If you are reading Part 2 of this blog post but haven’t read Part 1,  I would recommend you stop and go read it otherwise you may feel totally confused with the content of this post. With that said I am going to start with quoting the last couple sentences of Part 1 to help this flow together.

……….For us totally off grid called us, it lined up with our vision of what life would have been more like from the early 1900’s and back. Remember our love of history, our desire for a similar life and our love for homesteading while living in the modern world they were all trying to mesh together and this of course means they conflicted with each other because one of them in the mix just didn’t fit the others. That was of course the modern world………

Ummm, what is one to do with that?  You live in the time you live in, period…why fight it? Just embrace the things you love along with the present. This of course is the logical answer, but there remained something unsettled in us though it was and is hard to put into words and seemed illogical, even to us.

Then one day in 2002 we heard about a “reality” tv show. Please remember, we had long ago given up our tv and the internet, was in all reality, still pretty young.  Streamlining anything you wanted to see just wasn’t like it is today. So we went to our local library to see if we could find it on DVD.  As providence would have it, the library had the show.

Imagine what went through our minds when we watched our first reality show of a group of people stepping back into the 1800’s.  I won’t get into the dynamics of the experience and how we felt the crew pitted the participants against each other to create conflict…FYI this the American show not the Canadian…it is irrelevant that at this point that participants seemed at times like they had no idea what they had signed up for and they were taken back by the difficulty of it, which of course left of us perplexed. Yet again, all that is irrelevant to the point. The point was that we watched a group of people step out of the 2000’s into a previous time.

It spurred us to thinking why couldn’t we do something similar?  WELL I WILL TELL YOU WHY, BECAUSE THE ENTIRE IDEA WAS NUTS! WHO WOULD UNDERSTAND?  PEOPLE ALREADY THOUGHT WE WERE MAD with our current lifestyle. WHY REINFORCE THIS FOR THEM? Ron and I both were having the same thoughts, the same positive feelings about creating an experience for our family of “stepping back in time” as we began calling it and have now for many years hence.  We were also having the same thoughts about people’s reactions, it didn’t fill us with warmth. We had family by birth and family by faith.  Ron had coworkers and we just knew people would not get it.  Why cause ourselves additional grief? Then there was the reality of the experiment/experience itself. If we forwent the concerns of others opinions, and what we contemplated doing not being a “reality show” but real life, where we still had to function in the real world of the 2000’s, the bad and the good of it (please note we acknowledge there are many good things of the modern world just something about the past draws us) how would we do it? We had no idea.

We spent hours that I’m sure accumulated in total to weeks and then months of conversation of what were possibilities.  What could we change, what couldn’t we? The car was of course a must as we had no team of horses nor wagon and even if we did, we lived 25 minutes via car from town and further from Ron’s work.  We could ramp up our oil lighting, decrease electricity as much as possible. We agreed we could remove items from the home that weren’t necessary and that didn’t fit into the time era we wanted to replicate as much as possible but the question remained “would that be enough to make a difference?”…. we thought not.  So we decided instead of spinning our wheels on something that we just knew we could not do we would simply turn it into a school project for history class.  Since we were doing it that way we took different major eras out of history such as WWII, WWI, the end of 1800’s and we would do research on them, find some major points in each period and apply them to our lives for 1 to 2 weeks. Example would be during WWII we did rationing, 1800’s we picked foods and entertainment that had applied then and stayed within the bounds.

This was fun, it was educational not just for the children but for Ron and I.  It filled some of our desires for connecting with the past but left us flat in many other ways.

In brief, life continued on in this matter for years.  There were things we found we did to our home, usually under the guise of wanting to prepare for going off grid and that indeed was a true reason but maybe as importantly we were unadmittedly meeting our need to “step back in time” in little steps but not such little ways.  Over a 10 year period we changed many things, we got rid of our furnaces so we would heat solely with wood. We didn’t just turn the furnace off, we pulled it out.  In truth it was an archaic fuel oil furnace and in those years heating with fuel oil was extremely expensive so looking back, there was our excuse. Using gas to cook with was one more fuel source that was costly and since we had a wood cook stove we eventually succumbed to the want to cook year round on it, something we had talked about doing forever.  Using our electric water heater was also costly and after we started using the wood stove year round it only made perfect since to us that we should heat our water on the stove, so the water heater went. We had acquired an old fashion copper tub and took baths in that with water we heated from our woodstove.

The lighting was a bit of an Achilles Heel.  We were more then set up for kerosene lighting but we didn’t want oil lamps up in the boy’s rooms so we used white Christmas lights there.  It is a soft light that creates low anxiety much like the light from an oil lamp.  On the main floor we used oil lamps a lot, and I mean a lot but we would find ourselves plugging back in the lamps/chandeliers /Christmas lights after different times for different reasons and sometimes they would revert back to being our main source of lighting for a period until we became recommitted to our reasons for using oil lamps.

Probably the last major thing/modern convenience to go was the refrigerator.  We had a small antique ice box that we had for years (if you go to our youtube channel we do have a video on our iceboxes) but we had only used it for a conversation piece, a cupboard or on occasion something fun to actually use for the purpose it was intended, solely as an option and not a must.  Finally after years of complaining about the motor sound of the refrigerator, the amount of electricity it used, the space it took up and the simple fact we really wanted to use the ice box, we removed the electric refrigerator from our home.  We still had a deep freezer out in the garage and used it to freeze 2 liter water bottles to put in the icebox.

