Little Boxes: Live Lightly Tour Veggie Bus featured in E-Magazine!

See the full article here:

Tiny Texas Houses are built almost entirely of salvaged materials and cost between $60,000 and $90,000.

© Tiny Texas Houses

http://www.emagazine.com/view/?4669

And Yes! The bus is for sale! Contact Kim at dancemntn@yahoo.com for info. We are settling down in Nashville, TN so we are having to move on from bus life! Please let us know if you are interested!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Earth Day!

 

Thought I would just let our muppet friends spread the love today!

Welcome to Bus Life 101

Kitchen…….and Mr. Parks, originally uploaded by dancemntn.

I apologize I haven’t been updating our blog with more then just a couple of sentences lately. We’ve been crazy-busy packing and moving our belongings into storage so that we could finally call our bus home for a while. And no, before you get too excited wondering if we have hit the road, I have to tell you that we are staying put in TX for now. This is where we’ve been placed for the time being and I’m guessing there are many reasons for that (not that I know all of them). But what I do know is that this transition to smaller living has been easier then I ever dreamed it would be. Having only owned one vehicle between the two of us for almost a year, selling alot of our “stuff” last summer, and just knowing that this move would get us closer to our goals just prepared us for our jump into tiny house living.
This is our third week in the bus and the time has really flown. We’ve both been amazed at how natural it feels to be living this way. I think I’ll just list some reasons that we’ve come up with so far:
Living in such a small space requires everyone to do their part, so there is no being lazy about anything. It makes us take responsibility for everything we do, whether that’s taking care of the dog, making sure items are picked up and put away everytime they are used, taking out our small bags of trash and dumping the recycling when it gets full, and monitoring our use of hot water (we only have a 6 gallon hot water tank). We are so much more aware of the requirements of simpler living. Either use it, reuse it, recycle it, or don’t buy it in the first place! This bus has great storage, but there is no room for excess. RV’ing is the perfect example of conserving resources like water and electricity and I will talk more about that in a future post.   It has been a joy for me to be able to work by natural sunlight in my new “office.”

Another major thing we’ve learned is that this life all about living purposefully and realizing that everything you do and what type of attitude you have doing it affects the people you live with in a major way.We also get outside so much more then we ever did living in our duplex. Yes, we had a backyard, but we also had everything we needed inside too, so the yard was never a very enjoyable place to be. Now, out of necessity, the outdoors becomes your kitchen, your play area, and somewhere to get some fresh air and exercise. Marley’s happier when she gets exercise, and so are we, because after working desk jobs all day, we need the walks way more then she does. Parks loves to tag along with his bike and is loving our little patio area. It’s the perfect place for him to hang out with his trucks and rocks, his dream!
So, that’s in a nutshell what we’ve been experiencing so far this month. Of course, the summer may bring a whole new twist to this experience, but as of right now we will enjoy this cooler spring weather while we can. I’ll also be adding some more pics to the bus set, click on the pic above to see the current set of photos I’ve posted on our Flickr. Just wanted to at least get a quick update out about the move.  I also have some Easter egg hunt pics from Jacob’s Reward Farm in Parker, TX still to post and will blog about some other topics I’ve been wanting to chat about.

Until next time………

Have cup, will travel………

 

Reusable coffee mugs (Target special and mug made from recycled plastic)

BYOC-Bring your own cup!

So, for more then a decade, we’ve been carrying around our own coffee mugs and water bottles (before Nalgenes were “scarey”) wherever we went.  We’ve probably saved thousands and thousands of coffee cups from going in the landfill without blinking an eye. It just became a habit and I liked it better when I didn’t have to worry about putting that plastic top on my scalding hot drink and risk burning myself and wasting a good hot beverage (I have a very good memory of not applying that top so perfectly once.) Plus, it just kept my drink warmer then those paper cups with the cardboard bracelets always did. Now, we can’t leave the house without taking our cups just in case we might grab a cup of joe while we are out on the weekends. We even bought a couple of plastic mugs with an IKEA special where you could get lifetime coffee where you purchased the cup. Now that’s dedication!

