WE'RE MOVING! Off-Grid Living
My husband, RJ and I had our first child, Lila, almost a year ago, on January 18th 2020. At the time, we were living with his parents, on a piece of property that RJ and his brother were farming on in Howell, New Jersey. On top of their family farm, RJ and his brother also farmed for Oasis TLC in Red Bank, New Jersey. RJ is originally from New Jersey and I am from Massachusetts. We met in Massachusetts in 2016 and fell in-love in 2017.
We are not strangers to adventure and moving! Our first year together, we were traveling to and from New Jersey & Massachusetts to see each other. We then went on a 7 week road trip across the US; camping in free sites in every state we traveled. We came back to Massachusetts for a few months, after this trip, and then settled in New Jersey in February 2018. Three years later, we are moving, out of state, together.
While in New Jersey we stayed at Oasis TLC where we received housing since RJ was a “house parent” for the Autistic Adults that would stay over night as part of the program that was offered at Oasis. He additionally managed the farm operation there with his brother. We lived at Oasis for a year and a half- from February 2018- August 2019. We then moved into his parents, where we had a beautiful home birth for our sweet daughter, Lila (lee-lah). We eventually came to realize that we needed a space of our own. We were blessed with the opportunity to stay at RJ’s Grandmothers beach house on Long Beach Island in New Jersey while we searched for our own home.
We arrived here on the summer solstice, June 21st 2020 AND Father’s day. It was a special day to be together and it was lovely to be on the island, welcoming the summer. RJ was still working up north and spent most of the week living at Oasis and then traveled down to spend the weekend with us. We longed to live closer to RJ’s work so that we could be together more, as a family. In the meantime, we soaked up the beautiful summer and fall by the ocean. Living only a block away made it so easy to go to the beach with a 6 month old!
I also needed this time by the ocean. It was so healing. This was an essential part of my healing journey, for many reasons, which I wont dive into during this blog. What I do know is that Great Sprit/God is ALWAYS holding and loving us. We are held and we are love. Even if we don’t have all the answers in the moment, the pieces eventually come together and we become more whole than if we tried to force ourselves into a box that didn’t fit our true expression. Our Highest Self knows what is truly in alignment with our purpose and when we surrender and trust, we open up to so much beauty and magic, beyond what we have dreamed. I see this now. I am so grateful.
There was some very rough months this past summer and fall of 2020. We were trying to buy a home as was EVERYONE ELSE in this area. Since coronavirus hit, a lot of people wanted to move out of New York City and, where we were looking to buy, was where many other people from the city were trying to move into. It was an up and down ride. We gave offers on numerous properties and often we didn’t even have time to think about it! We just threw out a number hoping to “out bid” someone else.
After the offers being denied and almost being contracted into a mess of a home, we decided to try a different approach. RJ told his community at Oasis that if we can’t figure out a place to live together then we are going to look in other states for opportunities. We were thinking of maybe going back to Massachusetts. RJ’s boss then offered an opportunity for us to build a small home on one of the properties at Oasis. We were so excited!! YES- this is even closer to our vision. We just want a tiny home with property to grow and play on. We then began the search of getting approved from a loan to build our tiny home. We found that in New Jersey you cannot get funding to buy a home without owning land and you cannot live in a tiny house on wheels, all year round.. Oasis then decided they would fund the build of a tiny home and we would pay them back, overtime. We were figuring out these plan for a few months, but when the new year came, everything changed.
We were told that instead of building a tiny home on the property, they were going to renovate a barn and we could rent the space out for a couple years. RJ and I were grateful they were trying to help us out, but this was not in alignment with our vision. We wanted to avoid renting so that we could instead buy something that we own. We also wanted a place that we could settle down for more than a few years. We didn’t know what to do, but decided to open ourselves up to options outside of New Jersey.
RJ reached out to his first farm mentor and asked if he had any job openings. That very day that RJ messaged him was when he was going to post a job listing for a new position- field manager. This position is exactly what RJ loves to do-work with the plants and manage the vegetable operation! We were excited to hear more about the opportunity.
RJ and I’s collective vision is strong and our hearts and spirits sing together. We tried VERY hard to make it come together in New Jersey but eventually the song of our soul came to form. When we heard this tune we knew we couldn’t ignore the calling. We knew our hearts were guiding us in this direction, but our mind needed to catch up! We talked about all the details with RJ’s first farm mentor on Friday, January 8th, 2021 and then decided on our moving date the Sunday after. We leave in 3 weeks!
So where are we going!?
INDIANA! We leave in 3 weeks! We are so excited. And here’s why….
Our vision is to live simply, with the land. We want to have healthy, organic food, fresh from the garden and to live with the rhythms of nature. We want to create less waste and give back more to Mother Earth. We want to teach our children about caring for the earth, where their food comes from and respect for all of life. We dream of living in a tiny home that we had a hand in building and living debt-free.
In Indiana, there are no laws against building your own tiny home and living in it all-year round like there are in MA and NJ. The cost of living is less expensive and the price of material to build the home is cheaper. We get to eat all our food from the land and live with a community of conscious people.
We are moving to an established ~80 acre farm and will be living in two small 200 square foot cabins with a loft area until we build our tiny home! There are no bathrooms, no kitchen, and minimal electricity from a small solar panel in these cabins. We will be living completely off grid in these tiny cabins! We plan on making our tiny home off grid as well. We will be able to fix our home with a make-shift kitchen and use an out-house, but willl have access to a full kitchen and shower in the arts/community center on the property. We will heat our house with a small wood burning stove during the winter and in the summer we’ll cool off with the night breeze.
RJ and his 1st farm mentor are good friends. RJ and I both visited this farm in 2017 when we went on our roadtrip together! We will actually be staying in one of the cabins that we slept in while we visited! We are so excited for this new adventure and know it is the best decision for our family.
I look forward to sharing the journey as it unfolds! I will be sharing through my blog and youtube channel so that you all can be apart of the journey with us. I will miss New Jersey and being close to Massachusetts but this is the right decision. So much blooming open before us. We are just so grateful.
