2 millennial farmers spent $25,000 transforming a school bus into a tiny home. Now they spend their days driving around the country and helping local farmers — here's how they did it.
Libertina Brandt
- In 2017, Logan and her partner, "Cheezy," bought an old school bus for $15,000.
- They spent more than a year renovating the bus into their tiny dream home.
- They now spend their days traveling around the country and helping local farmers through their freelance business, Ramblin Farmers.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Logan and her partner Justin, also known as "Cheezy," met in 2014. They immediately bonded over their shared dream of living off the grid.
Over the course of the next few years, they spent time working on local farms together and decided to pair their passion for farming with traveling.
In 2017, they bought a bus for $15,000 and spent more than a year turning it into their new home. They said they learned how to transform the interior by watching YouTube videos and reading blogs. In January 2019, they were finally able to hit the road.
To realize their dream of living off the grid, the couple started a freelance farmhand business called Ramblin Farmers. Through Ramblin Farmers, Logan and Cheezy are able to offer their short-term farm services to small-scale organic farms around the country. They document their journey on their Instagram.
Business Insider caught up with Logan to find out what it was like to renovate the bus. In the tell-all interview, she walked Business Insider through what life has been like since hitting the road, and how they've been managing through the coronavirus pandemic.
If you have a renovation story you'd like to share, get in touch with this reporter at Lbrandt@businessinsider.com.
Read the original article on Business InsiderThey've even started a video series that will give detailed instructions on how to identify plants you can forage, how to access your own "nature's toilet paper," how to make herbal tea blends that are good for the immune system, and how to sow seeds.
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Logan and Cheezy have used their Instagram account to spread a message of positivity during hard times. They have also stressed the importance of the continuation of farming.
"Sowing seeds is an inherently hopeful act. Despite all the chaos in the world, farmers are still planting & planning for the future," they wrote in a caption. "Now is the time for us all to come together, count our blessings, and keep sowing seeds. Whether your seeds are literal or figurative, what do you think you can do NOW to give you hope & excitement for the future?"
Through Ramblin Farmers, Logan and Cheezy are able to offer their short-term farm services to small-scale organic farms around the country. They launched in 2019, and have served clients all around California and Oregon. They plan on heading to Arizona next. But for now, as the country grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, the couple is hanging low.
But Logan explained that they have no intentions of settling down any time soon. For now, they have found a way to merge farming and travel through their freelance farmhand business, Ramblin Farmers.
Their plan is to travel to small organic farms around the country and figure out where they want to start a farm of their own.
In addition to the essentials, they installed homey things like a tiny wood stove and a bookshelf.
"It was actually kind of funny," she said, laughing. "The electrician was so impressed. He couldn't find anything wrong with the system and basically, almost, offered Cheezy a job."
After they mounted the solar panels and wired the lights, the refrigerator, the fans, and the outlets, Logan said they hired an electrician to make sure everything was good to go.
A stainless steel freshwater tank under the sink can store up to 12 gallons of water. They have portable jugs, too.
"We primarily fill up either at national forest sites where they have well water or from farms we're visiting," she explained.
As for showers, the couple has a Planet Fitness membership.
"We opted not to include a shower in our bus because there's this amazing thing called Planet Fitness," she said. "We're always trying to stay physically active for farming, especially in between seasons and in the winter, so we go and work out there and we shower."
The space boasts tiny-home living essentials including a small kitchen area with a refrigerator.
They also spent a lot of time researching how to make the bus as nontoxic as possible.
To do this, they insulated the space with sheep wool and used ancient wood preservation techniques, which required burning and charring the wood, to give it a furniture-store finish.
For their energy needs, Cheezy designed a 600-watt solar system. Logan explained that the project took months and months of research before it was completed.
The hardest part of the process was gutting the bus, Logan said. It took them over a month to rip everything out.
"The gutting process was definitely challenging," she said. "We wanted to get down to the bare bones of the bus so we could start from scratch."
Logan explained to Business Insider that they watched YouTube videos and read blogs to learn how to transform the interior.
"It required cooperating between the two of us, planning, budgeting, and teaching ourselves things that we had no idea about," she said. "We knew nothing about carpentry, we knew nothing about being an electrician, or about solar power."
When they purchased it, it looked like a typical bus with rows of leather blue seats. It took them over a year to convert into a tiny home. In total, they spent $25,000 on the project.
They decided to pair their dream of becoming farmers with their desire to live off the grid. In 2017, they bought a 2008 Chevy 350 from a used bus dealership for $15,000.
Logan and Cheezy met in 2014 in Austin, Texas. Logan told Business Insider that they bonded over their shared dream of living off the grid and obtaining self-efficiency.
After they met, Logan and Cheezy spent two years traveling around the country and exploring the outdoors.
In 2016, they settled down in Oregon so Logan could enroll in a sustainable agriculture program at Oregon State University. While Logan was working toward her degree, she and Cheezy worked at local farms in the area. It was then that they became passionate about becoming small-scale ecological farmers.
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