Jeremy Moore

Marcos Buenijo wrote:Very nice bus conversion.

I highly recommend you get access to grid power first (mainly because $1000 will not go far in purchasing an off grid solar system). After you have this available, then you may consider a solar system. This is particularly important since you will be running an a/c system. Even a small a/c unit will consume electricity at a high rate.

I suggest using the opportunity of living in the bus to take meticulous data on energy usage. This will require the use of meters to carefully measure the actual KWh consumption, along with measuring and recording the usage of individual appliances (especially a/c). With respect to using the a/c unit, I suggest emphasizing good insulation, adding a thermal mass of some form, and to operate the unit on a timer. The idea is to operate the a/c unit only during the day when a solar array is likely to be producing. When you finally get the solar system, then the practice of using a timer on the a/c will be a great deal more efficient at making use of the electricity provided, and it will be a lot less stressful on the battery system. I don't know much about cob construction, but perhaps this will provide a good thermal mass. You will require a fairly large array to support an a/c unit, but this will be good for the battery system when a/c is not required by ensuring a float charge takes place often and by minimizing discharge on the battery. Make sure to check out the thread "Efficient Air Conditioning" for a discussion of split ductless a/c systems and how they are so efficient. https://permies.com/t/27465//Efficient-Air-Conditioning . In your case, however, there is a good argument for sticking with a small window unit.

Thank you both for your help. Marcos, we did insulate the bus in multiple layers, floor, walls, ceiling, and we painted the roof with a reflective paint, but at the end of the day, it's still essentially a tin can with lots of windows. We have considered removing some of the windows, but it's really just another project on a list that is growing by the week. I am all for hooking off grid power myself, but my wife is another matter. The thing is, we made this move to live in a more self sufficient, sustainable matter, and thus far we both feel like we've done a lot more talking about beliefs we claim to possess but are, in fact, not practicing. I hate to put it in terms of principle, but at this point, it is a lot about principle and having to pull power off our folks' house (another red mark in the self-sustaining column). With this all in mind, we are extremely open to alternative ways of conducting ourselves, including air conditioning. I don't know for sure how we'd simply "do without" a/c. As I said, we're located in AL and it pretty much stays in the low to high 90's for nearly 4 months. It simply gets too hot in the bus to remain comfortable. I guess my next question should be, what is the realistic cost of an adequate off-grid system that would do what we need? I have done a good deal of research and the prices vary wildly. it seems like If I have a good resource, one can assemble a good system for a reasonable amount of money. IF so, where's a good source for cheap/good qualitiy components (if there is such a place)?

I have read through a lot of the threads and am learning a lot, but I feel like I'll get advice more specific to our circumstances by asking more direct questions. A little backstory; We're attempting to establish a cob homestead, but the reality of this coming to fruition is one that needs many years to see through. In the meantime, we are living in an old Greyhound bus we converted into a livable space which you can see here. Currently we are tied to the grid on one end of our property adjacent to a relative. Our build site and permanent location for our bus is on the opposite end of the property. That site is ready to move to except having electricity. We have the option of running a sub-panel a good distance to our site from my mothers' house. Due to the distance, the sub panel will require a significant investment (about $700-$1000). We don't use much power as it is, but unfortunately, I can't give an real accurate usage as we are currently sharing power. We run a small fridge, a small chest freezer, a desktop w/ satellite connection, and no more than 3 low-voltage lights. We run the occasional appliance (blender, juicer, toaster). In the summer, a medium size window unit is an absolute requirement as we live in the Deep South. We are already rethinking our power requirements and ways of replacing electrical usage with alternatives. The first question of many, many, many that I have is would we be better off to use the $1000 on getting a small solar system set-up? If so, where do I go to get the most "bang for my buck"? We wish to be totally off-grid with our cob homes, so why not start figuring it out now with the bus? I need details and I suspect any giving advice will also, ask away and I'll do my best.

John Elliott wrote:I have a National Audubon Society guidebook myself, and while it has several hundred species and nice color plates, books are a relic of the last millennium. In this modern age, the Internet is our guidebook, either you post here and some amateur mycologist will give you a quick guess, which you can follow up with a Wiki search, or you go digging through sites like Tom Volk's fungi webpage or mushroomexpert.com.

I haven't found any regional guides for the Southeast, but then again, on-line is where I do most of my mycological research.

Thanks John. The net is definitely my go-to source for pretty much everything, but I like to have hard copies of things that are useful just in case. will post some pics of what I've been finding. Just got a good amount of rain, so we should be seeing some nice fungi soon

I recently moved to Northern AL. I have been finding loads and loads of mushrooms, but I am only certain of a couple of edible varieties. I have the Smithsonian's field guide, but am looking for something more regional. I have done some searching and found FG's for every other region EXCEPT mine Does anyone know of one that Google does not?

Thanks for your replies folks. Let me try to answer some questions. For heat, we will utilize rocket mass heat in the house. For cooking, I use wood fire or gas, but I do have an electric induction burner I love for those rainy days. It does suck the power though at peak output (1800W). I don't own a TV (rots your brain and wastes time), DVD player or any of that crap. I wish to run a refrigerator (for the time being), a medium size chest freezer, a few lights, my MAC, and a guitar amp (when my brother plays electric), and a few power tools (when required).

