A Week of In Betweens

Thanks for tuning in to The Grid Is For Squares today! This week I tried a new microphone setup which ultimately was a step backwards for our sound quality, but next episode we’ll be back to our old soundscape. Thanks for your patience as I tweak our process here.

Today’s episode finds us in a bit of an “in-between” zone. Vince went back to Joshua Tree to help some more with the skoolie, I called the Mariposa County Building Department about permits, and plans for our yurt are starting to come together. Baby steps eventually lead to marathons. Hopefully.

Thanks for tuning in to The Grid Is For Squares! This week I tried a new microphone setup which turned out to be a step backwards for our sound quality, but next episode we’ll be back to our old soundscape. Thanks for your patience as I tweak our process here.

Everything is kinda going back to normal in Los Angeles, including traffic and smog, which is insane because our coronavirus numbers just keep climbing. We also had an earthquake earlier in the month, which was a little unsettling but honestly not a major cause for concern. Sure, “The Big One” could hit at any time, but a huge seismic event could happen anywhere. If the New Madrid fault slips, it could cause a devastating earthquake in the Midwest… it sounds crazy, but it happened in 1812!

Today’s episode finds us in a bit of an “in-between” zone. Vince went back to Joshua Tree to help more with the skoolie, I called Mariposa County about permits, and plans for our yurt are starting to come together. Baby steps eventually lead to marathons.

On his trip to Joshua Tree, Vince continued to work on the skoolie’s pumped potable water system. He successfully ran a pressure test and all of the fittings were water-tight, which is great! Our friends decided to wait on flushing the system, though, since they’re on a well system and didn’t want to waste that much well water. After a few refills and a little bleach, though, the skoolie’s tank should provide water that’s clean enough to drink.

In RV world, they actually recommend you add a little bleach every time you fill up your water tank. I found similar info while researching survivalism for my novel… the EPA recommends 1/2 tsp of bleach per 8 gallons of water, but please do your own research before drinking bleach! Amounts differ depending on how soon you plan to drink it, what kind of bleach you’re using, and more.

Hopefully our friends will finish the bus soon and bring it up to our property, but it’s their project and we’re in no big rush. And we can certainly empathize with a project taking longer than you hoped… pretty much every single thing we’ve tried to do on the property so far has taken way longer than we planned. It’s just the way these things go. Our land is ready for the bus whenever the bus is ready for it.

It’s tough to take a picture of a phone call. But here’s a pic of the fam, including a small sleepy dog, to get you through.

But the best news of the week is that I fought the Permits Dragon and I won! You may recall that permits are the only thing that scares me more than wildfires. I hate bureaucracy and I hate phone calls. But this week I put on my Big Girl Pants and called the county building department and it was good news all around!

Sure, I was a nervous babbling lunatic, but I managed to ask what kind of permit we’d need to build a shed on our property. They told me that we don’t need a permit to build a shed as long as it’s less than 120 square feet, one story, and has no electrical or plumbing. We can even build more than one! The next thing I asked is whether we can sleep on our property while we work on it, and they said that we can stay on our land in a tent or RV for up to 14 out of 90 days.

Riding high on all this good news, I made the final leap… I asked if we can park a converted schoolbus on our property for an indefinite period of time. And they said yes! They actually said yes specifically to a skoolie. This is such good news! It means that we won’t be facing a future disaster where we’re forced to move our friends’ skoolie off our land while they’re overseas and we’re all totally screwed.

Permits are still a big scary dragon to me, but I’ve gone on my first official slaying mission and triumphed. Hurrah.

In our next episode, hear all about our trip back up to the property and our valiant attempt to finish the greenhouse! Stay safe!