$20/night is way above my shoestring budget. I can see paying that for hookups for a night to recharge and water, but dang...

The apartment lease was a temporary solution to a logistical problem: I needed to be in one place long enough to get some medical procedures done.

I'm working the program but it's slow. I've scribbled down some thoughts on the timeline and future plans in the blog post.

BTW: yay, lemmy.sdf.org is back up again!

The other day I realized I've been fulltiming in this rig for 7 years.

Some quick thoughts:

• I was connected to shore power for a short while due to family emergency but otherwise have been off-grid for 2,527 days.
• my body, mind, and finances are in better shape than when I moved in
• I don't see an end to this adventure. My plan is to drag my elderly body into the desert on my last day and let the coyotes eat me. :-)

I expect primary targets to be areas with the classically-homeless encamping and crapping on sidewalks. But law-abiding houseless folk could get caught in the net where local hardliners feel emboldened by the EO. As the saying goes "It's not your fault but it's your problem".

Reminder: I maintain a list of cities with laws that affect vehicle dwellers.

• San jose: - homeless people have "a responsibility to shelter" (article)
• also San Jose - no, no, no, not that kind of shelter. Why can't you just have more money? (article)

I will assume that somewhere out there a city council is making this kind of law because they care about human beings. But most time I think such ordinances means "We don't want your type around here. If you must be here we don't want to see you."

I am reminded of minimum lot size laws that tell citizens that they can only build a home on a lot of at least 3 acres. The intent is to keep out people who cannot meet the Sufficiently Grotesque McMansion standard.

/grouchy rant over.

I have a near-obsession with Pao de Quejo and finally got around to making a batch.

Having an oven (toaster oven in this case) in a van probably isn't common but they are great for comfort foods.

I derate mine to ~600w with an inexpensive router speed control. Takes a bit longer to preheat but holds temps nicely.

My geeky take on the DC-DC charging video that is getting a lot of attention.

Boondocking site at 7,500ft in the Sandia Mtns. Just east of Albuquerque.

Forecast called for some precip, but I was't expecting this much. I've swept 9" off the panels so far.

It does discuss LTVA, but much of the article deals with the tweakers and squatters that are trashing public land. Absolutely stereotypical pics are posted.

Moral of the story: don't be a tweaker and/or squatter and fsck it up for the rest of us :-)

Share yours!

Experiment rather than product, but still an interesting read. Plus it looks cool.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/40497343

I've been procrastinating because it's relatively expensive. But a confluence of factors (mail forwarding dependability, vehicle registration, eligibility for SNAP) finally nudged be to sign on.

Details and costs in the blog post above.

For folks who get aborts/dumps on 6.x check to see if libxcb-cursor0 is installed.

Bartlett’s proposed ordinance amendment to control the parking of recreational vehicles and similar things is a dicey situation. It seems easy to manage, but the specifics pose issues that need addressing. The overall purpose is to protect property values.

Yes, this discussion is about RVs owned by homeowners but the financial incentives are the same

Cf. homevoters

I hope everyone is doing well and catching some of that low December sun on their panels. The good news for folks in the northern hemisphere is solar harvest will start going up again. Those starving battery banks will start getting some relief. :-)

When I built the rig in 2017 I estimated my power requirements then used insolation models like PVwatts to figure out what it would take to meet them year 'round. In practice this meant sizing the array for Decemper in my wintering spots. It's worked surprisingly well. Just enough power in deep winter and power to waste the rest of the year.

Bob Wells, the Cheap RV living guy, has sold his last van-based rig and moved into a Subaru Forester.

He explains his reasoning in the video. I am all for people doing what makes them happy. :-)

Forked from a discussion on reddit. There is widespread belief that charging freezing is ok. That's not necessarily the case.

This situation is a bit different because OP will have access to shore power.

In the bread machine post I promised more foolish experiments. Here ya go, I run a toaster oven offgrid with solar so you don't have to!

Bonus content: I derated the oven's wattage using a harbor freight triac.

• the big idea
• testing and potentiometer adjustment

My first time doing a pop rivet and it worked perfectly. Woot!

Each winter brings a flurry (ha!) of first-timers wondering how to keep warm. Not giving advice in the above post, but explaining how I do it.

{Edit: it was based on my usual dried beans recipe}

This was enough for dinner that night and lunch the next day. So divide these costs in half to get the per-meal cost:

• 170Wh of energy
• $1.11, if my math is right:
  • ~$0.24 for onion, $0.49/lb at the local mercado.
  • 180g of small red beans. These were free because someone had them but couldn't/wouldn't cook them in their rig...
  • ~$0.01 5g of salt
  • ~$0.03 dried chili pepper from a bulk bag, again from the mercado
  • $0.83 1/2lb of louisiana smoked sausages (hot) from the manager's discount bin

Pressed the Beans button on the 3qt Instant Pot and forgot about it until it was done. Served with cold beer....

I am fully aware most folks won’t have the interest, space, or power to run a bread machine. But for me it’s cheap fun.

Did I burn down the van? Did I kill my my batteries? Did it make actual bread?

Another silly experiment in a week or so.

The article talk about camping but also describes full-timers. There is also a kind of Green Book angle that might be useful.