Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Summer

It's officially the first day of summer, and soon, my child will be moving home, I'll be doing the fatherly thing, and making sure I keep a roof over his head and food in his belly, all the while trying to get the van set up.

I have been thinking about this over the past few days, and I'm curious about what you think...

My van is old, but comfortable to one person fulltime, or a couple for camping. If I do a few of the updates, and try to sell it, in order to try and upgrade to something a bit larger like this. Would it be something feasible? A young couple who wants to go camping more often would welcome a cheaper van that is capable of keeping them out camping the eintire weekend, while keeping them warm and dry on those days and nights that the sky unexpectedly opens up.

There have been some suggestions that others have home schooled their children while on the road. I want to be able to see more of this beautiful country I am in. Homeschooling him could be a good idea, and since he seems to be a dealbreaker for every woman out there except one with 4 kids of her own (One a year younger than my ex-girlfriend...), who is outside of my age range, I'm pretty much going to be a single father for good so why worry about trying to find that happiness in an intimate love which would be impossible anyways with a kid in the van.

Having a look online for used ones shows tonnes in the states, and not much up here in Canada. So it's going to be interesting trying to find something. I may be taking on a second job soon in order to dump every penny made from it into a downpayment on a newer van. I guess I'll have to wait and see what the Fates have in store.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Thoughts on the future

I started this blog with the purpose of documenting my journey in vandwelling. Here in Canada, winters are harsh, and vandwelling really might not be practical unless you live on Vancouver Island, or along the coast somewhere. I live in Alberta, just west of the Rocky Mountains. It can get cold here.
I read constantly about others who are living in vans, RV's, cars, etc, and every single one of them are able to do so, mostly because they live in some warm climate in the United States, or they retired, and became snowbirds, or are free to travel all over because they can work 100% remotely. I have so many bills to pay right now, a child that is now moving back in with me, and a full time job that while I can certainly do the work from home, the company would prefer to spend the money on an office for me to sit here.
If I could move back into my van right now, it would solve the bills issue. It would solve the debt issue, I make decent money, but I am struggling under the weight of debt and bills, and paying rent somewhere I really don't need to be for myself. It keeps me under the government foot. My son is 10 years old, has a mother that abandoned him, and a van is no where for a child to grow up. Hell, even a Class A RV might be pushing it (Not that I could afford one).
It really has me trying to find ways to live sustainably here in Canada, while also living cheaply, and comfortably for my child. I cannot become mobile as he'll need stability. It's kind of ironic that the people who need to save money the most are parents, yet they are the ones that almost every door is closed to. Almost every way out there is about living frugally by yourself.
I started looking into tumbleweed houses today. Something that I can park on a little plot of land somewhere, the only one that seems to be viable could be done, but it's still so little space for a child. I can't seem to find any information on rules regarding that type of thing.
This blog may start to take a new direction on living simply while with a child. It may become a very slow process, but a process nonetheless. Once he grows old enough to move out on his own, then, well, I'm sure that I'll be able to get back to looking into a van live again.
Keep in mind that I will still be updating the van to be liveable. It'll just become more of a bugout van and camping for now. So, something of a part-time vandweller now.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

To Simplify - A blog

Well, I have been steadily reading for two days now about a musician who took to the roads in 2009, and still blogs near-daily. Great read, and some of the posts are fantastic, so much so that I want to direct my fellow readers over to them as well.

http://www.tosimplify.net

This guy Glenn, writes well, and posts lots of pictures of his travels. I really like that. I've been looking for ages for a blog or website, anything really, that really detailed the life of a vandweller. Now, his home is far superior to mine, and having seen the inside of his old van in this post, I think I want to gut mine, and revamp it. I can't possibly afford to buy a new one, or even a used one right now, as I have exactly zero funds, and none to save up for the foreseeable future either. Modifying mine van is my best option, unless I get lucky.

One question I get a lot from people I meet is a common question to anyone who fulltimes in a van, car, rv, etc. "Where do you park at night?"

Glenn also sees things in a similar perspective to myself in regards to living stealth, or being an obvious RV.

And finally, a nice little post about those jokes I always get about living down by the river.

The Falcon (Glenns van) is longer than mine, but the way it's set up, it looks as though the bathroom takes up that extra space, but the van still appears to have a more spaciuos feel to it. Yes, it's a given that things will have changed between 1978 and 1993, but still. I was thinking about doing a revamp prior to finding his blog, and now I really want to get renovating.

Sadly, the follwer widget seems to be messed up for me, and I can't follow his blog as the template he's using has killed those nifty little options at the top that you see on my blog (and almost everyone elses). I did have one blog template that did the same, and changed because I didn't like that I couldn't click the "new post" at the top right.

Plenty more reading to do, but for now, it's my weekend starting right away, and I want to enjoy it. Have a great weekend all!