11:37 am - 57 degrees - scattered clouds...
While modern off-grid living
might be considered the “simple life”, it is not easy! For us, while our home is still
under construction we have few modern conveniences, and the amount of work that
goes into the simplest things like taking baths, washing clothes, doing the
dishes, and cooking meals, is intense – especially when compared to city folk,
who just have to load a machine, push a few buttons and ta-da, it’s done.
Am I complaining? No, just stating a fact. Here is another fact – I am not Superwoman
(sorry to disappoint you). Trying to
juggle the demands of off-grid living while running two young children around
to school and activities, being a Girl Scout Troop leader of a very active
troop, and the President of the Booster Group (aka PTA) of our kids’ school,
while my husband works in town all day – isn’t for the faint of heart.
We have often joked that we
were living like ‘Little House on the Prairie’ – only in the mountains and with
internet. Although the similarities are
still there, we now have one more thing that Laura Ingalls Wilder didn’t have –
a washer and dryer!
I cannot express how extremely appreciative,
thankful, and excited I am to finally have, after five years, a washer and
dryer! Hand washing clothes, in theory,
is a great idea and sounds fairly simple – plunge and scrub, plunge and scrub -
but in reality, it’s a lot of work!
Thankfully I had the option to
run into town to do laundry - which is what I choose to do. For the past five years, laundry has been
done at either the local laundromat (45 minutes away) or a family/friend’s
house (45-60 minutes away), and on occasion hand washed here if we were in a
pinch.
If I had to hand wash all our
clothes with two very active kids, who somehow manage to get completely filthy
five seconds out the door, and a husband who works outside all day... I would be
so busy washing and scrubbing, that I would never leave the house.
Next up on my “Wish-List” is a
fridge! But for now, I am happy in our
crazy little mixed-up world of ‘Little House on the Prairie’ meets “modern
off-grid”.
