Our First Month Living Off-Grid
Here's our long-over-due progress post for this new life we chose to live...
Today I want to tell you about what we have accomplished so far, and the trying times we've been going through.
I know we're only at the beginning of our off-grid homesteading journey and there will be many more trying days, but you have to take into consideration the adjustment period! We were living completely dependent of the grid in one of the biggest and more congested city of this earth... New York City. Now (for those of you who haven't been following our story), we are at the foot hills of the Catskills mountain range, on a raw piece of land that was never farmed.
The Dream:
Some 14 years ago I dreamt of a Caravan of artists, mind/body professionals and off-gridders traveling the world, spreading their knowledge and leaving behind some sort of inspiration for a more creative life, re-connected to the natural world. This was going to be a Caravan for the People!
The dream has morphed a little since then, but the essence of it is still well alive. Somewhere down the line we decided to build the same community as The People's Caravan, only this time we wanted to have a home-base... a place where we could practice what we'd preach!
Within this new version of the dream is a learning center for all ages.
This is where we are now. Our home-base is 19 acres, mostly wooded, hilly and touched by a beautiful creek.
We have started building what will become a large mash-up of all the amazing things we've come across while traveling the world. A maker space, a maditation and mindfulness space, an adventure course in the forest canopy (with a small Ewok Village), a natural jungle gym, cabins built of natural materials... the list goes on and on, It even includes an old airplane fuselage made to look like it crashed in a tree, dressed up to be a tiny home!
And of course growing our own food, finding ways to make some kind of a living off the land, with a permaculture state of mind....
There's no lack of work here, that's for sure!
Building a Bridge out of Pallets
Let's get back to our progress now that you all kind of know the Back Story:
A couple of months ago we made the move to our beloved Dream Land (credit for the name goes to our 3 year old son who keeps referring to where we live as Dream Land... I think it's brilliant!).
There were a couple posts to follow where we documented our first days, and our first week... both were very exciting for us. We were in heaven, living the dream!!!!
Since living off-grid we've grown to expect time to be much slower (or that things take much longer than expected).
We are figuring it out little by little, accepting help with open arms and learning from our mistakes... everyday we learn something new!
Frustration... Our relationship is being tested.
These last couple of weeks have been tough on us, we've been snappy towards eachother, which is unusual. We both realize it musy come from the difficulties of living off-grid on a shoe string.
As our freshwater tanks were nearing the bottom, we'd yet had to figure out how to fill them up. We set up a quick rainwater catchment system and the time had come to transfer the water into the belly of the RV (Recreational Vehicle, in other words: a caravan). I now know how we will use the 12v pump the RV came with, but we still haven't got the parts we need to build a bypass and a couple switch valves to make it work properly. I do have a system in place, and we were able to fill one of our tanks but this will not work for very long...
The heat has been brutal and the thunder storms make it almost impossible to work outside, so we work little by little... The RV came with a new but really cheap deep cycle battery, that could barely hold a charge. Once I saw our propane fridge turn off a couple times, I realized it needed a little bit of juice for the automatice on/off switch atached to the thermostat. We went ahead and bought a cheap solar sytem from a friend who had it as part of his bug out kit. He decided to bug-in if anything were to happen, so he offered it to us!
A whole 45 watts of power xomong in!!!
The refrigerator problem was solved, we could go to a festival in peace!
Building a homestead from scratch with a 3 year old has it's challenges too.
When I talk about things taking longer than expected, I mean everything takes many times longer!!!! We love him very much and also try very hard to not be working all the time. We make time to play together and take turns going out on the town where other children are.
The local library has a lot of avtivities, we also managed to finally hook up with someone we knew from the playground in Brooklyn (who is part of the big exodus happening, from cities to country!). We've also gone to a couple of alteranive schools to check them out... very pricey though, Wow!!!
A part of me wants to do homeschool or really what I would like to do is Unschool but while no other families live on this land with us, I think we'll send him to the good old government school. It's a tough choice, he could go to one of those alternative schools and be surrounded by like minded people or we teach him by example, kindness, happiness, love, play and our own alternative way of life with wich he could influence the main stream population going to public schools.... something to think about.
We have my wife's 40th birthday week coming up and setting that up has been quite the task too... but we'll get it done!!!
She wants a five day party, festival style in the forest. Friends are coming from England, Puerto Rico, California, Ohio and a couple other states on the east coast! So we picked a couple spots where one area will stay the quiet zone for all the parents and who ever else wants that. The other area will have an outdoor kitchen, a DJ booth, a dance area and a large fire pit.
