Mobius Microfarms: Helping you grow sustainable produce and fish from home!

Ever want to grow your own veggies and protein source, while saving water at the same time? There’s an ancient permaculture method whereby you can do all of it at once: Aquaponics. A resurgent trend that is getting bigger – … Continue reading

The Toilet That Will Change the World!

Living full-time on the road and in the woods has put our survive and thrive priorities up front – instead of paying someone else to take care of our needs, the basics take up a good chunk of our time. … Continue reading

There is only ONE way to roast a turkey (and it’s EASY)!

Every year I see the media barrage of new and interesting tips and tricks to roast a Thanksgiving Turkey. I’ve read so many silly recipes over the years that basically instruct people how to make a soggy-skinned death trap in only 78 … Continue reading

Exuberance Farm: Mini Cattle!

-Click here to see more, including updates from the road!-   Larry and Nancy Midlin should be having a little cow right about now. Last week, mom was set to go into labor any day at the beautiful Exuberance Farm in Northeastern … Continue reading

Where is Von Kroug Farm? | Free Range Quest

Where is the Von Kroug Farm? Maybe you can tell us —

von kroug farms3

Fishpeople of the Pacific Northwest: Pure, sustainable, delicious.

As long as Free Range Quest is on the road, finding healthy, fresh and local food (especially meat and fish) is an important part of our day… and sometimes it can be tough! So we were really excited to discover … Continue reading

The Rhythm of the Road

“We saw that painted bus coming and we thought ‘oh no, here come more of those dirty hippies,’” the Ranger told us at the park gate. “But we were wrong, the bus looks great – and you guys don’t smell … Continue reading

Day 1 on the road: Decompression

Click HERE to like us on Facebook for more photos and updates from the road, including our first rolling home-cooked meal and daily travel essentials! _____________________________ On our last day in our old house, we awoke to a classic hot … Continue reading

Bus Conversion Gallery – Before and After!

BEFORE: AFTER: Like us on Facebook to see more photos and updates from the road!  It took a year, a lot of hard work, a lot of re-purposing. The words “shim” and “jerry-rig” were bandied about quite a little bit… … Continue reading

Ed Begley Jr. visits Free Range Quest!

Ed Begley Jr. is perhaps the most well-known face of the Mother Earth News Fair. His work in comedy and drama (Spinal Tap, Arrested Development, Portlandia, St. Elsewhere) is rivaled only by his passion for living and promoting a greener … Continue reading

The Myth of the Vacation

In the immortal paraphrasing of Slack Master Ferris Bueller – leaving our jobs, selling our house, and liquidating most of our possessions to live in our bus may seem a little childish and stupid, but then, so is the rat … Continue reading

DIY sliding, barn-style door for our bus/RV conversion — UNDER $30!

I created a sliding door ALFie’s bathroom for under $30! Some of these barn-style door hardware kits are hundreds of dollars, I wanted to find a way to simplify and slash that cost drastically (Later we added a custom stained-glass … Continue reading

Wine cork floors! -or- How being drunken hoarders helped us remodel our bathroom!

Normally we are anti-hoarding, but in this case, it helped us! We had been saving wine corks in a vase for a few years for no particular reason. Between our collection plus that of a friend and our parents we … Continue reading

Bus aromatherapy: Sealing our cedar walls the natural, DIY way!

Chemical based sealers will often peel as the natural cedar oils degrade them, so finishing or staining cedar walls isn’t recommended. Sanding the walls with a fine sandpaper will revive the cedar scent as the aromatics dissipate over time.  Another food-safe, non-toxic, … Continue reading

Recipes on the Road: Orange Elk Stew For Two

Here is a recipe for elk stew that I made in my mini slow cooker — the perfect size to cook with in an RV to make a simple and delicious meal** for two: Ingredients: 1 lb. elk steak or … Continue reading

Simple, inexpensive roll-up bus/RV curtains

Here’s a little DIY curtain project for our awkwardly sized bus windows, they are easily removable and totally convertible — We added a screen print of one of our favorite band posters from Saint Jude to dress it up, but … Continue reading

Kitchen counter and storage install part 2 + Bathroom walls!

