We’re almost there guys. The interior is in down to the moldings, we begin staining and varnishing tomorrow and it might have been the heat, but I swear I saw Tom staring blankly at some plumbing earlier. The progress has come on quick these last few weeks, despite the intense heat, and Mateo is relishing his new loft bedroom. Tired of having to ask our help everytime he wants to get up there he insisted on making a ladder. Here’s how it went.

After opting for a rope ladder as opposed to cutting holes in a plank as we had first intended we set about locating some rope. The stuff holding up our long-since-redundant hammock in Tom’s shambolic wood yard seemed ideal.

Next, after deciding that we didn’t want to spend any money we went for bamboo. Luckily these choice specimen have been littering our yard for months so we grabbed them and headed for the shop.

Thankfully no carpenter ants living inside the bamboo came out as we were setting up. With the sun beating down we lazily prepared the essentials. For anyone wanting to recreate this project they were: rope, sticks of some description, drill with drill bit same diameter as rope, saw.

Bamboo can be tricky to work with. It grows in sections, each of which is sealed from the other by a kind of a knuckle. When making the ladder we had to make a choice about whether we wanted the ends of the rungs to be open or sealed. After cutting it we were able to see how it was inside, and realizing that there would be a lot of waste if we went with the sealed option, we decided to cut either side of the knuckles leaving the rungs open-ended. Just how we like things! (That blue on Mateo’s face is chalk. I enjoyed a lie in this morning and when I woke up everyone, including the baby, looked like postmortem clowns).

With the pieces generally cut to size we then had to clean them up. There are probably many ways to go about this, but the easiest Tom found was to nip the rough bits off with the chop saw. This however is not advisable as when the material is not properly secured the saw blade can stick causing the material to kick back, which if you’re unlucky can pull your hand into the path of the sharp and rapidly rotating blade.

To my amazement no one was hurt. Just as well, we haven’t had health insurance for years!

The next stage is to drill holes in either side of each rung. At this juncture it is important to envisage which side of the rung will be your top and which will be your bottom. We chose the most concave side to be our top. Holes must then be drilled vertically through each end of the rung. We went with the gold Dewalt bit, its for metal really, but the other one was just too big.

Et voila!

Next up, carpenter ants or not, you probably need to finish the rungs. If using nice bamboo you might want to keep its natural waxy luster, but as ours had been alternately sodden and baked out by our trash cans since the winter we didn’t have much to lose. Back at the house we gathered some scraps of sand paper and got to work.

Also, with bamboo, it has this furry stuff that grows on the inside that could get gross so we dragged a pair of Tom’s old boxers through the holes to rid them of their funk.

Mateo liked this part.

Bad bug time then descended upon us, forcing us to flee inside from swarms of hungry mosquitoes. Once safe within we set about threading the rope through the rungs.

Mateo seemed to get the order this needed to be done in quite well. Start from the bottom, knot first then rung. Check the spacing, another knot, followed by another rung and so on. At this stage it is important to know exactly how long your ladder needs to be. Maybe placing the rungs out will help decide the order and always leave yourself more rope than you think you need as the knots use up quite a bit. Also, depending on the type of rope you use, it might be helpful to put some tape at the ends to stop it fraying.

With the ladder lashed together it was time to test it.

Impatient to see results we headed back to the bus.

Installing the ladder was simple, if not sweaty. All we did was drill four holes, two top and two bottom, and thread the rope through, knotting it at the back. Of course, everyone wanted to help!

And there you have it. One awesome rope ladder…

and one happy camper/jungle boy…

In contradiction to the many stories we have read about nomads and their poultry, quite a few people have told us that our plan to take chickens with us on the bus simply won’t work. Their warnings range in severity from stressed chickens, to dead chickens to the more sinister “your chickens might be fine, but what if the eggs are poisoned and you don’t find out until its too late?” All of this nay saying is beginning to make us have second thoughts about taking our three beloved birds with us when we hit the road. One thing we are sure about, however, and something we often use to reassure the many chicken worriers in our lives, is that our three cats, Little Fuz, Leviathan and No Name, definitely won’t be coming with us.

Yesterday we passed the one month mark for moving out of our house and onto the bus. As we begin to pack up our things, deciding what few personal effects we will be able to take from the mountains of junk we have accumulated from four years in Miami, an uplifting sense of freedom is far out weighing any sentimentality. The only things we are really having a hard time leaving behind are our cats.

Their mother, Baboon, a stray we took in as a kitten, moved out soon after giving birth to them in 2007. They’ve been together all their lives and we are all they know. We thought about taking them to my Mum’s in the UK, but the quarantine laws are crazy and we can’t afford electronic tags. We also considered donating them to a farm, but as they are used to domestic life we felt they would be much happier with a foster family. They’re really awesome pets – super chill, tons of personality, and mostly outdoor. We love them and would hate to separate them, so while a few friends have offered to take one or even two of them, we wanted to see if any of our readers, preferably based in South Florida, would be able to offer a home to all three.

In case any of you have space in your lives for the unfortunate casualties of the Transit Antenna lifestyle, here’s a little introduction.

