After a series of adventures took us from the Rockies down to San Diego and all the way across I-10 to Gainesville, Florida, our crew finds itself camped out at Dan's sister's house. I got a laptop for Christmas, so posts about the in-between times are forthcoming, but I felt that I needed to do this post first.
Dan's sister is having her third child this week, so we came to help babysit her other 5- and 6-year-old girls. Her husband works nights and sacrifices much of his daytime sleeping schedule to help out, but when a new baby is expected it's always nice to have a couple extra hands on board. They live in a nice residential neighborhood, and so some of the neighbors don't appreciate a big "ugly" green scary monster parked by the house. I think we look rather well put together, but I can see how the mystery could worry some people. Concerned neighbors called the police a couple times, and each time a Sheriff came he told us that as long as we weren't blocking anyone's driveway we weren't doing anything illegal, even though we mentioned the animals. Among members of the school bus conversion community it's a well-known fact that people tend to discriminate on "Skoolies" more than regular RV's, but this is the first time we've really experienced it.
Our bus is designed to keep our pets healthy and happy. We have AC for the summer heat, and both electric and propane heat for cold weather. We have screens on the windows for ventilation as well as a roof vent. Everyone has water at all times and is fed daily. The goat has unlimited access to hay and also has three different kinds of pellet food. When there's a dog park around we visit and let the dogs and goat run around like crazy people. When we are in an area that the dogs may bark at people walking by, we put up Reflectix in the windows so that they can't see outside and it keeps them quiet. If neighbors would take the time to get to know us, they would see that we're not scary, rude, abusive, or loud.
Yesterday I took everything out of the rear end of the bus so that I could clean the goat pen and storage areas. Rosie's pen is a 25 sq. ft. elevated grated floor with a front and back gate and a drop pan that drains into a closed bucket underneath. I usually clean it out every two weeks, which involves dumping the bucket and scooping out a couple 5-gallon buckets full of goat berries. The original idea was that both kinds of waste would go down the drain to a tank outside the bus, but with our time crunch to get to North Dakota we didn't manage that sophisticated of a system.
Cleaning the goat pen was the first step to a deep spring cleaning of the bus. When we lived in the pop-up camper, things got stinky even without the goat being inside very often. In the bus there's also a toilet. I don't know if you've ever been in an RV with a waste tank, but those gases tend to escape into the living area, and despite the chemical enzyme magic tablets that tout "odor-free!" there's not anything we can do about it until we have the time and money and tools to install an effective roof-vent.
Dan's mother is flying in to help out with the newborn baby, and she is a very clean person and has not yet seen the bus in person. So I wanted to make our bus as clean and nice-smelling as it can be. Unfortunately as I was scooping out goat poop a reporter came by and wanted to ask about the bus. Normally I would be thrilled, but I was appalled that she caught me with all my junk in the yard and covered in stink to boot. Hoping that she'd at least avoid broadcasting the mess, I brought out Rosie for her to see and told her our story. I told her that another day once the bus was clean enough I'd be happy to show her around. She had to leave for the five o'clock news, and as she drove away a man in a white SUV pulled up and began taking pictures of the goat and the bus without my permission. When I read "Code Enforcement" on the side of his vehicle I felt like I had been tricked into bringing the goat out onto the property.
I explained to him the two Sheriffs had already given us the "ok," but he said that they were wrong and he outranked them. That I'm not sure about, but whatever. He said that we were in a residentially zoned neighborhood and livestock were not allowed. He said that the local news station and some other neighbors had reported it. He was quite rude about it at first and kept ignoring me and taking pictures and talking on his phone while I was trying to converse with him. Dan came out and also explained that we were there to help his sister, and his sister's husband also came out and tried to explain. It wasn't until the 9-months pregnant lady came out of the house and her crying and confused six year old came to the door to watch that he seemed to believe what we were telling him. We're here until she comes home from the hospital to help out. The goat is not living here, and she's not even on anyone's property besides in her pen in the bus which was specifically designed for her. After that he softened a bit and said that as long as we could move the bus into the driveway and would leave before he came back in a week or two to check, then he would just send a warning to the house and that would be the end of it. We all thanked him for being so understanding, and were glad that we could continue to help the family.
Immediately afterward, as I was trying to reassemble the storage situation in the back of the bus, I got a phone call from the news station. The woman cheerfully asked me what the code enforcement officer had said, and whether or not we had been kicked out. I told her that he had mentioned that it was the news station who had tipped him off, and that we were not kicked out, and left it at that. She said it wasn't them. I didn't want to cause any drama or fuss with the news, because I don't want our lovely little band to be presented in a negative light. Today when Dan searched for "Gainesville FL goat school bus" an article popped up about the situation. I was satisfied with the way we were presented, but wished that they had left the address out for the privacy of Dan's relatives. I'm hoping to contact them about it today and ask them to please remove it. We're happy to answer any questions about our unique living situation, and provide tours and pictures, but not on the private property of a young family.
Here's the link to the news article:
http://www.wuft.org/news/2016/01/07/one-nation-under-goat-bus-swings-through-gainesville/
After all of this I went across the street to introduce myself to one of the neighbors who we suspected might be behind some of our problems. I shook his hand and had a pleasant conversation and explained why we were there and that we didn't want to cause any trouble for the community. He said that his grandkids had shown him our blog and that he thought what we were doing was interesting and thanked me very much for coming and talking to him. I wish I could talk to every naysayer in the community and show them that we're good people and that we're only here to help out for a short time. I believe that being open and honest with people who may be under- or mis-informed is the best way to fix this sort of thing.
So yesterday I was unable to clean the bus and I'm going to try and do it all today before Dan's mom arrives at the airport tomorrow. I hope she understands if it's not spotless.
This new computer has no pictures on it yet, but once things calm down a bit I'll try to fill you readers in on our journey across I-10. Hope you had a wonderful holiday!
