van tour: solo female traveler lives in 2017 Ford Transit with a parrot!

[Music] hi my name is sarah and i live in this camper van it's self-converted and it's a 2017 ford transit and i thought i would give you guys a look at it because it's been a while since i filmed the van tour i think it's been almost about two years now so yeah i thought i would dive deep i've done some renovations i have zeus's bird cage and i'm gonna show it all to you welcome to my kitchen so my kitchen takes up half of the space in the van which i honestly really like i have a pretty open floor plan here so i designed everything so that it's kind of modular and like my seat can disguise and come out because i really just wanted everything to be as open as possible i wanted as much counter space as possible the new stuff i've done on the van the new renovations that i've added on after almost two years are these upper cabinets which i am so stoked about it's just extra food storage which i which i honestly really really needed because last year i was just carrying an extra tote that was just here at all times and it was always in the way so now everything all the food that was in that tote typically is in this in these upper cabinets so i have bread i have spices i have a little uh bucket basket of fruit i have crackers all that food item stuff and then over here on this side of the van this upper cabinet is not food it's actually a charging station so one of the problems kind of i had while i was traveling was that i never really knew where to charge stuff because my laptop would just be charging on my bed or on the cabinets i don't know i had ac outlets but it was just kind of hard to charge all my electronics and because i do photography and videography i have a lot of things i need to charge as well as like my drill driver and i don't know like walkie-talkies and other random stuff like that i just feel like i always have stuff to charge so i designed this so that it's like my charging station i have this extension cord and a bunch of outlets here i have 12 volt outlets and i kind of just like throw all of my charging stuff in here i also randomly have this mirror i have i don't know i just kind of have miscellaneous and charging items here this is another one of the new renovations that i recently did which i'm so stoked about zeus do you want to come to your home this is zeus's bird cage so it opens with this little latch i actually designed this all myself because i was scouring the internet for a bird cage and they were all like a thousand dollars so i built this myself and the materials ended up being about 170 dollars so the front of this is acrylic the side is stainless steel wire mesh that i got off amazon i used a little aluminum cooking tray as a seed catcher so this goes ahead and opens up and actually you can just take this door and remove it entirely and this seed tray you just pull this pin and you can pull it out to easily clean the mess in here for the perch all the perches in here i basically just reused as much of his existing toys and perches that he had so this perch system he already had i have a few different areas of chew toys and stuff like that for him so that when i do leave him in here if i'm like going grocery shopping or anything like that he has stuff to play with and i also have this little forager toy which i put some seeds and nuts in and he has to like figure it out and find a way to get it and it's kind of just very stimulating for him i really wanted this to be a very stimulating and enriching environment for you bubs can you give me kisses do you hear him give me kisses good boy so yeah this isn't the biggest bird cage zeus is an extremely intelligent animal this isn't a cage that he can be left in for a whole day um he does have the words and the ability to request being let out so in the mornings basically before i even wake up he's kind of like my alarm clock and he says step up step up step up and i honor that every time i hear him say step up i let him out that's his request that's when he wants to come out he says that and i always make sure i honor it unless it's like i absolutely have to leave him in there because i'm going to the gym and he can't come or something like that but yeah he has the words and this is basically just his room in a way like that's how i view it is his bedroom where he likes to sleep and he has some toys that he enjoys but he does not spend the majority of the time here um yeah it's just too small of a cage for you zeus also has a little harness that i actually get him in and we go on hikes in and yeah he has a lot of other stimulation outside of this van and outside of this cage but this is really great for him because he does love to chew on things he's chewed up money before he's chewed up wood utensils so i really did need a cage to keep him in when i need to leave him in here if i'm going to you know the gym or something [Music] i just got a slab of maple for this countertop and i cut it to size i also have this sink with a cutting board on top running water i have 30 gallons of water and the tank is in the back i used to have three different jugs of five gallons and um i don't know the upgrade has just been really nice i really spent a lot of time off-grid and in nature and i really like the ability to do that so having double the amount of water capacity means that i can stay off-grid for double the amount of time as long as i have the food that i need over here i just have kitchen utensils i have kitchen utensils cleaning supplies here this little box i call my garden and i honestly just kind of throw miscellaneous items in here i have pens i have medicine i have my glasses i have i don't know different stuff like that and then over here i also have some hooks for my keys i have some hooks for my masks and you know whatever i really want to put up here and i have some 12 volt outlets for chargers paper towels that are just on some paracord and then as you can see back here my windows are open that is not usually the case i have window covers that i made out of reflectix myself so i just cut reflectix to size actually i didn't cut it to size i didn't measure correctly and so that's why i kind of had to improvise and adjust the borders with some material but i cut it to a pro the approximate size and i sewed some gray fabric on and magnets so that it magnetizes to the metal in the