NO HEATING: how do I stay warm in the van?

Good morning guys. I hope you're doing great. So today on this beautiful snowy day, I thought I would talk about something that I've been putting off on this channel for since I started the channel pretty much. I have something to share. It's for some reason that's a hard one for me to because mainly on my cat and I'm gonna go on this. So if you are new to the channel, I spent one year sleeping in my car. After that, I purchased the van. It's been a year and a half. So it's been three winter. That's the third winter that I live in a vehicle and I'm gonna put it away. I do not have a heater at all inside the van. I do have a heater in front like any car, but I don't have any extra heat coming up. And yeah, that's something that I've been putting off telling you guys, but I wanted this channel to be 100% myself, 100% honest with you. So I need to put that out. So if you, I know some people that I met in town and for some reason, everyone asking me that question, what I have for you for it. And some of them, I have to say, I lied. I said I had a Mr. Buddy, but it's just that I felt really uncomfortable to share that I didn't have a heater because I feel people are super worried about me when I told them this, which is by the way, not so bad. And I'm going to tell you like everything that I like. I'm going to tell you the reason why I don't have a heater. I'm going to tell you what I do to keep myself warm and cover all of this on this video. But the main reason it's not for me, it's for my cat. So I've been living with my cat for the past year and a half since I do have this van. And I'm going to share with you at the end what I do to keep her warm. We are doing super fine by the way. Don't worry about me. I do have so many plans. If something will go really bad, if we have like extreme cold weather or everything like this, I do have a lot of plan B if you want and a lot of other ways to keep myself and my cat warm. So why I do not have a heater, which by the way, sorry, if I told you that I had a heater, I'm sorry. I didn't want to lie to you guys. It's just like, like I said, I didn't feel comfortable telling you that I don't have a heater. So why I do not have a heater. I do not have a heater for several reasons. So I was sleeping in my car for a year. It was not a plan. It was, I was supposed to just sleep in my car until I get a place to rent. And while I was sleeping in my car, I realized that was not so bad. And I started thinking about van life and all that. And that was a really good way to save money. I didn't have to pay rent. Rent are extremely expensive here. So I just pushed myself and pushed myself. And when the winter came, I was like, Oh, should I go rent something and that I'm going to be all right. And December was fine. January was okay. February was pretty bad that year that I slept in my car. Not like extreme, like that was like freezing in the back of my car, but just, yeah, it was cold. I mean, I should not even say that it was cold. It was just like on the edge of being like a little bit uncomfortable, but so at that time I didn't have the cat by the way. So yeah, I didn't, I guess slept the full winter. I was glad when the winter was over, but yeah. So I'm going to show you everything that I did inside my car and everything that I currently do right now to keep myself warm, but I didn't have any way to keep myself warm other than the car itself. So it was like SUV. So it's super easy to just turn the car on and have like the whole place warm in like 15 minutes, not even. So that's the best part of having a small car is super easy to keep myself warm and all this. And I didn't really have a place and a way to have like a Mr. Buddy at that time inside my SUV. It was too small. And yeah. So when I purchased the van, it was in September. So the cat came pretty much in the same time that the van. So September I had to insulate and all of this. So winter came super, it was like, I think at the end of the September, in fact, and yeah, the winter came super fast on us and I was worried, not for me, for the cat. So I purchased Mr. Buddy because that was the only thing at that time that I thought that would help me keep myself warm, but the Mr. Buddy didn't work as soon as I purchased I never even tried on or anything. So I decide that at that point was already close to like January that I would not have a heater. I have like several plans that I'm going to share with you. If something would go bad, especially with the cat being cold. But by the way, my cat never, I never came into the van and she was like cold or anything. She's a rescue, which I'm quite confident that she was living for the first year that she, before I rescued her, that she was probably living in the barn with other cats. And I'm quite sure it was cold at that time because like I rescued her in the Okanagan, north of the Okanagan. So it gets really colder at that point over there. Here in British Columbia, where I am, I am close to Vancouver. Most of the day it rains. So this is not usual to have some snow right now. So, and once in a while we do have a cold front, but yeah, most of the time it's going to rain here. So it's usually above zero freezing point and it's not that bad guys. So yeah, the winter came on us. I didn't purchase anything. We didn't do anything. So this year, this winter, my plan was to get something and I thought about the option. I didn't want a Mr. Buddy. I don't want a big propane tank inside my van. So I think it's called the Wave 3, Wave 6. All those ones was not something that I wanted. And the Chinese diesel heater kind of like start to be talking in like in YouTube and all that. We start hearing a little bit more about it that before I'd never heard about it, to be honest. So I was like, okay, I'm going to get a diesel heater. It seems to be the right choice for me for what I want. And my, I hurt myself at work, my back, October, November. I'm not going to go too far with that, but yeah, I hurt my back and I didn't know if I would keep my job and all of this happened and we ended up not having anything. All right. Let's know that we talk about all of this. I'm going to try to go fast because I can see that I already spoke for a while. I'm going to show you exactly what I do to keep myself warm. So everything pretty much start with the bed. If I am warm when I sleep, this is awesome. So this one here, it's an electric blanket that I plug on my little Jackery. Sorry. So I usually put my little Jackery on top here. Uh, it's a Jackery 240 non-sponsor and I just plug this. It takes a lot of power. So maybe I can turn it on. So I'm just going to turn it on right now and put on a medium, which usually