Harsh Truths About Homesteading and Off-Grid Living...

10:12 am - 65 degrees - clear sky, 24+ mph wind gusts...

First things first - you need to realize that the "simple life" isn't so simple. Too many new homesteaders fail to realize that a simpler life does not mean an easier life. In many ways, you will be working harder than you ever have before.

With that being said, if this lifestyle is the right choice for you and your family, all your hard work will be more than worth it!

Here are a few harsh truths that we have learned along the way...

A lot of family members and friends will think you are nuts. -- Get used to it. Some people just will not understand or embrace your lifestyle choice. They may even try to talk you out of it. That's okay, just keep doing what you are doing.

Instead of getting defensive, or frustrated, try to stay focused and positive. Try to surround yourself with supportive people who can help you achieve your goals.

Homesteading is unpredictable. -- Often times you are dealing with the whim of Mother Nature and she cannot be controlled. Not enough rain, and your garden or crops suffer, or the threat of a wildfire gets high. Too much rain, and it ruins your garden or crops, or your road washes out. Crazy howling wind (which is a normal thing here) causes its own damage. And snow... trying to keep our driveway/road open is a full-time job and makes all the chores 10 times harder.

Forest fire about 1.5 miles from our home.

Besides Mother Nature, you also have to deal with whatever Life throws at you. Every year is different. Every year has its own difficulties, hardships, and rewards.

Homesteading and off-grid living is year-round, long hours, and hard work. -- Homesteading is 365 days a year... in sickness and in health... sunshine, rain, howling wind, and snow... and often involves long hours with hard work. 

It is also hard to get away. Want to go on vacation for a week... a weekend... or even an overnight trip? Who is going to take care of the animals?

The Rules Of 3. -- Everything takes 3 times longer than expected. You think building the chicken coop will take 1 week to build - wrong it will take 3 weeks to build.  

3 regularly used items will break within a week of each other. The washing machine will die, then the next day the power inverter just stops working, then a several days later something breaks on one of the cars.

And finally, the top 3 - time, money, and healthy - one always seems to be missing when you're getting ready for a big project.

Both Homesteading and off-grid living cost money. -- Some people may choose to develop a sustainable income from this lifestyle, and some may choose to continue working their traditional jobs. Either way is great, just choose whatever works best for you and your family. 

Just keep in mind... you will still need some sort of steady income. This lifestyle is not free, in fact, sometimes it is quite costly. You will need financial resources to pay taxes, insurance, purchase equipment, medical expenses when they occur, and any other supplies you may need. Just try to take things one step at a time.

This lifestyle is not for dummies. -- In reality, there is a drastic learning curve for beginners. Unless you grew up with this lifestyle, you will find yourself looking up how to (fill in the blank) quite often. 

If you want to grow your own food, you will need to learn how to garden, and how to properly preserve that food. You will need to learn construction, plumbing, and electrical work. You will need to know how to build a chicken coop, or raised garden beds, or how to build a fence, or how to build a shed or barn, or how to wire your off-grid power system, or how to plumb your garden's irrigation system.

The vast amount of knowledge, over a wide spectrum, that you will need is sometimes daunting, and much of your education will be in the form of on-the-job training, and learning as you go.

You won't always be able to do everything yourself. -- Regardless of how hard you try to do it all yourself, sometimes you will need help. Whether that help is in the form of barter, trade, paid help, or simply getting advice from someone with more experience - it is nice to have a network of like-minded people who you can look to when needed.

You are going to fail at some things. -- Some of your failures may not be pretty. And some may result in should of, could of, would of moments.

This lifestyle is going to have its major ups and downs. Your farming equipment may fail. Your snow removal equipment may break during a snowstorm. You may run through your savings more quickly than you thought you would.

But if you try to prepare for the worst and hope for the best, you will hopefully maintain a healthy attitude.

Windstorm broke our first set of solar panels.

You may occasionally have a love / hate relationship with this lifestyle. -- You are going to have times of frustration, disappointment, failure, and ask yourself "what the heck are we doing?" "Why isn't anything going as planned?" "What have we gotten ourselves into?".

