The Paleo Problem with Living Off The Grid

Facebook
Google+
Twitter
Pinterest20

Lately I’ve been fantasizing about living in the middle of nowhere in a small home off the grid. Here are some of my housing picks so far…

Screen-Shot-2013-04-18-at-1.25.01-PM.png
Treehouse in Costa Rica at Finca Bellavista treehouse community. Photo from www.fincabellavista.com

 

Screen-Shot-2013-04-18-at-1.38.24-PM.png
Home in New Zealand made from a large storage container. Pic from treehugger.com

 

Screen-Shot-2013-04-18-at-1.49.02-PM.png
Hobbit House hand built by Simon Dale in England for $5000. Photo from http://now.msn.com/hobbit-house-built-by-simon-dale

 

I’m actually serious about doing this some day, and all of these options are viable in my mind. I don’t need much: just a kitchen, a bed, and the internet and I’m good. Oh, and some rocks to climb on would be nice. And yes, the treehouse has internet!

But there’s one other small thing I need that makes me hesitate to move out of the Boulder bubble permanently: good food. Let’s consider the living situations above for a moment so you see what I mean.

Treehouse in Costa Rica

Seth and I could buy a treehouse from www.fincabellavista.com, which looks like a really incredible treehouse community reached by a 5 hour drive and a 35 minute walk from the airport. There’s a town 1.5 miles away with a little store, but we all know what those little markets are like: rice, beans, fruit, veggies, factory farmed/cured meats, and boxed sugary foods. Where’s my non-toxic produce going to come from? Where am I going to get my freezer full of grass-fed and pasture raised meats? Do I need to grow it myself? Sure, we can grow some of the produce, but livestock isn’t allowed in the treehouse community and I don’t think they’d be keen on me shooting capuchin monkeys and toucans from my treehouse porch.

The other alternative is to drive an hour to the nearest larger town for a big grocery store, but for what? I’ve been to Mexico, Spain, Trinidad, and Venezuela and I’ve never seen any organic sections in grocery stores there.

Shipping Container Home

Seth and I have seriously considered buying a plot of land in Kentucky near the Red River Gorge, which is an amazing climbing area 1 hour east of Lexington. We think we could make a really cool storage container home (check these out if you don’t think they can be awesome) on some cheap land in the boonies.

But then what? In order to buy organic produce we have to drive at least an hour (depending on how far out in the boonies we live) to the Whole Foods in Lexington. There are some local sources of pastured meats on eatwild.com that I just found, so that eases my mind a bit. Then I just need to plant a garden and find a CSA, and maybe we’d be all good?

Hobbit House

Anyone who knows me is aware that I’m a hobbit freak – a Tolkien fanatic – and that a hobbit home would make me as happy as Gollum with his precioussss. I suppose we could build one of those in Boulder, right? I’ll look into land right now.

For real, though, this guy built that hobbit house with materials he found in the area in Wales with a little help from his friends. Check out the inside and the building process here – it’s gorgeous. But part of the hobbit home allure would be the rolling hills in the background a lack of any obtrusive Mordor-borne creatures… like humans :) So it’d have to be in the middle of nowhere and then we’re faced with the same food predicament as outlined above.

So help me out, guys!

How does one live off the grid in the middle of nowhere whilst remaining true to her dietary ethics? Do any of you guys do this? How, where, why?