Mater Vault

 The last time I tried to grow tomatoes, I got exactly one ripe tomato the entire season. The plants produced plenty, but the damn squirrels would wait until they were almost ready to pick and then snatch 'em.

I built chicken wire walls around them, gopher baskets under them, and finally a squirrel-height electric fence, but I always lost the arms race.

I gave up for a couple years, because I decided that if I ever tried again, they would be completely enclosed, top bottom and sides, in an impenetrable tomato fortress.

 

Finally got around to it, and just finished today.

 

 

The dirt box is removable so it can be replaced when it rots, assuming this works and I ever try to grow tomatoes again...

The door latches with simple screen-door hooks.

The chicken wire was leftover from the last attempt, but between the lumber and all the soil I bought, not to mention the plants themselves, I figure any tomatoes I get will have cost me about 25 bucks apiece, but there's nothing like home-grown tomatoes!

My favorite neighbors gave me some strawberry plants, along with some great soil amendments and some magic algae potion that the plants will love.

Strawberries are inside the "Cold War era" electric fence, so fingers crossed.

This yummy stuff should make all the plants happy, and hopefully not the squirrels!

I'll report back this summer. If you know any 'mater prayers...

What I've been doing for the last year and a half

 I haven't mentioned this in the blog because it's been a work-in-progress, and in fact it still is.  But it's getting close to done, and I'll be taking a couple months off from the project, so here it is: Jami's van "Muzzy" (named after her grandmother).

She bought the van brand new and drove it directly here, handed Dad a credit card and said "Get to work!" (She didn't really say that, but I like to tell people she did...)

Drawings

First I did drawings in Adobe Illustrator.  They evolved as we went along, but these are pretty close to the final product.

Mockup

Next came layout and mockups

 

 We added sound deadening and insulation

 

 

 Walls and ceiling

We copied an idea from a great van builder named Quinn to line the walls and ceiling with black, covered by slats.  We call them "Quinn slats."

 

Tanks

I made fresh- and grey-water tanks out of sheet ABS plastic.

 

 Bunks

Jami and I made home-made bunks using upholstery webbing.

The top bunk tilts up out of the way when not needed.

Even Cousin Karen got involved making custom sheets.

 

Toilet

We made a home-made "composting" toilet.

I'll let you figure out how it works...

Seat height tester

Counter top

Our good friends Sarah and Scott had to have a large dead elm tree removed from their yard, so we fired up the chainsaw and started the process of making a "live-edge" countertop.

I filled all the cracks and holes with black epoxy.

Refrigerator

I had talked Jami into buying a huge heavy refrigerator, and then had the task of shoe-horning it into a very narrow space.

 

Because of the countertop overhang and the fridge's swing-up lid, I had to use extra long drawer guides. To fully open, it goes all the way to the bed on the other side of the van. Working this out took longer than just about any other part of the project, and one more inch would have been big trouble.

Special vented drawer front for the fridge

TV

A dream vacation van has to have a smart TV, and this one folds up out of the way and even swivels around for watching from outside.

 

The beat-up looking edges are just the new-product plastic film that needs to be removed.

Movies by the campfire - sacrilege? you be the judge...

 

DVD player tucked up above the TV

 

Galley

The galley is pretty much finished now...

 

 

 

Including a pull-out table 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Closet

...and so is the closet

  

Hidden away inside the closet: an ice maker! because why not?

 

 

Last-minute addition the morning she pulled out, a fold-down cook top.

There's still plenty to do, including flooring, covering more of the metal with wood, and the bathroom/shower, but that will have to wait until after the summer van-life season!

Stay tuned!