Bus Acquired!

Or maybe it should be AQIred, since we also spend a lot of time talking about AQI in this episode. In any case, the exciting news of the day is that the skoolie is now officially on our property!

Meanwhile, here in California, everything is still on fire. A fun new thing for 2020 is compulsively checking the AQI, or Air Quality Index. Breathe safe out there, friends.

P.S. This will make sense once you listen to the episode, but a group of turkey vultures is apparently called a “committee” or a “wake.” So actually we weren’t that far off with our silly guesses!

Or maybe it should be AQIred, since we also spend a lot of time talking about AQI in this episode. In any case, the exciting news of the day is that the skoolie is now officially on our property!

The world is getting to a point where we can’t even mention every bleak and upsetting thing that’s happened since we last recorded, or we’d spend the whole episode talking about it. And a little closer to home, here in the world of California, everything is still on fire.

The slightly cooler weather and the firefighters’ progress on our local wildfires hasn’t seemed to improve the air quality very much; these days, in addition to checking the temperature before opening a window or going outside, we also have to check the AQI. So that’s a new thing for 2020: compulsively checking the AQI, or Air Quality Index. It’s a composite measure of a few pollutants, but the PM2.5 (Particulate Matter under 2.5 microns) is the main concern. Anything under 10 microns can get into your lungs and your bloodstream, so it’s very dangerous and insidious. Not something you want to breathe in.

There are a few different places to check it online, between official government test stations and personal networks of devices. The official government stations are more accurate, but the beauty of the personal devices is that there are more of them. As with most things in the modern world, it’s best to get your information from an aggregate of sources.

The average AQI in Los Angeles for the past few decades is 20-50, and these days it’s been 80-200. And in Mariposa, it’s been as high as 400. Which makes it very hard to plan trips up to the property. Here in LA, we can close the windows and run an air purifier. But up in Mariposa, there’s nowhere to go. You can wear an N95 mask, but when you’re living outdoors and sleeping in a greenhouse, there’s not much you can do.

But let’s not bury the lede here in all this talk of wildfires and AQI… the skoolie bus is now on our land! Vince went out to Joshua Tree (sans Amy and Dickens— the air quality was just too bad for us to join) and helped our friends finish packing up. Then they drove a bus, two cars, a dog, and four people up to Mariposa. They were hoping to leave early enough to avoid any bus-driving in the dark, but ‘twas not to be. But luckily the whole party arrived safely around 10PM with no issues from hanging branches or hairpin turns.

Vince got a chance to test-drive the skoolie into town, so now he feels comfortable piloting a big ole bus. And maybe the most exciting asset on the bus is 2 sets of solar panels and a Yeti 3000 battery bank… we now officially have power on the property! Which means we have refrigeration and (relevant to AQI) can run an air purifier! It’s very exciting.

We’ll be going up again next weekend because honey there is work to be done and hopefully the AQI will be relatively okay. But if not, at least we have an insulated bus and power to run an air purifier now. We’ll cross our fingers that the air is breathable and let you know how it goes in the next episode!

P.S. This will make sense once you listen to the episode, but a group of turkey vultures is apparently called a “committee” or a “wake.” So actually we weren’t that far off with our silly guesses!