I shoved a lot of stuff into those blue tubs, since I designed the shelves to accept the tubs as a basic unit of storage.  I felt that size was useful since I could use the tubs or sub divide them into smaller shelves, drawers or cabinets later as I see fit.  Yesterday I began the shelf over my workbench and toolbox.  That will relieve some space and disorganization in the tubs.  The top of the toolbox has a lid and storage space there.  As much as I’d like to use that space, the lid wastes a large volume of space overhead when open.  I would remove it, but the hinges are riveted and I’m not screwing with that.  I considered making a section of the overhead shelf break, and hinge upwards, but that is an unnecessary complication which makes access to the top of the toolbox more of an inconvenience than it is worth.  No, i’ll just leave it empty.

I need to finish the workbench shelves and come up with a good way to keep pipe and scraps on top.  The closet will be closed in with some plywood and will likely get a few shelves eventually.  The closet is mostly for board scraps, oddly shaped items, and the humanure biodigester when it’s constructed.

The trailer needs wired for 110VAC as well.  For now, thats just going to be a pig tail hanging from underneath or a weather proof receptacle box to receive an extension cord.  I have a few fluorescent lights I’ll hang, but I’d really like to go to all 12VDC LED lights.  In time.

Also, I have plans to hang our bicycles on the ramp door such that they can be parked on it when open, and then they are hung as the door is stood upright.  I think it’s a pretty good idea to transport them, but they will be in the way if I want to work in there.

Lots of fun!  More Later!

-M.C. Pletcher

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Posted in Dwelling, Personal

A Bucket Of Poop – A.K.A. The Humanure Bioreactor

Posted on November 8, 2013 by mcpletcher — 5 Comments

This is all about a bucket of poop.  Several actually.  I mean, as long as everybody keeps pooping, and I don’t see that ceasing anytime soon, then we’ll have to put it somewhere.  Mine?  It goes in the bucket.  Not urine though.  That’s disgusting.  Yep, just the poop.  I have to save it; it’s still alive when it comes out of me.  Not in the the jars of fingernails and balls of hair kind of saving it, but saving the microbial cousins that used to be part of my digestive tract, which are set to continue the digestive process long after I’ve extracted all of the useful nutrition my physiology is capable of absorbing from it.  I’ve heard it said that the contents of one’s colon can themselves be considered an organ, just as important as any other.  Vital really.  That is, until it leaves my body.  Then, it’s still alive, it’s still digesting, but not so vital to me individually.  More like vital to the health of the entire biosphere which ultimately, loops right on back to me.  So, continuing the digestion process, managing the nutrient cycle is pretty damned important.

That’s why I’m excited about a bucket of poop.  Read:  Proud Pooper

Managing your “waste” requires that you first can collect it.  Defecating into potable water and collecting it in a septic tank does not count.  In this case, as in most, one should look toward nature for guidance.  Nature hasn’t had five gallon plastic buckets for long so we have to be creative.   Read more ›

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Posted in Dwelling, Humanure, Personal, Philosophy

Intellectual Property Of The Universe

Posted on October 31, 2013 by mcpletcher — Leave a comment
Not only do I believe all media, books, music, movies, technological designs, and other expressions of human culture should be freely available to all people; I think it should be the intended goal of humanity to broadcast this information into the reaches of space, in every spectrum practicable for the benefit of any lifeform in the universe capable of receiving it.  Intellectual property belongs to the ether of space, and that is where it should be found.
-M.C. Pletcher
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Posted in Organized Entropy Expansion, Personal, Philosophy

Fresh Water Stewardship

Posted on October 29, 2013 by mcpletcher — Leave a comment

Water conservation is extremely important when you only have a finite supply of it such as in a motorhome, unless you’re hooked up at a park or campsite and then I suppose, you could just leave the faucet on all the time.  I enjoy the prospect of limiting myself to a certain allotment of fresh water everyday.  I won’t set a water limit, but I do wish to reduce my water consumption, both hot and cold of course.  Limiting my resources to me, means I can do more with less, and when less is all that is available, I’m prepared for it.   See:  A Winnebago For The End Of Days.  Needing fewer resources also means needing less money which amounts to more time devoted to what I really want to do with my life which, right now appears to be developing resource saving technology in an open source, free manner.  So, it it’s all kind of self fulfilling.  Wastefulness really irks me too because it goes against the natural order of biological life.  Inefficient species do not survive long on this planet.  

