After a couple of years of full-time travel, we decided to plant down some roots in northern New Mexico.
We’d gallivanted around the country — north, south, east, and west — and fallen deeply in love with the high desert tucked away in the Rocky Mountains.
During our travels, we’d been living in a van decked out with solar panels, and we wanted to find a home that would help us continue our self-sufficient lifestyle.
We found a beautiful, off-grid, straw-bale home tucked away on 40 acres with its own solar panels, well, and septic tank. It felt like we’d hit the jackpot … but there were a few inconveniences we weren’t prepared for.
Being at the whims of the weather had wide-reaching effects
Jayme Serbell
When my husband, John, and I invited our families to crash at our off-grid home for the holidays, we pictured cozy dinners around our wood-fired stove, our home full and warm.
Unfortunately, there was a hitch. We’d recently moved our solar panels from a stand beside the house onto our roof. This gave us better coverage, but we didn’t anticipate how tough this setup would be in the winter when snow completely covered our panels.
Blocked solar panels meant no power, which meant the water pump stopped working inside our well. No working water pump meant no running toilets.
Before we even knew we had a problem, two family members had already used both bathrooms.
John’s dad and I scooped snow from our courtyard into buckets while my sister stirred the soupy ice until it melted into a stew of dirty water and twigs. John then took the melted slush and poured it into both toilets until they could flush.
We wanted our city-folk visitors to experience the adventures of off-grid living, but this was a twist, even for us.
Taking out the trash was a huge pain
Trash and recycling are common obstacles when living anywhere off the beaten path. Believe it or not, trash trucks don’t always travel down long, rural dirt roads.
So, what’s one to do? Easy: We had to gather all our waste, then drive about an hour round-trip to the dump.
We kept plastic bins away from the house, where we separated recyclables and trash. We had to make sure to bungee-shut the trash lids completely closed — otherwise, we would wake up to the local critters having their version of a frat party among our trees.
On the plus side, jumping through all these hoops to dispose of our own waste made us fiercely aware of how much we consumed, pushing us away from single-use items and toward less wasteful habits.
We dealt with tons of unexpected critters
One time, we were hiking around our property out near a second building we used as our workshop. Our dogs ran off-leash through the trees when our pit mix started acting bizarre.
I stepped near the workshop when I noticed a hole underneath it and a massive head hovering below, glaring at me. It was a badger.
I had never seen one before, but I knew they despised dogs — we needed to get our pups out of there quickly.
Later that evening, a local game warden gave us the ins and outs of getting rid of unwanted guests. Human urine and mothballs successfully helped deter them.
That said, being off-grid sometimes made our lives easier
Jayme Serbell
For all the inconveniences, living off-grid occasionally came with unexpected perks, too.
One day, we popped into our tiny town’s store and found what seemed like everyone in town hanging out there. Our town consisted of only a post office, volunteer fire department, and “the store,” so we knew something was up when we noticed the crowd.
It turned out there was a massive power outage. We had no idea. Back home, everything was running exactly as it normally did.
Sure, living off-grid meant hauling our own trash, evicting badgers, and occasionally melting snow just to flush a toilet — but every once in a while, the rest of our world lost power, and we didn’t even notice.