what I do, I'm going to show you how much power that I take, uh, right there, 140 watt hand, like the power. So it's like a lot of juice. Um, so I heard some people say that you can purchase, um, car heating blanket, um, which take way less power than this one. This one is just a household one. Um, so that's something that I wish that I knew before I purchased it, but this is not something that I had inside a car. Um, I didn't have any power. I didn't have the Jackery. Uh, when I was in my car, this is just something that I had this year and I didn't use that much. Um, what I do, I put it between my blankets before I go to bed, which make the bed all nice and warm. And, um, I only done it like I think three or four times, not that much. So I think the key to keep myself warm is having a lot of blankets. I do love having a lot of blankets and I do have this sheet that I put on top of my mattress, um, which will keep me warm. I also have the same kind of like warmer pillowcase. Um, this feel cold when you touch it with your hands, it feel cold. So this feel way warmer. Uh, I have another small, small blanket. Um, so this is between, like usually I put the, um, eating blanket if I need it between here. So it's nice and warm if, and I turn it off when I go to bed. Uh, I have another little duvet thing. It's not warm at all. Just something that I already had. I have this, which is a sleeping bag that I leave open. Uh, I don't close the sleeping bag. I hate sleeping in, inside a sleeping bag. So I leave it open. Uh, it go to minus, I will have to check. Uh, let me double check this. I go minus 20 maybe, uh, degrees. I have this little blanket. Um, it just like a nice little heavy blanket that I think my grandma made at one point or something like this. I don't know. I have this and the electric blanket. So a couple little things that I do have for me and for the cat. Um, I do purchase, I have a couple of those hand warmer and they do sell like a bigger size. Um, so I think the thing for me at least is to have my feet warm. If I do have cold feet, I'm going to have a hard time. You know, I can be like all warm. If my feet are cold, I'm not going to have a good night of sleep. So, um, this week I had like, um, one of those inside my pair of socks, um, keep me super warm. Uh, it's also that I keep them, uh, for the cat once in a while. Uh, if I just want to give her a little bit of like warmer, a warm bed or whatever, um, I'm going to pop one of those, uh, one. And I do usually have, I don't have any more, I have to purchase some, uh, bigger size, which they are come from almost that size. They are for like, you usually put them in your back when you go, uh, skiing, something like this. And I usually put one of those inside a little bed. So, and that's like super warm. They last, I think 18 hours and those ones last 10 hours. So, um, that's you, you'll be surprised. Those get super warm. So this is what I do for me. And for the cat, I tried the water bottle that you just put some hot water inside. I didn't like it. I didn't, I done that when I was sleeping in my car. Uh, I just don't like that. Maybe that bottle of water is going to spill inside the bed. I just, I hate it. So I've done that just once and I know now I just, yeah, just put that and it's fine for me. Um, for the cat now, um, right now she's in the front. So the best part with, I think with, oops, sorry. I think with the cat is that she's really good to keep herself warm. Um, right now I just had a little drive. So the front dash is really warm from the motor of the van. So she's warm there. And when sunny, she's just gonna be there, take some sun and be super, super warm. Even if it's cold. Um, the other thing that she's got, so another thing that she's got camera a little bit better. Uh, another thing that she's got is an eating pad. So those pads are not, um, are for, uh, when you hurt yourself, you want to like a heating pad. Um, sometime I use it for myself to, instead of the electric blanket, uh, use weight as part of this. And, uh, three settings. Um, so sometimes she's going to have a little treat and she's going to have this, uh, when it's cold. But, uh, most of the time, like those heating little pad, a front dash, get her warm herself. Uh, she sleeps under the blanket with me in the summer. In fact, um, she always did that. Even when I had the, um, um, house, she was sleeping under the blanket with me from time to time. So, uh, in, um, the night I'm not worried. She sleep with me. Um, so yeah, that's thing that cover everything that I wanted to share about this. Um, yeah, it's not as bad as you think, guys. Um, I was like, yeah, I was, I don't know why, but I was, I didn't want to talk about that subject. And a lot of people in the comment section were asking me and, uh, people that I was meeting to, um, here in town. So, um, yeah, I guess I'm glad that, that I put it up there. Um, the winter is almost over, so, uh, we are fine right now and yeah, usually it's above freezing, uh, level, uh, freezing point. I should say here where I am. So, um, and yeah, we are fine. I know it's quite extreme and it's quite crazy for a lot of people, but yeah, it's, uh, just our, it is right now and next winter, we're going to get a heater and probably like all my friends told me right now, I'm not going to want to move from the van. I'm going to be like, why I didn't have a heater before. Uh, but seriously it is, yeah, it's not as bad as you think. Uh, as long as you do have a lot of blanket, um, a good sleeping bag, you're going to be super warm. Like seriously, sometimes I'm just almost sweating inside all my blankets. Uh, it's not a joke. And it's during the day. Yeah. We do a little bit more driving. Uh, I do have the heater from the van. So I have 20 minutes little driving. If it's pretty cold, that's going to keep us warm. I do have plan B if you want, like if something really bad will happen, if something gets super, super cold, um, we definitely got to go at the hotel or not. That never happened, but that's, you know, some plan. Um, or maybe my cat would go with some friends. Um, but yeah, for now it is totally fine guys. And I wanted to share this because if you do plan, maybe just do a getaway with your car or maybe you sleep in your car and maybe you sleep in the back of a pickup truck with like a top on and you don't have the option of having a big heater. Uh, you only have little Jackery and most people don't sleep, uh, Jackery, uh, Mr. Buddy, sorry. And people don't sleep with the Mr. Buddy all night long because she's not that safe. So yeah, those are my little tip. Hopefully you enjoy. And, um, yeah, I hope you enjoyed this little video and, um, I will see you soon guys. All right.