It’s a pretty classic liminal space.
I knew someone whose ceilings were really high and they didn’t like changing the bulbs. So when the bulb died they just replaced them with lamps and let their house slowly fill up with lamps. Probably a similar vibe.
Or as some of us on the spectrum call it: the overstimulation aisle!
I respect your preference but live in fear of it. I have to walk briskly down that aisle, I’m pretty sure I would actually have a mental breakdown if my house was that bright, lol.
Darkness fears the light.
Sure but why not be weird if it makes you happy?
That’s the best section to calm down in, there’s buttons you’re not only allowed to press but encouraged to mess with, there’s calming lights and you can put on a small light show.
I walked into that aisle recently and got such a warm feeling of comfort and nostalgia I almost started crying. I can’t even explain why. I love it so much.
Our little house in the forest started out fully off-grid for the first year. As a result of that our ceiling lighting is actually 4 strands of solar garden lights wrapped around the rafters.
It isn’t as bright as this aisle. But it is 100 individual leds strung up semi-randomly and has a similar feel.
I want to hear more about this off-grid house in the forest.
Well then. Settle in. This story gets longer every time I type it.
Historically - my work has moved my wife and I around 2-3 times per year. Not just to different cities, but countries and even continents. At last tally we had lived in 8 cities in 3 countries across 2 continents, in ten years…
Then we got ‘stuck’ in Switzerland for 11 months due to covid lockdowns, on what was meant to be a three week trip, and I told myself I would never move again.
So when we got back to Canada I started looking in earnest for some cheap land to buy and just settle in. As it turned out, cheap land didn’t really exist anywhere with civilization, so we bought 6 acres of forest in the province of Quebec with a creek dividing it in half at the far end of a logging road 15km from any services.
When I say any services… I mean it. Our piece of land didn’t even have a driveway. So we started clearing small trees (we have a rule that any tree over 6-8inches in diameter earned their place, and we have to work around them) and got our travel trailer settled in.
We built some DIY solar to keep the lights on and phones/laptop charged. And I drove to the closest town each morning to check in with work and commit any changes I had made the night before and attend any meetings that couldn’t be converted into an email.
We then carved a few paths to get water from the creek, and dug an outhouse.
Over time we went from hauling buckets up from the creek and boiling them on the propane stove to do dishes and showered using bags hanging from a tree behind the trailer - to eventually having a gas pump and some garden hoses that we could fill the trailer’s tanks with.
Once we had the basics of cooking, heat, and waste taken care of I focused on building up the solar system to allow us to have actual internet service from Xplorenet satellite internet so that I could work from home instead of driving to town every day.
Then the work really started… Clearing land and building a small amish style shed (12ft X 28ft with a 4 ft screened in porch) and getting it insulated. We got the insulation done, and the woodstove installed just in time for the first big snow and moved into the tiny house from the trailer.
We then dug and installed our own septic system and built a 10x12 addition to act as a bathroom and put in an old clawfoot tub that we bought from an old guy on the side of the highway. I then set up a 12v PEX-based water system and propane camping water heater to service the bathtub and a kitchen sink.
It is primitive, and involves some prep every time we need hot water. But it is getting improved all the time.
At this point the hoses from the creek would freeze rapidly, so we replaced the system with two 1000litre IBC totes that live up against the house so we could fill them both up and put the hoses away instead of having to pump water daily.
After about 16 months of this weird 1880s lifestyle with internet access the power company finally agreed to come hook us up. And then life changed massively again.
We could now run our desktop computers, put immersion heaters in our water tanks, and generally spend less time worrying about things freezing or waiting for the sun to charge enough battery to run the vacuum cleaner.
I’m forgetting about 99% of the details here. I suppose at this point I should be turning this into a blog or a post somewhere… But that will have to wait for a time when daily life isn’t so much physical effort. I can barely afford the time to shitpost and leave snarky comments that I do now :p
This coming Spring will be time for a water well and starting the housing for a few chickens, ducks, and a goat or three.
Some Photo Evidence
Early Days:
House Firewood Storage and Bathroom Built:
“Front” of the house actually faces the forest not the driveway. Backwards… Like me!
Winter beauty - Why I put up with the cold!
Summer Solace - Why I put up with the heat and bugs…
And last but not least - The lights that brought me to this thread. Ignore the vapour barrier ceiling and unfinished walls. I’m working on it!
Do you ever have unexpected human visitors?
Very rarely. There are a few other people building cabins on the same logging road now. But not many that come out more than a few weekends per year.
We also have cameras at the end of our quite long driveway. So we get notifications before they actually make it onto the land.
Holy shit, this is so cool!
It sounds like a ton of work, but it also sounds like living the dream to me… quiet, peaceful, around nature. Thanks for sharing!
It is all of those things, for sure.
The chipmunks who will climb onto my lap to eat and the blue jays who scream every morning if I don’t bring them their breakfast, are the perfect balance for dealing with human problems at work.
Maybe you should take up painting too.
Chipmunk tax! This is my best chippie friend. Her name is Apple. Apple loves peanuts, and I love apple!
Also - My wife is a wet-on-wet oil painter, so bob ross really fits :)
Hi Apple!!
I hate that aisle it’s so overstimulating but honestly so is the rest of the store.
I like the wood aisle. It smells good.
No, go ahead and do that.
