Early on, in our twenties, my spouse and I were deeply disturbed by the trends of American lifestyle that are damaging the earth ecosystems. Since then for about 30 years, we have been striving to lighten our impact on the ecological health of the planet. This has led us to some key lifestyle commitments which we now experience with pleasure. At this point we are comfortable, healthy, eating delicious food, redefining what is “enough” to an elegant simplicity, connecting with the land and the local community. To do this has not required fabulous wealth, but steady work and careful choices with our limited resources, creative use of our hands, and the amazing help of family and friends.

We live in the hills of southern Vermont, which is a crucial foundation to making most of the lower impact choices possible because it is a relatively cool climate with a reasonable winter, abundant water, good soils and forests, is beautiful and has a culture of rural cooperation and self reliance with a general commitment to ecologically sound practices.

Key components

• Home: We have solar off grid power using low energy technologies ( for example super efficient fridge, lights, and avoiding phantom power drain with power strips that can turn off equipment even in sleep mode). With solar power we are able to do everything that other people do, except have a freezer or clothes dryer (hang those clothes and gain the humidity in dry winter house) We watch movies, use a computer, listen to the radio occasionally, vacuum clean, but choose not to use a toaster, iron, or air conditioner. We heat with renewable wood, use a solar shower in summer, and our house is a smaller scale design that can shut off rooms not usually in use to save heating. The design is oriented to maximize sunlight and breezes to flow through in the summer. We built this log cabin ourselves with wood and materials either directly from our land or within the state, and very few chemical materials. For the more highly skilled components (cabinets, stairs, solar electric and plumbing) we commissioned local people, family, and friends. Our home is an ongoing creative project and one of the most beautiful aspects of our daily lives. Problem: The off grid and hand made aspect of our home make it not eligible for standard bank loans, and it might be hard to sell on the open real estate market (not planning to do so). Wood heat does produce greenhouse gas emissions in smoke, but we may be able to install improved stove efficiency in the future. We use propane for our cooking and water heating now, but may shift to a wood cook stove and water jacket on the wood furnace in the future
• Food: grow most of our own vegetables/fruit and freeze/can/root cellar for the winter. We have adapted our meals to seasonal foods and recipes as well. We eat some meat that is raised locally and organically. Dairy products are regionally produced and mostly organic. Problem: our freezer is in our barn which is connected to the grid, so we are not as fully energy self sufficient as we would like. We still enjoy foods from the tropics like coffee, spices, and bananas.
• Health: One of the reasons we like gardening, cutting and stacking wood, living in the hills and being involved with a land trust trail system on the ridge behind the house is for the sake of our health. Being active and outdoors and eating unprocessed foods is fundamental to good health. The quiet simplicity in which we live adds to our mental well being, including the lesser buzz from few electrical technologies (no TV or radio in the background etc.). We have made many choices that reduce our need to spend money, so we do not need to work at high stress jobs, instead needing time to do those activities that keep us healthy and save us money. Gradually, we have saved enough money now to enjoy special enhancements, like a big trip or quality computer with high speed internet access.
• Travel: Our vehicles are very high miles per gallon and have been purchased used (recycle, re-use). One is a diesel VW Golf that gets 50 miles per gallon and can run on biodiesel. We do not have four wheel drive in our cars as it requires lower gas mileage, therefore we occasionally make that choice to stay home in a storm, or walk up the driveway when it is too slick, maybe twice a winter. We travel very selectively and limit our trips to distant places. Problem: Family that lives far away presents a real sustainable dilemma in terms of staying connected beyond phone/email, so this is our travel priority.
• Community and Work: It has become increasingly important to us to be involved in our community. We do volunteer work related to conserving land by being involved with a local land trust. My husband became a forester after we were farmers for twenty years. We have been involved with the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont. I work as an elected town official. We find that cultivating friends is absolutely essential to sharing help, ideas, concerns, joy and cheer with comrades.
• Reduce, Re-use, Recycle: We do all the recycling of our waste that we can find a place to send the collected materials and have reduced trash to the landfill to about two bags per month. We use cloth napkins and handkerchiefs and grocery bag, buy thrift shop clothing most of the time, often repair items rather than throw them out, get our names off of mailing lists, and enjoy making our own crafts. Basically, we don’t go “shopping” for recreation, we know what we need and go get it if we cannot make it.

How we learned

It helps to have friends and neighbors who share the vision, methods, and act as mentors, which is how we learned much of our knowledge of the old ways. We became involved in farming (for twenty years) to learn the basic life skills for a close-to-the-earth path, a gut response to the crisis that we felt emerging when we were young. While nothing substitutes for hands on learning, these skills can be learned without having to go into a career of farming. To learn how to build a log cabin, my husband apprenticed with a log cabin builder, working for him for a couple of weeks to learn the basic methods. We paid a fee to the same builder for his advice as we built too.

What else?

We have a design to build a chicken coop combined with a greenhouse, to grow more of our own food (meat) and extend the season. Our daughter plans to move close by, making it possible to share this life more with our loved ones and perhaps grandchildren!