The short bus conversion in progress! Subscribe here or follow us on Facebook to see more updates as our project moves ahead! Night and day (in below freezing temperatures and with multiple layers of clothing) we installed the kitchen countertop and sink, … Continue reading

Kitchen counter and storage install part 1 -or- Our remodel, frozen in time!

We have rain, freezing temperatures, and back-to-back illnesses — but we persevere! Luckily, we have ALFie’s mini cube fireplace to keep us warm while we continue to rehab our 1999 diesel GMC bus into the perfect rolling cabin. Right now … Continue reading

Sandor Katz visits Free Range Quest!

We at Free Range Quest are blessed to meet so many who motivate, inspire, and teach us. Sandor Katz has been called evangelical in the way he speaks about fermented foods. It has been said that he “has become for … Continue reading

Unraveling the Mystery of Ikaria – The Enchanted Island Of Centenarians

The Island Where People Forget to Die – NYTimes.com.

Unraveling the mystery of why the inhabitants of Ikaria, an island of 99 square miles that is home to almost 10,000 Greek nationals, live so long and so well.

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As usual, a clean diet and strong social circle seem to contribute to a long life —  “Even if you’re antisocial, you’ll never be entirely alone. Your neighbors will cajole you out of your house for the village festival to eat your portion of goat meat.”

 

 

Leap of Faith: Why we are selling our 3-story home (and moving into a bus)

“Look back to where you have been, for a clue to where you are going” -Unknown “I sure hope not.” -Me I said to my wife the other night, “In the last decade of my life, I can clearly mark … Continue reading

Bus conversion slideshow! Passenger seat installation – AND the bed platform is DONE!

David, working himself to death!

The navigator/passenger seat that we converted from an old office chair is now mounted with 360 swivel action! Carefully calculating the space we had to attach the seat without disturbing anything in the undercarriage was a daunting task! Dave spent … Continue reading

A glimpse into the future of our bus conversion! -or- Things to do on a bearskin rug!

Here is a glimpse into our RV bus conversion, this tiny home design is complete (with some fantastic personal touches sure to be in place for the bus-warming party, thanks to starchitecht, Colin Jensen)! — Note the powder room with … Continue reading

Building the Bed Platform -or- The Case of the Tiny Space!

This week we started the construction of the bedroom in ALFie. We decided on a raised storage platform because storage is what we are lacking most in the space and we liked the idea of the bed being toward the … Continue reading

Keep on truckin’! Powering through discouraging delays

Though we’ve had some major delays in our remodel schedule, we were still able to make some great progress during the month of August. We got a pretty nasty rock chip in the windshield and that needed to be repaired … Continue reading

Car Parting: Becoming a one-car household for the good of the Quest

We are striving to live a more simple life. To clear the clutter so that we can form a more meaningful view of our world and cultivate the best relationships possible. Sometimes simplicity isn’t easy, our attachments to certain things … Continue reading

Shocking confessions on the road to minimalism -or- The weird shit we hoard

 This is not a story for the chicken-hearted… Or my parents… or in-laws who would undoubtedly be horrified… There is something that I must reveal in a public forum so that anyone reading might hold us accountable and shame us … Continue reading

Inspiration at the Mission: “I’m Fine, Thanks”

Kristina and I paid off all of our debt in 2011. Save for our home, we have no loans. We have worked very hard to become more self-sufficient (stop paying people to do things we could learn to do ourselves) … Continue reading

Free Range Quest: The Uniform: some staples we enjoy -or- the search for THE ULTIMATE UNIFORM!

Below are some items we wear currently as clothing staples. Many we chose  based on a low price, ease of replacement, quality, and fit. I always keep an eye out for items that wash well and don’t wrinkle easily because … Continue reading

The Uniform: what wares we wear and where…

Steve Jobs passed away around the time that my wife and I started getting very serious about living a more minimalistic and intentional lifestyle. Jobs was a unique and fascinating individual; the bold exclamation point on his physical presence was … Continue reading

The minimization station becomes a fundraiser for freedom at our first Free Range Quest garage sale

I can’t believe it’s June. Of course, when it’s 50 degrees and rainy ten months out of the year it’s tough to see summer coming. After a very late night show with The Old States in St. John’s on Friday, … Continue reading