Check out this coffee waste calculator and see how many pounds of waste you can save by just using a reusable cup!

http://www.dzignism.com/projects/coffee.waste/

Camping Necessities (Stainless Steel water bottles, Dr. Bronner’s

 Peppermint and Sal Suds natural soaps)

Bottle Love

We’ve moved from using the bulky plastic bottles to mainly stainless steel bottles. They clean up really well and don’t seem to get as funky as the plastic ones.( Here is a link to a page on Nalgene’s website that has a good FAQ section on BPA, here. )We fill those up for traveling, to take to a workout class, and for heading to the park. Instead of stocking up on plastic water bottles for camping, we’ll fill up those large reusable water jugs with filtered water or just purchase multiple gallons at a time. We definitely have to invest in a Brita or other water filter, since we are not fans of our local tap flavor! Some good brands of stainless steel bottles to look for are Kleen Kanteen, Sigg,and a company out of California that I just stumbled upon with some beautiful designs called EarthLust.

Investing in reusable anything whether it’s water bottles, coffee mugs, or kitchen napkins  is a great idea for saving money and reducing waste. I don’t use paper napkins anymore, just some reusable cloth napkins I got on sale from Steinmart that I absolutely love. We keep paper towels in the house just in case we need them, but they don’t go to constant use in the house for cleaning or just wiping up spills.

For me, living “lighter” on the planet shouldn’t have to cost you anything, it should actually save you some cash. Even using refillable mugs might get you a “cup” discount at a local coffee shop, so it’s definitely worth a try!  I feel like every little bit helps, and If I can be conscious of what I’m throwing away, or even recycling, then I’m making steps to living simpler. It stretches my imagination when I force myself to think of ways to reuse things in a different way (without becoming a pack rat). It’s these kind of  habits I’m trying to form, like making sure we have food for the week so that we don’t eat out, and cleaning up once every day so that when Saturday comes I’m not overwhelmed by a house that looks like its been through a tornado. OK, so I think I went off on a rabbit trail there, but those are my simple living thoughts for the day. Baby steps, baby steps, baby steps………….

Be faithful in small things, that is where your strength lies. -Mother Theresa

Tyler Recycles Day Demo and Tyler State Park Weekend

 

Tyler Recycling Center

 

This past weekend in Tyler was a load of fun. We came home exhausted but it was worth every minute.

A couple of weeks ago I contacted Krist Boyett from the City of Tyler about their Recycles Day. I thought it would be good to get in a couple of small events before the holidays hit since the bus was finally ready for demos. She thought it was a great idea that we bring the bus, so we planned to stay at Tyler State Park and make it another good camping/volunteer weekend. They even added us to their flyer and we were mentioned in a couple of their local newspapers for advertisement. They had a great turnout of people who came by to drop off recycleables, I think the final count was 528!  Some people got out of their warm cars and grabbed a pancake/sausage breakfast and checked out the recycling facility. Even though it was chilly morning, we did get a good group that came in to see what we were all about.   A group of kids from a local school had come out to help for the day, so they were able to take a look at the bus too.  It was also nice to meet some guys from the local veggie oil co-op who have converted their diesel VW’s to run on waste veggie oil.  Jeff did most of the “veggie” talk with them, while I took Parks inside to check out all of the recycling stuff. I had plenty of time to visit with the girls that were there from the Caldwell Zoo since their table had a toy recycling truck Parks was obsessed with! Thanks to the city of Tyler for welcoming us!

 

Parks riding his bike at the park

On Friday we made the 1 1/2 hour drive to Tyler State Park to camp for 2 nights. We definitely could have stayed longer. Our site was just a few feet from the lake, so beautiful with the change of seasons! Parks could have ridden his bike all day, and loved the freedom of just being able to play outside for hours, although he’s not good at figuring out the “boundaries”! Jeff also fit some time in to ride the mountain bike trail there, something he’s done now for years, but never often enough. I was able to get some photos of Parks in his favorite place, OUTSIDE!  

