So I've been pretty confined the past five plus years since I've been my parents' (now just my mom's) live-in caretaker here in Fruita, Colorado. But I've been working on stuff, when I can.
Here's evidence I still have moneyless life on the road in my visions:
My bicycle camper!
I started working on this bicycle camper a couple years ago, then put in on hold, then, a couple months ago, got inspired to work on it again. It's made of all scavenged, discarded & recycled materials, nothing bought (except I cheated a bit and the glue is purchased).
The inside isn't completed yet, but I did just take the camper on the road a few days ago, going 100 miles (161 km)! Thanks to my brother, Doug, staying with our mom for 3 days, I could do this. He did some of the video filming, too.
Yes, here's a video of my 100-mile bicycle camper debut journey from Fruita, Colorado to Cisco, Utah (and back again)! I got to see Eileen Muza along with Jon Bartel (her artist in residence) and his art exhibit there.
Yeah, yeah, this video is full of typo and spelling errors. That's what I get for putting it together in a rush:
It was grand to see some other old friends from Moab and around I hadn't seen for the first time in like forever, as well.
The 100-mile round trip went well, though I did have a camper tire blowout on the way back to Fruita, limping back home.
It was a great trial run for possible future life on the road again.
Pics of the camper's building progress
I started this in the summer of 2017. It started with a bicycle trailer my friend Tim had found abandoned in a Wal Mart parking lot in eastern Oregon.
The frame is made from several aluminum camp chairs I found in dumpsters. It was almost mystical how they fit together perfectly, with minimal alteration, like a rector set. I also used some discarded aluminum strips from my friend's camper-trailer-building workshop (where the first pics here are taken).
My brother said the scale-like shingles reminded him of a dragon, so this inspired me to go with a dragon theme:
It was even decorated for Fruita's Christmas Light Parade in 2018
the you-tube link doesn't load from the website, and i can't find it anywhere else.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up. Not sure why it doesn't load for you. It does for me. I just edited the actual Youtube link into the post, & here it is again. Hopefully this'll work:
Deletehttps://youtu.be/kuulv0zsBGg
Thank you Thank you Thank you for existing and for sharing your adventures with us Suelo!❤
DeleteThis is great! I don't know if I could ever truly commit to being moneyless (still $28k of student loans), but I'm working on minimizing my dependence on it. I definitely feel like at best it's a tool we use to navigate life, nothing more. You are truly an inspiration!
ReplyDeleteif you feel the need to pay the student loans off you could do that first and then either do it full time from that point on .... or just periodically. 😉
DeleteDraggin' the dragon. .. Sitting in a house the scene never changes, I know. Great little video; love the art community. Long live the creative gypsy spirits ��
ReplyDeleteDan, that's an awesome ride! The photo of your mother as the Snow Queen is really sweet. Glad your trip was safe...hope you are well and happy!
ReplyDeleteI like it. Good for you Suelo. I haven't commented in awhile. I hope all is going well for you.
ReplyDeleteHi Suelo, I loved watching the movie and learning about your project through this page. One question -- did you lash the frame of camp chairs and other scrap metal together, and to the frame of the bike trailer, or did you use some other way of securely connecting the frame. I see in the pictures that there are numerous knots of what looks like discarded plastic rope -- Were there other methods of fastening the frame together, or just the rope knots?
ReplyDeleteAlex, yes, most I lashed together with bailing twine and plastic cord that you commonly find in abundance at the sides of highways. I secured some critical points with bolts through drilled holes. Some points I wired with bailing wire.
DeleteAh Thanks. The cord + bailing wire and bolts at key points. Thanks very much! And happy camper travels!
ReplyDeleteJust discovered you on the Only Human youtube vid. Wow....you have it made. Envious about you pulling away from the system like you have even if in part while you beautifully care for your mom..... inspiration are you. Glad Jesus kept you and has used you for the rest of us to see how He can and will. Lv u, Cat xo
ReplyDeleteJust found you on YouTube... I think you are awesome, im impressed with your journey, you are inspiring ❤
ReplyDeleteVery interesting stuff!
ReplyDeleteAn idea that'd be up to you if it would improve the design or not, velomobiles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velomobile
You could just make a "bike camper", like put the bicycle inside the camper kind of (make the camper be able to be pedaled). Or, if you haul the camper behind a velomobile, that might be more aerodynamic. Or, you could possibly make or get a slightly bigger velomobile and just sleep inside of it.
Hi, my name is Helia. Your home life looks exactly like mine, in my dreams. I moved outside when i left my mothers house.moved into the rainforest. But did t know Quite how to substantiate myelf with no food bank. Fid well talking to trees and askinv for fibrous bark. I always wanted to delve more and more into living dependance free, only relating to my nature. I would get close, but didn't have the organization or stability of location where i wouldn't be disturbed to really perfect it and get settled. Then winter came. Difficult, though i did make it as challenging as i could so maybe if i didn't inteninally push my limits of endurance i wouldn't be so concerned today haha. But nonetheless, these skillsets are so quiet in the dinn, ive extracted a bit since those aprox two years from books or a passing comment, but i would really like to find mentors who can show me knowledge from tested experience. or a resource that really engages me. To not be a total hermit learning the world from scratch the hard way. I try bit its a lot to take on. Knowing where one wo t be bothered. Im a young and relatively pretty woman, it took me a lot of courage when i still had to be close to civilization. How long did it take you to get comfortable year round? Theres a time for everything. Its nice to see someone with so much peace and the same loving lullaby and great uncovery: security is that the universe always has me. Amen and love. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteShalom !
DeleteI want to share with you. something about me that happened that may help you find peace concerning all that you're concerned about.
First You were designed perfectly by God to do God's will. We all are. .
