Warren's blog

Voluntary adversity is a denial of the comfortable life.  It is practised by forcing oneself out of a life of comfort and convenience and into a life of challenge and voluntary hardship.  In pursuing our green lifestyle we became aware that we were going about it somewhat differently than most.  Articles in popular 'green' publications tout the stories of people building large homes complete with massive solar arrays, wind turbines, solar thermal and generator backup systems all in an effort to live a green life without sacrificing any of the creature comforts they have become accustomed to when living on the grid. Although I applaud anyone pursuing a more sustainable lifestyle it seems there is a missed opportunity here. 

What’s the difference between a chore and a game?  This question occured to me one day when I was in the bush, busy with the annual gathering of firewood, and contemplating the similarities between wood splitting and the game of golf. 

We haven`t had many encounters with wildlife since we arrived on our acreage.  We know they are here.  Their tracks litter the trails and we can pick out deer, moose, racoon, coyote... or maybe dog.  The only wild things we see are the grouse who burst into the air and blast your quiet reverie to smitherines. 

The only deer or moose we have seen were crossing the highway on our way in. We have heard, though, that we are deep into bear country so we were feeling a little vulnerable when a wildlife  visitor did come calling and got a little closer than was comfortable,  It was under the house...

Now what!?

As you may know, if you have viewed our Sustainable Sewage System video, our outhouse functions on rainwater. It is now October, however, and with it comes lower temperatures and our rainwater system is now pretty much frozen solid.  We knew, of course, that this would happen eventually but we were so happy with our outhouse that we put it out of our minds...until now.  So, here's the question: What do we do now?

Just to give you an idea of our situation, we have no indoor fascilities and no running water in the old homestead and no septic system.  We are looking for a good solution. 

Going to town has its obstacles no matter where  you live but out here off the grid we have some unique difficulties.  This one is called 'wind shear'. 

Mostly people think of 'the grid' as the grid-like mass of wires typical of the electric power providers and going off-grid is a process of disconnecting from the power grid in lieu of solar or wind power.  The grid is much more pervasive in our lives than just the power grid, however.  If you think about it  the grid is a kind of metaphor for big, centralized control of essential services in our lives.  Energy is one but communications is another, as is banking, insurance, and of course, government is the big one.

Divesting means to 'strip down', 'clean', 'dismantle' which pretty much describes our three-year-long process of separation from the grid-tied life. Let me explain first of all that it wasn't so much something we wanted out of life that motivated us to this drastic shift in lifestyle. It was actually the phone bill.

We agonized over the issue of water for two years before we finally decided to have a well drilled.  Water is a big issue when it comes to life beyond the grid.  We take water for granted but we also take water infrastructure for granted.  One way of looking at adopting a life beyond the grid is that you have to become your own municipal utility, including your own waterworks department. You have to decide where your water is going to come from, how to move it from one place to another, how to make sure it is potable...all the things a municipal utility normally does for you and that you take for granted when you turn the tap.  When you become your own utility, you no longer take these things for granted. 

This is a cautionary tale. 

This is a picture of our woodshed with all the wood lovingly piled therein.  Cute isn't it?  But looks can be deceiving.  It is full of WET wood.

Just how simple can your lifestyle be?  Well, I took this picture in December to illustrate that it can get pretty darn simple.  What you may recognize in this picture is a small barbeque mounted on a folding workbench and a cooler sitting on the step.  You may not recognize them as our stove and fridge but that is what they were.