Crafting a Life Off the Grid
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It’s been a long while since I’ve updated on personal life (since sometime last year?). And you know…that was ok. We needed a time to rest, re-coup, go on adventures, and figure out where we needed to be in life and judgement I had from our online audience didn’t help with those things.
So I’ve taken a much needed step back. As I’ve been easing back into blogging again, I did feel like an update was needed. We are at such an incredibly different place in life now than we were last summer! I’m going to try do do this Q&A style so it’s a little easier to read. Also, I do have more to this update but I’m going to wait on some of it until next week. 😉
What happened last year?
For a long time, we’d been feeling incredibly stretched by the homestead we created. It was just so incredibly expensive to work on that rather “Pinterest perfect” type of lifestyle. It wasn’t that we didn’t enjoy our home, our land, and the things we created, but deep down, we knew the stress wasn’t going to be worth it in the long run.
Then I lost a baby, and another baby, and it just seemed like life stress was at its peak, something needed to change. Not only that, my husband and I had felt called to ministry for quite some time and we finally figured out what that could look like for us. We were ready for a big change.
So, long story short, we took advantage of the high real estate market and sold off our home and all 100 acres. It was HARD. I really did love that place, but I didn’t love the particular stresses that came with it, mostly the debt. It took us almost a year to fully get closed on the home and all the land.
During that time we started traveling and doing ministry work. (My husband does video interviews of ex-cult, ex-legalistic group members, particularly the ones from the group he was raised in. We do this to allow others to share their stories, to impact and connect with others, and to give a voice to those who are shunned or excommunicated and share what Jesus has done in their lives.)
As I write this, we’ve been living in our RV for just about a year and have loved it. We’ve loved the people we’ve met, the places we’ve been, and the stories we’ve been privileged to hear.
What are you doing now?
We realized sometime this year that although we love being on the road, there is no place like home or base camp as we started to call it. After everything with our last home, we decided we’d save up all the money we’d made on what we sold and wait for the perfect place to come along, no exceptions. We knew that we’d probably have to wait a long time, but we decided we could be patient if it really was the perfect place.
In June, we noticed that a cabin had come up in our search area and we decided to go check it out. We didn’t have high expectations because you know how it is, you see beautiful pictures on the listing and the actual place doesn’t look anything like that.
I’m happy to say that we were very wrong and we fell very much in love with the the place. Not so much the cabin but the land and where it was is simply incredible.
It took many more months to work out a deal with the sellers (land did not currently have legal access and all that fun stuff!) but now I can happily say that we’ve lived here for the last month and are so happy with our decision not to settle on anything but what was right for us!
What’s your new place like?
Well, we are currently still living in our RV on the land and not staying in the cabin yet. It’s just not set up for a family to live full time (aka, there’s no indoor bathroom!). We are using it to cook during the day.
The cabin is completely off-grid with no on-grid option, which is exactly what we were hoping for. While we have many reasons to want to be off the grid, a big one for me is the peace and quiet of the home where tons of appliances and all that are not running (I have some sensory sound issues, and so do a few of the kids).
We have water from a spring that seems to flow very well. We’ve worked on developing the spring since we’ve been here to make it more reliable. I can expand on this another time. 🙂
The cabin does have solar power (and we have solar power on our camper), which is how we charge things and have some power right now. I’ve been shocked at how well a small system can work. Either that or we just don’t have many “electrical” needs! The system needs a little work so I can write about this more someday once we update the system.
What about the land?
The land is our favorite part of the whole place! It’s high in the mountains and half treed and half meadow. The best part is that it not only has 1 but 2 little streams flowing on it! (In addition to at least 2 springs that we know of.) The water on the property was our biggest non-negotiable when looking at land.
The land is all sloped and/or very steep, which makes doing things on it difficult, but we love the diversity in terrain.
It’s covered in a huge variety of plants, both edible and non. When we came to look at it this summer, I found gooseberries, raspberries, alpine strawberries, and currents. I’ve also since found chokecherries. We are blessed by natural abundance!
So, it’s perfect?
