New to RVing!

[Starlight]

Hi --
I read this thread hoping to find ideas FOR MYSELF !!
One thing I know I'm going to do is buy (or make) a sun shade for my van. I figure it will tie on to stakes on one side, and come over to create an awning on the other side. It will be garden cloth perhaps... we'll see.

I'm also going to make a homemade air conditioner.

and a composting toilet, using sawdust, this one uses wood ashes


a clay pot heater,

or something like this
I've seen set ups where a board with a stove pipe was shaped to fit into a half-opened window to give exhaust to a small stove


I have found several ideas that I'm considering as my own way of making extra money. Here's a few.

crisco emergency candles in canning jars (the wick needs to be reinforced with a wire that hangs from the side, down, then up the wick)
(I'd go smaller)


grow bags of any size (small ones for herbs)
you place these in a container of shallow water, to water from the bottom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DvudVnGsTE

olla pots made from clay flower pots
I like the smaller ones for small pots or grow bags
the grow bags are good to keep roots from balling up, "natural pruning"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQFAZair15E

and if worse comes to worse -- I'll make myself a tool from a stick and a nail and walk around cleaning beer cans from sides of roads with it
Ha... maybe I'll find an old screen door to recycle for real bucks !!

Good luck.

 

[Patrick46]

there's a thread on here about the clay pot heater idea

https://vanlivingforum.com/Thread-Flower-pot-heater-test

it realistically does not work.

 

[compassrose]

I would suggest to anyone attempting to live in a popup (yes you can live fulltime in a popup, even a canvas sided one... you should see our neighbours who have spent the winter in a canvas popup with their pets and they are not the only ones we have seen) to shift to south of I-40 to stay in milder winters. East to West look at that as the northernmost line as a general rule. We are in the West (Roswell, NM) and about 200 miles south of I-40. Unlike others on this site (or many others) I am not a fan of living out west. We have daily dust storms, 40 to 60 mph steady winds are NORMAL. It's freezing cold in the winter and blistering hot in the summer. And I'm allergic to something in the dust in the valleys. In order to keep costs down, you need to stay in one spot for at least a month if you stay in private campgrounds. To keep costs lower, you can stay in mobile home parks for longer than a month. Micro chip your cat. Our indoor cat was perfectly happy living in the popup and laying underneath it to stay cool in Chattanooga TN. Chattanooga has work and they are the most friendly to the folks who live in campgrounds. So if you go there, I suggest pulling into Raccoon Mtn in Tiftonia. We lived there for several months in the late 90's.

 

[Pikachu711]

Welcome to the group Sharon A!