There is a Spirit of Lust that can enter Any of us and there is a homosexual spirit and a many other types of lustful spirits.(I accidentally caught spirits on my cell phone camera during a upsetting call) .And .
They are sent upon us by The accuser bc lust or desires of the flesh is sin against God and we cannot convert if we are in it ? ..
We won't know how to fight it if we are not taught to fight and pray Spiritually..and if we are not even converted to.the bible (God's faith.) Or taught how to convert in truth .
This is why I struggled in my past bc I listened to mens teachings instead of Gods word .
We have all.been decieved.and been born into ROMEs politics law calendar that was adopted as a religion.
Instead of the practices.taught in the bible.
So no wonder why we don't understand
Spiritual warfare ..
It can only be done if the Spirit of God is within us .
But we are not taught how to convert properly and not to the faith of the bible but practices that Rome used for other gods. So we are eessentially in idolatry which is also how Satan can attack us. .
you are struggling with a Spirit of Lust and suicide and Only by accepting Jesus into heart can you defeat these .
DID you know we cannot even convert to God TO GET THE STRENGTH WE NEED TO FIGHT unless we do three things .
1.
Ask Jesus to.come into your heart and mind
2.
Romans 10:9.
Confess with your mouth that Jesus died and was raised by God from death
3. Converting to The Biblical faith God's/Jesus' Commands and Judgments >>(Not man's traditions )
Act 15:19 - Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from sexual immorality, and from things strangled, and from blood.
:21 - For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.
(God's commandments were called Moses law then but it is God's //Jesus commandments now. kept through Jesus blood Passover Offering and his spiritual.circumcision of the heart and mind ..writing the commandments (The Faith ) into our hearts Romans 2:15,Coloss 2:11 )
You were designed perfect for the Purpose of Serving God but Satan wants to destroy the perfection of God,
By corrupting you...He tried to do this to me too..
I was very addicted to men . In a demonic type of lust I could feel the darkness of it But I gave my heart and body and MIND (the strongholds satan had used ) to serve God and his will. now been cilibate for almost 10 years now!
Tell about Jesus..to help the orphans.widows feed the poor .
Forgiveness brings healing where unforgivnees anger resentment allows satan to have a stronghold
again .where he can bring lustful thoughts etc and to mess with you to manipulate you .
.Love brings healing
You are loved . You just need to know the God who made you from his own words .not by man's and if you do these things you will be able to have so much power over the demons.and help others suffering from the same spiritual attacks .
He is waiting for you to give it all up to him.
Love, lisa
The comment box is just below. Im glad youve found what works for you to heal.
DeleteWhat im interested in is putdoor survival; finding food, organization for weather, and confidence building with less buffering me from people.
Im pretty comfortable with coyotes and snakes, but would want a buddy system for dumpster diving haha.
Am hoping to find outlets for learning about living off the land that I haven't yet found.
The comment box is just below. Im glad youve found what works for you to heal.
DeleteWhat im interested in is putdoor survival; finding food, organization for weather, and confidence building with less buffering me from people.
Im pretty comfortable with coyotes and snakes, but would want a buddy system for dumpster diving haha.
Am hoping to find outlets for learning about living off the land that I haven't yet found.
I do know ill find what im looking for on my own, but its generally a good idea to reach out. Someone knows someone who knows someone with one door or another, and the connection train starts chugging. Connection is important.
DeleteIts also always exciting to see someone else doing a weird thing that i did entirely on my own
Would love to get in contact with you about a buddy system! Lmk!
DeleteHowever i actually realized that i needed to be a part of my fellow peoples lives, and that i was levaing myself behind if i were to leave everyone else behind. I would be loosing a part of my humnainity. And that it wasnt the humble way. It was more humble for me to go back into the percieved toxicity and destruction and from others about being a good human. Which was very diffuclt. I think we need exposure to the whole entirety of the world to grow from and be challenged by. Then our center becomes stronger. And we grow closer together as a people.
ReplyDeleteSo ive taken residence in a simple cabin which i enjoy greatly and now do in home elderly care.
Anyway you’d let me come live with you? I want to convert to a moneyless world and would love to journey with you!
ReplyDeleteHey Dug -
DeleteI'm not totally living moneyless now. I'm caretaking my 93-year-old mom now 24-7, including managing her finances, and I'm stuck in doors and so can't have people live with me like I used to. I've even had to cut off having visitors since Covid19. Oh well... it's all part of it.
Thanks for sharing the process creation of your dragon camper and hearing about your test run. Certainly having some repair supplies on hand like spare inner tubes and tools is helpful. So glad that your mom is with you to witness your creative ventures. Here is a poem for you:
ReplyDeleteBy William Stafford: The Way It Is
There is a thread you follow.It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t’ change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.
What a beautiful poem. The thread that ties humanity together, I'd presume.
DeleteIndeed, it is a beautiful poem. Thanks, Mel.
Deletelove the camper glad to see it went well enough
ReplyDeleteHello Suelo,
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine sent me the link to your video and I've been checking you out!
I never lived moneyless like you have done, but I have lived with very little money in a little old house that I try to to repair as much as I can and like you I try to reuse thrown out materials as much as possible...your lifestyle is much more simplistic than mine.
Your trailer is amazing and I understand what you mean when you say that the three aluminum chairs just fit in miraculously to achieve what you wanted...I get so excited when that happens with some of the stuff that I have here... that magical fitting/ connecting of different parts is just totally amazing!
Keep up the good work and take care
Interesting, very interesting. It is very interesting to be able to live without money in such a world. You look very happy on top of it. I don't think even some rich people are that happy.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from turkey.
I find this type of stuff inspirational.
ReplyDeleteSpent the day listening to a video interview of yours & reading your FAQ.
I'm about to buy a house & your giving me crazy notions of just walking away from it all.