Am I the only one who wants to live like this?

NeHomesteader · #1 09/29/10, 05:11 PM

Live without electricity? Without conveniences and out in the middle of nowhere? The homesteading life is not new to me. We have been living it for close to our 29 years of marriage,yet now I feel I want to do more. We have always ranched,which is what we still do. We have 50+ cows,bottle calves,chickens and used to have sheep which I dearly miss. My husband custom fences and we have very little debt on our 40 acres due to mostly renting pasture for all our cows. We have been frugal all our lives,drive older vehicles which we don't owe on. I have 3 gardens,can ,freeze and dry about enough to get us through minus a milk cow or goat for our milk and buy from a food co-op. We cut wood for heat. Raise broilers and butcher them along with venison and beef. I do the farmers market,make my own laundry soap and bath soap. I'm sure i'm missing something but you get the point,i'm not new to this. I want MORE and I know that sounds selfish because there is alot of you who would love what I have and for that,I feel bad and about hated to even post this. I have always found the Amish so fascinating and anyone who lives without electricity and in a remote location ,I just love it. I am at a point in my life where this is what I want. I don't want the conveniences of electricity or technology( I know,here I am typing on the computer...)We lived without a phone for a year when the kids were little and I didn't miss it at all. We worked on a ranch where it was too expensive for them to get so it took that long. I loved it. I know it must seem really odd to some of you that anyone could want this but I do. I feel like I need to do this at this point in my life. Right now we live 1/4 mile off the road,3/4 mile from neighbors but I want to be further out. I have rambled on enough but I hope you understand where i'm coming from. Dawn

sdnapier · #2 09/29/10, 05:28 PM

Hi Dawn,

I think you are in good company. Many are doing what you want to do but we don't hear from some of them because they really are off the grid and "gone". I think there is an instinct in some of us that drives us to want to live out in the hinterboonies. I know I would like to but I'm stuck in a 100,000+ people city. Yikes! And yes, I do wish I already had what you have now.
I also think that many of us are fed up with all the commercialism of this world. According to the television you can't be happy unless you have the latest _______ (fill in the blank). Well, IMO, getting all the latest takes time and energy and what do you have in the end? Nothing that will feed you, warm you, clothe you and fill your spiritual needs.
Hang in there and I wish you the best.

Sheryl

Trisha in WA · #3 09/29/10, 05:36 PM

You are not alone! I feel the same way. We have been blessed beyond our wildest dreams to have gotten the job we have now that provides our housing, but if this were to come to an end...you have described perfectly our dream. We have cows and calves, horses, chickens, rabbits etc and make our own of most things already too. The last thing to go is "normal utilities". I would be happy to live right here the rest of my life, but if that is not to be, a tiny cabin in the woods is what I hope for.

springvalley · #4 09/29/10, 05:58 PM

Before I met DH, I had often drempt of becoming a hermit!! I even bought 60 acres in the middle of nowhere, NM!! Truly. My nearest neighbor was more than a mile away. Nearest full grocery store/town was 60 miles away!! I put in the well but then life changes derailed me. Now I have a hubby and two young children. DH and I would love to live closer to the Amish and live closer to their lifestyle without all the gadgets and gizmos. I could easily give up almost everything electric. Trade in the standard frig to a dorm sized one. Would probably still hang on to the phone and internet/computer. And the washing machine, but that could be powered mechanically if it had to. Might still have to have the freezer though as I don't want to deal with the ice house. Sigh.... I guess I'm still adicted to some gadgets. But we do raise most of our own foods, including bees. Love knowing what is in our food. Just wish the farm was paid off. Will still have to deal with taxes and insurance.
Catherine

ErinP · #5 09/29/10, 05:59 PM

ETA: Boy I got wordy!! I've been thinking on this subject, too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dawn

Live without electricity? Without conveniences and out in the middle of nowhere?

Interesting how much of our story is similar.
We too, have lived/worked on ranches out in the middle of nowhere, hence our desire to own our own little piece of remote prairie. And we, too, have a mere 40 acres of our own... (We're a 1/2 mile off a county road, 7 miles from pavement but only a mile from our nearest neighbor. I wish we were about 2 miles further in...)
Where you're at now is where we hope to be in about 5 or 10 years. (We're in our mid-30s)

We've been living on our 40 since June in our half-finished shop with a dirt floor and a friend's ancient camper. We do have electricity (we're in the process of building a house), but no running water yet and no TV. Our water comes from a friend's 1000 gal. water trailer for watering cows. We heat it on the stove. We have an outhouse...

DH and I were talking earlier this summer and I said something about feeling a little bad for the kids (8 & 10). He said why? Does it look like they care? And he was right.
They really don't care in the slightest.

