Sherita

Sherita is traveling the country in her minivan, hoping to find the right place for a yurt and a garden. Perhaps New Mexico. She creates curricula to teach English speakers Spanish, and Spanish speakers English. Y ella es muy encantadora.

Where I was

To me it’s not crazy to drive from Arizona just to spend a day at the Coast. It’s the opposite. It keeps me from going crazy. Or crazier.

The surf was calm at the notorious Wedge. No surfers, but two dogs. And a semi-crazy old dude who lives in a van.

De-tamed

One of my favorite authors, Craig Childs, wrote the other day about stray cats that have passed through his family’s life. One sentence grabbed me:

Feral means reverted to an untamed state from one of domestication.

Most of us nomads have escaped domestication, turning from house cats to free ranging owners of our own life. There are those who want to take us in, feed us, clean us up, vaccinate us, chip us, declaw us, neuter us. We decline. Been there, done that, got the mortgage. But thanks for the shower. And wifi. Gotta go.

Appropriate typo

V and B are next to each other on the keyboard, so earlier today I accidentally typed behicle instead of vehicle. Oops.

But then I thought, “Maybe a behicle is a good thing. A place where one can be, in the Buddhist/Taoist sense. Be rather than do. Be present, now, rather than moving from place to place in search of… something.”

If you see the Buddha on the road, give him a lift

Fahrenheit 451

Personally, I’m not a fan of fires. It’s because of the smoke and lingering odor in my clothing. And probably because my mother once took me to her classroom that had been destroyed by fire, and because of a friend’s house that burned down.

But I don’t begrudge those who burn wood products for useful purposes, like heating and cooking. And thumbs up to those who turn waste paper and cardboard into paper bricks.

If you’re going to make your own paper bricks, you might as well do it with as little fuss as necessary. Easy is a good thing. So here’s a video demonstrating methods that are within reach of full time vehicle dwellers—unless you live in a damp climate where drying the bricks might be a problem.

Minivan pantry

Set up the table, hook up the stove, and cook away.

Heat is heat

In the seemingly unending quest to declutter my existence, I gave up the propane heater I had been carting around and using infrequently. After all, I already had a heat source—one that was more compact, less complicated and multipurpose.

Chillin’ in the desert

Sometimes Canadians aren’t all that blows into Arizona from the frozen regions. It has been annoyingly cold (by local standards) the past couple of days. The forecast for last night predicted sub-freezing temperatures. Definitely double quilt time.

When it gets down to about 55°F/12.7°C in the Rolling Steel Tent I fire up the heater for a few minutes to take the chill off. But this morning the thermometer said 37°F/2.7°C. Yow. But I felt okay after I heated the van to 50°F/10°C. It’s all relative.

I’ve been colder in the van. In October of 2013 I was in southern Utah when it got down to 26°F/-3.3°C. Frost on the inside of the windows, ice in the water jugs, painfully cold feet. I don’t want to do that again. I do not understand people who camp in freezing temperatures on purpose.

Dang

I forgot about the Somerton Tamale Festival this year.

Accepting reality

The long range forecast says it’s not going to be a balmy winter here in the southern desert, so I’m packing the shorts away and getting out the long sleeve shirts. And the wool cap. And the gloves. And the down vest.

Putting some bedding to bed

I went into Kohl’s looking for a particular thing and didn’t find it. But I came across some down quilts on sale. Well hey, I’d been thinking it was time to replace my old one.

Thirty-two years is probably a decent lifespan for a down quilt. I had sewn up dozens and dozens of little leaks but there would still be an errant bit of fluff or two or three each morning. The cotton exterior was becoming like netting.

A quick check online a few weeks ago informed me king size down quilts started in the $200 range. Ow. But Kohl’s had them for $89.99. After-Christmas pricing, I guess—plus this being far southern Arizona where demand for warm bedding isn’t as great.

So why a king size quilt on a twin bed? I love being all bunched up in my bedding.

I’ll take the old quilt to Goodwill and let them decide whether it still has some life—or feathers—in it.

UPDATE: First night with the new quilt. Excellent.

It’s b-a-a-a-a-ck

The desert air had been unusually placid for the season. But the wind blew in from the frozen regions last night, cranky, probably drunk, and howling obscenities as if its flight had been delayed and its baggage lost.

Christmas on the Colorado

Arizona in the background, California in the foreground, waterfowl between

Not poinsettias

Ocotillos can leaf out and bloom whenever there’s enough water. I’ve never noticed them blooming in December. We had some drizzle earlier in the month. I guess it was enough to do the trick.

Another way to do it

Start with a Honda Fit and...