A small business and van living

I’ve had a few questions and conversations recently about what it is like to run Wild Fen from our van and so I wanted to talk a bit more about it today.

We set up Wild Fen from our rented home in our beloved Fens a few years ago. Our intention first and foremost was to share and celebrate our love for the natural world. Since then we left our home and our full time jobs, sold our belongings, bought a van and converted it into a home for us to live a slower life, closer to nature, creating natural incense, jewellery and prints.

We moved into our van in March this year and since then have been transitioning our life, possessions and business into it as we explore the UK.

It’s been an ongoing process of learning and adjustment. From a work perspective we set up our printer, laptops and tools to run on our solar electricity (being savvy with when we charge things especially with sunlight hours decreasing now), battling with limited Internet and finding space for our packaging and supplies has required selectivity, patience and flexibility on a daily basis! More generally adjusting to a completely new way of living has taken its toll on us emotionally and energetically at times too.

And yet for us, this option allows us to work full time on a business that we love. It means we can spend most of our days in nature, exploring, learning and creating which we do remind ourselves of often, like the times we can’t move without standing on a packaging box.

Being closer to nature each day has inspired us to form even deeper connections with trees which led to the creation of our Wild Jewellery in the Summer. It is not a straight forward or particularly convenient life in many ways. Living in a van requires creativity and patience, jobs take longer, water needs to be topped up and heated on the stove, space is extremely limited, airflow is a constant consideration, and vans break down often at the worst times.

It has taken the best part of the year to feel as though we have found more flow working this way, but as Winter approaches, there is no doubt we will be met with more challenges to adjust to. And yet as I sign off this blog, sat in the doorway overlooking the Wye valley, a Buzzard is calling over head and I have a calm feeling inside that tells me, it will be worth it.