We also have to build an extra compost toilet or two and an area for yoga, workshops and other mindful activities with a pretty view... still so much work and it's for the last week of July!!!
So there it is. You can see that we have about a million things on our plate! Prioritizing which side of the plate to take care of first has been my hardest challenge in this journey so far. There's a fine line between financial capital and being here to build our infrastructure... a well for example, will cost us close to $10,000. We need water, but for now we can do without running water... before winter hits this side of earth we need to figure it out! With that kind of money we could get a pretty good back-hoe/front loader to be able to work faster....
And building at least one cabin could be great, as that could be a source of income (there is quite a lot of tourism around here, all year)
So far we are loving this life! And all the work and hard times we've put into it so far haven't scared us one bit!!!
My only regret is, Why didn't start this a couple decades ago!?!
Thank you for stopping by 😁, and see you soon!
In the End, it Always works out
The real adventure begins. Family is everything and sounds like you are figuring it out. Kids are super resilient and adaptive. You can't mess them up :) All they need is your love and some of your time. Thanks for sharing your first month!
You are welcome! And thank you for your comment. We just took 2 days off from working at all and played with new friends, both for us and our little homie! It felt very good
You are really doing great! Sure, it can not be amazing all the time but contrast is sometimes needed for us to appreciate some things and get some fresh perspective. Give yourself a break, going from New York to wilderness is a huge change and it is natural for all of you to have a process of getting settled. This is A HUGE project that you are doing and I have to say that I am extremely proud of you. Much love to you and your family 💚
That is one of the sweetest things I've been told on steemit!!! Thank you so much. I like that contrast will help refresh our perspectives, it's true!
Especially in a huge project like we're taking on (still lots of room for other families to come join the adventure). We need to step back to look at it, take breaks so not to burn out and it's all supposed to be about fun and happiness... gotta remember this!
To be fair, the shock isn't too hard, we've had lot's of practice in alternative living while traveling... but still you are right, it's normal to have friction!
Thanks @zen-art
You guys are such an inspiration! Look at all that's been done in the past 3 months. It's so nice of you to write about the struggles too, especially about being snappy with one another, wondering about how to make it during the winter months. Often, we only see the amazing side of projects like this and it makes the whole thing more real to also know about the struggles.
That said, a festival for a 40th birthday is bound to be stellar! It sounds like you've got a wonderful plan for it and I can't wait to read that post when it goes up.
You're making me want to be a part of this Caravan. Maybe one day.
This is a beautiful progress report @senorcoconut! Kudos!
Ah, thank you so much @manouche. Good to hear (or read I guess!) your comment! Been a while.
We hardly ever fight or snap at eachother and when we do, we usually resolve it pretty fast as most fights in this world really simply stem from misunderstandings! But lately it's been happening several days in a row but we're back on track now!
The longer you wait the more comfortable our little dream will be, but again you are welcome to come whenever you want 😁!
Yes it's been a while since I've sat down in one place and hence the pause.
Yeah, I imagine that starting an entirely new leg of life also means discovering different parts of yourselves together. I'm bookmarking 'most fights stem from misunderstandings'. So true.
I'm forever grateful for this open invitation! Looks like I'll have to wait a while, though. I'm back in Seoul for the time being and just getting back into things :D
Oh yes, we are discovering new parts of ourselves for sure. Our little boy is loving the outdoors. So much more free (and wild) than in the big city!
Have a good time sitting still a while. Hopefully it's for something good. I have been writing a lot less these days because we are so busy.
Until next time
This is so brilliant. I love your dreams, vision, enthusiasm. That sounds like an amazing party... Happy 40th Mrs Coconut!! Love the pallet bridge. So many exciting things going on at your place and love to see it all unfold. Love hearing your updates and well done on all your hard work. 🧡🧡🧡
Thank you so so much @riverflows, it makes me very happy to hear your words. I hope the enthusiasm stays on the up and up! With all the amazing words of encouragement I'm getting on Steemit, I'm pretty sure it will stick arpund!
We hear freight trains coming through the nearby valleys from time to time... my kid calls the place Dream Land, what do ypu think of adding to it a little: Dream Land Express
Ah love it (it's Riverflows, by the way, on the new account -- wanted to reply but didn't want to switch, please come and join us on the discord!) - Dream Land Express sounds gorgeous! We have trains down the bottom of ours, love them - 'I hear the train a comin, it's rolling round the bend, I aint seen the sunshine, since I don't know when, I'm stuck in folsom prison', etc etc xxx
Aha Johny Cash!!! Thanks for the Dream Land Express enthusiasm. I've only quickly looked through @naturalmedicine. But I will look more soon!
xxxx
Hi again! So, I was asking my husband about your water issue (he's a plumber) and he directed me to a plastic drill pump
~$9 at Lowes to get water from one container to the next.