It’s perfect for us. It’s far from the perfect piece of land or home.
As, I mentioned earlier, the cabin is not yet set up for regular living. There is cold spring water in the sink but no bathroom or any bedrooms. It also only had a 100-year cookstove, which was beautiful, but not practical or safe for a family. We’ve since replaced that with a soapstone wood stove and a separate off-grid propane oven to cook with. We are starting to make progress!
The land is also very far away from everything, which we love, however, that also means we don’t live off any major roads or highways. In fact, there are several miles of dirt trails that serve as the driveway.
No home or land is going to be perfect, but there are always things that can be done to make it perfect for your family!
What are you working on now?
At this moment we are working on an addition to the cabin to add a bathroom and bedrooms for the kids. It’s very important to me that the kids have their own space as much as reasonable and I really need an indoor bathroom! We’d love to get that enclosed before the snow gets too bad for us to continue.
I’ve got a few more updates on other things that are going on right now as well but I’m going to wait until next week for those. 🙂
What about the ministry?
We love our ministry and the people we’ve met. We fully plan on continuing it! At the moment my husband is still able to edit and post his interviews (he has a backlog of stories that he’s filmed!) and he also runs a weekly podcast. We do not plan on traveling anymore this year, so we can take a break to work on this home for our family.
How did you get the money for all this?
I know I’m going to hear about this so I might as well answer it! We paid for the majority of the cabin and land with the money we made from selling our other place, we do still have some debt on it but it’s manageable if we work hard.
Money to fix up the cabin is whatever we have left at the end of the month. As you know, I’ve been blogging for 15 years and have a somewhat steady income from advertisers (although it’s been rather rocky lately!), and I’ve also been taking on some extra online jobs to pay for materials we need.
Other than that, we are living very frugally here. We have no utility bills and have been avoiding driving more than we need to so we can save on gas. So far, I’ve shopped once a month for groceries and have been baking everything from scratch. We are trying to repurpose things that the previous owners left behind as much as we can.
What’s next for you and Little House Living?
I’ve excited to be able to share more about our new life as we craft it. For so long we’ve longed for what is pure, slow, and beautiful and we finally feel we have the opportunity to have that, with a lot of hard work. We are back once more to growing things, baking from scratch, and living as frugally as we can….all values that I founded Little House Living on over 15 years ago.
I hope you stick around for the adventure!
I know this was a lot to take in…what do you want me to share more about first?
Merissa Alink
Merissa has been blogging about and living the simple and frugal life on Little House Living since 2009 and has internationally published 2 books on the topic. You can read about Merissa’s journey from penniless to freedom on the About Page. You can send her a message any time from the Contact Page.
Thank you for sharing..I missed your blogs..Where there is will..you will find a way!blessings to you and your famil_!!
What a wonderful place.God bless your family!
So very happy for you and yours! Keep dancing to tge beat of your own music, those who enjoy the melody will join in! I was just talking about blogging and how much I now share, on my blog. Cheers!
May God bless your family abundantly. I have always enjoyed your blogs. Share whatever you feel comfortable sharing. Many people are feeling a leading, by the Holy Spirit, to return to much less complicated and manmade times. Creativity and self sufficiency are important in our time.
It is so wonderful to hear an update on your life. Even though I don’t actually know you I feel invested in your family’s wellbeing after so many years of following your blog 🙂
I think it would be very interesting to hear you blog about some of the health/medical steps you have taken in order to live so far off grid. With the several mile dirt path to your home in the mountains there will clearly be times your place is inaccessible (such as winter/spring mud season) and even during the accessible time of year emergency services will be slow at reaching you. I’m sure you have prepared yourselves to deal with many illnesses and injury and I would love to hear about how you prepared and your resources. Even those of us close to emergency services could greatly benefit from more self-reliance and confidence in the health/medical field 🙂
Yes, for sure that’s something that I’ve worked on quite a bit. That would be a good post!
Thank you for sharing this. I’m sure I am not the only one who has missed reading your posts. Sounds like you are in a wonderful new home and I can’t wait to read more. I am so happy for you and your family!
