I'm changing my username to my real name Kevin Warnock from 1967_MCI5a

[Kevin Warnock]

Hello,

I sold my 1967 MCI5a conversion last month, described on my blog here:

http://kevinwarnock.com/2011/01/16/i-sold-my-mci-5a-challenger-bus-conversion/

I'm the guy who two days later snapped off a fire hydrant with my 1994 RTS conversion, described on my blog here:

http://kevinwarnock.com/2011/01/17/tragedy-with-my-rts-bus-conversion/

Since I've decided to write openly about this crazy hobby I've had for a decade now, I've decided to retire my username 1967_MCI5a and post under my real name:

Kevin Warnock

I live in San Francisco, California, and park my RTS in San Francisco most of the time these days. Thankfully I live in an area where there is ample free street parking!

I'm a software entrepreneur by profession. I have 4 great housemates.

Here's the ad I used to find them:

http://kevinwarnock.com/2011/01/03/housemates-wanted-for-urban-homesteading-in-san-francisco

We're setting up an urban homestead at my house. They all moved in this month. The plan is to raise chickens, rabbits and fish to provide for a fair amount of our food. Today I dug the holes for a deck style foundation for the greenhouse that will hold the aquaponics system we're building.

I learned the word aquaponics right here in a reply to one of my posts, so thank you bus conversions forum! Here's the blog posting I wrote last year when I first learned about aquaponics, which is a cool way to grow vegetables using a tank of fish to nourish the plants.

http://kevinwarnock.com/2010/04/19/aquaponics/

I'm a bit nervous attaching my real name to my posts here, as I can't remember every crazy thing I've asked about here over the years. But I am convinced good things will happen to me by coming out in the open about what is really my favorite hobby.

If there are members near San Francisco, I'd love to meet you in person, and if there are members passing through San Francisco, I'd also like to meet you. I can tell you where to park while you're sightseeing!

Best Regards!

Kevin Warnock

PS - I'm on Facebook at http://facebook.com/kevinlwarnock and I'm on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kevinwarnock

[Tony LEE]

Good idea Kevin. Really no need to use funny names on this forum.

[mike802]

Keven: I think that's great, the internet is not really as anonymous as many people think, our real identities can be figured out if someone really wanted to go to the trouble.  I think what you are doing with the homestead is a wonderful idea, nobody really knows just how long our economy is going to stay afloat and being prepared for that is just being smart.  If the dollar becomes worthless any savings we have, or investments will also be worthless, unless those investments are in physical gold, silver, or tradeable things like food etc.

My wife and I have been working on growing all our own vegetables for three years now, we have not been very successful   There is a huge learning curve.  Every year we get an abundance of two, or three crops, but everything else is real spotty.  The goal is to grow enough for our family with some left over to sell, so far we have not been able to full fill our own needs.  The weather has not been kind, lately we get to much rain, then it gets real hot to fast and the woodchucks, don't get me started on the woodchucks, last year I had seven burrows inside of three acres!  They ate all my summer squash, most of the winter squash, all my beans, cabbage and lettuce.  Our corn never grew above 8" tall and we lost all our pumpkins and peas.  But we got lots of carrots, beats and onions LOL glad we don't have to live on it.  This year we bought a row hipper, it makes a raised bed, I am hoping it will get the plants out of the damp ground if we get to much rain.  For some reason gardeners do not use them here in Vermont, but they are popular in the south and I had to order it from LA.  We use all organic methods and the weeding is tedious to say the least.  This year we are going to try putting down plastic mulch.  I am a real lousy farmer, but every year we do better, we have an asparagus bed that we will be harvesting from for the first time this spring and we are real excited about that.

You are real lucky to be able to put up a green house, we would love to have one, but just cant afford it right now.  We really need to invest in more fencing   There is also alot to buy for canning, freezing and other cold storage like a root cellar.  We have an old house that actually has a root cellar under an addition off the kitchen.  I did not know what it was until a bought a book on how to build a root cellar, I thought it was just a crappy cellar until I realized just what it was.  Now I have to build a storage shed and clean it out. I really hope everything works out for you, and I am optimistic that this year will be the year our garden really takes off. 