You will also have feelings of accomplishment, appreciation, and sometimes awe - which, at the end of the day, somehow makes all of the chaos worth it.

These harsh truths are not to discourage you, but to hopefully help you. With some advance planning and forethought, and by learning from other homesteader and off-griders' mistakes, you will be able to weather through the initial rough periods. With each passing year, you will gain more experience, more knowledge, and more confidence to handle the inevitable problems that come with the territory. You will also gain the satisfaction of living out a rewarding lifestyle that you and your family enjoy.

View From The Window...

9:37 am - 25 degrees - overcast...

My kind of beautiful... snowflakes on the window.  

Even after getting a touch of cabin fever from being snowed in for several days, there is always something amazing and beautiful to be found if you just look for it.  

20 Small Reminders...

12:42 pm - 23 degrees - overcast, strong winds...

Are resolutions the same as a to-do-list?  I don’t really know but I work really well when I have a list.  Anyways... here are a few small reminders I am aiming to keep in mind for the new year!

1. Believe that anything is possible.

2. Choose a narrow path.  The sooner you pinpoint exactly what you want to achieve in your live, what you want your legacy to be, the sooner it will happen for you.  Don’t choose the well beaten path; create your own.  Dare to be different and aim for the moon.

3. Break a bad habit.

4. Work hard(er).  Start each day with goals.  Set your goals high and higher... your limits are only those you believe to be true.

5. Purge the unnecessary and decrease clutter.

6. Embrace change.  If life were consistent and without ups and downs, it would be boring, bleak and monotone.  We’re here to dodge bullets, get back up when we’re kicked down and make decisions for ourselves.  It’s all about building your character.  Never fear change, it could be exactly what you need.

7. Never allow waiting to become a habit.  Live your dreams and take risks.  Life is happening now.

8. Eat more real food.

9. Try to grow more food.

10. Take care of your body.  It’s the only place you have to live.  But never forget you don’t have a body, you have a soul.  Your exterior will never define your interior.

11. Exercise daily even when it sounds like a terrible idea. 

12. Its okay to eat cereal for dinner.  You only live once...

13. Make time for creativity.

14. Be loyal.  In love, friendships, and most importantly with your family.  Stay true to your word.

15. Hug the ones I love more.

16. Find the best in others.

17. Show others the best in me.

18. Own your mistakes.  The only way to learn is to make mistakes.  The only way to learn from mistakes is to own them.

19. A lot can happen in a year.

20. You’ll never be as young as you are right now.

Our Third Year Living Off-Grid...

11:28 am - 49 degrees - raining...

Ten years ago we had our first home built in a new subdivision.  We lasted just over a year before we started looking for property.

Our first home - 2,451 sq ft on a 6,153 sq ft lot.

We spent numerous weekends driving around trying to find that perfect piece of property.  We tried to keep it simple, our basic property search criteria was – acreage that was somewhat close to town.  We figured we would know when we saw it.

We never really intended to be off-grid greenies; it just sort of happened.  One weekend we went out for a drive in the mountains and saw a ‘Land for Sale’ sign, when we go home Tony called the number.  We went out and looked at it, went home and talked about it, went out and looked at it again (or rather Tony walked around and looked while I, being almost 9 months pregnant, sat in the car and stayed dry and warm – it was raining that day).  We talked about it again and put our home up for sale.

We sold our home and purchased 22 acres, off-grid, up in the mountains.  It was only 31 miles to a major airport, half hour drive to town, had a phenomenal view of mountains and valleys, no manmade structures in sight other than two radio towers way off in the distance, nice flat to semi-rolling build site for our new home, great new neighbors... we were sold.  The whole off-grid thing was not something that we had been looking for but would be kind of fun and different, so why not.

In the beginning we thought we were pretty prepared.  We had just had a house built two years ago and thought we could figure it out and do it again, but build it ourselves this time.  It didn’t take long for us to realize that we weren’t as prepared as we thought.  Everything has taken longer than planned and cost two to three times more than planned.  We have also had to work around the weather.  So needless to say, our home that we thought would take 12-18 months to build, is taking considerably longer to build, especially since we paying for everything out of pocket.  But it is all part of the adventure, right?

