Sunday, September 26, 2010

a word about tetanus

(edited to add some numbers.)

yesterday, when i was getting some wood together to bring home to work on the washer, i stepped on a nail.

it went through the sole of my show and about 1/4 inch into my heel. at first i was nervous about the sight of blood and because it freaking hurt. i called to nicholas and told him to run into steven's grandparent's house to get steven and tell him i was bleeding.

by the time steven ran out, it was already clotting. there was like 1 tsp of blood total.

i wanted to go home and get it cleaned up but, as we were getting ready to leave, i changed my mind. i wanted to go over to the cab-over and get some stuff out of it.

right now, it's a little sore but nothing i can't handle. i've definitely had worse.

i had more than one person ask me, " was the nail rusty?! is your tetanus shot up to date??"

no and no. and even if it were rusty, it is no more likely to give me tetanus than any other deep cut.

you don't get tetanus from rust.

i'll say it again.

you do not get tetanus from rust.

my last tetanus shot was in 1994. (don't ask me how many times i had to write that date on girl scout permission slips. it was too many to count.)

i've had hundreds of cuts, deep and superficial, since then. this one is no different than any of those. in fact, i got another cut on my hand yesterday and 2 more today, one of which i had to duct tape closed so i could keep working.

from cdc.gov:

Transmission

Enters the body through a break in the skin. Tetanus is not transmitted from person to person.

from the mayo clinic (bolding mine):

Causes

The bacteria that cause tetanus, Clostridium tetani, are found in soil, dust and animal feces. When they enter a deep flesh wound, spores of the bacteria may produce a powerful toxin, tetanospasmin, which actively impairs your motor neurons, nerves that control your muscles. The effect of the toxin on your nerves can cause muscle stiffness and spasms — the major signs of tetanus.


so no, i am not going to get a tetanus shot because the small cut on my foot happened to be cause by a nail.

every year in america, there are 4.5 million dog bites, 37,000 nail gun injuries, and 500,000 burns, 16,300 non-fatal gunshot wounds. these are all examples of way tetanus spores can enter a human body. let's assume, for arguments sake, that these are the ONLY ways to get tetanus. that's 5,053,300 injuries per year.

there is an annual average of 43 reported cases. there were 500 cases reported annually before widespread use of the vaccine was used in the mid 1940s. i'll put myself in the pre-vaccination catagory because i am unvaccinated.

the percent chance of getting tetanus is <.01%. (i had to enter 5,000,000 into the field instead of the exact number because it errored.)

if i get lockjaw in 7-12 days, i'll let you know ;)

ack! asbestos!

so that fridge turned out to just be an icebox. which is fine but it was completely wrapped in asbestos. ew.

steven got most of it off there. then scraped more off later. we are going to re-insulate it in that foil bubble wrap stuff.

we also taped off where we are going to paint purple chalkboard strip on the driver's side.


we also scrubbed out the bathtub. steven hammered out a couple dents in the bottom. i painted some rust converter in a few spots (that's why it looks dirty in the pic).


we started a little on the kitchen. we picked up a desk thingy from a dumpster a few weeks ago. we are going to use it for the kitchen counter and back splash. i didn't get a pic of it though. i should have.

we measured and cut out a hole for the sink, which cleaned up really nicely. i have to shave a little off the inside edges to get the sink to fit a little better.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

diy james washer

james washers are expensive. like, crazy expensive.

so we're building one.i traced a circle with a wash tub onto a ceiling panel and steven cut it out (with the boys help).

then he cut it down the middle.

to make 2 half circles. these are going to be the sides.


we measure and cut a flat piece from a ceiling panel. then we bend the sides that had rivet holes up and clipped in between the holes so it would curve.

we're going to work on it some more tomorrow afternoon :D

score!

we went over to that cab-over camper to get the sink and fridge (we didn't get the fridge today) and outside it there was a 2'x4' bathtub! woohoo!


we were going to get a sit down shower like this. but this is great! i was really bummed at the thought of the boys not being able to take baths. now they can! and it was free!

we also got the little sink out. it's the exact size sink that i wanted so that worked out perfectly.
we also grabbed the drawers and cabinet faces. at the very least we can use the hardware.

we got the first coat of purple with unsanded grout on the chalkboard strip. we're going to wait until it's not so hot to pain anymore. i was painting and steven going behind me with the roller to smooth out the paint. but the paint is drying so fast that it's difficult to get it rolled out quickly enough.

i think we decided we're going to paint the bus blue. it's going to have the purple chalkboard strips and everywhere that's black we're going to paint green.

we're keeping the name even though we're changing the color ;)

Friday, September 24, 2010

brown paper bag floor

we were thinking about buying a planer and shooting reclaimed pallets through it for the floor.

but then!

i found this tute for brown paper bag flooring. i love it!

steven thought we should do a tester before we do the actual floor. i did an old table we have on the deck. yesterday i did the paper and today i did the first coat of poly.

here's what i learned:
1.) 2'x4' uses 3 bags
2.) don't put the glue on the surface first, put it on the paper.
3.) use bigger pieces of paper. small pieces take forever.
4.) when tearing the paper, hold the words facing you and tear toward yourself. the color doesn't show when you do it this way.

