Living & Working Remotely in a DIY Bus Home

Favorite parts about it getting a little bit more chilly is part of the daily routine is coming in here and starting this fire. It does suck when it's really cold out. You gotta get this going. But the bus retained some heat from last night so it was actually pretty nice in here comparatively to outside this morning. But as the coffee's warming up, let's just go over here and get the fire going. I do have to be a little careful because it gets a little loud. Because Linnea stays in bed a bit longer than I do. Once...once I wake up, I can't really go back to sleep. Alright, coffee's almost done. Time to start the fire. So one thing I do want to show you is these compressed wood blocks. If you have a wood fireplace, these are wood fireplace safe. And they're very inexpensive. This is a section of it. Basically what I do is just take my little hatchet here and cut off different sections depending on what I need. And I would say about one of these will warm up the entire bus. To keep it going, I just cut it up into smaller pieces, put the flue...or close the flue a bit to not let air flow through. So these just kind of smolder a bit and they last a very long time. However, I do need to have the regular wood to start the fire, get the coals going. But once I get that going, I can basically just swap back and forth from small pieces of wood to this and keeps the bus warm all day. But this is one of my favorite parts of the morning. It's getting this fire going. When the coffee's done, the fire's going, I got my laptop and I'm about to get to work. I typically don't work at my office setup or up front in the morning. I just have this little divider curtain that I'll close off this back area to keep it nice and warm. And I typically hop into bed with my laptop to get work done. Having the bus was the first time that I did this when I was at Jim and Debbie's building it. It was cold outside so I would just be in the back of the bus in the bedroom getting work done because I had no other heat source. And it was starting to get fall and cold. And for whatever reason, I just kind of developed that routine. So I am just going to throw some pajama pants bottoms on right now. I just have my snow pants that I wear during the day and hop under the covers and work for the next four or five hours. I've been doing this 5am, wake up and be in bed by 9am. And I don't have to be asleep by 9am, but I have to physically be in bed by 9am. Throughout the day I have to work out for at least a half an hour and walk at least a mile. That's been the routine that I've been doing for a little while now and I really enjoy it. So without further ado, starting to get a little chilly standing out here. So I'm gonna get some five hours of work in. I typically would be gone by now because I have a very large project I've been working on all summer here in Colorado. I can't really talk much about that for multiple reasons, but basically just location of where we're at and yeah, it's just tricky. And that's why I haven't been vlogging that much because five days a week I'm there filming all day. And in between meetings there's really not much that I have been doing besides randomly going out to the camping spot, which we've seen that a couple times, which isn't too exciting. And garage selling maybe once a week just to get out and do something that I absolutely love. But with the five hours of work, what I do is starts with admin. So emails, taking care of problems, and with Tiny Home Tours we operate on an OKR system. I read a book called Measure What Matters and an OKR is an objective and key result. And in that book it talks about that. So Hewlett Packard uses that, Google uses that, Adobe, a lot of very big companies use it. And it basically keeps you focused on one goal that is a stretch goal. So for example, this quarter, because the admin team of Tiny Home Tours runs on OKR quarters, I have to do 100 A-B tests of videos that are doing well, older videos on YouTube. I have to work on members, YouTube shopping, like basically bolstering up the YouTube channel. And other team members are doing other stuff like tracking metrics on Facebook or Instagram or outreach or commercial work, whatever it may be. We're operating on those OKR cycles and then I have monthly meetings with everybody to get updates on how their OKR is going, if they need anything. So that's what I did for the last five hours. I was doing A-B tests, working on channel members, just working on the computer. The power ended up going out on the bus. Luckily I have a 0.0 power system. It was fairly charged so I just brought that into the bus. I needed that for Starlink and also charging my laptop. Right now you can see some lights on, the monitor is still reading zero and it's cloudy. I do have a generator but Linnea is not a huge fan of the generator and it was like 6-7 