<3
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I’d love to know how you went about finding an off-grid propane stove!
That’s a good one…that took me a while! I had no idea how much electricity a regular stove used until we did our research. Thanks for the article idea 🙂
Thank you for the updates, and looking forward to more. Your content is encouraging and motivating.
Thank you! <3
I absolutely love this leap of faith you and your family have taken. So excited to see how your new home unravels and look forward to hearing more about it. Are you set up for any small number of animals yet? Chickens or dairy cow??
No small animals for now 🙂 We are content with our kitty and pup. We’ve got a lot of changes coming in the next year so we are taking things very slowly and we will see where we are at by next summer 🙂
Congratulations on your new home. I have been following your blog for many years and have loved a little bit about all your past homes and what you did with each of them. Living off-grid was one of my dreams. Sorry for the loss of your babies. I had lost 5. There is a 14-year gap between my oldest who is 40 and my youngest who is 26. We did adopt our son since we were told I would never have a survival pregnancy again. He is 28.
I am looking forward to your future posts.
Thank you <3 We are so thankful for the children that we have been able to adopt, they are such a blessing to us and we could never imagine life without them. It's doesn't diminish the pain of a loss but at least provides a beautiful hope for the future. 🙂
I love this, I am so happy for you! Your living the dream I hope, pray and am working towards! I have missed your blogs and hearing about your life so the update is so nice!
It’s been a wonderful (although challenging) month here so far. We look forward to life here! 🙂
Exciting! I’d love to know how many acres you are living on now and what (general) area of our nation you live? I am looking forward to seeing progress on the off-grid cabin.
We have 40 acres (not all useable as most of it’s very steep but no close neighbors!). It backs up to state land so it feels like a lot more. 🙂 We moved to Wyoming.
I love reading about your story and your life. It’s so encouraging! I look forward to hearing more. Thank you for sharing.
Additional content I’m interested in… I have an online business and my husband is building his YouTube, with the hope to be able to move anywhere we’d like to and work from home eventually… I’d love to know more about how you and your husband work from home/online while also living off-grid. Do you have internet at your home? Do you create content offline and then drive somewhere to upload it online? How to maintain the peace of off-grid life while maintaining an online business? Thanks for sharing!
Hi Clarissa, yes we use Starlink for our internet. We’ve had it for a year now and it works great. It’s a little spendy but it’s the only way we can work anywhere. I’ve been working online for over 15 years so I have regular income from that and know how to pick up additional work in the leaner months. My husband is currently only working on the house but when it’s done he plans on finding work as well (either online or from something he can do at home like making furniture which he’s very good at 🙂 ). Starlink has been fast enough that we have enough speed to work, do video calls, and make phone calls. It’s a little slow with uploading but it gets the job done eventually.
It’s taken me a LONG time to make peace and find the time to work online that I’m comfortable with. That changes with the seasons. I used to always work early in the morning but now I carve out time in the afternoons. It helps that the kids are getting older and are more self-sufficient but we still need time for school in the mornings.
Hi Merissa,
I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your babies. When I read the comment that you wrote about having Starlink I was alarmed. Please do your research on the radiation that Starlink puts out. Also, your smartphone, router, computer, cordless phone, cordless mouse, X-box controllers and systems, etc. all put out radiation. If you google “Naval Medical Research Institute Bibliography of Reported Biological (‘Effects’) and Clinical Manifestations Attributed to Microwave and Radio-Frequency Radiation” you will get a bunch of websites that pop up. Click on the one from magdahavas.com for a shortened version. On page 7 it starts to list all of the health issues that are caused from radiation. I also purchased a Cornet Electrosmog Meter that tells me how much radiation is in my home. You also don’t want to live next to one of those 4G or 5G towers. I keep my computer on airplane mode, I use an ethernet cable to hook up my computer to my router and have the wi-fi turned off on my router. I use a corded mouse. I got rid of my cordless phone. I don’t have a smartphone. I have a flip phone that I keep the wi-fi shut off.
