I must be setting a record for longevity and determination. I’m now celebrating my 40th year of living off-grid in western Oregon.
I didn’t grow up this way. While I’m related to generations of homesteaders, I grew up in the New Jersey suburbs less than 10 miles from New York City. My father, a professional journalist, built our large cinder block and stucco home while working full-time in the city.
Growing up mixing concrete and building things imbued me with a sense of cando and a problem-solving mindset. I’m an ethereal rather than a practical person; I have a successful business as an astrological consultant, serving clients nationally and beyond. But I live off-grid on solar power in a house I co-built over many years that, circa 2000, also had the first residential permit for straw bale in our county near Eugene, Oregon. The 2,000-squarefoot two-story octagon has post-and-beam logs from our land that frame straw bale infill walls and insulation. Almost all the dimensional wood was grown, sustainably harvested, and milled here, costing
