From Suburbia to Self-Sufficiency: It’s Been A Year 5
It’s been a year since we traded our suburban Sandton life for a more rural off-the-grid one on the edge of the Knysna forest – and what a journey it has been! We had been contemplating leaving the hectic city rush for a more rural type of existence for years (as I’m sure many other suburbanites do). After 4 years of browsing the countryside, we found a small piece of paradise: 1.7 hectares bordering the indigenous Knysna forest, situated at the end of a dirt road where a spectacular hike into a gorge begins.
With nothing but a very dilapidated old structure, no electricity or municipal services, this promised to be the perfect canvas to create an off-the-grid eco-house and live a more sustainable life…
Choosing between such a dream and the prospect of raising 2 small children in Jo’burg, was really very easy, so we sold our house and started packing.
We managed to rent a small, solar-powered, old farmhouse down the road, which meant that we had to bid a sad farewell to many of life’s “necessities”: toaster, heater, hairdryer, iron, microwave, dstv. Being dependent on rainwater tanks also meant that the dishwasher and washing machine had to stay behind. By learning and exploring a new way of life, we’ve learnt that there is immense expansion in contraction and that we don’t need nearly as much as we think we do.
Country living has been quite an adjustment and we got so much more than what we bargained for! John Seymour’s Ultimate Guide to Self-Sufficiency (which has been adopted as our new bible) did not prepare us for the baboons, for example. Getting to know them has been truly insightful. They have ripped the roof of our tool shed and destroyed our wheatgrass crop twice, which has led us to investigate all sort of options of protecting our vegetable garden. We’re currently planning to build a geodesic growing dome (and we’ll probably have to erect an electric fence as well).
The floods came and changed our septic tank into a septic terror…even our house guests had to get involved in the digging! I have made close contact with dry and composting toilets and an area of interest has opened up where I previously didn’t give the flushing the toilet much thought.
We intend using a biogas digester in our new home which will take care of the “waste” as well as providing us with gas for cooking and refrigeration (the downside being that the methane gas produced apparently smells like a fart!). A matter which warrants further exploration…
We’ve almost run out of water and been without electricity a few times (but not nearly as much as we would have been if we stayed in Sandton!). The awareness of conserving water has probably been our biggest eye-opener. Water truly is the source of life and something that should be regarded with reverence and gratitude. We all dance around in delight when it rains and my ancestral Voortrekker blood gets re-awakened in the form of baking pancakes for the family as soon as the rain meter exceeds 20 mm. Having such a close connection between rain and bathwater; sunlight and using the power drill, has definitely increased our awareness of the interconnectedness of all things.
Rubbish management has also taken on higher importance. We have bins for horses, compost, worms, recycling, re-using and removal. The science of worms has truly taken my fancy and we currently have 2 wormeries under experimentation. I have even managed to convince my father to keep worms!
It has taken me about six months to recover from what some call “urban shock syndrome”. The silence out here in the country is overwhelming – you can hear yourself think! There is no electricity or traffic to cause a constant hum and no media polluting our minds by trying to tell us what to think/be/buy.Without the distractions of city life one’s inner landscape takes on a life all of its own.
Living this close to nature has brought a profound sense of peace, joy and freedom (and feeling completely insignificant – which keeps us in our place!) We begin construction on our little “eco”-house soon and so the blessed journey continues…
Hi there,
Just wanted to commend you on a very brave choice and one that I am sure many Sandtonites, including myself, long for.
Just for interest sake, as a fellow ‘greenie’ I was wonderign how you manage to make ends meet.
Life is financially hard enough in the city, and even though I realise that ‘downsizing’ nullifies many of these superflous needs, surely it must be tough out in the sticks.
Also, are your kids homeschooled or do they attend the local?
Once again, congrats on the wise choice and all the best.
P.S. ( John Seymore’s book is a real inspiration- would love to hear more about how practical it is through your experiences.)
Cheers,
Etienne
Hi there,
We have been keeping ducks and chickens and geese for almost three years now. The Pekin ducks especially have been very good egg layers, sometimes better than the chickens. I am now looking for more female pekin ducks and am wondering if I can find someone through this medium who would sell me at least two, or who knows someone who would. We are on the West Coast.
Thanks and all the best
Barbara
Hi Barbara,
Lovely to read your article and it has left me wondering whereabouts you and your family are located. I live with my hubby and four year old daughter on the Rheenendal road. We are on a family small holding, sharing the property with my folks, sister and her daughters and brother and his wife. Trying to get more and more self-sufficient and loving the peaceful life.
It would be nice to meet up sometime. All the best..
Very nice article, we are in the process of aquiring land in the near vicinity to do much the same as you have mentioned above. Not though a desire to change our occupation (as we can take that with us), but to learn and connect with nature and its way of being more closely. Once the transfer is inked we will be in contact
Thanks for the article its awesome, there was also a post about a guy in the states who did something similar (he got free internet too).
Keep it up!