Living Without Electricity On Our 100 Year Old Farm. (Alaska, plants, clothesline)
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----" I am sleeping more peacefull than I ever have "----
That's good to hear. Moderator cut: No flaming .
In general my love....in general I would much prefer to have to deal a bit with heat and humidity for a little time at night than lay awake worrying about paying my $300 electric bill and have numerous unnatural noises keeping me awake. I have suffered with restless sleep and nightmares in the past, that is VERY rare now. I do hope you have a beautiful day dear.
[quote=gentlearts;9450743]I have not read all the responses to your post. If you want to live this way, then you are certainly entitled to do so, but what is the point?
The fact that you reject the things which make our lives safe and convenient, which thousands, if not millions, of people who have gone before you have worked to provide, is your business, Moderator cut: No insults .[/quote
Moderator cut: No insults
Yup, someone once asked what an " eccentric" was.
The answer was if you are rich and act nutty, you are called "eccentric"
If you're poor and act nutty, you are simply called " nuts"]
Finally got through the whole saga. What an amazing story. I wish you all the best in your endeavors and a speedy and happy conclusion to the headaches of the past year.
I'm not surprised your grandkids love coming over and getting their hands dirty - a much healthier and useful set of skills to learn that how to maneuver a joystick. They are very lucky to have you and the example you are giving them in their lives.
Just because a thread might fit into the Living Green forum category better than another forum because it's actually centered around someone who is Living Green, doesn't mean that "saving the environment" has to have been her primary purpose in choosing her lifestyle.
Amazing post above, FB. Quite easy to see that your chosen way of life is, for the most part (), keeping your blood pressure low. Just look how calmly and persuasively you responded to the one or two naysayers who are hell-bent on trashing your dream!
For all it's faults & drawbacks, America still beckons those who want to swim against the tide without fear of retribution.
God Bless America!! and God bless you too, FB - swim on!!!!
I cannot begin to explain why this lifestyle appeals to me so deeply. Maybe it is the same thing tht makes some folks love living in the city and some cannot leave the country. It is just a difference in our hearts, a different definition of peace and contentment.
Dear FB, you have nothing to explain. You are not violating any laws nor are you trying to convert anyone. 99% of us truly enjoy reading about your lifestyle and adventures. The other 1% can go play tag on the freeway.
We all sit here in our electric dependant lifestyles and live vicariously through your words. About the only thing that I have ever done, that even comes close to comparing to your wonderful adventure, is that I decided to give up hunting with a gun and start hunting with a bow and arrows that I made myself. I must be "nutty" also. Why else would I turn my back on all of the advances that have created a weapon that allows me to kill a deer at 250 yards (the modern centerfire rifle) and instead use a stick, a string, four feathers and another stick..... AND have to sneak to within 25 yards to make a shot? I have yet to shoot a deer with my bow (10 years of hunting) but I can't put into words how much more exciting the hunting has become.
FB says---------" My choice was right for me, not because I am saving the environment "-
????????????
I believe it was you who moved ypur thread from the TN forum over to to the " Green living " forum.
Even if the central goal was not "saving the environment", that doesn't mean that it hasn't been an additional benefit.
Her story also stands as a role model and learning tool for others who may have environmentalism as their primary focus.
It is a shame that people cannot make this choice, to live self sustainable as possible, without electric or modern conveniences, without the government making laws to make it impossible to to this. They are tied in with the electric companies I swear. I am thankful that where I live you can still have outhouses and live the way ew are choosing, without the government forbidding us to do so.
As for it being "nutty", I guess to the majority of the country, it probably does seem that way. To be honest, I was shocked that my daughters both approved of my choice. I guess it was because they knew I had dreamed of this their entire lives and knew my mother had this same dream and died with the regret of not trying it.
I cannot begin to explain why this lifestyle appeals to me so deeply. Maybe it is the same thing tht makes some folks love living in the city and some cannot leave the country. It is just a difference in our hearts, a different definition of peace and contentment.
This lifestyle was not completely new to me. I grew up with an outhouse, lived for certain periods of time without electricity. After we got our power and toilets and such, I was always obsessed with pioneers and the way they lived. I would read and study about them when I was a child. Of course, my favorite things were books like Little House and anything I could find to read where they used oil lamps and carried water and such. As a child I would spend more time cooking over a fire up on the mountain than eating meals with the family in the kitchen at home. When I married and he eventually lost his job, we ended up on the creek bank for almost a year or so. It was the best year of our marriage. I loved catching crawdads for supper, foraging for food and cooking on the fire, taking baths in the creek and carrying water for our needs. I was so happy then.
I have two daughter's who would never choose to live as I do. One of them would go crazy if she thought she had to move out of town. The house seems dark to them, they prefer to "hold it" until they get home as opposed to using the outhouse. But they never have told me I was nuts or condemned me for my choice, because they know and see I am happier living that choice than I have ever been in my life. And...I find it interesting that both of them have been stressed at one time or another and both chose to come to my home to spend time there to calm down and relax....because it was more peaceful than anywhere else. I have said before, when the grandkids come, they don't want to leave. On days that Chris has to go to Amanda's to watch Perrin, Perrin is not very happy about it because he wants to go to the Broken House (as he calls it) and stay for the day. He has hundreds of dollars of transformers, robots, costumes, trucks, cars, tractors and wagons at home. The TV and tons of movies he loves. But his number one favorite thing now is not the new Bumblebee Transformer he got for his birthday, it is the box of tools he got. And those tools are at the Broken House and he loves more than anything to build and fix things with his Papaw. Yesterday, they built a bench, put steps on the back porch, put shelves up and took apart a work bench so Perrin could put it back together. I have to believe that kind of interaction, those skills will be better for him in his life than sitting in front of a Transformer movie for the 1000th time watching Optimus Prime fight Decepticons. They love it so much that Devin had his Daddy call me when on vacation last week and wanted me to come and get him so he could spend time at our house.