As you can see, all of the things I have mentioned that we changed were either more costly in money to use or in time and labor, mainly the later. It didn’t really matter though to us.  Both Ron and I and the boys were in agreement on the things we were doing. The hard work created unifying moments and a united purpose.  We all loved history, our boys thrived on it like Ron and I did. The things we did filled some of the longing in our hearts for something we felt we could never have. Though we acknowledge this reality it didn’t stop Ron and my long hours of conversation of “stepping back in time”; the desires, the benefits, the things we could learn and then teach and the unlikeliness that this could happen.  We had done about all we could do in our current lives except move to a more off grid location.

At the same time of decreasing our dependency on modern conveniences we were finding in 2012 that our very livelihood was becoming dependent on one of the most intrusive modern conveniences to date, the internet. That was the year we started our online business.  We found that this blessing, and believe me when I say it was and is a blessing, also has been a curse as it keeps us connected to the modern world deeply yet at the same time it gives us a chance to follow our dreams in a way we never would have been able to, as well as allows us to share it with others. Talk about conflict.

So what exactly is my confession? When you look at our family you see a family that not only seeks and pursues an off grid lifestyle for many reasons but not limited to; being more self-sufficient, cheaper way to live……yes and no, health reasons, peace of surroundings and peace of mind. You also see a family that has struggled with an inner desire to create if you will, a living history experience that goes far deeper then what we have experienced thus far but for various reasons have not and/or has not freely acknowledged this desire to others.

It is something that has arisen again and again in contemplation and we have played with in thought, theory and execution to some point over the years.  It is something that we have never allowed ourselves to fully throw ourselves into for reasons such as:

We are not a reality tv show, we have to function and run our business in the world of 2018. People wouldn’t get why we would want to do this and there would be so many nay sayers and haters to point out what is not “authentic” about the experience we are trying to create. Please note here, I know I have mentioned a lot about people’s opinions of us and how we live but if we are led to do something we don’t let that stop us on the norm.  This however is really kind of outside the box in a BIG way and regardless if one is willing to admit it or not, others opinions can affect what you do especially if you put it out there for the world to see. It can certainly have a negative effect on something that should be positive so over the years this has been something we have taken into consideration.

We have watched every reality tv show about going back in time we have been able to find at least a dozen times mainly for encouragement and connection.  What we want to do is totally different then what those people did but yet it’s the same. For them they had an environment set up for them by other people, they just had to be prepared to live in it. The modern world was pushed out for that period and they only were supposed to be functioning in that period.  They had a goal beside the experience, there was usually a cash prize waiting for them at the end of the ride and then they would go back to their real lives in the real time.

For us we would have to create our own environment, something we have more than laid the foundation for but we feel could go way deeper but would we commit to being totally committed to it?  At the same time we would have to deal with 2018 on an almost daily bases as for work but we ponder more and more lately if it is as impossible as we once thought to separate the 2 worlds. The old saying “where there is a will there is a way” keeps coming up.

We would not be backed with a large bank role from some movie company so our changes to a previous time that cost money would have to come gradually and as it was afforded. We would be doing it to fill a dream that has plagued our minds for years and because of that we have to believe there is some purpose for its existence, even if it is simply just the feeling of satisfaction for us. I personally am believing it is deeper than that.  Some embrace today’s technologies and they have fulfilling and accomplished lives. However many are simply a slave to its seductive ways and their families and their lives are not optimal.  If we were to commit ourselves to this experience/experiment besides growing ourselves, maybe we would be an encouragement to others, not necessarily to try this at home lol but to put technology in a place that doesn’t control their family but their family controls it.  If we could encourage people to reconnect, to turn off their screens regularly, to engage in conversation with each other, to follow their dreams, if we would be an aid in encouraging one family to draw closer together than it would really be ashamed if we didn’t move forward.  We have a lot of regrets now with not doing it sooner. 

So our options are to keep going as we have been for so long, which honestly doesn’t seem to be working or we can leap “backwards”. Just jump off, commit to what is in our hearts no matter how crazy it seems, share the journey with others in hopes to enrich them in some way and follow this long toyed with dream. Forgetting the negativity of those that will no doubt rain on our parade yet to be encouraged by those who find encouragement in our journey.

As we sit in our valley of decision we have more clarity then we ever have had before.  We have been encouraged to find out that we are not alone in this desire as very recently we came across several families, couples and individuals who have taken their dreams, similar to ours, and applied it to their lives as much as possible.  Many of these folks prefer different time eras such as the 1940s or even the 1980’s  but have put their dream to the test. This is so encouraging to us.

So are we crazy?  Quite possibly, but then again maybe not. Maybe we are actually a few of the few sane people in an insane world. It is an interesting thought. If your spouse and children were on bored for such an experience would you do it?  And if so what benefits would you hope to reap from it?  What would be the main reason(s) for you to do it? If you wanted to do it but decided not to, what would keep you from doing it?

This is a time for our family to be prayer about this right now. We feel like we are at a moment in our lives that we have to go for it or let it go.  We are going to be spending some time deciding what some real options are to the obvious obstacles. Also we move forward with this we will be committing to a period of time to do this, so we will be in prayer for that as well.

One thing I do know, people do all types of things and learn all types of things at all stages in their life from sky diving, to rock climbing, painting. Some go back to school to get a degree in something they don’t have regardless of whether they plan on using it or not.  But they do this because they just wanted to, a long awaited dream if you will and they don’t want to regret not following their dreams or they feel that whatever it is they are wanting to do will enhance them as a person.

Maybe that is a primary purpose in this, maybe our lives will be in enhanced in a way that nothing else can.

 

Some pictures from our old home that was on grid, while we worked to making it off grid.