I look forward to hearing more about your new property. I live in Wyoming too. We have been looking for a piece of property since 2020. We want something to park our camper on in the summertime to get away from the stress of life and also for my husband to hunt on in the fall. We couldn’t afford it when we first started looking and the prices were reasonable. Now that we can afford it, I don’t want to pay the prices that they are asking! I guess if it’s meant to be it will be.
I have missed your stories. Happy to hear about everything you have been busy with. So sorry to hear about your loss. To a wonderful new home. God bless you and your beautiful family.
Your family is amazing (and brave 😊) and I hope you continue to share your story. It is so amazing. God bless you all!
Good for you! So happy to hear of your ministry work. I love reading your page. It is amazing how much peace the simple life can bring. Hang in there.
What a great adventure! How will you heat your home in the winter? Propane? Wood stove? I imagine Wyoming winters are nippy. To receive things like Amazon orders, do you have them delivered to the closest town? I’m fascinated by the off-grid lifestyle and am looking forward to all of your adventures.
We are heating the home with wood. In the future we’d like to get a propane wall heater for days when we have to be out. We are centralizing all water pipes to make this future installment easier. We can’t get any mail here but we have a PO box in town to be able to get things.
Very interesting! Excited to hear more. Also, I know there are more important things I could ask about but I’m dying to know…do you still have your kitty?
Oh yes! Small Cat is still my constant companion. I can’t believe he’s already 2 1/2 years old. He’s still with me anywhere that I’m at during the day. 🙂
Hello Merissa thank you for your blog. I’ve so missed your blog and am glad you are back sharing your life with us. I always look forward to your weekly newsletter. It’s always so positive and uplifting and encouraging. I live in Western Australia and really love your frugal tips, recipes and the sharing of your family life. Thank you. Tricia
Thank you for sharing this update. I’m so very happy for you and look forward to reading more as you share how things are progressing!!
Oh I am so very envious. Living far away from people and off grid is my dream but too much of an expensive dream here in Wales. Also tree weather doesn’t lend itself well to solar power-far too much rain and too many grey skies. But, as we aren’t exactly well off, I try to be as self sufficient as possible. I am really looking forward to reading more about your new home and off grid living. And I hope to pick up as many good and ideas as I can practically implement in my life.
It’s lovely to see an update from you. And I’m sorry to hear about all your stress and pain this past year. Life can be very very tough sometimes.
If I’ve learned anything in the last several years, it’s that there are SO many things you can do to be self-sufficient without actually being off the grid. I started putting many things into practice years and years ago when we had so many power outages. It’s smart to be prepared for the unexpected, even if it’s not your daily life. 🙂
I’ve lived like that also but not now at 75 I want indoor bathroom and heat. But I still scratch cook and make it reuse it or donate it. Grew up in Alaska so I know how to live off the land. Good luck, you will have fun and let me tell you it’s worth it.
Alaska would be quite the challenge! I hear you on the indoor bathroom, that’s one of my non-negotiables before we actually move into the cabin. I like warm showers 🙂
I’m so glad to hear you found a place to rest. It’s sounds beautiful and peaceful. I look forward to reading about the improvements in your new home! I pray God blesses you all in this new adventure.
What a wonderful adventure!!! I would love to be more off grid, right now it’s just not the right time. I have my eye on a cabin in the woods one day. I know the area I want, it’s just not fitting with my husband’s business location. I would love to hear about the daily ins and outs esp with “weather” coming up! So happy for you all!
I understand what you mean. There was no way we could have done this or lived this way with our last business. It was all a timing thing, but it was hard to wait patiently!
Congratulations on the new property! I am so happy for you! Would love to see pictures of the cabin and each phase of the project… I have really enjoyed your past posts on house renovations and RV living. And pictures of your streams- water is such a gift and balm for the soul. God bless you as you make this place home!
Yes! I plan on getting more pictures and I do have some pictures as we’ve been working on the house. I’ll have to post some videos of the little streams too. It’s my favorite thing to walk down by them in the morning on the wildlife trail that’s next to the one and just take it in. Best stress reliever I’ve found so far!