A note on reducing consumption:  The intention to conserve and taking action therein, is a noble effort which will likely produce the desired effect, but without the knowledge of just how much one consumes to start with and how exactly those actions are affecting resource consumption, results in guesswork and is, to put it bluntly, half-assed.   Read more ›

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Posted in Dwelling, Hot Water, Personal, Water

Proud Pooper

Posted on October 24, 2013 by mcpletcher — 2 Comments

Toilets are gross.  That nice clean porcelain throne you do your private business on is a staple of modern society.  Sanitation is a great achievement of technology.  Before there were sewer systems, human waste washed into the streets, plugged up the streams and rivers, and causeed the early death of millions from Cholera, Dysentery, Typhoid fever among others.  That particualr problem is by no means solved.  Billions of people live without proper sanitation to this day around the world.  It’s truly shameful.  Things aren’t really that much better in “advanced” countries with toilets and intricate sewer systems and treatment plants.  When you flush the toilet, where does it go?  Good question.

I’m not going to lay it all out, but suffice it to say, it get’s wasted.  Human excrement is considered waste, hazardous waste.  Nature is quite good at handling waste.  So good, that in fact there isn’t any.  The little microbial critters that live in our innards continue the digestion process after the material exits our bodies.  Chomping away, breathing, Read more ›

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Posted in Humanure, Personal, Philosophy

Share Your Passion

Posted on October 16, 2013 by mcpletcher — 2 Comments

I’m a shit writer.  Yep, that’s how I’m starting.  I write  in order to organize my thoughts in a coherent manner.  If I were writing this in a text file no one would see, I would quickly get bored, the sentence structure would be worse than it already is, I wouldn’t stick to a particular topic, and the whole exercise would degrade to a non-start after a week.  So, I put it all out there for anyone to see and the fact that a handful of people do in fact read it, or start to and get tired quickly ( like this piece ), is enough for me to take the time to polish it up a bit and make a damn point.  So what in the heck is the point?

I guess the point is that I have experiences and perspectives on the world that I wish to share with others.  I mean, we are a species of story tellers after all.  Everybody can tell a story.  That’s how we make sense of the world.  It’s our history, entertainment, our science even.  We all want to feel connected with the rest of our culture.  Culture:  the original social network.  Something in our profit driven, individualistic society Read more ›

Posted in Dwelling, Marxism, Personal, Philosophy

Dreams With Wheels

Posted on October 14, 2013 by mcpletcher — 3 Comments

I’ve been busy.  Busy planning, purging, selling, donating, packing, and choosing an RV.  It feels good to be busy again; to have direction, a plan.  And, there is some sort of plan:  a big change.  We’re moving into a motorhome, and it’ll be sooner rather than later.  I can conceive of any good reason to wait.  I’m not completely nuts; I won’t do it tomorrow, but maybe over the next few months.  I should start now.  Check out A Comprehensive Collection, Mobile Minimalism and Living Arrangements in the Zombie Apocalypse

As I see it, the best option is a 28 to 31 foot class C somewhere in the vicinity of $10,000 to $30,000.  That’ll get us something about 1995 to 2003 or so.  Now, in Pennsylvania or anywhere else where road salt is routinely used to de-ice the roads, I might be of leery of buying a rig that’s 15 years old, but here in Portland the older vehicles on the road are often in very good shape body wise.  This compared to Pennsylvania where a 2005 is rotting to pieces.  Another reason to get an older one is because we’re going to remodel it anyway, so why pay for a more modern interior.  Sure, some of the 2009s I’ve seen are a bit more pleasing to the eye, I won’t pay for that though.  I want this thing paid off as quickly as possible.  So long as the roof is good, there’s no history of leaks, the drivetrain is alright, and the basic systems function.  I’ll take care of the rest.

