The dusty bus goes digital.

Thanks to the converging miracles of Google, parabolic scrap metal and a long USB cable, we are now broadcasting live from the inside of our bushome. The aforementioned materials, cobbled together with a cheap WiFi adapter have become a funky--but functional--internet antenna.

I have to step back from it to truly appreciate the incredible and seemingly contradictory experience of a lifestyle that right now, amounts to little more than glorified camping, yet includes an invisible cyber-link to the world. It’s a universal link that enables the research of any question, immediate communication on a global scale, and even face-to-face video conversations with anyone, anywhere – without cost. Email, Facebook, and Skype replace what used to be a process of communication that could have involved months (or years) to send a message and receive a response. The concept of long-distance conversation was probably unimaginable. I’m astounded then, to be living with space-age connectivity and yet totally unencumbered by masses of electronic circuitry, wiring or other evidences of this technological advancement. A glance out the window places us, essentially, in the woods; our only hard connections to the grid: a 20 amp extension cord and the food-grade hose that is our water supply.

Anyhow, back to the blog. I cannot say for certain when the idea first emerged, perhaps Katarina remembers, but it was probably in the midst of one of our weird and elaborate projects when someone proclaimed that, “We should have a blog.” And so a seed was planted and the idea took root. It wasn’t until the completion of this rusty, odd-looking internet antenna and the resulting convenient internet access, that one of us actually clicked our way into this new blog. It is actually a hybrid of two different blogs: the original bus-house construction blog that I began two years ago and used only once, and Katarina’s much talked about but still imaginary blog called ‘Katie in the country’ (also a potential PBS series) which would chronicle her many strange adventures living in Southern Oregon. It makes sense; we spend most of our time together, do so many projects—some of which were inspired by reading other blogs—and have a lot of mini-adventures that seem extraordinarily weird and fun. We both wish we lived closer to family; So, I think this blog is both a way to document some of our lives so we don’t forget and then take for granted all the cool stuff that we make and do, and also an excuse to post pictures and share stories with our people. I hope it will be, at the very least, interesting.