In The Beginning

 In The Beginning

Ooohhhh, this is so exciting! My first blog! Hmmmm.... let's see.... where to begin? Ok, here it is in a nutshell (and due to my usual, like-to-hear-myself-talk verbosity, we're talking a coconut shell here):

My husband Butch (yes Butch. He's a country boy from Texas where this name is common and highly respected. Go figure.) and I live near Missoula, Montana, on top of a mountain, 5700 feet up where we have 9 months of winter and 100 feet of snow. (Ok, maybe not 100 feet but it sure feels like it. Ugh.) We are "Off-grid" which means we use solar panels, a (useless) wind turbine and a generator named Big Bertha for power. We do not have a well causing me to have to go get our water every week from our spring. Not my favorite job. We have a wood stove which is what we use for heat (and which I LOVE). I have a big garden that I plant seeds in and watch them not grow. Or watch them struggle to grow a little bit then get frozen by a 'Summer Cool Front Complete With Slush'. We have frostbitten chickens, 5 hens and a beautiful rooster named Fancy who has a real nasty attitude. We also have 6 dogs which makes for award-winning humongous dust bunnies, who are my very best buddies - the dogs not the bunnies. We are an hour and a half from town, 30 minutes of which is ten miles of scary mountain road that causes me a lot of angst. Living in the mountains means wild animals which also means when I go on walks I have to watch out for bears and mountain lions, which kinda sucks. Yet, we also get to see deer, elk, moose, grouse, foxes, Sasquatches (ok, not really. Dang it.), wolves, coyotes, turkeys, eagles, hoary marmots (I don't know), pack rats and other assorted wildlife which is pretty cool. We also sometimes see scary mountain people with long beards who, to my surprise, have all turned out to be pretty darn good folks. So far. Yikes.

So, lest you think this is all, you know, normal and no big deal for me, I will fill you in on the back story. I grew up in Houston, Texas in a subdivision with normal electricity, normal, tasty 70% pure city water and normal AC and heat. There was no cutting down of trees or splitting wood or snow or lack of power or wild animals (if you don't count our neighbor's mean little Chihuahua).  There was no ice on the inside of our windows, terrifying mountain roads or snow plowing with a tractor for Pete's sake. There were no tractors (not where I lived anyway). There was ease and comfort and neighbors and fun and parties and crazy traffic and daily wasting of electricity and water! There was excess and pure unadulterated laziness! Ah! The life! Ahem... So. For me to be living off-grid, on top of a mountain, with wood heat, below freezing temperatures, an ungodly amount of snow, no entertainment to speak of, loneliness and work, work, work, is a bit of a drastic late-in-life change for me and hasn't been easy. But. It has been Oh So Satisfying and in many ways surprisingly wonderful. I am a city girl living a rustic, country life and married to a true blue country boy learning to live off-grid. In the mountains. With lots of snow.

We have lived here for 7 years and for the most part love it. People who come to visit say we are living 'The Montana Dream' and I say to them, "Well sometimes it's a dream and other times it's a real nightmare." This beautiful place is a place of extremes - summer is HEAVEN, winter is hell (for me anyway). It's a restful, relaxing, quiet, stunning get-away. But it's also a lot of work. A LOT. I have never been so tired. And I homeschooled! It's cold,and beautiful, quaint, old-fashioned, difficult, annoying, peaceful, lonely, soul-restoring, frustrating, energizing, healthy, back-to-naturey, relatively stress free and a constant source of pride and satisfaction. Plus other people think it's cool (because they don't have to do it) and think you're cool for doing and want to hear all about it. Usually. I began to write something called the Mountain News on Facebook and people seemed to enjoy it. Not sure if they were laughing with me or at me but whatever. People seemed to miss the Mountain News when I would take a break or not have time to write. I began to think that maybe it would be a public service and do others some good to hear all about living in the mountains and off-grid so they, unlike me, would know what they were getting into. Or make them appreciate all the more their conventional, easy, normal, soft lives. Or even better, make them laugh. There will be stories about living off-grid and all that entails, lots of pictures, yummy recipes for road kill, animal tales, (my) disaster stories, etc....So, here it is, The Mountain News in the form of a blog called "Off Grid - The Good, The Bad and The Lovely.  Enjoy!