I go by the name Arky and I'm a 50 year old single woman. Since the early 2000's, I have been obsessed with the dream of living a simple life in the mountains. Over the years, it seemed that life just kept getting in the way of me being able to move forward towards my dream. I made enough money at my job to get by, but not enough to do a lot of saving, though I did manage to become completely debt free in early 2013. Another big obstacle was fear. The thought of giving up my job and moving out to the mountains alone with zero income and very little savings was rather terrifying honestly.
I never gave up though, I'm pretty stubborn that way. Back in 2013, I met someone online that owned a piece of property in the area that I wanted to live and he was looking for someone to live there for free in exchange for upkeeping things because he was moving to Florida. On the property was a very primitive, rustic cabin that I absolutely fell in love with. It was perfect! I decided to take the leap and was living in the cabin full-time by August 2013.
I lived there a few years until he decided to sell the property and I didn't have the cash to buy it, so I had to look for somewhere else to live. While it was disappointing, I always knew that eventually I would have to relocate and it was an amazing experience so I have no regrets. I learned so much from it. Not only about living off grid and being more self-sufficient, but I also learned a lot about myself. There is just nothing like spending long periods of time alone communing with nature without all the distractions of modern society getting in the way!
Good news though, I was able to buy a small piece of property in the same area that is even better and it's mine so I never have to move again! It's more secluded and borders the National Forest in the back and I just love it. The new property is just raw, undeveloped forest land with no structures or anything. I camped out there most of last year clearing a driveway into the property and cleaning out sticker bushes & vines, cutting down dead standing trees, clearing the underbrush & forest debris, etc.
Once the cold weather came around Thanksgiving, I've been staying with family and friends just waiting for Spring to get here so I can get back to work on the property again full-time. I have a ton of projects planned for this year, but the main project will be building a small cob cabin so I can live there year round. If you aren't familiar with cob, you can click this DuckDuckGo search link to get an idea what it is.
I've been sporadicly sharing my off grid living experience on Youtube the last few years, but had decided that this year I was going to get fully committed to doing regular videos a few times a week and see if I could finally build it into a steady income. This would allow me to stop spending so much time hunting down odd jobs to earn money and allow me to work full-time on building my cob cabin and other homestead projects. Now, I have zero faith in the Youtube platform and no idea if my videos will be de-monetized at any time like has been happening to so many other homesteaders.
So here I am! I really love the whole concept behind Steemit and I think it will be a much more stable platform than Youtube for the long term. I just don't know if there is a real audience for homesteading type videos here yet or not, but I guess we'll see. I will also be doing what I can to get my 4k+ Youtube subscribers to join us here on Steemit.
Looking forward to being a part of this community :)
Welcome to Steemit @arkyoffgrid :) I relate to your story as I am also on my own living the dream :) Good luck with getting your cabin built - I will watch with interest as you progress :)
Thank you @andysantics48 ! I will check out what you're doing as well :)
Welcome to Steemit @arkyoffgrid!
I wish you much success and hope you find Steemit to be as rewarding and informative as I have.
Here are some links you might find useful.
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Introbot is hosted and managed with donations from @byColeman to help make your journey on Steemit truly rewarding. Your feedback is always welcome so that we may improve this welcome message.
Oh yea, I have upvoted you and followed you. Many blessings from @introbot & @bycoleman
Welcome to Steemit! Good luck with the cob cabin, sounds like a big but exciting job! There is definitely a big homesteading audience and community here on the platform! If you are interested, there is a HomesteadersOnline Discord community where we all hang out and chat - here is the invite link if you are interested in looking into it a bit more!
Yes, I'm not convinced I can build a cob cabin by winter, but I'm going to try. I think I can find people nearby who would be willing to come help so they can learn how to do it with me as this will be my first time actually building something with cob from the ground up.
That's good to hear! It was so great having such a large support group on Youtube. I will definitely check out the Discord, thank you :)
You'll find lots of homesteaders here. You've come to the right place my friend :) Excited to see some of your videos.