What an amazing adventure! We’ve talked about traveling in a camper/Rv and doing remote
work, as my husband does water mitigation. Also allowing us to do ministry work in the communities stricken by natural disasters. I love your story as it is quite inspiring. What a sacrifice to give up something you loved and worked so hard for. May God richly bless you and your family for it!
My question is, have you all made any plans of getting to know the people in your new community? Will you join a homeschool coop? And,I’m curious and looking forward to seeing how you plan to utilize your rolling steep land.
Good questions! So far our only focus is making the cabin livable so we haven’t done much connecting. We do plan on joining the local homeschool groups and a local church as well. We aren’t totally sure on the land yet but my initial thought is permaculture so that we can work with the natural systems. I may or may not have already bought seeds and some things like a mushroom kit for next year. :p
Also, our very good friends have been doing a traveling disaster relief ministry for many years. I’d be happy to connect you if you’d like. 🙂
There is nothing quite like the simplest of living, where true beauty and richness is found!!
I can hardly wait to read more!!
What a beautiful piece of land! Congratulations on your new home, and I look forward to hearing more about your adventures!
It is so good to hear from you and wow… what an adventure!! Congratulations on your new cabin and land and I can’t wait to see everything when it’s finished and hear about all that’s going on! Have a great day! 🙂
So happy for you! I found that downsizing is very helpful to lessen the stress. I still have many things to go through and to donate or get rid of, so currently I’m just enjoying the process. I love to hear about your adventures and your common sense practicality. I’ve also found that it’s good to go back to my roots and make everything from scratch! You have helped me with that journey. Thank you so much and I look forward to hearing about your new adventures!💕
Thanks for sharing! I am very interested in hearing about developing your spring. There is one on the land here (my kids property). SIL wants to put in a pond fed by the spring. I want to tap it somewhere along its path (had a friend growing up who was on a spring…best water ever!)
I am terribly sorry to hear of your losses.
I look forward to following along with your new adventures@
I’m pretty sure that my husband took pictures as he worked on the spring so that would be a good article for us to put together together once we actually get the water in the house. 🙂 Spring water seems pretty amazing, though! It’s so clear and cold!
How absolutely wonderful!! I am excited for you and your family and your new adventure. Terribly sorry for the losses you have endured, we will pray for your needs to be met no matter what they are! Nothing of what you said should garner any criticism, you are continuing to live and lead by example. Not many can say that! I can hardly wait for the updates and pictures to be posted! Only you and God know what is best for your family 🙂
Hi Merissa:
When you posted about selling your previous homestead I was wondering if you had stretched yourselves a bit too thin especially with all the huge gardens, projects etc. on top of homeschooling your kids. I’m glad that you have found a better balance to things and want to wish you well in your new place. I’m sorry that you’ve received so much criticism about your lifestyle choices. It’s your life and you have the right to live as you see fit. All the best.
I did for sure and we’ve learned from it, thankfully!
Is the picture you are showing the inside of the cabin? If so, it’s really nice!!!
Hello from New Zealand – I so look forward to your updates and emails, recipes and frugal ideas for so many things. We live very ‘suburbanly’ in a beach town in the north (which being in the Southern hemisphere – means it is warmer than most parts of NZ.) Getting close to 70-75% self sufficiency , and aiming for the total ability to live ‘off grid’ if the power fails long term.
As we are moving into the Southern Hemisphere summer, our garden is flourishing, with different methods – eg: Raised garden, Green house, No dig/lasagne style and felt fabric bags for root vegetables. I dehydrate, can, and cook 100% of everything from scratch.
I just want to say how sad I am for you and David with the loss of your babies. Hugs from here.
I look forward to getting some time to watching Davids videos, etc.
Finally, I really look forward to ongoing updates for the development of the cabin, garden and getting through this first winter.
There are a lot of lovely people in this thread who genuinely care about you – keep going Merissa! Warmest regards and blessings to you.
Just be you! And share your reality. May God Bless you & your family.