Building a bus conversion may be a fun hobby, but if the bank should call in my mortgage I hope to have it ready to live in if it comes to that. Our garden is at my mothers house and we could live with her if we had to, but I think everyone would be happier if we could live in the bus, at least during the warmer months and who knows maybe we could just go south during the winter, but if things get that bad there will not be any place to buy diesel, or repair parts, or food and the way the bridges are going in this country?  I guess all we can do is plan for the worst and hope for the best.

[Kevin Warnock]

mike802, thanks for your long reply about the experience you've had growing vegetables. Just wanted to point out that Harbor Freight sells 6' x 8' greenhouses for about $300. Also, I have a flyer from them in my hand that arrived yesterday that offers a 10' x 12' greenhouse for $699.

Just so everyone knows, the plan for my RTS is to install an aquaponics system in the vehicle, with the fish tank inside and a grow bed on the roof, accessed through a roof hatch. Since I know so little about aquaponics, I am trying a land based system first in my backyard.

Has anyone installed a home style skylight, like those made by Velux, on their bus? I would like some light inside since I have tinted windows and mirror tint on the outside of the already tinted glass. This means I lose about 4 or 5 f-stops through the side windows. I'm thinking a nice 2 x 3' skylight with hinged roof access would be great. These are commercial skylights for flat roofs and cost about $500 delivered.

Thanks,

Kevin Warnock

[happycamperbrat]

A growing bed on the roof? Wow! That is out of the box thinking! I like the idea in that it would provide excellent insulation and cooling, but how would you keep the moisture from attacking the steel under the fiberglass? I know it is stainless steal, but still.... And the extra weight would surely hurt fuel mileage (maybe suspension too, Im not sure) unless you are planning on just being parked. I cant imagine you would be growing corn or sunflowers on the roof and then driving under a bridge..... what would you be growing? how would you protect the plants while going down the road? How would you keep the dirt from falling off the side of the bus? This is a fasinating idea, please tell me more about your ideas.

Thanks

[Kevin Warnock]

I am not planning to grow in dirt, but in a special puffed air gravel designed for aquaponics. I will grow vegetables that don't grow tall. The grow bed will be a normal RV fresh water tank cut in half, so it will be entirely water proof as far as the bus conversion roof is concerned. I will use an inexpensive clear acrylic home skylight on a hinge to protect the plants and gravel while driving. I have in mind something like this, but with clear acrylic instead of frosted:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_75582-79358-N1STDDWCMCNN2852_0__?productId=3042379&Ntt=skylight&pl=1&currentURL=%2Fpl__0__s%3FNtt%3Dskylight

This will just cover the cut water tank, so it won't let light into the vehicle.

Here's a well done online 'magazine' about aquaponics:

http://www.byapmagazine.com/

Their first issue is online as a free PDF, here:

http://byapmagazine.com/BYAP_Magazine_Issue1.pdf

For some more links and discussion about aquaponics, look here on my blog from last year:

http://kevinwarnock.com/2010/04/19/aquaponics/

I will start with a small system, perhaps with a 4 square foot grow bed in a 40 gallon water tank ($75 on EBay, new). The fish tank will also be a 40 gallon fresh water tank, new, and that I'll probably put in the RTS backdoor stairwell, under the second step it takes to get into the vehicle.

This area is technically outside the living area for the people on the conversion, as there will be a residential house door at the top of the rear stairs, with full weather stripping and a deadbolt lock. The air in the stairwell will not be part of the interior air system. The reason I am thinking about putting the tank there is that that area has great access, and I would be able to hose the area down without getting water in the living quarters. I would also be able to stand up and directly access the fish tank, which will make for easy 'fishing' when it comes time to prepare a meal. In addition, any fish smells will be 'outside' and not inside.

To access the fishing port, I will just flip up the stair tread and unscrew the round boat portal access point. These are water tight so water won't splash out of the tank while I'm driving. You can get clear portals so I could see in without removing the 'lid.'

