Why did we start our off grid journey?
Good question…right? We still have family and friends that think we are crazy, but this isn’t their journey, it’s ours.
We both grew on farms and once you’ve grown up on a farm and the closest neighbor is 1/2 mile to 1 mile away, then it is very hard to go and live in town. However, we have both lived in town for many years, some as singles, and many years being married. It sucks, to be honest with you!
We have lived in sub-divisions which is like being trapped…kind of like a caged animal. We have met some of our very best friends today in those sub-divisions which is good, but it’s still a sub-division. Lot’s and lot’s of houses all around you, people always watching what you are doing, and the worst nightmare ever, it the HOA writing you nasty and threatening letters that you cannot park your own trailer on your own driveway. And then, that same HOA charging you hundreds of dollars per month to live there. What the heck kind of life is that?
Finally after having enough of this, we decided to start looking around for land to purchase to build our own home on, or even land that had an old farm house that needed work. We also needed a shop so that I could continue my work being self employed and all. The bad thing we was finding was, these things on our list wasn’t out there, or at least within our price range.
We also wanted a pond, a minimum of 20 acres, mix of pasture and timber, a long lane with trees on both sides, out building and shop, close to the places we love to go and shop, but out of the city limits so we couldn’t be told what to do and when to do it.
Should be easy to find these things on our wish list…right?
Wrong! Of course we found some similar to what we wanted, but those all started at half a million dollars and went up. This was NOT in our price range at all!
Honestly we was getting frustrated after looking online and in person at property’s. Then the worst thing ever happened. The empty lot right next to us…the only empty once on either side of sold, and then they started building. Then the next worst thing happened, it SOLD. This house was literally less than 20′ away, so up goes the curtains so they can’t see in our huge windows that we had never covered until now.
Although these people would purchased this place ended up being friends and very nice, we just had to get out of there. So we listed our beautiful home and it SOLD fast! Yep, and we was scrambling to find something to purchase and move to. We had already bought a fifth wheel camper to live in and was thinking that we might be living in a camp ground for awhile, but what was we going to do with all of our stuff? Storage units at 60 bucks a month? I don’t think so, because as much stuff as we had it would take 2-3 of these units to hold everything that we had, and we wasn’t sure that would do it.
Next, a true miracle started to unfold in front of our very eyes. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and stumbled onto a property not far from where we was currently and it “might” be able to be purchased, but wasn’t listed for sale. And this persons brother who I was chatting with told me a price that he thought his brother would possibly take, and guess what? It was in our price range. WooHoo!
Our off grid journey might be about ready to begin, because this place had never had a house on it, nor did it have electric or water to it. When my wife Rhonda and I first seen this together, it was like everything on our wish list…except the house, which we knew we could build. It had the large shop that I would need for work, other out buildings, a small cabin, the pond, pasture and timber (hunting), some fences and that long driveway with trees on both sides (almost a 1/4 mile long driveway.
Now the huge rush was on to try and get this place bought before we was booted out of our place that had just sold. We had 30 days!
So now our off grid journey was about to begin. We met with the owners, arrived at a price (less than the brother had told me), and we could close quickly. 🙂
Due to the place not having a home on it made it somewhat challenging to get financing quickly, the owners were gracious enough to allow us to go ahead and move onto the property until everything went through. This was a huge blessing for us! Not many people would do this…not many at all. We are very grateful for these folks allowing us to do this, or we would have been in a campground for months before we could have closed on this dream property.
This property was a jungle that had not been mowed or anything for several years. I literally spend several days on a tractor and brush hog knocking down the heavy grass, brush, and small trees that were trying to take over. Then I was able to get my big zero turn mower on the parts we wanted to really groom nicely, like down the long driveway, around all of the beautiful trees, where the fifth wheel (our RV) would be, and around the big shed/shop.
Finally, our off grid journey had started. We moved trailer load after trailer load of our belongings to the big shed on the property which was actually fairly new, and we could keep it under lock and key. Rhonda and I decided to sell a great deal of our new furniture so we wouldn’t have to store it and so that nothing would happen to it while in storage (the big shop) on the property. We also decided that most of our furniture wasn’t even right for the country theme (rustic look) we was going for. So, Rhonda went to work and sold almost everything that we wanted to sell with a week of posting it. Our place was like a huge bargain warehouse for almost a week, with people in and out throwing out the cash and then packing off our stuff. Lol
The last day in our house was a bit sad, but we knew in our hearts that everything was working out so perfectly that is just had to be the right move. I had to go out of town in a huge rain storm to pick up a water tank (because there was not water on this place we was moving to), come back and fill it before the new owners came to take possession of our place, and then take it and our fifth wheel to the property…our off grid journey property.
I ended up parking the water tank next door at the neighbors and taking the fifth wheel on out to our new property to start our off grid journey and then came back to get the water tank and trailer from my neighbor. The people who purchased our home was there and already moving in…wow, that was quick. That could be a whole blog post in itself right there and what a pain in the as_ they was, but I will let you just imagine what it was. Have you ever met anyone who just kept asking for more, and the more you gave the more they wanted? Well I will leave it at that. I am sure you can figure out what kind they was.
It’s official at this point, Our off grid journey had began. After years of thinking, dreaming and talking about something like this, it was happening. Of course we hadn’t ever even considered living off grid. I had found 2 generators on Craigslist and had the water tank full of water, gas cans full for the generators and ready to live our off grid journey…(our dream).
This all started on July 1st and has been one heck of a ride. We can’t wait to see what’s in front of us, because we know that our best days are still out in front of us. The worst is behind us!
Do you have any off grid stories you’d like to share? Leave your comments below and let us know what you think, or share your story.
Always do your best,
-Mike and Rhonda Pilcher
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