We're going to have modern amenities again one of these days. We recently bought a decent trailer house ($500. I wrote a check for our "new house!" lol) to get us through the winter since our shop isn't insulated. But we'll keep the outhouse for a while to come.

I got to thinking though, after I wrote that check for the trailer, that if we didn't have the kids, we'd probably just keep living like this. I would demand an actual floor though.

Power? Yes. I like electricity. And truth be told, while I don't really care about the phone, I don't know how I'd survive without internet! Anything you could possibly want to know is out there, just a Google search away! How could I give that up?? But I don't mind my outhouse. I don't mind not having a TV. I don't mind hauling my laundry to town once a week to the laundromat...

Last night, my husband was working late hauling corn, so it was just the kids and I.
Our only lamp was putting out a soft glow, the radio was playing quietly in the background, the kids were curled up on my bed in the middle of the "house" reading and absent-mindedly petting the dog lying between them and I couldn't help but think that life can not POSSIBLY get any better than this.

mustangsally17 · #6 09/29/10, 06:29 PM

Live without electricity? Without conveniences and out in the middle of nowhere? Dawn, this has been my dream since I was a teen,[hippie years] well actually they have traveled with me into adulthood.. a loooong time ago, but life has taken many turns along the way. Way back then my favorite movie was Mountain Family Robinson and I must admit I own the movie and still watch it when I need a dream fix. Also Dick Proenneke's movies, he is one of my heroes. I live pretty far out on 160 acres but.not quite where Id like to be. Solar would be cool but I really dont have the $ needed. .like most I believe the thing I would miss would be internet ummm I think refrigerator also but that could be easily taken care of.

mustangsally17 · #7 09/29/10, 06:30 PM

Last night, my husband was working late hauling corn, so it was just the kids and I.
Our only lamp was putting out a soft glow, the radio was playing quietly in the background, the kids were curled up on my bed in the middle of the "house" reading and absent-mindedly petting the dog lying between them and I couldn't help but think that life can not POSSIBLY get any better than this.
__________________
Erin, I love this description of your evening...how awesome!

NeHomesteader · #8 09/29/10, 06:36 PM

Thanks so much for all the replies,now I know i'm not the only one feeling like this. Today I washed wool to start making a rug for Christmas. That helped. my husbands dad has been in and out of the hospital for the last month and a half plus we've been helping him out ALOT. He is doing much better now but even though I have not minded all the hospital trips/helping him out because we love him,it has been a stress and I haven't been able to be home like I like. That is a little of it lately and I have a friend who now has lung/brain cancer. I'm thinking that it's time to do more of what i'm dreaming of. I have a mule spoken for for fall. Have always wanted one and that is a step. Call me crazy. Dawn

Trisha in WA · #9 09/29/10, 06:40 PM

dawn, it amazes me how when faced with our own mortality, we finally decide to get in gear to do what we have always dreamed. For us it was DH having kidney cancer that made us start living our dream in stead of just dreaming it.

demeter · #10 09/29/10, 06:51 PM

Nah Dawn, you're not crazy. I have done it. Could do it again. But I just don't want to anymore. Not that extreme. Spoiled, I guess.

demeter

NeHomesteader · #11 09/29/10, 06:53 PM

Trisha-so glad you were able to live your dream and didn't wait. It does make a person think that we better do it soon or maybe never be able to. My husband is pretty good.He has been patient and put up with my ideas most the time. But tv being gone would never happen. I could do without a phone and lately,everytime we sit down to a meal it seems to ring. I guess maybe I just need to destress.
Erin-Congrats to you guys. You are doing a fantastic job . Your kids are so lucky and have everything they need. They will learn what real life is all about.
mustangsally-I will always love Little House on the Prairie=that show is me.
Catherine-sounds like you have a wonderful life and your goals are so close to mine. Just keep keeping on working on paying off your place. We are close and it will make things alot easier. Good luck .
Sheryl-thanks so much for your encouraging words. You are right when you say fed up with commercialism. That is where i'm at right now,so sick of it. Don't get me wrong,i'm so thankful for everyday and everything I have. It is not about that. I am just so ready for a change.

Sonshine · #12 09/29/10, 07:09 PM

Count me in. One day I'm hoping we'll be able to live out in the boonies, totally offgrid and living on what we can make and raise on the homestead.

Spinner · #13 09/29/10, 07:10 PM

It sounds great, all but the lack of electricity. I like electricity. It's nice to flip a switch and cool off in front of the A/C unit on those days when the temps are in the 3 digit category. I don't know how I'd keep the milk cool without the frig. I'm sure I'd find a way, but I don't want to have to find a way.

I love being out in the middle of nowhere. It was great when there were only 2 other families out here, but over the past 20 years, 3 more families have moved into the area. It bothers me to see cars go past the house (I hate the dust they stir up.)