surrounding area also surrounding my van i just have a bunch of stickers and art that i've created and paintings that i've done myself this entire van just kind of feels like a big art installation to me and i think as the years have gone by i've kind of added oh yep i've kind of added my own art pieces i also have a lot of vegan stickers um because you know i'm vegan and i just want to fulfill that stereotype and that joke you know the joke that goes i i wait i'm forgetting how the joke goes it goes something like how do you know someone's vegan don't worry they'll tell you something like that i don't know but yeah i just wanted to fulfill that stereotype so before i can even tell you my van tells you that i'm vegan as and even zeus is laughing huh in regards to all the cabinetry on the bottom of my kitchen i have a dometic crx i believe this is the 65 fridge it has a freezer on top i have a bunch of food some shelves that are really nice and this is pretty packed full with fruit and veg at all times i get a lot of food when i go to the grocery store because i want to spend as much time in nature and off grid as possible so there's that i have spices on the front of the fridge just to save space underneath the fridge i have my shoe box and i really only have one two three like five pairs of shoes at all times and i think i have every pair of shoe i need honestly i don't really feel like i need any more shoes zeus is destroying the napkins up there but i have doc martens i have tevas i have hiking boots i have workout shoes and i have birkenstocks so yeah above the fridge i have my switch panels this controls my water pump this controls my gray water which runs underneath my van into a tank reservoir and then i can drain it when i turn this on and just it just trickles out the third controls my water sorry my diesel heater i have a diesel heater runs off diesel obviously the diesel tank is in the back i fill up the diesel and i can heat the van to the temperature i want underneath the sink i have trash i have cleaning supplies like bleach and i have zeus's bird food so a bunch of bird seed for zeus this pantry has all kinds of food i have oranges i have limes i have baskets full of fruit i also have coconut oil and oil and hot sauce and oatmeal and um canned foods and boxed foods and the reason why i designed this drawer to be this way is because it honestly just saves space whereas if i were to do three different drawers all those drawer guys would be taking up space so this design helps save space it's also super convenient and i really love this drawer this is like my favorite drawer to the left of that i have a cabinet on the top of that cabinet i have bowls and basically all my bowls stack so it's super easy i just take this out and then behind it i have pots and pans and those stack as well so i can very easily just pull those out at the bottom of this cabinet i have a pull out drawer this drawer is very minimalistic it doesn't have any walls because again that saves space so i'm not taking up inches with those walls i just pull this basket and i pull it out and in here i have tupperware i have like my stuff to make coffee i have a little portable blender and i also have this basket that i keep my root vegetables and potatoes in in this pulao drawer i have again kind of like miscellaneous items i have mainly utensils i would say in here i have utensils and peelers and bottle openers and just random things in here [Music] okay so behind me i have two massive drawers this top one i pull with a latch it comes out and it actually becomes a seat so i can pull this little plank thingy like this and when i pull it to the front i latch it off so that it doesn't move if i'm on a tilt i latch it off and it becomes a seat that way i can eat so yeah it becomes a seat and i also forgot to talk about my induction cooktop which is right here so basically i have my seat and i have like a little table type thing the table is really just big enough to like set a bowl or a plate on to eat but it works out really well and then this is also my closet so it's a pretty big closet i would say for a lot of people who live in bands but yeah i keep all of my clothes in here i honestly like having a lot of clothes because again i stay off grid for a long period of time so i like to just you know utilize everything as much as possible before i go to a laundromat the bottom drawer is miscellaneous things i have journals i have toiletry i have spare chargers i have board games i don't know it's mainly toiletry i would say and then the other cool thing actually is that my bed lifts up so it's on um i have a piano hinge down the back of it and it's on i forget what those are called but you know the things that um like lift it up and keep it up that's what this is on so i can just push this up let me do it like this and the entire thing lifts up the bed you can see i have that big drawer with all the clothes also i have access to my storage back there and i have a storage area over here as well that has art supplies and jewelry wrapping supplies and this spin actually i can take out and underneath it is all my batteries so i have my solar charger um i just pull it up like so so underneath this spin i have two deep cycle agm batteries that run off four red energy solar panels on the roof these solar panels are 160 watts each so about 640 watts total and then my agm batteries have a capacity of about three kilowatt hours back there is a slide out drawer so when i go through the back to my garage area i can actually just slide the drawer out and have easy access to everything down there and over here are 30 gallons of water this is my bed area up here i have a max air fan i also have a sunroof the sunroof i got from my grandpa was just one of his old ones and this is the fun part or at least my favorite part is like all the decorations and the things on the wall so over here i have a control panel with switches and i have a little screen so i can see how many watts i'm getting i also have this monitor and when i turn this monitor on i have cameras on all four sides of the van and like obviously right now with all the windows down it's not a problem but when all of my window covers are up and i'm in the city it honestly is a bit disorienting to feel like you're in here and like anybody could smash any of these windows all around you and yeah it just really feels comfortable