First, my deepest condolences on the loss of your babies. Your ministry sounds very interesting. I admire you and your family living off the grid. It took a real leap of faith. The Lord will provide. Keep moving forward! God bless you and your family! 😍💖
That’s all wonderful news. What a Blessing for your family. Looking forward to more updates and pictures of your progress. Looks beautiful so far, but all that’s really important is the love you share with your sweet family.
Praying for continued blessings for you all.
Melissa & family, CONGRATULATIONS! I’m so happy to hear about your adventures honey and all you and your family have done and are doing! I really in awe of all you are doing and am really proud my friend of your accomplishment with the new property and cabin. Keep on going. Don’t worry my friend about the nay layers. They aren’t in the same mindset nor understand what the Lord has asked. They have no say in your life Dear. Continue doing the Lords work! All is good. God bless you and your family. You have all my love and support. Email me any time.
Thanks so much for sharing, Merissa! I love your blog even though it’s very far from my life. I love your commitment to frugality and old fashioned values- it’s really inspiring. I enjoy reading anything you care to share! I wish you joy and happiness with your beautiful new home.
I am so excited, Merissa, to have your update blogs again! Thank you for deciding to continue them. They really were a highlight of my week.
I’m grateful to hear how your family are all on the same page about these new adventures: ministry traveling, and establishing your new homestead through building for your needs and for staying off-grid.
You had asked your audience what we’d like to hear about and here’s my list 🤭
Regarding your comment, “We are trying to repurpose things that the previous owners left behind as much as we can.”, I’d love to hear about what items and how you’ve repurposed.
Regarding your new property, how many acres is it?
Thank you again!
God bless you all as He holds you through the grief over losing your babies and losing your grandma. God bless your family’s endeavors. May they bear Him much good fruit and glory.
For His glory,
Elaine M.
Our new piece of land has 40 acres that are ours.
And yes, the previous owners left A LOT behind. I guess that’s common when buying a cabin? I took one load of things to the thrift store, gave away a bunch of stuff, we kept some of the furniture that wasn’t in terrible shape because we don’t have any yet, and we are finding building supplies and wood they left under the cabin. (And tools!) So far the biggest repurpose project was taking the old wood from the addition that we had to tear down and building a new root cellar entryway. I’ve got a post on that I’m working on. 🙂
How exciting for the new phase in your lives. I am looking forward to your blogging on the new homestead.
This is such a heartwarming story about your new life. So much ahead of you and I look forward to hearing how you do off grid life in the mountains!
I missed your blogs too. Post whatever you feel like sharing.
Wow! Excited for you all Merissa! May the love and provision of God sustain you as your family steps out into this new adventure!
Merissa,
Please know that there are people who do not judge you at all and do not expect answers from you about things you may not want to share. Your privacy should be respected. I am happy that you found a place and home you love. I enjoy your blog and have learned so much from you.
Blessings and peace to you and your family,
Donna
It all sounds very exciting and a little intrepid Merissa 🙂 I truly think you have to be young to take on a challenge like this, but it sounds like this is what you’ve always wanted !! My prayer is that you and your family will be very happy on this new land !
Many blessings ~ Linda
Wow. As I figure out how to pay my water , electric and gas bills , you go out and find a new home with it all. It’s sounds lovely and with a lot of hard work your family will have a really happy home.
Love to hear how you continue to build your new life
So excited for you! Can’t wait to hear more!
Love this! So happy for you and your family!
Thanks for the update, it’s really interesting to hear about your new home & surroundings. It’s sad to hear that you get some negativity to the things you share with us. Carry on sharing with us because the majority of us really appreciate what you do.
May God bless you and your family. My sincere condolences for the loss of your babies. May Jesus comfort your hearts. You are an inspiration to me. I enjoy your blog and am reading both of your books. I have them checked out from a local library. I have already asked for them for Christmas. Have a wonderful time with your family and enjoy your special home.
I’d like to hear more about the spring. We have one, too, and I’m curious to know what you’ve been learning about it! Loved hearing the update.