Thank you :)
Welcome to Steemit! :)
I would love to live off the grid, but I couldn't live without the Internet.
Sadly, YouTube has all kinds of monetization issues. unfortunately, the biggest problem is the viewership. Too many people use ad blockers which prevent YouTube and its content creators from making money. If people would stop being so selfish by removing the ads, YouTube would likely stop jerking on the reins of the people uploading videos.
Hughesnet is awesome! The service is fast, 25mbps download and 3mbps upload and it's reliable. Only time there are issues is during periods of heavy rain, much like satellite TV. They have basically unlimited data now too. You get XXGB of data depending on the package you buy, then once that is used up you can keep using it the rest of the month, but your service is slower. You also get 50GB of bonus data that you can use between midnight and 8am.
Thanks for the welcome :)
I'll have to let my brother know about it! He doesn't live off-grid, so much as live about 2000 feet up a hill the cable company doesn't feel like sending a cable up. I don't know what he uses now; some sort of satellite/phone line combo, I think. Whatever it is, it doesn't get that kind of throughput.
Welcome to Steemit !!!
You'll fit right in here :)
Thank you :)
welcome to steemit @arkyoffgrid, it's a great community on here and quite a few people living off grid, myself included. Make sure to get involved in other peoples conversations on their blogs as it will help people know you are here. I do a weekly post reintroducing new steemians and would love to include you on there. Have fun
Thanks for the welcome @trucklife-family. I need to get more involved, I'm visiting the grandbabies right now so I'm rather distracted. It will probably be a week or so before I'm able to put any real content up, but I can't wait to get started.
Cool I'm following you now so will keep a look out. Have fun.
That's a great story and sounds very familiar. Looking forward to hearing more.
Glad you are exploring other options besides Youtube. They are being so unfair to so many good tubers. You are welcome here and it looks like you have lots of wonderful topics to share! WELCOME!
Thanks for the welcome! Enjoyed your videos for a long time :)
bienvenido a esta bella comunidad! éxitos
Hi @arkyoffgrid welcome to Steemit I'm glad you are here you are off to a great start 👍🏽! I'm looking forward to seeing what more you have to share thank you for this introduction. Also if you would like to connect with new people on Steemit, our members are supportive and want to help, please use the hashtag #newbieresteemday in your posts. Visit us and follow @newbieresteemday also follow @goodguyty for good vibes and daily motivation✊🏾✌🏾💚
Welcome to Steemit arkyoffgrid. Let me know if you got any questions about Steem or anything related to it! The official FAQ can be found here and has A LOT of information https://steemit.com/faq.html - Also remember, Steemit is just ONE of the sites built that uses Steem the blockchain. We also have DTube - our very own Youtube, DSound for Soundcloud and Steepshot if you prefer Instagram like experience. I'd also like to mention ChainBB - forums, Busy - Steemit with more modern look basically, DMania for memes and Dlive for streaming just like in Twitch! Welcome to the blockchain
Welcome to steemit, looking forward to seeing you around @chessmasterhex.
Thank you!
very nice… i really like your post…
Thanks!
hello...Welcome to Steemit..Hope you'll enjoy!
Thank you!
Nice to see you made it over here to steemit!
Thank you :)
Glad to have you here Arky! Your already super successful on steemit, amazing reputation score!! I love you and am with you in the dream of an offgrid homestead. My plot is located in southeast Missouri and I'm staying with family over winter also, 5 hours from my land. My dog, cat, and myself are so burnt out on city life. I'm starting my plants in hay bales so they can be moved when i go back. I understand the work involved in just clearing a driveway! Arkansas is the most beautiful state I have visited, and I wish you an early spring!!
Welcome to Steemit! I am looking forward to following your adventure!
Hello my friend, I resonate with your goals and have built with Cob and feel it's better for smaller projects, but if done correctly, can last a few lifetimes.
That being said, I hope you consider putting on a workshop to build your dwelling and I'll be amongst the first to volunteer.
It's nice to meet you and I wish you the best of luck.