Before I pick up a motorhome, I’m looking for an enclosed trailer.  Something like a dual axle, 7 feet wide by 14 feet long with an aluminum skin with ramp door in the rear and a man door on the side.  They’re about $4,000-$5,000.  I’d like to equip the thing with a workbench, shelving, storage racks, and a place to store two bicycles.  Before I do, I figure it needs some sort of flooring to protect the plywood base floor.  I want something cheap, but durable.  Vinyl flooring is an option.  Then again, no.  Vinyl is a horrible, endocrine disrupting material and I want no part of it.   Read more ›

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Posted in Dwelling, Personal

The Prodigious Purge

Posted on October 13, 2013 by mcpletcher — 4 Comments

I’m loving the purge!  It feels so good to rid myself of unused items, unappreciated furniture, and redundant clothing.  The books are a hard one.  Some, I’ve read and won’t pick up again so, donating them to the library is a no brainer.  Then there are books that I just loved and may want to read again.  Should I donate them and when the time comes I can go check them out?  What if by not having it on my shelf I forget about them?  Knee-jerk reaction:  GET RID OF IT!!!  Two plastic tubs are now full of reference books to keep.  Useful stuff like refrigeration, solar heating, humanure, tree pruning, chemistry, and sentimental stuff like high school year-books.  That leaves  twenty five or so, geology books, labor histories, social critic, and science books that I’d like to read or read again in the near future.  I could be doing better, but I try not to beat myself up too much; I’ve already donated hundreds of dollars worth of pristine condition books.

Every time I load up the car for a trip to the consignment shop, Goodwill, the book library and the tool library, it’s that much less I’ll have to move and find a place for in my new home!  Furniture is one of the best and easiest to purge.  A lot of it was sourced from goodwill or garage sales so, it is somewhat eye-catching, quaint, cute, whatever and the consignment shop won’t have much trouble selling it.  We have our share of particle board furniture from IKEA and big box stores, but it’s all in good shape because we’d only buy stuff that would stay rigid and not get all floppy.  I’m not the least bit shy about throwing a couple drywall screws into a bookshelf or something to stiffen it up.  Looking around the room at all the furniture that can’t be kept makes this whole RV move look that much more fun.  Just looking around me, the things that aren’t going with us are: couch, coffee table, end table, book shelf, filing cabinet, computer desk, cat tree, three lamps, bike rack, kitchen hutch and a phonograph cabinet.  That’s just the living room.

There is so much more to do and there really is time to do it.  We haven’t set a date to move out of here yet because we not only haven’t bought a motorhome, we haven’t even found the one we want.  That’s fine with me.  If I set a date to be out of here, I’ll just wait until a month before to start the purge.  By then, it will make the move so stressful and difficult that that I’ll purge in a sudden and unorganized manner, holding onto junk I should have gotten rid of because I haven’t given the necessary time to do it gradually.   Read more ›

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Posted in Dwelling, Marxism, Personal, Philosophy

Minimalism By Distillation

Posted on October 10, 2013 by mcpletcher — 1 Comment

I’m going small and it feels good.  We’re in the process of finding a suitable motorhome to live in.  A beautiful Class C to modify for our purposes.  A remodeled rear bedroom for storage, a composting toilet in the lavatory, a bigger kitchen, more comfortable seating, and lots of places for our cats to climb, perch and play!  And there will be lots of storage.  Cabinets, drawers, shelves, shit hanging from the ciling, but that’s not to say I want to cram everything I have now into an RV with me.  That doesn’t sound like any fun.  So, I’m going through this process of weeding or filtering my stuff out down to a manageable level.  Those words don’t really describe it though.  I prefer “distillation”.

“Weeding” out stuff is like saying I don’t want it.  That’s not really true.  Moving here from Pennsylvania forced me to go through my stuff and pick out books I want, sticks of furniture I appreciate, clothes I wear, and so on.  What I trucked out here (there was more than I thought there would be) ended up being a condensed version of all the crap I collected living outside my parent’s house for seven years.  I’m a recovering hoarder.  Low level.  Not keeping used fingernail clippings, mind you, but I’m a sucker for free construction materials, electrical stuff, plastic stock, buckets; stuff like that.  I like being prepared and having a good supply of materials when I might need something.

“Filtering” is just dumb.  Filtering is about selecting for size.  Although I do favor smaller in some cases, that’s just a silly comparison.

Minimalism right now feels more like distillation.  I’m starting with a large batch of possessions, and through a process of selecting for very specific properties, I end up with a smaller, more manageable pile of stuff that has a higher average use value.   Read more ›

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Posted in Dwelling, Marxism, Personal, Philosophy

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