before paper

after paper

close up of not tearing the paper correctly.

after the first coat of poly

bump in the paper where i didn't glue correctly.

chalkboard!

i stole an idea from the halldorson family at unschoolingliberty. the painted some of their bus with chalkboard paint. how exciting! what a great idea! we went the next day to get stuff to do it too.

we wanted it purple though so we got some purple paint and unsanded grout like in this tute. we only did 2 coats of plain paint so far. i painted with the paint brush and steven followed behind me with the foam roller to make it smooth.

we also pressure washed the ceiling.

we got a lead on a free cab-over camper. steven went over a couple days ago and was kind of disappointed. the boys and i went over this morning. they played on the playground on the property while i checked it out. it looks like the only things that are salvageable are the sink and fridge. i was hoping for a stove. we'll just have to keep looking. :)

Friday, September 17, 2010

decreasing volume

we love movies. a lot. and we have a lot of them. but the boxes are huge in comparison to the dvd itself. so instead of getting rid of movies, i'm getting rid of their boxes.

i cut out a cardboard template so i could cut out a piece of the cover so nicholas (we, all, really) could find which one he wants to watch easier.


we have to get a second folder. this one filled up and there are still a few that need taken out of their case. i'm going to to a folder for A - M and one for N - Z.


the "grown-up" movies are going to be a project. yikes. i think we will probably end up getting rid of a bunch of them.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

trains

nicholas and i went through and tossed half his train set. he had no problem getting rid of any of it. he did take back a crane though :P

he had so much that he never played with them because it was overwhelming. people (including us) didn't know what to get him that fit in the no plastic no battery criteria. so they got wooden train track pieces with plastic accessories. oi.

steven went to the bus yesterday instead of coming home for lunch. he got off the last ceiling panel. he needed to grind it off around the door.

the front box with the handle is the keep box. the box behind him is the toss box.

when we were sorting keep/toss, nicholas exclaimed "nooooo! my train set is doooooooomed!" haha it was so funny.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

more de-skinning

more de-skinning this weekend.
we got half of the ceiling done on saturday.

the boys played built a bridge while we were taking the insulation out.

finished the ceiling on sunday.

up next: pressure washing the glue and insulation that didn't come up.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

a few toys and a cricket

i always hated when my parents would get rid of my toys when i was little. i think it was somewhat traumatic for me. toys would be there one day and just gone the next.

the first time i tried getting rid of some of nicholas' toys he was a baby. under one year old. i had a panic attack because i didn't want to hurt him by getting rid of his things. it was rough. i think i ended up getting rid of 1 grocery bag's worth.

so this morning nicholas and i went through toys together. it was more painless than i thought it was going to be.

we had a little back and forth regarding the train station. he wanted to keep it (and so did i, really) but we just won't have room for it in the bus. :(

so we got rid of: half the blocks, 1 small wire toy, 1 plastic xylophone (we had 2), 1 big activity cube (we had 2), an abacus (we had 2), the train station, and 2 huge stuffed frogs.


when we went out to do the laundry today we found a big cricket stuck in our laundry bucket. poor guy!

nicholas wanted to keep him but when i reminded him that his family was probably looking for him, he let him go.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

10 gadget getout!

i found this blog today called organizing dinner. the author and i happen to be from the same hometown. (lehigh valley!)

she blogged a challenge a couple months ago called the 10 gadget getout. challenging us to get rid of 10 kitchen gadgets. at first i thought "uh, yeah right. i use EVERYTHING!" but i tried anyway. turns out i could. :P

teapot
food mill
jello egg mould
garlic press
can opener
apple corer
dough mixer
2 cheese cake pans
sifter
george forman grill
noah's feet with shoes on the wrong feet... oh wait. :p

all bagged up and ready for the yard sale pile.

labor day weekend = more working (on the bus)

saturday --> steven pressure washed the engine and underside of the bus. i painted rust converter on the middle step and around the wheel wells.


sunday --> i painted and covered/siliconed the middle step with 3/4" plywood. we de-skinned the driver's side. steven started scraping some rust from underneath.


monday --> we de-skinned the door side and one panel from the ceiling.


we're going to replace all the yucky fiberglass insulation with foam board insulation.


i forgot to bring the camera this weekend so we went over to take pics after the library. their favorite time of the week!

they were read a book called "the potter" (that i can't find a link to because everything is either harry potter or peter rabbit) then we played with homemade playdough that the librarian made. fun!

Friday, September 3, 2010

baby clothes purge

i thought getting rid of baby clothes was going to be a lot harder than it was. i've gone through them before but this time was a lot easier. i went into it with the thought of only keeping my favorites instead of keeping everything that was wearable.


the garbage bags is the get rid of pile. the 2 blue tubs and the juliette gordon lowe birthplace bag is the keep pile. the bag only has my breast pump and blood pressure cuff. they will go in another box later.
noah doesn't look too happy about getting rid of his old clothes. haha

the yard sale pile os really starting to gain some mass now. i like it.