No power, no ice cream, and my beers are getting warm

Patience is a virtue, so they say. At the moment that line is very thin. For the past week I've been monitoring the amps on the battery bank, and for some reason it has halved. We have a bank of 16 batteries, and we're running at 24 volts. It would have been ideal to get 200+ amp batteries each, but in our case, because of our low-cost budget recycling lifestyle, and the depth of our pocket, we had to go through the good old ABC Wreckers and use lead acid batteries at 100 amps each, which has worked absolutely fine for the past three months, giving us 2-3 days power through rainy days.

The battery bank is in the man cave, and it is so clustered in there that we have been forced to move from a beautiful spot and look for a truck stop so we could make path to inspect and rectify this patience thinning problem. While I'm writing, the ice cream is melting, the kids' 2015 schoolbooks (tablets) - modern day slates - won't work. The dog keeps barking, because his fan is not working. The wife seems to be cool headed about it all, and as for me, I know that at some stage this afternoon/evening, I will be quietly swearing. No cold beers. So on that note, I better get to work. Because of the thought of Kimberley cools (warm beers) and not getting to watch the 6 o'clock bad news, I've got to get my priorities right and fix it!

P.S. Luckily when the going gets tough, you can always depend on the petrol guzzling 2.5 kva generator. Cheers, it's time for a beer (problem not fixed). There's always tomorrow... Oh, the serenity!

- D -

This is the entrance to the man cave.

Battery bank with reorganised storage. At least I can get to it now.

Waste not want not

When living in a bus you have to be aware of water consumption and waste, as water supply is limited to tank size, and you have to be able to carry your waste (grey and black water as well as general rubbish) until you reach the next dump point. I've cut my water usage right down when washing up, and we don't unnecessarily wash clothes either. When living in a house I'd routinely do a load or two of washing every day, whereas now we usually have a laundry day once a week.

Power supply is another limited resource. We have a 1000 watts worth of solar panels on the roof, which maintains our fridge/freezer, lights, TVs, security surveillance system, phone chargers and fans, but for vacuuming or air conditioning we need to run the generator. Therefore we daily sweep the floors and vacuum once a week, and only use the air conditioning if it gets extremely hot in the bus. Where I used to spend a couple of hours for cleaning a four bedroom house, it only takes me a half an hour to do the same in the bus. I like!

As we mainly cook on gas, we favour quick and simple meals, so no more oven dishes that I used to cook especially in the cold climate of my home country. We do have an oven though, so if we ever feel like cinnamon buns or fresh bread, we can still enjoy these favourites too.

Storage space in the bus is also limited, so we don't buy anything unless we really need it . The children have a set amount of toys and lots of books, but they often play outdoors, and we use local libraries regularly for some variety in story books. We have a decent amount of storage for winter and summer clothes, but yet again only carry what we need. 

And the man cave (also known as "dad's garage" or storage at the back of the bus)? It is full of tools and materials that might come handy when maintenance on the bus is required, and as I've learnt already, we DO need to carry a long ladder to reach the solar panels and surveillance cameras at the height of 4.3 meters when repairs are required. 

We don't spend time on yard work either, since we don't have one. I sometimes think this is one of my husband's favourite things about living in a bus: no more lawn mowing! A little portable herb garden would perhaps be nice, but as none of us is a real green thumb, we can manage just fine as it is.

- M -

One of our power eaters, still manageable from the solar supply.

We try to limit the amount of toys - and have noticed less is indeed more.

We are happy to sacrifice some of our precious storage space to carry some of our most loved books on board.