Four years living off-grid  – how do we feel about it?

Hello and welcome to the latest blog from The Olivia Rose Diaries on January 5^th 2025.

We bought Le Shack just over four years ago, in September 2020. It was nothing more than a shell, a wooden cabin with one room: no shower, no kitchen, no bedroom, no electricity and the loo was a bucket in the shed.

Four years is a good chunk of time, particularly as I don’t know where it has gone. In some ways it seems that we moved in yesterday and in others I can’t remember a life that came before this. Each year has seen us learning a little more about what works and what doesn’t, making small changes here and there, but nothing too drastic. The longer we live like this, the stronger is the commitment to keep our home as simple, and as self-sufficient, as we can.

The following are a selection of more recent photos.

Those of you who have followed my blog since the early years, and those of you have read my second book, ‘A Simple Life’, will already be aware of some of our experiences of living life off-grid. I thought it might be an interesting exercise to reflect on how we felt then and how we feel now, and to think about what changes we still feel we might like to make over the coming years.

In those first few months every day brought something new. We did everything ourselves, designing and implementing a simple off-grid power system from solar panels and batteries, with a generator as a back-up for prolonged periods without sunshine or for items that required a stronger boost. Priorities were to put in the plumbing, build a kitchen and shower area, and Michael spent hours researching how to do it and sourcing materials. Our days were long but satisfying, each step an achievement.

It was also a very different life. We had no running hot water then and we still don’t now. All our heat came from the wood-burner and we collected our own wood. The composting toilet has moved around a bit, from the shed to what used to be the summer kitchen and it is now in its third, and hopefully final, reincarnation back near the shed but in its own four walls.

We still do nearly all our washing by hand, with a small electric spinner powered by the genny, which is essential if we want to get clothes dry in the winter. Very occasionally, and reluctantly, we will use a launderette for heavy items. We have a gas hob for cooking, no oven, and a small chest fridge which is one of the few things that vex me as what I am looking for is always buried at the bottom.

A friend recently asked us if there was anything that we had found really difficult to get used to, some element that made us long for a conventional house with modern conveniences. I looked at Michael and he looked at me and we thought for a minute and we couldn’t think of anything. Quite the reverse. Le Shack is now our version of normal and just because life is different doesn’t necessarily mean that it has to be difficult. Our learning curve, so steep in that first year, has levelled off (although we never stop learning) and we have settled into our own routines. For us, to go back to a ‘normal’ house would seem a retrograde step. If we ever had to give up on this style of living for some unknowable, unpredictable reason in the future it would be a great sadness. But the future is in the future, to state the obvious, and there is no point worrying about it now.

Others have raised the question about our health and how would we manage when we are older or unwell. A valid question but we are healthy for now and that is all that matters. There is also the argument that a physical life, being in the outdoors, and using our bodies as they were meant to be used, might extend those healthy years.

Many people shake their heads at our lifestyle and say they couldn’t do it, or it wouldn’t be for them. No proper loo, no hot water without a major effort to heat it, all that time spent cutting and stacking wood, or pummelling clothing in a bucket. It’s just too hard and too time consuming. I understand this, and yet I think they underestimate themselves. One of the greatest human strengths is our ability to adapt and get used to new things very quickly, to gain a new perspective. I think everyone should try a period of time living like this!!! But of course I am biased and I appreciate it is not that simple.

Finally, what about the future? Will we make any more changes to Le Shack? We have a hankering for a proper wood-burning range with an oven. We could heat our water more effectively on top of it, cook a wider range of food in the oven, and not be reliant on gas for our cooking. This would be our next priority but unfortunately the roof will need replacing in the near future as it is not entirely waterproof in a heavy downpour. I have become quite relaxed about catching the drips in a saucepan or two but it’s not a long-term solution. Plus, there is the hint of a new leak developing right above my head in bed, and I shan’t be so relaxed if that starts dripping on me in the early hours of the morning. It will be a big job as we shall do it ourselves. More research, more planning, although we have re-roofed a previous property so we have some idea of what we are letting ourselves in for.

And after that is done, we can sit back and smell the roses.

And that is about it for this week. The weather has turned from freezing cold and sunny to grey and drizzly and back again to sunshine. I am beginning to long for spring. I bought some pansies the other day, something to lift the spirits in these gloomy winter days. I thought I’d share them with you in case your spirits also need lifting, a splash of golden sunshine in a pot. See you again next week.

MJ