For the spring, it was already partially developed (someone had dug it out at some point and put a pipe down into the ground so it’s not surface water). It’s already piped to the cabin so we just added new piping in the yard, put in a cistern so that we can have pressurized water at some point, and put in new pipes to go directly into the bathroom. I can post more details on it once we put it all together. We have another spring we’d like to develop too (maybe next year?) so I might be able to post more of a start to finish on that one.
Thank you for sharing! Was missing your blogs, however, loving the weekly meal plans. Very sorry to hear of the loss of your 2 babies, my baby girl is in heaven, we had her for 7 days after she was born. It makes heaven sweeter and earth a little more harder, grateful for our loving God to carry us through. I’m sending prayers your way… Thanks for taking time to send out blog info. What is a first priority for the cabin, once you are able to focus on making it your home?
I’m so sorry to hear about your loss as well. I can’t imagine being in that position 🙁
Right now our focus on the cabin is to make it ready for winter. We have to work on the new water lines we put in and try and get the addition that we are building all closed in. The root cellar has almost been a big priority so I have a “freeze proof” place to store our food.
May your family find the peace and rest you need and deserve ,may this time of quietness draw you and tour family closer to the Lord take the time to listen to His still small voice and what He has planned for your family!!! Take this time and rest and refresh your souls and mind!!!
so glad you are well and back! missed hearing from you! be safe!
Hi!
So happy you are blogging again!
So sorry to hear of the loss of your babies.
Congratulations on your new homestead!
Living off grid! How exciting!
Looking forward to more blogs about your slow living and all the adventures ahead!
Just recently found your blog and signed up for the emails. I love hearing about offgrid living, please continue to share! That lifestyle isn’t for me as I’m a senior and disabled too. I need to be closer to doctors and family. But I love watching those kinds of youtube videos. Sorry you’ve had to deal with negativity. Hateful people seem to be everywhere nowadays, but so are God’s people;). How many children do you have?
As far as the ‘haters’ go… John Wayne told Katherine Hepburn – Don’t let the B—–d’s get you down – after a bad review. You just be you. Start on what ever works for you.
Merissa, I’m so happy you all have found such a beautiful part of God’s creation! I’ve been in Wyoming a bit but mostly on hwys going from NW to SE and that was many years ago. I will never forget the Tetons or Jackson Hole, however!
I’m also so happy to have updates on your ministry. You all have been such a wonderful blessing to so many of His children. I pray that you’ll be able to continue this for many years to come. Blessings from Western Oregon! ❤️
P.S. And I must tell you how much everyone I’ve made your pumpkin zucchini bread for is absolutely in LOVE with it!
Hi Merissa,
I have followed your blog for years and have used many of your recipes. I wish you every blessing with your pregnancy and just say, cherish yourself and the growing baby and don’t try to do too much in the next few months. I pray you have a mild winter and a safe few months as you move towards April. I have been married to a clergyman for 51 years and we have lived in 24 different houses, so know what it’s like to have a wandering spirit. My book “The Back of the Bus” tells my story of working with the poorest of people around the world, and many of them were amazingly resilient and still managed to have a generous, loving spirit. I look forward to hearing more of our story and will keep you in my prayers. God Bless, Susanne Garnett
God bless and keep you all as you prepare your new property for life “on the mountain”!
God bless you on your journey. We gave up living in a city and moved into middle of the woods, clearing & building ourselves. Would enjoy reading how you go about fixing up your cabin, etc..
Self sufficiency is a great goal to have. We continue to aim for that more & more each day, for a number of reasons.
The slope of your land will be a gardening challenge. But I have seen it done with something I call tiering. Where you take logs/rail road ties to make a barrier to fill say a 4 foot wide row across. Then go up and do the next row. Maybe borrow a few goats to weed eat.
We have a very small flat area behind the cabin that I’m hoping to use for a greenhouse and garden. I think vertical gardening will be key in a small space!
Hi,
Congrats.. if younger would have liked to live off grid. Don’t worry about others judgement. It’s yr life , do what sustains u. They not in yr shoes …or struggles. Be happy. Prayers&blessings