Sauntering Hammock Mobile Hostel

09/26/2020

The steel, and bus is prepped, and tomorrow seems an outstanding day to raise the roof! You know you want in on the shindig! Lemme know when you're gonna get here ;)

04/30/2020

BAM Got the last photos to load!

04/25/2020

Howdy, howdy everyone! I'm way behind on updating this, been way too busy working the bus, and getting ready to put food in the ground. Now, however, is the time!

When I last left you, we were coming out of winter 2018/19. Since then, I stripped almost out, and changed almost everything haha! The reason is that I'm getting prepped to raise the roof, and needed to reinsulate the interstitial spaces between the ribs.

So I drilled all the rivets with a cobalt bit, and pulled all of the panels off. HOLY DISGUSTING! The old, musty insulation was held to the ceiling and walls with a spray in adhesive, that had to be scraped off. So I ripped what insulation was free, and used a heat gun/scrapers on the adhesive. Then I used GooGone, followed by a wire wheel to get it as clean as possible.

Then I used a self-etching spray primer, followed by a couple coats of a siliconized roofing paint. The reason I painted, although it was an additional cost, was to:
1) protect the interior of the steel from rusting if the bus sweats with humidity
2) reflect as much radiant heat as possible, from the woodstove.

I had to work fast, because the paint must cure above 50*F, over 24 hrs, and I got started stripping everything in September 2019. To ensure I was able to get all the painting done, I focused the reinstalling the rail which would hold the weight of the woodstove.

I chose to move the wood stove to the driver's side of the bus, because the fuel tank is on the passenger side (nominal risk adjustment). After painting, I added an aluminized bubble wrap, then wool, then another layer of the bubble wrap for a v***r barrier. Reinstalled the panels, and got the woodstove mounted again.

I, finally, cut a hole in the roof, and the stove is now up to residential code. I was, then, able to use the wood stove to keep the rest of the bus warm enough to finish painting and insulating.

04/20/2019

01/15/2019

Built a wall at the back of the bus to increase the insulation value. I put mylar against the wall, then filled the interstitial space with wool, followed by pallet wood to close it in. I burned the wood with a propane torch, then coated with poly to protect the finish. What do you think?

01/03/2019

Whoa! All the antici............ say it!!! ;) The photo update is finally here! So, the system works as follows - Germination is on top shelf (receives the most heat benefit from the wood stove and saves space under lights for plants). Top lighted shelf is micro greens to feed me, both sunflower and mustard for now. The lowest lighted shelf is an experiment, which I feel has been the least efficient so far. I tried to grow a container garden, effectively. Seeing if I could get bulbs such as radish and beets to produce, along side greens like mustard and spinach. Being a month and a half in, they don't produce the same volume of greens per lighted space as do the micro-greens. This is due, largely, to deficient lighting and lower temperatures (hovering around 45F).

12/19/2018

So I was sitting in the bus thinking about how I was spending time sprouting/fermenting chicken feed through the winter, but was not using the bus to grow MY OWN FOOD D: So I set about to change that. Luckily, Steve Spiteri from Ohana No-Till Farm gave me a bunch of light hoods which have been retrofitted into a modular grow bench/shelf! They simply stack on top of each other, so the operation can grow to whatever size I want, and at the moment I have 3 total shelves (more pictures soon)

By and large I'm planning on germinating seeds that I grow myself (sunflower, mustard, radish, etc) to have trays upon trays of SUPAH-FRESH microgreens for myself and small community throughout the entire winter. The current photos, however, are showing my experimental garden boxes which include some bulbs (bonus points if you can guess which ones)

Come spring, I'm able to move the benches outside, preferably into a greenhouse, and they will be able to germinate plants to feed our community for the summer! This means I get to have my cake and eat it too, being as I can use the shelves inside the bus and take them out to make seating etc inside the bus for company. BOOYA-SHAKA!

p.s. The bulbs I planted were radish and beets :P

12/12/2018

1 year ago v.s. current. I, also, was able to get the wood stove installed so I can stay warm, and start sprouts. More photos to come soon :)

12/06/2018

Been shoulder deep in projects, and haven't had a good time to post. I took on this project just over a year ago, and this is the progress that was made up until the anniversary. There's a lot more that has been done since these pictures, however, and those images will be posted shortly.