Coder Cribs: Deena codes on the road (Part 2)

Hi. I'm Deena Gauthier. Previously, I shared with you my She Shed at my home location in Maine. Like many coders, the dream of working remotely, being able to go on the road, is something that everybody strives for. I've been able to do this now for three years, and I do wanna say that it has not been easy.

It's been some trial and error. This is our second machine. The first machine that we had, as we call it, was a forty five foot toy hauler in which I had my office in the toy hauler section thinking that I needed something that was completely separate from the living space. I had a fifteen foot area garage. Didn't really need that big. In this machine, I have an office in what used to be a separate bunkhouse. It goes from here to here.

We'll go inside in just a second. The other the other thing that I wanna share with you is that it's very important for me that wherever I am, that there it's seamless. That my clients, that my coders, that my team has no gap in the way that I'm operating. To do that, we have solar panels on the roof. I have a battery bank that my husband installed in the front. I can work off solar. I can work off regular electricity, or I can work off a gas generator. So, of course, it's very important that we have connectivity through the to the Internet through some type of connection.

We have tried connecting at various campgrounds. We have tried hot spotting. And this year, we have been testing out a satellite via STARLINK, and it has worked flawlessly for this travel season, I e, the last three months. Now that I've shared with you the outside features and my home on wheels, let's go inside and I'll show you the office. This is the office. One of the things that we were excited about, this is a little bit older camper. We're able to make modifications without feeling like we're impacting our investment too much.

Here was one bunk. Here was another bunk. Now gone to accommodate my desk. The other thing that was great about the bunk room is I can close the door and be completely private while life goes on outside this door. Come on in. Because everything needs to be mobile, we have a desk that is bolted to the frame on the floor. As we travel, the monitors also get, put and attached on the wall securely.

And I take my laptop and put that in a backpack and that travels in the vehicle with me and not in the camper just for a safety thing. One of my favorite things about this desk, this is a work desk that we found from Home Depot for construction and woodworking, but I can make it a sit stand by using the crank much easier than some of the other models that are made and designed exclusively, for workstations. So this was this was one of the things that I was most excited about. Because we have multiple energy sources, solar generator electricity, my husband installed a switch in here in which I can transition from one, energy source to another as needed.

Over here in the corner, we have an energy monitor. So when I'm on solar, we can see how much energy we're utilizing. Twelve point o is the cutoff. That's where we need to be. If on a rainy day or bad weather day, I'm not, getting the energy supply that I need, I can use that switch to transition over to either regular electricity or, the generator if we're we don't have, regular electricity available

.The other thing that I wanna share with you is this is the modem that goes with the satellite STARLINK system. I can hook via ethernet or Wi Fi for the rest of the camper as security is always paramount. The other thing that, I have in addition to a password protected modem that's exclusive to us, is that I also work work via a VDI and make sure that, when I'm accessing hospital systems that I'm secure. One of the things that I'm excited about from this bunkhouse is because it had to have the safety feature of an emergency egress, I get to be connected to the outdoors on nice days like today. Just makes for the work environment to be that much more enjoyable.

As I said before, because of the travel, we needed to make sure that everything was compact, everything was able, to to transition and take up as little space as possible.So this is my camp chair. That's also my desk chair, ergonomic. I have my, books that I bring with me. I only have one set. I just bring them with me in my backpack. I also have my green screen, my microphone, the things that I need for recording.

The other thing with my backpack, as I stated, I like to be as seamless as possible. So with my laptop, I also have two remote screens. So if I'm at a different location and truly need to be remote while I'm on the road, I have that ability to work as seamlessly as if I was in my she shed, as if I was in my RV office. So thank you very much for letting me share my outdoor office, my came for office with you, and I hope it's inspired you to be able to fulfill your dreams as as well.