He can't help with the getting of the water but here's another link for natural springs in New York, but living near a creek means you've got potable water, drinkable if it's boiled or treated with Iodine. I don't know the distance from creek to barrel is but I guess that drill pump also depends on the strength and power of your drill.
Thank you for asking about that. I just recently heard of this drill pump. I think it's a great idea. Please give your husband thanks, I had completely forgotten about the drill pump!
And that Natural Springs link... woe that is amazing too! I was looking through the map we have one close enough it would be worth the trip, it's at the highest elevation in all New York state.
Thanks for your help, I appreciate it 😁!
You have been working hard and it really shows! There's always challenges in life no matter on or off grid, its so wonderful that you all choose to be experiencing this amazing life together. Hang in there through those frustrating times and the rewards will be great! Thanks for sharing so transparently. Its nice to see you making so much progress on your dream :)
Ah thank you so much @sagescrub, we're defenitely hanging in there. And we're seeing some of the rewards!!! We just had a 5 day party where all our friends showed up (some on the weekend, some in the week depending jobs) and everyone was so amazed at the work towards our dream we've done already.
Thanks again, it's good to hear from you... sorry I haven't visited your page in a while, it hard to find time for steemit now, so busy. I hope you're doing well my friend.
Its great to be able to read about people's alternative lifestyle here, its something that not many will be able to accomplish or dare to do, so who knows, you may inspire others to do the same when they get to the right time in their life.
The snappiness is probably just part of you guys journey in adjusting to your new lifestyle, as long as you have the same objevtive in mind, you'll adapt and pull through.
Keep us updated on your journey!!!
Thank you @livinguktaiwan, that's very sweet. If I can inspire only one person through what we are doing it will be great! I take a lot of influence from others, so it would be amazing to know I'm giving back.
We are already back in good shape, no more snapping and recognized it was just part of the adjustment period!
Good job, enjoy the rest of the summer.
Thank you, you too.
I am definitely fascinated by your journey. My husband and I had thought about going off grid but I need reliable electricity and internet because I work from home, and some creature comforts. We've spent the majority of our lives living in Orange Co., NY and lived about a year in the Adirondacks. That was a brutal winter. I really hope you're situated before the cold weather hits!
We're close to being 50 now and sometimes we think we should have done that in our 30s but we're still scoping out land and have thoughts of building an earth bag home. Anyway, I wish you well on your homesteading journey. I'll ask my husband if he's got any ideas about your water issue.
It's hard, but we'be got some creature comforts now. Enough to make it a happy place to live in. My friend lent us his generator, which I forgot to mension in the post. We can use it as long as we fix the pull cord, so we did and we use it almost every day in the evening to charge the few things that need charged.
And things should get easier as we understand and build better off-grid systems for our specific needs.
Carefull with earthbags homes, they aren't very well insulated. They will make homes with a good thermal mass but like Cobb they are not well insulated. It cN work in cold weather, though not as a weekend home... it will take too long to stay heated!
Thanks
Funny you mention that! My husband and I just had a discussion about the type of house we would ideally love to build. He did a price comparison and honestly, the more we look into it, the more block homes seem to be the way to go especially since they are more accepted (from a building code perspective). The R value would be greater too if we stuffed the cinder blocks with insulation. We could always coat the exterior (and interior) with adobe to get "the look" we're going for.
We moved from the Adirondacks to the state of Florida 3 years ago. I told hubby I don't want to be cold again. I mean, it actually does hit the mid 30s in the winter but generally doesn't last more than 2 weeks, but moving from 20 degree weather to 80 degree weather suckkkkkkked. lol
It's pretty difficult to pick what we want to build... there are so many different styles, but we want something natural for sure. Maybe we'll end up with a log cabin.
We have come pretty far with the block buildings. You could also go with the foam blocks that are than filled with concrete, very insulated! I never priced it out though.
When I was a kid we lived in Miami for a couple years, the heat is hard down there but we got used to it!
When do you think you may build?
People who jump in, boots and all, cos they WANT and they BELIEVE? Oh yes. Gorgeous post. Raw. Honest. Looking fwd to your festival-party post!
Thank you, I've been slow at posting and interacting on steemit or discord these days... but I'm sure there will be a festi-birthday post!