The fish tank will be plumbed to the grow bed on the roof, and fish tank water will be pumped to the roof periodically where it will be held in the grow bed for 15 minutes or so. Then, an electronic valve at the bottom of the grow bed will open and the water will drain by gravity back to the fish tank.

There is huge benefit to both the fish and the plants. The plants thrive on the fish poop, and the fish thrive by having fresh clean water that's aerated nearly continuously by the frequent round trips to the grow bed.

I've read the fish grow twice as fast as in the wild and that the plants grow 6 times faster than in dirt. This is astonishing production, and since the plants will in effect be inside a mini greenhouse most of the time, under the skylight canopy, I expect outstanding productivity.

The inputs are fish food and water, plus fish and vegetable plants of course. Tilapia is the preferred fish for these systems.

Apparently this aquaponics system is being done in New York City on the Hudson River on barges. The fish and vegetables are then served in Manhattan high end restaurants, who probably make noise that their food is sourced as locally as they could get!

I will probably need to add computer controls to warm and cool the system more than would be needed in a home based system, and I'm prepared to do that. The RTS will have enough solar electricity panels to run a 5,000 btu air conditioner, which can cool a lot of water if modified to make a dirt cheap water chiller.

But remember, I live in San Francisco, and I don't travel much, so most of the time my RTS is in San Francisco, where the temperatures are so mild that I think the fish will live without any computer controls, especially since I will insulate the tank.

I will most likely install a computer with 3G card so I can receive status reports to my iPhone. I may even post status reports to my blog, including a 'fish tank cam.' I definitely don't want to mistreat the fish, so I will take lots of precautions so that they live a healthy, comfortable and well traveled life.

Thanks for your interest in my plans. You can subscribe to my blog if you want to be sure to get the latest updates on my RTS and the aquaponics experiment at my house. The sign up box is in the upper right corner of http://kevinwarnock.com

Kevin Warnock

[Barn Owl]

Not sure what to say here but it is stuff like this that makes San Francisco such an interesting place to visit. Next time I'm there with the bus I will have to stop by and check the operation out and enjoy some free parking and fresh corn . Will I need to bring fishing poles? 

[Iceni John]

Has anyone installed a home style skylight, like those made by Velux, on their bus?

I want to replace one of my roof hatches/vents with a skylight over the bedroom, and I thought about a Velux.   Yes, they're good quality, but how would they be sealed or flashed to a curved bus roof?   Do they have vehicle-approved safety glass?   Would they be air- and water-tight at 60+ MPH?   I'm thinking that a yacht skylight may be better  -  at least it should be water-tight (I hope!).   There's a yacht surplus place nearby that always has several for sale, so that's maybe how I'll go.   Oh heck, just put a VW bus up on the roof  -  ten thousand hippies can't be wrong.

John

[mike802]

mike802, thanks for your long reply about the experience you've had growing vegetables. Just wanted to point out that Harbor Freight sells 6' x 8' greenhouses for about $300. Also, I have a flyer from them in my hand that arrived yesterday that offers a 10' x 12' greenhouse for $699.

Thanks Keven for the tip, I will have to look into it.  Everything we have looked at so far is like around three grand.  Good luck with the aquaponics, that is something I don't know much about, is it anything like hydroponics, if that is the correct term?

[happycamperbrat]

Thanks for the links Kevin. I will keep watching to see how it goes. The only other question I have is about the fish, they dont like to get sloshed around and hit the sides of tanks.......

[JohnEd]

NOT SO FAST 1967_MCI5a.  Not so fast!

John

[Kevin Warnock]

Something tells me the fish won't be hitting the sides of their tank. I've driven with full glasses of water on the kitchen counter and never had them fall over. This was by accident, but still, I was impressed they never fell over, even after hours of driving on the freeway and off. So I don't think lightweight fish in a tank would be likely to be much disturbed by my gentle driving. If it turns out my plan really will hurt the fish, I won't continue with it.

Kevin Warnock
http://kevinwarnock.com