Freakishly Happy

Hi All!

We started demolition on our school bus this week!
It has been fun and challenging so far. We started taking seats out on
Sunday afternoon. If you look at any of the school bus conversion sites,
they'll tell you that the easiest way to take out seats is to buy an angle
grinder and simply shave off all of the bolts, and you'll get the job done in a
few hours. Never being ones to take the easy way out, we didn't do it
that way. Instead I hopped under the bus with a wrench and held the bolts while
John ratcheted the bolts out from above. Now this sounds much neater and
tidier than it really was. First of all, most (if not all) of the bolts and
nuts were in various states of rust and decomposition. Second, we're in Vermont and it is
winter. Now it wasn't really the cold that was so bad, because you can put
blankets and cardboard down and with enough layers, sitting on ice isn't too
bad. It was on Wednesday when we had a thaw that it really sucked. The
tarp that we put under the bus was a series of puddles and lakes. Things
were going smoothly until I had a momentary freak out from being wet, cold and
hungry. John ended up being a sport and grinding many of the bolts off with his
Dremmel. Honestly though, it wasn't that bad, and I did feel pretty tough
being under the bus, and it felt kinda good to get so greasy and grimy, knowing
that we were starting to build our home.

Today has been a little frustrating, too. We are really trying to make good
conscious and conscientious decisions every step along the way through
this project. Now that the seats are out, our main problem is trying to figure
out what to do with them. I have made probably 20 phone calls in the last
hour trying to figure out what we are going to do with the foam that comes from
the inside of the seats. We'd love to be able to recycle them, but so far it's
been really discouraging. No one in this area does foam recycling- although it
is done in other places all around the country for things like carpet
padding. We're pretty determined though. I've found a place in Massachusetts that might
do it, but the guy said that it's not worth my time or effort. Being the
stubborn and idealistic creature that I am, I am going to call him until he
relents and takes our foam. Even if it is inconvienent, and a huge pain in the
butt, at least it is not going to be rotting in a landfill somewhere from now
until eternity. If anyone else has any good ideas- please let me know!
I've already posted offers for free bus seats on Craigslist and FreeCycle, but
I am willing to accept ideas.

We have also been trying really hard to stick to our New
Year's resolution to not buy anything from China in 2008. This has
proved to be rather interesting. We had to go to 10 different places
before we could find work gloves. Even the products that come from Vermont or New England companies are being manufactured
in Vermont.
In many cases it wasn't on the product tag, we had to flip the gloves inside out
and toward the very top of pinky finger of the glove was a tiny Made in China
label. Now, we're not trying to be high handed about the whole thing.
I always feel like people think that we’re just being crazy when we tell them
that we are trying to go a whole year not buying Chinese products. I just feel does China must increase their
environmental standards, and the conditions and wages of its workers. After the
pet food scare last year, it really hit me that we need to be much more
conscious of what we are buying, whether we are putting it in or on our bodies
or coming in contact with it in a daily basis. Especially now that our country looks like it
could slide into a serious recession. The
president is encouraging us to go out and buy in order to get ourselves out of
this mess- well, going out and buying Chinese products, while the Chinese are
giving us the money to get out of debt in the first place isn’t going to do us
any good. We need to realize that just because something is cheaper doesn’t
mean it’s necessarily better.

Okay, enough of me on my soapbox. If you are at all
interested in ideas like these, and would like to hear them more eloquently put,
go to www.thestoryofstuff.com

John has installed a video camera in the bus to
capture the bus' conversion. We should have a live feed up and running
soon so that you can follow our progress. We will also be posting photos
soon! Keep in touch!