in the morning when the power went out. So I'm waiting to run the generator till midday, get a boost with that and it's supposed to be sunny after that. Linnea stopped by and visited for a little bit. She made us both some more coffee and right now she went back to the van with the pups to premiere one of her YouTube videos. Kobuk has really been enjoying hanging out with the van. I think he likes the smaller cozy spot and Linnea has actually been watching him a lot when I go film. I can leave him in the car but it's a place where I'm filming. One of their dogs does not like Kobuk and he is an older dog. He's like 12 or 13 and luckily Kobuk just ignores him but that dog tries to fight Kobuk over and over again and I don't want them getting into a fight because that dog's pretty old. But yeah, he's been hanging out a lot over there and basically the mornings have been like this. Like I've made the goal to get up at 5am every morning. Linnea usually sleeps a little bit longer than me and these have been my mornings. This is it. Just from first time I, from right when I wake up, just drink a lot of water, drink some coffee and get to work. Usually I'm out of the bus by about 8 30 to go film. You know get all my camera gear and everything ready but today's a little bit different in terms of getting stuff done. Like I have a lot of projects that I don't really have time for during the week but I am going to start with the main project for right now and that's to clean the bus. I typically do a deep clean once a week and it definitely needs it right now. You want to offer me lunch? All right, so midday catch up. Got the generator started. Ended up having to put some power into the system. Basically what's happened is while it was sunny, I was using a lot of power. Basically showering every day. One of the big mistakes I made with this bus build was doing an electric water heater. So that's a lot of power with that and I was just being lazy sometimes just kicking on the heat pump with the mini split which takes a lot of power. What happened is a big streak of cloudy rainy weather came up and you know because I was using it so much it was sticking around 60 70 percent. Once it got cloudy I just didn't have enough power to maintain. Like I really wasn't using the water heater as much. But the Starlink, the laptop, charging camera batteries, just small stuff over time. The fridge consistently on. The chest freezer under here consistently on. Just drained it down. There's obviously a massive investment with this particular setup I have in the bus. I have 400 amp hours of 48 volt batteries. Dual phase 5000 watt inverters. But if you don't get the solar in, it's not going to work. Luckily I had the 0.0 this morning so I was able to just bring that in from the car. Had a decent charge on it. Be able to charge my laptop. Be able to run the Starlink and also kicked on the generator. I think that's just an example of having redundant systems. I wasn't able to kick the generator on at four or five in the morning this morning so I had to rely on the 0.0. Once everybody was up and moving around I kicked that generator on and that was pumping in about 2000 watts of power and then the solar has been fluctuating anywhere from 500 to 1500 watts depending on the cloud coverage. And right now the system's only like at 12% and that generator was on for like an hour and again pros and cons of big battery banks. Yeah they store a ton of power but when it comes time to recharge them it takes a lot of power to get them back up to you know full. So after today it's supposed to be clear for like five days straight and even with that I'm going to have to be careful with the power. I'll probably be taking some lukewarm showers and utilizing the 0.0 to be able to just charge the laptop. Be able to you know mitigate some of those power needs. So from the last checkup I watched Linnea's premiere, cooked lunch, cleaned the bus. The bus feels pretty good right now and this is usually where my day frees up. So being that I start very early around noon or one o'clock I'm able to decide what I want to do for the rest of the day and that's why I had this in my hand. For me personally it helps me write lists of things that I need to get done. This is a daily journal, a weekly journal. So with this one in particular you make your weekly goals and then each day your schedule, your goals, and just general notes of how you're feeling or what you're thinking about. So I'm going to be going through this and then I will probably get back to A.B. testing. I have about 50 A.B. tests and for this entire quarter I'm supposed to do a hundred but what I'm finding is as I'm going into the analytics and really looking at the channel, what's working, what's not, it's actually really fun. It's almost like a, I don't know, archaeological dig to where I'm just looking through videos, what's working, what's