Project EDEN

My name is Matthew Wood Buzzard. My lady, our two cats & I have been a Family and traveling around the United States for a little over a year now. We are finally making the move to a vehicle, as opposed to primarily hitching and freight trains, so that we can more efficiently go about the work of bringing Healing to the Earth Mother, following the will&whims of Spirit, and living/learning the skills we need to build our future home/intentional community. My primary blog is http://yellowtulipfinch.tumblr.com. Much love!

[edenaho]

Since ladybird will be leaving her internship with 100+ medicinal extracts and tinctures, I decided to use the bathroom space as her personal apothecary (obviously, I don't take showers. That's what rivers are for. ;) Sooo, bought several 3 1/2" x 8" boards, cut them to 28" lengths with a table saw, bored 1 1/4" holes, stained them, and am going to mount them along the sides. Additionally, went to a print shop and spent .30 cents a piece to blow up some more of the fauna pictures to 8 1/2" x 11" and wheat pasted them as wall paper on the inside. I was impatient so I put up one of the shelving units. Letting the stain set on the rest overnight.

[edenaho]

Aho! Goodness... I've knocked out about four new projects today. One of them was coating the table with a resin hardener. Basically you mix one part resin with one part hardener, stir the shit out of it for two-four minutes and you're ready to pour. It's important to make the surface level and use masking tape all around the edges to hold it in the resin. Ideally, I probably would have bought three or four pints to get the thickness I wanted, but it is far too expensive. So, I made do by pouring it in spirals and then using a small piece of wood to flatten/distribute it evenly. I'm didn't seal the map down as well as I would have liked, so it came up at a few points around the edges, but I figure I can always do another 1/8th' coat down the line. I sprinkled Yakima sage and some flower petals around the border as well. After it cures for 72 hours, I'll grab another picture for you.

[edenaho]

Got a whole bunch of found wood from an alleyway down the street, where some people moved out. Sanded down and stained this table, wheat pasted a map of Montana and will be covering it with a resin epoxy, to use as our collapse-able table in Eden. Also, used a skill saw to shave down a few headboards and replace some jimmy-rigged wood that served as the seat in the back. She's slowly coming together!

[edenaho]

Re-carpeted the whole interior, finished wallpapering/wheat pasting, covered seats and... purchased a copper water pot. :) On to the electrical, adding fancy wooden/bronze wall and ceiling lights, putting a gold-ish fabric on the ceiling, running wire from the speaker system under the vehicle to two or three hookups along the outside that will turn on with a switch up by the dashboard for DANCE CHURCH AHO everywhere! Aka, slowly becoming the Electric Kool-aid Acid Test bus.

[edenaho]

Finished sewing new covers for the seats in Eden. They are hand floss sewn with rabbit/coyote fur covers on top. Delicious!

[edenaho]

Unhooked the water tank and cleaned it and all the tubes. Look how cute and fresh she is laying in all that clover.

[edenaho]

Hot damn. Eight-ten hours of cutting Plant Teacher pictures out of books, staining all the drawers/cupboards, wheat pasting, bordering with a sharpie and getting scientific names on wikipedia later and I finished one silly design project. Also, who knew that RV stores had EVERYTHING. Got some random light covers that were missing and an aluminum table post for $11. This one will be for a cutting board. For the second hole, I am planning on finding a large tree stump somewhere that I can shave a couple inches off of, stain and create a fancy love seat table for eating. And, I doooo mean LOVE seat! Aho!

[edenaho]

I was going to do a wood floor, but I found some orange carpet at the Habitat for Humanity store for $13 and decided my feet enjoy carpet and that if, in the future, we decide to do wood flooring, that I would like to use wood from a tree that I had harvested, cured and made myself. So, our temporary fix was a 3.5x7.5 carpet. Cutting it was easy, as I just used the shape of the carpet that I pulled out and added a half inch on each side. I figure this way I can pull it out and shake/vacuum it whenever the need arises and it will be good to go for at least a year. I will be ripping out the tan carpet on the sides of the bench seats as well and replacing as well. p.s. thank you Atlas for helping.

[edenaho]

Sanded and staining all the cupboards with a walnut brown. Plan is to wheat paste herb/flower pictures from the 15th&16th century all over the front portions. The recipe is: 1 1/2 cups white flour 1/2 cup sugar 1 Tbsp alum* 3 cups of water Combine flour and sugar. Slowly add 1 cup of cold water and beat out any lumps. Put mixture in a saucepan. Add 2 cups of water. Stirring constantly, bring the mixture to a boil on medium heat. When stiff, remove from heat and add alum. Store in an airtight container. It should keep several weeks. If the paste hardens, soften by mixing in small amounts of warm water as needed. I may end up putting a black border around each of the pictures in the end, but I'm still in experiment phase.

[edenaho]

Eden has a Hydro Flame FA-7912-P propane heater. I found the old manual and schematics online. Some of the wires are not connected, so I'm tracing the wires, splicing the ones that aren't connected to anything and attempting to get a rough idea of what in the hell is going on.

[edenaho]

Removed all the cupboards. Sanding them down to stain a dark mahogany and wheat paste maps & antique b/w flower drawings over the front portions.

[edenaho]

Took off the instrument panel in a search for the flasher relay. Found where it was said to be/where the hazards are (behind the radio in the center), but the flasher is nowhere to be found. Any ideas?

[edenaho]

Ripped out the carpet and discovered where the slot for a table is underneath! Plan is to stain&put in a wood floor and build a table. Got the propane oven/stove and fridge working this week.

[edenaho]

Sorry the pictures aren't great, but here are some quick shots. I cleaned out most of the previous owners shit and am in the process of removing anything that is broken, superfluous or in the way. This weekend I begin mapping out the pipes/electrical and making a list of repairs/fixes/overhauls/modifications that I need to make.

[edenaho]

Welcome, welcome to my Eden Project! The new (literal) driving force behind Swiss Family Wood Buzzard’s travel plans. We hope to upgrade to a diesel automobile within the next year or two, so that we can convert to veggie oil and reduce our participation in the oil industry as much as possible, but for the time being, this seemed like the most affordable and desirable option for us. I will be posting anything and everything I can in the process of learning how to work on our 1978 Toyota Pickup/Royal Holiday camper. This also includes anything dealing with electrical, propane system (the oven, stove and fridge), solar power possibilities, carpeting, weather-proofing, wood work, painting, etc. I purchased her for $500 from a guy, because it had expired tabs and he needed to get rid of her by the next day or it was going to be towed. It has a 20R 4 cylinder inline engine, with 58,000 miles, and seems to run great. It is a 16 ft long-bed model with dualies on the back. The camper is in fair condition, but we were mostly looking for a box with which we could let our imaginations and creative energies run wild. Please understand that I my working knowledge of vehicles has been limited to Volkswagens and has mostly consisted general maintenance. The most complicated tasks I have done are probably changing out an alternator and the front axle on my ‘79 VW rabbit. So, bear with my ignorance and please feel free to correct me, offer suggestions or alternative options to anything that I begin to delve into here. Thanks for joining in the journey and for any Teachers out there who have any nuggets of wisdom they can throw my way. Aho!