Ok, I'm back....
We lived in a motorhome for 2 1/2 years before we moved here. Long story short but we had to leave our previous home because of a unsafe situation with drug dealers. We made the choice to escape and start over. For a year and a half we lived in the woods on my mom's property while saving everything dh made to purchase some property. While there we lived with no electricity, no water. What helped was that we could hook up to mom's well and fill the motorhome with water, and once a week we drove over to her septic and dumped the septic tank on the MH. That was so nice....lol.
The hardest part was getting use to no electricity. My kids had the latest video games and movies, I had to learn to cook with propane. Took about 3 weeks to finally not feel bummed about everything. After we adapted and learned to live without electricity we found that we talked a lot more, played a lot more, and found so much extra time to do things that were fun, and productive.
We also had the worse winter in a long time. With 2 feet of snow, and below freezing temperatures we knew we had to do something about keeping warm. The little propane heater in the MH wasn't cutting it. We would wake up with ice inside the MH! We built a 2x4 shed outside the door attached to the motorhome. Put plywood walls up, and installed a woodstove outside. We left the door of the motorhome open, cracked a back window and all that wood heat got sucked into the MH. It was heavenly......and at times cooked us out of there to find comfort in the cold outdoors, lol.
Even though we were about 500 ft from my mom's back door, we did not turn to her for comfort or convenience. Everyone couldn't figure out why we didn't just sleep in the MH and then spend the days in my mom's house. Even Mom would beg us and beg us, to just come in and warm up. We were bound and determined to not be a burden, to learn to get by, and to keep our privacy. I homeschooled the kids in the morning, and the rest of the day we had free rein of running wild in mom's woods.
Well, the day came when we found our property, and moved from mom's woods to our property. The property had a well and septic but that is it. The previous owner had installed them so the property would sell faster and for more.
Still had no electricity.
The only problem was that the little generater in the MH was not strong enough to pull water from the well, and it wasn't possible to use the septic because the road wasn't finished and we couldn't drive up to use it to dump the MH septic. So we went to town once a week to dump. We bought water for months and rationed it. There is a creek on the property so we used that to bath in. Every other week, we visited my mom and did take real showers, lol. We did this for a few months, but by this time we were approaching winter and knew that we needed to get water somehow. We bought a big generator that would bring up water from the well. Talk about feeling rich!!!! I can't explain it, lol. The boys and dh shaved their hair and wore crewcuts to make staying clean easier, but dd and I refused to cut our long hair. So all winter we would stand outside and draw well water up and use a hose to wash our hair. Talk about brain freeze! It was painful, and I wouldn't recommend it, lol.
After learning to do without electricity, I think this is the most manageble thing to do without. Dh still to this day, looks back and thinks that was the best time of our lives. We became so close, and really found ourselves. If I had to choose between electric and water, water wins hands down. I didn't like to use the stove in the MH, it was just too crowded in there to cook comfortably. I learned to use a bbq outside. I figured out how to cook everything in that, and we ate well. I did have to shop once a week, because the refridgerator isn't very big, and stocking up and putting things in the freezer is impossible.
I do have to say that we alienated ourselves while we lived so rough. I didn't always feel "pretty" because I was use to a shower every day, wearing clean clothes, and changing if I got dirty. I kept up washing our clothes by using the creek, but as you all know, it just doesn't get them clean like a washing machine does. I did have to travel to a laundry facilities in the winter time when it was freezing, and I remember watching the washer and wondering how it would feel to crawl in the washer and get clean myself, lol.
I'm probably leaving a bunch of stuff out that is important.....if anyone wants they can ask me questions. It's bowling day here, so I am taking off to take the kids bowling but will be back this afternoon.
Before I leave though I have to say that the biggest challenge will be that you don't feel normal living this way. It's hard emotionally, but looking back we all say it was the best thing we ever did. Dh would love to live in our house without electricity...he enjoyed it. I enjoyed it too, but I love my showers, and cooking, and storing food too. The kids flourished. They ran wild everyday in the woods, and explored. They were still young enough that they thought like children, and didn't know the stigma about living so roughly. Even though they bathed in the creek, usually went barefooted and were filthy, lol. They were not sick once during the 2 1/2 years.
Would I advice this kind of living? Yes I would...for all the reasons it was hard, it was also a very "real" way to live. It makes you live simple and to really learn about yourself. I'm a better person for living that way.