not, taking notes and then trying new things. So I'm putting new thumbnails on there and then I'm keeping track of when I change them and see if the views change, see what the click-through rate is. And with that I'm just able to have a better idea moving forward and then maybe also bump up some of those older videos and hopefully they hit the algorithm again. I do have a list of stuff that I need to get from the store but I may wait until tomorrow morning even though we're living off the grid and we have the garden, we still need eggs, we still need meat for the dogs. So I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with that but odds are I'll probably just stay here and chill and relax because the car has a check engine light on it and I'm hoping it's just a sensor. It's losing power a little bit and then I have an appointment scheduled for this upcoming Friday to get motor mounts changed and also new CV shafts and it's kind of one of those things like you put a lift kit on it and you get the extra clearance, you're able to take it further back but the stock parts are not used to, you know, this new camber, new things going on and it's just part of it and when I took it to the mechanic to see what's going on because it's pulling to the right when I accelerate, he's like, well you plan on having this car for a really long time? And I was like, yes absolutely because right now the car has 140,000 miles on it. I got it with 60 and I'm really hoping to have this thing for the whole 300,000-400,000 miles, just take really good care of it and it's just part of it. Having the tow car, like if I didn't have that tow car, the amount of filming I've been doing this summer, wouldn't have happened, wouldn't have worked. So I think I might wait to go to the store but even though we're able to hang out here and, you know, do our own thing, still have to go into town and grab stuff but I think I'm just gonna enjoy my day here in the bus because I'm gone filming basically from 9 a.m. to about 4 or 5 p.m. And I'm gonna kill these damn flies. There was a spawn of flies that happened this fall and thankfully they're all like, it's getting so cold out they're all dying. What's happening is when the bus warms up they start becoming active, probably saw a couple fly into my face. Actually, let me show you something. Nea got this for me. It is an electric fly swatter and it brings me so much joy killing these stupid flies with this thing. But I'm gonna kill some flies and then get back to work. Come on, open up. It's come to that time again. Clean out the nature's head. It's really not that bad. It just comes down to that time. I got that before I even did the roof raise. Had it shipped to Jim and Debbie's and really it's just like everything in life. You gotta deal with your ----. This is obviously more of a literal version of that but once a month just gotta get it done. Just give it a good cleaning. A lot of people ask me about composting toilets, if they smell, if there's issues. I think I don't know where my glasses are. I mentioned this on the channel before. This thing has been amazing. No issues with the mechanisms of it. I don't even vent it and there's no smell. Just use the coco coir and it's been working well, which reminds me. I need to get that started. So basically you gotta rehydrate your coco coir before you put it in. So instead of bumbling around and getting that done after, I'm just gonna do it now. But if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't get an incinerating toilet. I'm sure there's other brands similar to this out there that are just as good. This has been working great for me for, that was 2017. So had it for almost eight years now. No issues. Had it in other rigs. No issues. Alright, this is the tricky part. Is it going to be a simple exchange? Just give it the old knee bump. There we go. Now what I like to do here, put the coco coir in first and then I just use bleach wipes to clean everything up, get it all sterile again, ready for another month. Alright, toilet is all wiped down. New peat moss. An important aspect to this, if you're going to be holding on to this for a little while, is to double bag it. Not always easiest in a windy place, but and just like that, it's good for another month. So having a wood stove has been awesome, but part of it is definitely keeping up with firewood. And being that we're in the high plains desert, there's not much firewood laying around. So we do have to go to gas stations, hardware stores. So I mentioned before, the compressed wood works pretty good, but we still have to get it started. So that is where this Makita chainsaw comes in. I'll just pick up three or four bundles, usually last a while, because as you saw this morning, it just takes a little bit for it to get started, then we're good to go. But this Makita chain, this Makita chainsaw has been working