Welcome to the Back Forty

Welcome!  I'm Allie, a mom on a homestead on the side of a mountain in Maine.  My husband, Andrew, and I have a beautiful son, Charlie, and we have chosen to raise him in as natural and "crunchy" a way as possible.  We live in an off-grid log cabin on a private road.  We balance part time work with homesteading and parenting.

Being an off-grid parent is certainly an adventure.  But being a parent is an adventure, anyway.  I often hear, “wow that must be so much work,” or, “good for you!  I could never do it!”  In truth, it is a lot of work, and no, it isn’t for everyone.  But it isn’t as difficult as people imagine it to be.

One myth I’d like to dispel is that we have no electricity.  We do.  It’s just powered by the sun and we don’t have to pay for it.  Winters can get a little interesting, when we don’t have the long days that fuel us through the summer.  Our system of electricity just requires more consciousness of how we are using our energy and if we are doing so responsibly.  Frankly, I think we could all be a little more conscientious of our power consumption, whether we are on or off the grid.

Another frequently asked question: “What do you do about water?”  We have running water.  We have a well and an electric well pump.  We’d like to invest in a solar well pump, but that’s another story for another day.  Because the well pump draws so much power, we are, again, more conscientious of how much water we use.  This being said, I do know other off-grid families who do not have running water—it can work just fine.  We haven’t chosen that path.

What off-grid really means to us is “sacrificing” those things that we consider superfluous amenities. We don’t have cable or satellite TV.  In fact, we don’t have a TV.  Nor do we pay for internet.  Instead, I have a reliable smart phone with a 6GB data plan.  That amount of data easily allows us to check email, Google things that need Googling, and write a blog.  We find these “sacrifices” actually simplify our lives.  We do work hard here, so time is valuable.  Time is valuable no matter what.  Devoting less time to a screen, for us, means more time for gardening, reading to our son, or splitting wood.  So yes, we work long, difficult hours.  But we have simply chosen to work those hours at home harvesting our own food and fuel instead of spending that time at full-time jobs away from home to make money to pay for those same things.

Choosing the homesteading life does occasionally require some creativity, I’ll grant you that.  We’ve had our share of obstacles and mishaps.  But we always seem to be better off on the other side of each obstacle.  Each time something breaks, we find a way to repair it in a way that it is stronger and more reliable than it was in the first place.  We like to think of each obstacle as an opportunity.  It isn’t always easy.  And having children out here… Well, creativity and optimism don’t even begin to cover it.