Phil and I, along with our two dogs, lived in Ontario on my parents property for a year. In that time we had a lot of fun. I was able to start and follow through with a garden, something my nomadic lifestyle had prevented previous, we were able to make friendships and get to know my parents in a new way, and we were able to figure out some pieces of making skoolie life more comfortable.
Summer was the best part of the year for Luna and I. Phil and Bart were tree planting and so it was just us girls around. We found a great place to park the bus in the yard, slightly private and still able to get electricity from the house. Luxury.
We managed to have a pretty successful garden even though I was working a 60 hour week often.
Of course, warm weather for Luna meant less work and more panting.
When Phil and Bart got back, we got serious about the winter ahead of us. A bus is not a warm place in a Canadian winter. This winter we were lucky as we had electricity and could run an electric heater alongside our tiny fireplace. It made a huge difference, but there were still some harsh and cold realities to living in a metal box at 20 below.
As much as we prepared the bus for the winter, there were some things we just couldn’t change. Bus doors for example allow a lot of air through them and because we were still using it to drive we didn’t want to block off the view point by changing it out for a real door. We always had a thick curtain over the doors and that helped keep the frost just to the doors.You can also see the in the bottom of the right photo we insulated and built up the stair as they were only a single piece of metal initially.
To separate ourselves, even if just a little, more from the snowy outside we did build a small screened in porch. This helped to keep the wind out and the heat in.
Learning from past experience we also helped ourselves out by wrapping the bus in 110 bales of straw for extra insulation. It made for a lot of fun and kept a surprising amount of heat it. We felt a little silly when all the bales were sitting beside the bus in the fall, straw bales aren't cheap after all and the idea of covering your house in straw a common one, but come winter we knew we'd made the right call and they were worth the investment.
The dogs especially loved that they could climb up and look in the windows.
The removal of the bales in the spring was a nightmare. We were leaving for the Yukon by April 1st but the weather did not support that decision. I don't have photos of the long days we spent with axes, shovels, heaters, and crowbars, trying to pry apart the icecubes the bales has become because it was really not one of those stop and take a picture times. We had a deadline and fought to make it.
We didn't make the deadline, we stopped, took a trip to Quebec to see Phil's family and then resumed the fight when we got home. Not always can sheer determination make a difference. We did come home with our newest pet, Maestro though and proceed to make a mess of my parents yard, covering it in straw before eventually taking off.
We didn't make the deadline, we stopped, took a trip to Quebec to see Phil's family and then resumed the fight when we got home. Not always can sheer determination make a difference. We did come home with our newest pet, Maestro though and proceed to make a mess of my parents yard, covering it in straw before eventually taking off.
With the truck packed we headed off to the Yukon, to our new home and new lives.