I grew up in an old house without running water or electricity. We got along just fine, but I really don't want to go back to that life. I enjoy some of the modern things. That's why I invested in some solar panels several years ago. When the power goes out, I can still have a few lights, and other modern things to enjoy.

demeter · #14 09/29/10, 07:12 PM

Spinner said it best for me.

demeter

Haven · #15 09/30/10, 09:19 AM

My step sister actually lived in a small rustic cabin for a few years on Mount Hood with no water or electricity. It was some sort of co op where they had a massive amount of acreage and forest they lived on, and everyone helped out raising the animals, gardening, etc.

She is now living in a sod house with utilities and internet...I need to ask her if she would go back to the cabin style living if she had a chance.

Wolf mom · #16 09/30/10, 09:44 AM

Nope. The older I get, the nicer conveniences are and, living alone, the easier they make life for me. Live without electricity and my tractor? Have to go to town to use someone elses clothes washer powered by their electricity? Live without my computer? No phone to talk to my friends and family far away? I don't think so. TV - just turn it off.

I live simply with conveniences. I think there's a balance each must find for him/herself.

65284 · #17 09/30/10, 10:41 AM

No thanks, not again.

I've lived in houses that were cold and drafty in the winter and suffocating hot in summer (not many houses built 75-100+ years ago were insulated) that were heated by a single stove, and the cooking and canning were done with wood cut with a crosscut saw and split by hand with a maul and wedges, carried water from a well into the house in buckets, water was heated in kettles on the stove, bathed in a washtub. I almost forgot to mention the smelly oil lamps as the only source of (poor) light, the closest thing we had to electricity was the time lightning hit the barn.

I have very vivid memories of hauling and stacking hay in the barn on scorching days, hands raw from picking acres field corn, chopping ice on the pond twice a day to water livestock, getting up way before the sun to milk a bunch of cows before getting ready to meet the school bus, having to sit my fanny on an icy board in winter to take care of bodily elimination.

We enjoyed fresh food from the garden/orchard during the relative short time period it was available, the rest of the year it was mostly canned/dried food and cured pork, and what we had in the root cellar, due to no refrigeration or freezers, fresh meat other than chicken, especially beef, was a real treat usually served only for Sunday dinner.

Been there, done that, don't want to do it again!!! Its one thing to live like that when there is an option of doing it differently if it gets too tough, it's quite another when there isn't an alternative.

If you want to live primitive why not find a cave to live in, wear skins in lieu of clothing, scrounge roots, nuts, leaves, and berries for food and hunt animals with a club, spear fish with a sharp stick for meat, and cook over an open fire?

Seriously, where does one draw the line as to how far back in time they want to model their lifestyle on?

ronbre · #18 09/30/10, 10:50 AM

i think you should have what you want, as long as it is within your means..

Granny Sue · #19 09/30/10, 11:08 AM

We lived 16 years on our 80-acre place without electricity. There are good and bad things about it. What I liked: the quiet. not knowing when the power was out. doing things for myself. no electric bill. We had a spring for running water, wood for heat, LP gas for cooking and hot water--also a wood cookstove for cooking and hot water in winter. We used kerosene lamps, battery radio and eventually added a gas fridge from a camper for our cow's milk. Outhouse at first, then flush toilet. Canned meats and everything else, or dried it, but eventually we bought a freezer and kept it at our neighbors and used it for meat.

What was hard: 4 boys and no washing machine. I washed with a hand-cranked wood washer (100 years old), the spring was iffy sometimes, and we had to haul in the bottle gas. The cost of the LP gas and kerosene almost equaled our eventual electric bill, and we weren't really off-grid because we were using those fossil fuels.

We put electricity in in 1990 or somewhere around there. We've been conservative about what we add back to our lives. TV came for a while, then left. Dishwasher lasted even less time. We have a dryer but rarely use it, maybe twice a month now. There is nothing fancy about our house or appliances. We're running in the free gas now, so the electric bill will go down even further.

I still miss those simpler, harder days. Sometimes I think about going back to that wayy of life and when the power is out we do just that without any trouble. As I get older, however, I realize that I want to be able to function on my own as long as possible. So we're adding back into our lives the things that made sense (clothesline, for example) and keeping what makes sense now--fridge, dryer. It's a compromise, but one I can live with.

bhawkwind · #20 09/30/10, 11:49 AM

We're moving towards being ABLE to live that simply. DH and I kind of raise our eyebrows in amazement when we see how much gets done when the TV/computer are out of order. Don't know that any of is ready to let go of that many conveniences/gadgets.

It's very nice to get set up so that the necessities are just a hiccup when the power goes out though!