Steamy sunrise at Tyler State Park

Fall colors at Tyler State Park

I definitely recommend Tyler State Park as a destination camping spot. The city of Tyler is just 10 miles away and has anything you would possibly need. I’ve added a video from the park’s website here:

done

It was definitely nice to be able to camp long enough in the RV for me to learn some more things about how everything works. I kind’ve leave all that stuff up to Jeff to take care of, but I guess need to know how to work everything too. I’ll still let him do the dirty work though!  We’ve only camped in tents, pop-up campers and, a VW van (oops, I brought that up didn’t I? ) in the past so there are way more buttons, switches, pipes, and hookups then I’ve ever seen before. There is still alot for me to learn, but hopefully there will be alot more opportunities for that process. We sure hope we can make this tour work and make the bus our future home. Thanks to everyone who is supporting this dream!

Please check out the pics of the Tyler Recycles Day demo here.

Also, check out the Tyler State Park camping pics here.

America Recycles Day November 15th!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go to www.americarecyclesday.org to find a recycling event near you.

Come see us in downtown Tyler, TX for Tyler Recycles Day.

 The following special items will be accepted, so clean out those closets!

• Blankets for the animals at the Humane Society
• House materials for the Habitat for Humanity Restore
• Cell phones for the Caldwell Zoo
• Electronics for Goodwill. Goodwill refurbishes or disassembles the electronics and guarantees data removal of all hard drives based on the Department of Defense Standards and Guidelines.
• Eyeglasses for Lions Club
• Always accepted items such as: aluminum cans, newspapers, magazines, advertisements, junk mail, office paper, corrugated cardboard and paperboard, clear, brown, and green glass, #1 and #2 plastics

  Happy America Recycles Day!

 

Live Green in Plano RV Demo

 

Live Lightly Tour Demo at Live Green in Plano Volunteer Class Nov 2008

We had our first RV demo this past Saturday here in Plano. Deb Bliss, the Volunteer Coordinator for Live Green in Plano contacted us about speaking at their training class and giving our first RV tour.  Live Green in Plano is a wonderful program the city offers to educate and promote awareness about recycling and conservation. The volunteer program gives free education to Plano residents who are willing to give their time helping out during various events throughout the year.  How cool is that?

“The Live Green Volunteer Program is a local training opportunity for volunteers to work in partnership with the staff of the Sustainability & Environmental Services Department and extend information throughout our community. .  Live GreenVolunteers will pledge to take individual actions toward greener living and help others do the same.”

We have been extremely impressed with the recycling programs and educational resources that Plano has to offer. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen everywhere, but we hope that other cities can follow suit and become more active with recycling and reuse programs. Even just educating their communities about the importance of environmental care would provide healthier living for everyone.

It was really fun to visit with the volunteers and was a great opportunity to talk a little bit about our mission and give a brief tour of the bus.

You can see the photos of the demo here.

We are attending Tyler Recycles Day in downtown Tyler,TX this Saturday, November 15th from 8-noon. Please come by and say hi and take a tour of the bus if you are in the area!

 For directions and more information about the event and what type of special items that will be accepted go here:  Tyler Recycles Day

Also, please let us know what creative things your community is doing to educate and promote greener living!

 

Going Green, Going Cheap Blog

Check out a new blog running on thenewsstar.com, my hometown newspaper. I’m a contributer and hope to give others some simple ideas to be “greener”  but save money while doing it. Going green doesn’t always have to cost you more. After developing more energy efficient habits, you will more than likely be saving money instead of spending it. Even if it costs a little more to replace your light bulbs with CFL’s, or purchase more energy efficient appliances, etc, it will cost you less in the long run and you’ll be saving the earth too! So, I’ll put a link to the blog on my list and please check it often to see other’s ideas as well.