Full Time SOLO Vehicle Dwelling and Outdoor Living

Hello!

I'm Candice (formerly born and raised in Eastern CO, lived in SoCal for 20+ years and now live wherever I park it!). Relatively new to the permaculture culture and community! I learned about Paul W last summer, and did 1 week in the bootcamp late August just before Labor Day of 2022. It was hard, but I loved it. I'm sure I got on people's nerves! However, the other boots still taught me a lot (#gratitude!!!). And I'll be returning soon.

Fast forward to February...
I pulled the plug and went full time vehicle dwelling. I had a rooftop tent installed in October, used it once and then well, a crazy and long winter hit! I'm also equipped with a portable 12v Setpower dual fridge/freezer, and a solar panel generator (Jackery 1500 w if anyone is interested in those details.)

It's been around 55 days of living house-less. All my belongings fit into my RAV4, or partially in a storage unit I'm temporarily sharing with my daughter, or a bit of items at a friends home. Of those 55 days, it's been a mix of hotels, staying with friends, but mostly staying at campgrounds.

This lifestyle was not an obvious choice for me for anyone who knows me, they would have never guessed I would have chose the outdoor life. It's been GREAT for me mentally, physically, emotionally and mentally. I work remotely full time (yes, I'm so grateful for my technology job!), so that means a lot of sitting on my arse. Living outdoors is forcing me to move. I walk/hike about 4 times to the camp bathrooms/showers, and if I have time I walk to explore or go meet my camp neighbors. Mentally, living a minimalistic and simple life is letting my brain relax and slow down and actually it's making me more productive when doing the mind-taxing tasks I have for work and/or personal stuff (like taxes!). Emotionally, most days I'm good, nature is good for healing the soul. However, I did have one very bad day recently where I just DID NOT want to do it, do anything really and I was really questioning my choice. Could I do this, did I make a huge mistake, what if I don't have the gumption to keep this up long term!? Well, I realized I just had 3-4 days of rain, and then that day it was like 20-30mph winds. I was just feeling the overwhelm of it all after back-to-back days of trials and tribulations.

Speaking of trials and tribulations...staying charged!
Keeping yourself charged via sleep, food, exercise and self-care is difficult enough.
Now I'm trying to keep 2 laptops, an ipad, 2 phones, 2 portable battery chargers, Starlink, and a fridge/freezer powered up, and usually they ALL have to be powered up at once. I'm getting better at it, but it's an adjustment to mentally remember to check battery life on so many things so frequently. During rainy/cloudy days I wasn't getting enough solar power to keep my power station charged up enough, and I had not been at a campground with accessible power, so that was also part of my near meltdown day! I am figuring it out and my routines are starting to build and get refined. I get better at my set-up and pack-down every time I do it.

How does Permaculture fit in??
Well my initial thoughts were that I'd find permies communities/ farms/ gardens etc to stay at and work at in exchange for a spot to camp, meanwhile learning some permaculture skills. After a month plus into this, that might be a bit TOO ambitious, so I'm rethinking that slightly, and maybe only dedicating like one weekend a month or something to doing hands on learning. One of my goals for full-time travelling and living outdoors is to identify a location I'd like to live in, and secondarily to explore if the full on homesteading life is for me, and if not full on, what pieces and parts of homesteading and/or permaculture is something I want to include in my lifestyle long term.

Where do you fit in??
1. I'm gonna have questions, and need resources and ya'll are a great community for that!
2. I'd love to have people who are kind of following my journey, and might give me some moral support along the way! (tough day noted above, and there will likely be more where that came from in my future!)
3. I have a feeling that some of you might enjoy hearing about my stories, learnings etc, and that I might actually be able to teach you something? Give me a thumbs up if you think so too!  For example, I'd love to share my decision making process of how and why I got here and doing this crazy thing etc. Things that are important to me to achieve etc.

So if there are enough people with some interest, I'll commit to posting regularly in this forum (or maybe I do a thread in the boots area? So that you can follow me when booting and/when I'm nomading?) THOUGHTS?

Lastly...I'd love it if you could ask me questions! And potentially help me come up with some fun, clever verbiage for things!

Sounds adventurable.
Please keep me upto date?
Do you need a bigger solar panel? Or one set on the bonnet?

Hi there Candice!

It would be nice hearing about your adventures, do keep us posted.

Very nice setup!

I have interest and some experience in the realms you speak of.

I don't stay full time in mine but a few days of the week I'm bouncing between a handful of locations for multi-day work and they are all over an hour away from my main base. So I utilize the tool storage and living quarters.

At the moment, I rely bare bones with just using the vehicle 12v to charge my phone. I also have an array of Ryobi 18v and 40v tools/lights/300w inverter and also keep a 2500W generator on board that runs off propane (verrrry nice since my cooktop and buddy heater both also use that as fuel) I also keep a small wood cooktop and wood supply for when its nice and dry and have the time to enjoy doing it that way instead of using propane.

Having the extra room to stand up and walk around really helps when the weather is bad. Also, I can an access door from the cab to the box so I can pull up just about anywhere and never even get out to draw attention if I need to sneak an  overnight in a walmart parking lot or something.

There is another site called vanlivingforums and a guy on youtube named Bob Wells who promote living mobile with usually a frugal approach. I cannot remember the name of it, but theres a website where property owners allow stays for people on the road, with amenities/tools/etc...way-something!?? Darn its on the tip of my tongue!! Im considering doing such a thing at my place, too once I get set up better :) Hope this helps and good luck on your journey!

John C Daley wrote:Sounds adventurable.
Please keep me upto date?
Do you need a bigger solar panel? Or one set on the bonnet?

Thanks for replying!

I don’t think I need bigger solar panels. Tell me more about what you are thinking? My space in my car is pretty limited at the moment. As long as the sunshine is out these are adequate. And if the sun is not out, I have to drive to charge via 12v, or stealth charge the power station at an unsuspecting coffee shop or friends house or pay for electric hookup at the next campground. I usually find a way make a way!

Cole Tyler wrote:Very nice setup!

I have interest and some experience in the realms you speak of.

I don't stay full time in mine but a few days of the week I'm bouncing between a handful of locations for multi-day work and they are all over an hour away from my main base. So I utilize the tool storage and living quarters.

At the moment, I rely bare bones with just using the vehicle 12v to charge my phone. I also have an array of Ryobi 18v and 40v tools/lights/300w inverter and also keep a 2500W generator on board that runs off propane (verrrry nice since my cooktop and buddy heater both also use that as fuel) I also keep a small wood cooktop and wood supply for when its nice and dry and have the time to enjoy doing it that way instead of using propane.

Having the extra room to stand up and walk around really helps when the weather is bad. Also, I can an access door from the cab to the box so I can pull up just about anywhere and never even get out to draw attention if I need to sneak an  overnight in a walmart parking lot or something.

There is another site called vanlivingforums and a guy on youtube named Bob Wells who promote living mobile with usually a frugal approach. I cannot remember the name of it, but theres a website where property owners allow stays for people on the road, with amenities/tools/etc...way-something!?? Darn its on the tip of my tongue!! Im considering doing such a thing at my place, too once I get set up better :) Hope this helps and good luck on your journey!

Thanks for sharing! Yes there are times I’d like to stand! Or get out of the elements for long periods of time. I may get the tent annex that pairs with my tent to help with this.

Thanks for the tip on the frugal van living. I do already follow him and learned a lot from him already!

I think you might be thinking of Harvest Hosts. I’d love to do that but they make you be self sustained which I am not yet as I don’t have a potty situation yet.