and really nice to be able to see everything around me i have a ukulele holder over here i have my guitar strapped up here back here i have a little basket and i keep some pepper spray over here and in the basket i honestly just have card games i have a tarot card deck and i have another game that kind of asks you like different self-reflection questions and honestly it's just really fun to do every single day they also have a version where you can ask it to your friends and to other people and i think it's just kind of great to get to know people on the road through board games and different card games like that in the back i have a bunch of paintings that i did myself each of these paintings is from based on a photograph that i've taken from a place i've been in the van so on the left i have yosemite i have saguaro national park in arizona to the right of that i have a beach in san francisco in the middle and then the second to the right i have a meditation retreat i went on it was a 10 day meditation retreat in the forest and i meditated 100 hours in 10 days so that is a painting based on that location and then on the far right i have a frosty snowy scene from wyoming i've also decorated my van with a bunch of crystals that i've actually mined myself so i go into nature and i get a big shovel and hammers and chisels and whatever is needed to mine different crystals i've mined topaz i've mined smoky quartz i've mined regular quartz and i love wire wrapping them and creating different things that i can hang up myself yeah all over the van i kind of have like my wire wrappings hanging and dangling and it's really cool because every part of the process i was part of like i mined the crystal myself i wire wrapped it myself and now it's hanging in the van and sometimes they even cast rainbows everywhere on the countertop which is super cool and fun i just love creating things with my hands i don't know i've always been that way i've always loved art and i have really loved taking elements from nature and things that i remember and yeah just different things and creating something cool out of it like this crystal shelf that i made myself all the crystals on it are things that i have mined throughout the united states and the brackets themselves i actually wire wrapped out of copper and silver and yeah i'm just really proud of that i also have this like weird installation here where it's a piece of wood that i found in lake shasta i have some green moss that i found in lake tahoe california and then all the crystals are you know crystals that i have found and then i wire wrapped all around the wood and i don't know i'm just really proud of it i really love looking at it and the moon sticker behind it is actually a moon sticker that my friend nick made and he's an extremely talented artist who does pointillism art so yeah i really love decorating the van with things that make me happy that bring me joy that remind me of i don't know happy moments so to the right over here i also have a air purifier which is kind of random and i'm not using it right now honestly even though maybe i should but i don't know with zeus in the van i feel like there's even more dirt and stuff like that i am a fan of dirt i don't really care about dirt the thing i care more about is pollens and stuff because i actually have really bad allergies and i was kind of debilitated my debilitated by my allergies last year in utah so i just decided to install this air purifier and see if it could help me out a little bit to get pollens out of here and i don't know we'll see how it works out it might not really be so effective okay one thing i highly recommend if you are going to live in a van is these covers these seat covers i have a bunch of different things where i can put like deodorant and laundry detergent and maps in um and also hooks so like this hook right here oh sorry i have this hook here to carry a backpack i have hooks over here to carry bags and backpacks and i don't know i think hooks and these things in the back are two things that have really helped me utilize space but there's nothing else more really exciting in this front area i mean i do have a keyboard actually strapped up here so i have a little piano i also just have like bags and stuff like this up here like grocery bags because i don't like buying grocery bags there because it's just a waste of plastic you know so i have reusable ones that i bring in and i just i don't know just random things i stuff up here so it's not really exciting up here um to the side i have straps like a shovel and a broom i have a full-size broom because i'm finding myself sweep all the time because it's just it gets dirty so yeah that's basically everything up here it's not super exciting so yeah that is it for the van i hope you guys enjoyed watching this and taking a tour of my home it's not the biggest home but i feel like i've packed an entire world in here and you know i really love spending time in here it's my happy place i filled it with so many things that make me happy my little boy zeus is here with me and you make me happy do you want to say bye to the people okay bye say bye whoa you're crazy you're crazy anyways this video is posted on my channel i post videos every single week whoa i usually do like vlog style videos of me and my adventures digging for crystals whatever it may be so yeah if you enjoyed this video please like it and subscribe because it really supports my channel and i would really appreciate that and zeus would really appreciate that i'm also going to leave down below my website where i sell jewelry and paintings and art and i write blog posts and different things like that and my instagram and other things you can follow me on if you want to so yeah thank you guys so much for watching and have a beautiful day can you say bye bye no way you are so cute yeah i've been teaching him to say hi and bye you are so cute that was on the first try i did not edit that okay you're adorable i love you [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Sarah Yak

Views: 30,654

Rating: 4.9625974 out of 5

Keywords: vegan, vegan activism, van life, roadtrip, van life vlog, plant based, what I eat in a day, camping, nature, travel, travel tips, travel vlog, van tour, van life tour, pet parrot, parrot

Id: oJ2N-gy6Ps8

Length: 21min 31sec (1291 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 10 2021