incredibly well over the years. Linnea has been using it for her studio, cutting logs. I've been using it for cutting firewood. The reason why I have to cut the firewood is I have a tiny wood stove dwarf, and it won't accept a full length log. So I just cut them in half, then they're easier. It's much easier to cut them to the size that I need for the stove. Probably should have removed the battery before I started playing with this, huh? But just got this chain on Amazon. I had a kit for sharpening my chainsaw blade, but I don't know where it's at. Might have left it back at the shop in Kansas. As you can see, I'm in the car going to go run some errands in town. Two reasons. Number one, we're out of dog meat. So touch base on that a little bit more later. But also, it is Linnea's brother's birthday today, and I didn't get him anything. And it's not like I'm required to get him anything, but I always think it's good for somebody to get a little something for their birthday. So I'm going to run into town and grab him some ice cream. So we do spend a lot of money on dog food. The main reason for that is, for example, Kovac is going to be turning 10 this February. And whatever I can do to prolong his life, I'm absolutely going to do. So I know not everybody is super into pets, but think of a pet that you had, and if you could spend extra money to be with them for another year, you'd probably do it. So I'm just doing that proactively. Kovac's still super athletic, in really good shape, and I want to keep him that way. So we do a very good and expensive diet for the pups. But either way, that's why I'm going to town. And it is quarter till three. We got some some friends on the property. So apparently, here in Colorado, state law dictates that cattle can be on your property unless you put a fence up. And we don't have a fence. So these guys are visiting. Just finished shopping. I absolutely love being in this small town, like being close to it. But goodness gracious, the prices on food and everything around here is so much higher, because it's like, I don't know if it's like a touristy thing or what, but kind of sucks the car's not working, but that's the way it goes sometimes. So it is about four o'clock, about to head back, and depending on what Linnea's doing, might cook dinner for us, might hang out. Not too sure, but at the moment, it just feels so good to have everything squared away. The bus is clean, composting toilet, wood's ready to go, groceries are set for the week, and just have to get back to filming tomorrow, but it's just nonstop. Man, talk about buyer's remorse. It's like this one box. So much money. Granted, did get a lot of meat. A lot of meat for the pups. Moving the .0 in right now. The solar on the bus is only at 25%, and I'm really, really hoping tomorrow is a sunny day, and continuing on past that. Like, it's going to take probably all week to get this thing back up. Don't want to keep running the generator. Hopefully it doesn't go back down to zero, but I think with the .0 power station, it was out in the sun, charged pretty quick, so there should be enough for my laptop, Starlink. Yeah, it should be good to go. Dogs are following me because they are hungry. It's reading 80% sweet. There'll be more than enough for tomorrow. So, playing right now. Put groceries away. It's right before 5, 4 30-ish, and this is where I chill part of the evening, hanging out with the pups and Linnea, cooking some dinner, and I'm looking forward to it. Doria was something else. She got everything wrong. That idol's so young, there's no way he's got a wife and kid. Are we watching it on there? Yes, or we can watch it on the big one. What do you have to say to the people? Hi, people. You gotta look at them. Hi, people. What are you doing? Well, I'm making steak. I'm making a steak right now. I was all cozied up in the van, and now I'm over here making steak, and Chris is really excited about this anime called Dantadan. Dantadan. Dantadan. Yeah, you're right. It's on Netflix. And, um, I have also watched an episode. Two episodes. Two episodes. It was very good. So, dinner time, then anime time, and then what are we doing for the rest of the night? Oh, I'm gonna work. I'll probably get back to work too. We're going to the van because it's cold. It's just a little drafty in here. All right, let's do it. Okay. So, I don't know where the mic's at, but it is cold and rainy out there. Hopefully, this is the last of it because my shoulder. What was that? Why is it so stinky in here? Stinky? All right, it's time for bed. That's a day in the life. Hope you enjoyed. Any parting words? This book is so good. That's all. Okay, bye. What's up, babe? No. Does your light come on? No, like when your door's open, does it have a dome light on or something? I don't know. I'm sorry, babe. I'm recording. Anything you want to say? No. Are you zooming in? No. Hi, everybody.