welcome
For timely updates and photos, check out our posts.
To browse our accumulated knowledge, check out our notes.
current location
creatures
We are JADE and PHILIP; two humans from San Francisco, living and exploring with KISTE, our van. We are accompanied by our Greek Pathfinder (canine), ORTHROS.
We have been living in our van full time since March 2023.
machine
KISTE is a 19ft Sprinter 2500 4X4 cargo van which was converted for four-season full time travel and habitation.
KISTE contains a convertible bed, dry composting toilet, kitchenette with full sized sink and dual induction cooktop, diesel powered hydronic floor, roof fan, and DC powered aux air conditioner.
We travel with a rice cooker, an air fryer, and a nutmilk maker.
To power our house electrical systems, we have 420 watts of solar, a 10,000 watt lithium ion battery bank operating at 24 volts, and a 4,000 watt inverter for AC loads.
Essential systems operate directly from DC. We keep the inverter off, unless actively being used, to save power and reduce losses due to phantom draw and DC/AC conversion.
mythology
The name KISTE is a reference to the sacred box used during Greek antiquity in a spiritual rite known as the Eleusinian Mysteries.
These rites were held by an agrarian cult which worshipped Demeter (the goddess of harvest/agriculture) and Persephone (the goddess of the underworld).
“Sansonese speculates that the kisté, a box holding sacred objects opened by the hierophant, is actually an esoteric reference to the initiate’s skull, within which is seen a sacred light and are heard sacred sounds”
“I have fasted, I have drunk the kykeon, I have taken from the kiste (box) and after working it have put it back in the calathus (open basket).”
These rites, an aleged path to enlightenment, involved the consumption of kykeon. This elixir is suspected to contain ergot, a precursor to the synthesis of LSD.
philosophy
Minimize
Reduce our needs and wants.
Buy fewer things, repair what breaks.
Take Responsibility
For the resources we need to survive.
For our waste stream (and reduce it as much as possible).
Aggressively avoid single use items.
Choose simple compostable materials for our consumables and shorter lifecycle items.
It’s impossible to be perfect, but it’s worth trying.
Leave It Better
First: Leave No Trace.
Remove matter out of place when possible.
Beautify and create art if it can be done sustainably and respectfully.
real talk
A lot of energy, space, and resources were consumed to produce this box we live inside of. Also, traveling around in a vehicle consumes fuel and dumps motor exhaust and microplastics from our tires into the environment.
This truly sucks and we’d prefer if we could avoid it. It’s part of the reality we’ve accepted by choosing this lifestyle and something that we keep in mind when planning for the future.
We try to compensate for this in other ways. But the reality remains.
nerdspeak
This site is served from a single board computer (a RPi4) in our camper van. KISTE operates behind an aggressively caching reverse proxy running on a virtual machine we lease. When we are without internet connectivity, the results on this site may be stale.