Little Fuz:

The alpha male of the group, Little Fuz or Fuz for short, was the second born – the first born, his brother Gary, sadly disappeared one day. I’ve had cats all my life, but I’ve never met one quite like Fuz. Maybe it has something to do with his crazy mother or the fact we had him neutered before puberty, but Fuz is nuts, ironically. Bursting with personality, Fuz is more like a puppy than a cat; an eternal cherub.

At any given moment you can guarantee that you can find him doing something funny. Whether its crawling under rugs, chewing on things or simply charging around like a horse with a wild gleam in his eyes this cat is sure to brighten even the dullest of days. Pros: Handsome, head strong, easily personified. Cons (which are actually just Pros that require an acquired taste or a big heart): Randomly swipes at you when you walk by, eats shoes, cries occasionally if lonely.

Leviathan:

Third born Leviathan, or Prince Leviathan as we often call him, was the largest and smartest of all the kittens.

While the Little Fuz was busy swimming in the water bowl, Leviathan was sleeping. He was the first to walk and always last to finish eating. Sam hoped he would fulfill her dreams of having a fat cat – a role that Fuz seems to be working hard towards. Like most cats Leviathan conserves his energy well, but unlike most cats does little else. As an adult he is the epitome of a cat, lethargic to a fault. At any given time of day or night, Leviathan can be found sprawled full length on a bed, couch, under a bush, anywhere he feels undisturbed. And even when you disturb him, he rarely moves. Blessed with a long fur dissimilar from the rest of the cats and softer than a bunny, Leviathan is the perfect Ying to Fuz’s Yang. Two brothers could not be more different, and still equally awesome. Pros: Extremely placid, graceful, silky smooth. Cons: Tinny meow, collects burrs, occasional hairballs.

No Name:

The runt of the litter, No Name is the only girl. Initially a bit of a bitch No Name’s tom-boy days came to an end when she hurt her wrist as a kitten.

After comforting her she became inseparable from people and will now sacrifice any activity, luxury or comfort just to be near you.

Sometimes a little creepy and/or annoying (creepy when she gets the sense you think she is being annoying) she is the sweetest of all cats. Everyone who comes over can’t believe how small and needy and still she is. Oddly, even if you kick her out, she always appears back inside, often at your side. Having corroborated this after thoroughly checking the house for secret entrances we have come to believe she might be some kind of witch cat and as neither Sam or I have experience in the dark arts regard her with appropriate caution. Pros: Extremely cuddly, pint sized, quiet. Cons: Periodically sheds hair on back of neck perhaps as a result of flea medication, rich nutty aroma, evil?

At the end of the day, despite how much we love them, we simply can’t entertain the idea of bringing them along. Not only do they shed fur, harbor parasites and require a festering tray of grit in order to shit, they also have little sense of trust; fleeing from you the moment they are taken beyond the boundaries of their territories and over reacting by bearing their claws at the slightest hint that you might be coercing them into anything other than sheer self indulgence, even if it’s for their sole benefit. Actually, when you think about it, despite the many things we accept cats can’t or rather won’t do such as protect property, engage actively in mutual play, swim hypnotically through a salt water tank of corals or fetch anything, ever, all they are really any good for is companionship of an evening, however, even this if often limited to the moments just before or after they eat and even then you have to not mind a fishy sphincter in your face too much and/or being play clawed, which lets be honest, is often is just the same as being real clawed!

Nevertheless, despite all their intrinsic faults, cats deserve to enjoy the run of a stable (not on wheels) home, a garden to call their own (despite lacking the equipment to technically claim it) and some semblance of routine. As such, our decision is not so much based on how the cats are no longer good for us, but rather about how we are no longer good for the cats, and how it wouldn’t be fair to include them in our plans. Somewhat starved of attention of late owing to kids and pressing bus schedules they would already be thankful of a loving family. Their personalities, each special in their own way, are purrfectly balanced both individually and as part of the whole. Interested parties please contact us via info at transit antenna dot com. Serious applications only please.

Please note that all of our cats are super kid and chicken friendly and amazingly none of them meow for food or bring dead things into the house!

or ‘God’s eye‘ is a craft that I remember making as a child and always enjoyed for its beauty and simplicity. Originating in Mexico the Huichol people call their God’s eyes ‘Sikuli.’ which means “the power to see and understand things unknown.” When a child is born the central eye is woven by the father, then one eye is added for every year of the child’s life until the child reaches the age of five. The result is a mysterious and magical object.

To make one you will need two sticks or branches and yarn or similar material that can be used for weaving.

Secure the two branches together with a knot from the end of your yarn.

Begin weaving the yarn around your sticks, looping round each branch.

The God’s Eyes will grow and take form.

Here is the one I worked on – I weaved the yarn so that both sides are the same and there is neither a front or a back.

Mateo really enjoyed making these and was confident doing it without my assistance. He was very proud of his creation and instantly felt the magical pull of his God’s eye and displayed it over his bed to protect him.

Check out this guys very impressive God’s Eye here.