Well, we have been living the feral life for nearly five months now. There has been masses of hard physical work (so much so that I am now 57kgs and can fit into my pre-kids clothes), lots of frustration and more than a couple of hissy fits. But..........I think we've come out the other side. We are living a very simple lifestyle by modern standards, but are deriving immense satisfaction from it.
Define the feral life?
-300W of solar power, total. You know those standard grid-connect systems to supplement suburban houses? Well, they're 1000kW. Yep, we're on less than a third of that.
-Hot water via donkey. Not the hee-haw type, a drum that you light a fire in that thermosyphons water. You want a shower, you go collect sticks.
-No fridge. The solar is too tiny. Funnily enough, after the first month or so I realised how little stuff actually needs to be in a fridge. When you don't eat meat, have chooks and get an increasing amount of fruit and veg from the garden then it's nearly obsolete. Because it's heating up i'm looking at the little car ones just for our milk, butter and cheese, then we can take it camping too.
-Seven people living in a one bedroom house. Not as bad as it sounds actually-there's plenty of outside space so there's been little claustrophobia.
We've been ready to pack up a few times. But it passes. I can't imagine having to go home anywhere else-it literally feels as if the stress of the world falls off my shoulders and i've come back to my cosy little haven every time I crest the driveway. I think we may just stick it out :)
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