This weekend marks our third year of living off-grid.  Three years of living like ‘Little House on the Prairie’ – only in the mountains and with internet.  Most of our friends and family seem to think we have lost a marble or two, while others think it’s fantastic.

Three years of living off-grid, the biggest surprise so far is that the transition has been easier than one would expect.  We don’t have a television but we do have a computer with internet; we have to wash the dishes by hand and heat the water on the stove or fireplace; go into town to do laundry; air dry the wet hair instead of using a hair dryer; if we want electricity for anything, we have to go outside and turn on the generator; and we still have to go on the almighty treasure hunt in the storage unit where the majority of our belongings are kept.  This may not sound like much fun, but it really puts things into perspective and makes you appreciate the little things in life that normally you would take for granted.

A lot of tasks are harder up here, sometimes living the “simple life” isn’t so simple.  But we have daily adventures, and are surrounded by National Forests, rivers, fir trees, and wildlife galore.  We have chirping crickets on starry summer nights, and the sweet smell of warm earth and fresh flowers in the spring, along with the crisp morning air after winter’s first frost.  Living up here is what it is... it’s pure and simple.

We are living the dream, but it is not the romantic dream we originally planned.  It is the get-tough dream.  It is the realization that we can do anything!  We have learned that we are responsible for ourselves.  Those things worth having are worth working and waiting for.  We have learned contentment.

And yes, we do live the dream - just look at what we see out our windows everyday...

Each passing year, we stand a bit more humbled and wiser by our experiences.

"Humility does not mean you think less of yourself.  It means you think of yourself less." ~ Ken Blanchard

Looking Back...

57 degrees - 10:46 am - cloudy...

Looking out the windows of our home, you see an amazing view of valleys and mountains.

The view of the 4,364 foot tall mountain that we wake up to every morning is a popular destination for hikers due to the fantastic 360 degree panoramic viewpoint from the top.  On a clear day you can see five Cascade volcanoes: Rainier, St Helens, Adams, Hood and Jefferson.  It is also a former lookout site; the only thing remaining is a leftover foundation of the fire tower on the summit.

Another neat aspect of this mountain is the “Indian Pits” out on an eastern ridge, where there are about 6 strange hollowed-out pits.  Long ago these pits, along with others found along the Columbia Gorge, were made by removing heavy chunks of basalt and stacking them around the rims of the man-sized depressions.

Who built the crude pits or why is not fully known.  Anthropologists suggest that Native American Indians dug and used the pits for meditation or vision quests.  Their often spectacular locations would suggest that inspiration was an important consideration in selecting pit sites.  With few exceptions, they are positioned with sweeping views of river and sky where sunrise, sunsets and the heavens could be fully experienced.

We have had several friends hike the eastern ridge of the mountain and they have taken photos looking back at our place.  We see the mountain every day, so it’s neat to see the mountain looking back at us.

This picture was take by a friend this past weekend. 
The arrow is pointing to our house.

Perspective…

30 degrees - 9:55 am - calm with scattered clouds...

When you come up the main driveway and pull into our private driveway the first thing you see is a small home dwarfed by a spectacular view (which you can see on most days).  With the 4,364-foot tall mountain in the background and the 60 to 120 foot tall trees all around, it really throws the size ratio of things off. 

Even those who are amazingly accurate at judging size and distance get thrown off.  It is hard to believe that the small home, which is sitting in a three-acre clearing, is actually almost a 2,600 sqft home.

Standing inside our home, with 11’ ceilings and 8’ doorways, it still throws your perspective of things off… until you stand next to something, and realize just how big or small it really is.

you don't realize how big these windows really are until
Tony, who is 6' tall, stands next to them

The thrown off size ratio up here on the mountain has just been another learning curve for us (when I say us, I mean mostly me).  Instead of grabbing the stepladder to use inside the house, go for the big ladder.  Instead of grabbing just any ladder to use outside, go for the tallest ladder.  You can’t just climb up onto the roof, you need to put on the safety harness and tie off first, and then you can climb on up the roof, which is 36’ off the ground.

At the end of the day, it is just one of the many learning curves we have had to endure building off-grid in the mountains.