As for me, I do think that maybe I am helping the environment some, and I do take some pride in that. But that is not why I live this way, not why I have chosen to live this lyfestyle. I do think the world is in bad shape and that perhaps living this way might prepare me or maybe my grandkids for bad times ahead of us. But that as well is not why I made this choice. I do not despise modern things or conveniences and I don't think people are "nutty" or crazy for choosing to live with them. I am glad my daughters have electric stoves, lights, central heat and air, because I know it makes them happy and they love their life with it. I do not judge anyone for having it, wanting it, loving it. But it is just not something that makes me overly excited in MY life.
When we rented the trailer over a year ago. We had about every modern thing anyone could hope for. Every electric appliance and thing that people like to have. When I got home from work, Chris would get on his computer in the livingroom and me on mine in the bedroom. I would cook a quick supper and we would eat on most days at the computers. I would then be on the phone or read with the bright lights on while he watched one show after another on the TV. We seldom talked to each other. We took a lot for granted. Perrin demanded to watch Backyardigans or Little Einsteins or Sponge Bob when he was over. There was little interaction, little communication. There was always noise and something running or going on. I hated going outside after being inside where it was 65 degrees on a 100 degree day. I never wanted to be outside in the Winter because I was so used to it being warm and toasty inside. The fridge made it so convenient to eat processed foods and ice cream. You would not believe what my triglycerides and cholesterol were back then. I would excape through books on self sufficient living, Countryside Magazine, hoping I could find an OLD movie or TV show where they lived without the hundreds of things that I had around me.
Then one day we had that chance, a chance to see if those hidden dreams were as good as I thought. If they were REALLY the way I wanted to live. When I thought about my mother, going back and forth to chemo treatments, we talekd about it. She had wanted to go back to Coker Creek so bad and live like this, but felt she was too old, then got too sick, then her dream became her biggest regret in her life. Then she died never knowing. I did not want to end like that. If it only lasted a month at least I would then be able to say "Mother, it was NOT what we thought it would and could be". So I went for it.
And over a year later, when I think about the LIFESTYLE....I have no regrets. It is not an easy life living like this. You work your backend off. You don't think about vacations much because you worry about who will take care of the farm. Not just anyone would stay in a non electric house and feed and water chickens and such every day. Yeah it would be easier to throw my clothes in a washing machine and then a dryer and be done with it in a few hours. It is not easy for laundry to take half a day. It would be easier to flip a switch and have bright light to extend your day. But easier or not, it offers me a lot more positive than negative. Our bodies now wake up at 6am every morning without a screaming alarm clock. The oil lamps have a peaceful glow. eating breakfast in my little kitchen on my Mam-maws table, with the birds singing outside, the roosters crowing and no other noise (no TV, music, neighbors screaming, cars driving by, nothing) offers you a peaceful way to start your day. We waste less water when we have to carry it to the house for dishes, baths and even to flush the toilet. I know some day we will not be able to carry it, and we will then get a pump, but for now, we enjoy it and are not a bit wasteful. I leave for work with kisses from my cats and dogs and walk outside to a beautiful scene of the branch and spring running, the goldfish swimming in the ponds, the herbs growing strong, the Anise, Sage, Lemon Balm and Chocolate Mint giving fragrance to the perfect morning. When I come home there is not a phone ringing, noises all through the house, air conditioners blowing and such. I pull into my driveway and my grandson comes flying off the porch with a grin on his face, gives me a kiss and wants me to immediately see what him and Papaw made today or dug, or planted or fixed. I love on the dogs, pet the cats, get a hug from the man I love and we talk! We spend time together all evening.
Then as it grows dark, I hear the whippoorwill start singing, the owl down by the branch letting me know it is time for bed. The chickens get shut up for the night, the dogs go to bed on the porch, the darkness comes and the oil lamps get blown out and when I go to bed, there is nothing, no unnatural sounds. I am sleeping more peaceful than I ever have.
So, that feeling, that peace, that love of life and excitement to live is why I am "nutty" about this lifestyle choice. I don't think that my ancestors worked so hard to provide the modern things for me to be honest. I think they worked so hard because they had to. They did not work to get electricity. They had no clue what it was and when it came around to their part of the mountain, they were the last ones to get it because they were afraid of it. I never heard either Mam-maw or my mother say "I am sure glad I have this electric stove or air conditioner". I did however hear them say "I miss my wood cookstove a lot and "let's sit out on the porch and talk where it is not as loud and warmer." I also heard a LOT..."I miss the old days". So it must have not been THAT bad on them.
It is not THAT bad on me either. I have gained much more than I could ahve imagined. Chris and I are so much closer. My life does not feel rushed and full of chaos. My choice was right for me, not because I am saving the environment, not because I am anti-modern, not because I hate the government or want to hold on to hippyness. Simply because I love it....love it dearly.
Forest Breath, I have come to know you in the last two evenings. I have read all your posts from the beginning, and once I started I couldn't stop. You have such a sweet spirit, and something really important to say. I encourage you to take these posts, and take your story, and make it a book. I think proceeds would be enough to pay off your land so that you could live this way as long as you live...thank you so much for your beautiful narrations of the life you live...it seems as if we are right there with you when you write about these things.
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I would much prefer to have to deal a bit with heat and humidity for a little time at night than lay awake worrying about paying my $300 electric bill and have numerous unnatural noises keeping me awake. I have suffered with restless sleep and nightmares in the past, that is VERY rare now. I do hope you have a beautiful day dear.