I suppose I should back up and present the whole picture. We're situated on 80 acres of land, 40 of which is ours (my mother, brother, and me), 40 of which is my Great Uncles. While we build, we are based out of a (self) converted tour bus, and my brother is based out of a converted school bus. Our bus is not the model of efficiency for heating/cooling. It's hot in the summer, and cold in the winter. For the time being we're hooked up to the electric and water at my Uncle's cabin, but our permanent parking space is ready (minus the power) for us to move to. We use 2 small window units for cooling in the summer and electric heat currently. My brother has a wood stove for heat and a small window unit for cooling. I am looking at changing the heat to gas as the electric draws too much and produces too little for the price. A small wood stove is out of the question in the bus, as all available space has been utilized (we have 2 young children..nuff said). We are figuring to have to spend at least another complete season on the bus, but maybe longer, lots of variables. Our current set-up demands no more than 40 or so Amps at the most (forgot to mention the electric instant hot water heater), but even that is a stretch if we ran everything at once.

My wife originally wanted to install a 200 amp service because 1-she's an electrician, and thinks one always should have the power available if you're going to do it and 2-we're thinking long term for things like having power available to a barn, chicken house, and possible well pump, but that's all hypothetical at his point. I suggested down sizing to 100 amps for the long term, but the overall price doesn't change much. All of the work we've done thus far was done utilizing re-purposed material. I don't buy anything new if I don't have to, there's too much great "junk" available to not use it. If we can make our own solar panels, or find someone else who can (time is always an issue) build the for reasonable, I'm all for it. I refuse to buy any of the manufactured systems that make exagerated output claims and cost waaay to much. I'm looking for the most "bang for the buck" and am totally willing to (continue) simplifying our power usage to make it all work. Perhaps this will add clarity to our situation.

We are building a cob home in northern AL and have begun exploring our off-grid options. I don't know much about solar or wind except for what I have researched. In doing so, I'm left with more questions than answers. We could have on-grid power run to us for free if we wanted to allow the power company to mow a 40 ft by 400 ft strip of our land down and maintain that strip however they saw fit (which includes a healthy dose of "weed spraying" twice a year--YUCK!) We also have the option of running a sub panel off my mothers' home, but that would cost us around $3-$4K. I figure if we're going to spend that kind of money anyway, we should explore our possibilities of off-grid power(which is what we wanted in the first place). I'd like to be able to have about 100 amps of power available. From what I've read, this may be asking a lot considering we are on a tight budget. I should note that my wife is an electrician and both of us are very capable of DIY set-ups. Any help in any direction would be greatly appreciated!

Leah Sattler wrote:my husband has some old screw in type steps to use to get to a tree stand. I have concern that these will dama
ge the tree in the long run and I have been reluctant to agree to their use. what do you think?

Leah, I myself am a treestand hunter and have used in the past the steps you talk about. All of the trees (with the exception of one) were very mature oaks that I used them on and I never noted any long term damage to them as I hunted from the same trees for years. However, the steps are not the safest things in the world to install and I have since gone to 4 foot sections of ladder "sticks" that attach to the tree with wratchet straps. This is much easier to install, safer to climb, and does no damage to the trees. They're about the same cost as a 12 pack of screw-in steps. Try 'em out

Nicole Castle wrote:Ashley, you said NE Alabama, right? Have you been successful planting winter crops this late? I sure haven't. About the only thing I could plant now and get a harvest would be short season radishes and small garden turnips and kale... it's not cold enough to stop kale from growing here. Cabbage, carrots, beet, broccoli and peas I planted in early august and it's still a toss-up if the cabbages will put on enough growth. Once they are grown, though, I can leave them in the ground outside most of the winter. (And I put garlic in in late Oct or early Nov.)

Fall pests that I deal with are caterpillars (which are tapering off now), whitefly on cabbage and slugs (year round). Not much else is an issue. Sometimes late aphids but it's been too cool the past couple of weeks for them to be a problem.

We're in NW Alabama and have had a successful fall garden. We have Yellow top turnips, kale, collards, mustard greens, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, and squash. Aside form spinach, the greens can handle the cold deep into November. Everything else can have cold frames built around them to provide fresh produce nearly all winter. I don't think you'll have too many pests aside from a stray cabbage worm. Cabbage shouldn't be dying on you here as we used to get 3 plantings a year in WI with the last harvest in the middle of December. Ducks are great for slugs.

Indygo.info is the name of our blog. http://www.indygo.info It begins with a bus conversion done on the way cheap, and quickly brings you up to date on the development of our homestead here in Hamilton, Alabama. My husband, Jeremy, and I live in a bus in the woods with our two young ones, on an undeveloped pine plantation. We have only been here five months. The pines have turned the collective 40 acres of family land (2.5 of which is "ours") into one large heap of pine straw and any hardwood tree that attempted to grow among the pines is tall, bare, thin and weak. This is what we are working with. So far, we have cleaned up a great deal of land after a logging (thinning) operation, and hand-dug the foundation of what is to become a large-ish cob bath house. We are creating natural irrigation routes for collecting rain water at the top of a hill, and channeling it down through gardens and around hugelculture mounds. We hope to begin with the actual cob construction within the month of September, if not before. We were inspired to go this route by a Russian woman named Anastasia (no last name) and a series of books written about her life and teachings, The Ringing Cedars Series. The information that Paul has collected on his forum is truly valuable to us, to say the least. -Lori