How this family of four lives ‘off the grid’ in the middle of the desert

Abe ConnallyYahoo Finance – by Mandi Woodruff

At a time when we carry computers in our pockets and our cars practically do the driving for us, a certain subset of people have willingly chosen to cut the cord on modern American life — for good.

Off-the-grid living — that is, using natural resources like sun and wind power to provide amenities like heat and electricity — has become commonplace in places like Terlingua, an isolated community in Southwest Texas. What was once a bustling mining town is now a veritable ghost town, tucked into the foothills of Big Bend National Park in the north Chihuahuan desert.  

To Abe Connally, 34, it was the perfect place to go off the map. In 2002, Connally moved to Terlingua, leaving behind a lucrative job as a web designer in Austin, Texas in order to try his hand at rural life.

“I’ve always enjoyed rural life, and the thought of sustainability and home-scale energy production intrigued me,” says Abe, who grew up in New Mexico and Texas. “On top of that, I wanted to see how integrating systems to reduce waste and improve efficiency would affect the architecture and other components of this lifestyle.”

Within a year, he met and married his wife, Josie, a British expat who was raised in Africa, Portugal and England before she finally settled out West. They never questioned whether to build their own home or not. It was only a matter of finding the right land and the right resources.

“When we started building our first home, we figured that if we could build a sustainable homestead from scratch in the desert, then we could do it anywhere,” Josie says. “We realized that if we could reduce our needs and resources, our lifestyle would be cheaper to maintain, giving us money to save or invest.”

More than a decade, two hand-built homes and a pair of energetic sons later, they’ve dedicated their lives to maintaining their sustainable home, using their blog VelaCreations to teach others how to follow in their footsteps.

Here’s what it’s like to live really off-the-grid:

“When we built our first home, we had almost no money,” Josie says. “We bought 20 acres of pristine desert land for $1,000 and moved an old bus onto it. The bus — retrofitted with a bed, small stove, solar panel and batteries, etc.  — was our home until we could build a better quality one.”

Photo: Abe Connally

 

Neither Abe nor Josie were particularly experienced home builders — far from it.  They relied on books, blogs and online tutorials to learn everything from bricklaying to building solar panels for energy.

Abe: “[Renowned architect] Michael Reynolds introduced us to the concepts of architecture as a group of integrated systems.  From passive solar designs to using waste as construction materials, his books showed us that it was possible to live like we wanted to.”

Photo: Abe Connally

 

They built their first sustainable home in 2002 near Terlingua, but they were 30 miles from the closest schools and hospitals — not exactly ideal for raising small children. In 2007, they moved closer to town and started constructing home No. 2.

Photo: Abe Connally

 

Like their own personal Rome, their new home took years to complete and is a constant work in progress.

Abe: “We added to each system as we could afford it, in other words, little by little. For the house itself, we used adobe, mixing the mud with our feet and putting it into forms (made from scrap materials) straight on the walls. It took a long time, but cost almost nothing.”

Photo: Abe Connally

 

For off-the-gridders, the sun is crucial. The Connallys rely on solar power for all of their heat and electricity (with help from a homemade wind generator).

“The house is partially buried in a south-facing hill [and] the thermal mass of the hill helps to keep a constant temperature inside the house year-round, like a cave,” Abe explains. “The house stays about 70 degrees for most of the year.”

Photo: Abe Connally

 

Abe: “Our water is collected from the roof.  We live in a desert, so rainfall is limited, and the majority of our rain comes from July through September. We store this water in large tanks we make ourselves and then filter for domestic use.”

Photo: Abe Connally

 

“The first part of off-grid living is to conserve, and reduce your needs, so that it’s easier to produce your necessities for yourself,” Abe says. By using a composting toilet, which requires no water, they cut down on waste and fertilize their land at the same time.

Photo: Abe Connally

 

The interior has a modern feel, with hand-laid brick floors and painstakingly carved entryways.

Their $9,600 annual budget is planned down to the dollar. They earn a small income through Abe’s web consulting business and some freelance writing, but their farm is their real paycheck.

When they decided to rebuild, they sought out more fertile land with enough rainfall to sustain a garden and livestock.

Photo: Abe Connally

 

As a family, they bring new meaning to the term “farm to table”:

“We’ve had tomato plants that produce for several years, and they become these jungles of fresh food right in the dining room,” Abe says. “In fact, our youngest son, Nico, will sit there and eat every red tomato he can reach, but if you put one on his plate, he refuses to touch it.”

Photo: Abe Connally

 

Josie: “We grow a wide variety of things, depending on our tastes at the time. We regularly grow tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, okra, cucumbers, squash, corn, sunflowers, melons, greens, roots and several herbs. We also have a few fruit trees (plums, apricots, peaches).”

Photo: Abe Connally

 

“There is no food fresher than that, and it’s something you get kind of used to,” she says.

Photo: Abe Connally

 

They’ve even got a tiny village of beehives for fresh honey.

Photo: Abe Connally

 

Meat is also on the menu. The Connallys have gradually raised a menagerie of livestock, including pigs, rabbits, guinea pigs, and chickens. It’s vastly cheaper than purchasing their meat from stores.

Photo: Abe Connally

 

One of their pigs just had a litter.

Photo: Abe Connally

 

They’re cute now, but eventually they’ll be sold in the village or, more often than not, wind up on the dinner menu. The Connallys have become quite the bacon connoisseurs.

Photo: Abe Connally

 

Everyone lends a hand in the family harvest.

Josie: “The kids collect eggs and feed all the poultry. We feed the rabbits, pigs and all the other little critters. We then all go look at any baby rabbits and the kids often get out their guinea pigs to play with.”

Photo: Abe Connally

 

Nothing goes to waste.

Josie: “We sell any surplus. We often have extra meat (especially rabbit), which we sell locally. We also sell eggs, as well as trading them for raw milk. Any vegetables and such we tend to preserve (drying, canning, kimchi) as we don’t yet grow enough to fill our yearly needs.”

Photo: Abe Connally

 

Even rabbit fur gets turned into cozy hats and slippers.

Photo: Abe Connally

 

Josie: “Right now, we’re spending about $800 a month: $100 on fuel, $500 on [feed for the animals], groceries and other household items, and $100 on Internet and phone. We also continue to improve our homestead, which costs a little extra, depending on the task at hand.”

Photo: Abe Connally

 

Their bedrooms are cozy and get a lot of natural light, which helps them conserve electricity.

Photo: Abe Connally

 

Abe: “I think there’s a certain pride that comes from being able to say ‘I made that’.  We are surrounded by things we’ve made ourselves, including our home and energy infrastructure.”

Photo: Abe Connally

 

With two kids under the age of 5, the Connallys admit they’ve made some allowances in their off-grid lifestyle. They have games for game nights and keep a healthy stock of books and DVDs for entertainment.

Photo: Abe Connally

But, naturally, they spend most of their free time outdoors.

Photo: Abe Connally

They keep a car handy for trips to town and to cart the kids to and from school each day. Their goal this year is to get their car running on natural fuel supplies.

Josie: “We live about a 20-minute drive from a small village, where there’s a kindergarten, primary school, clinic and a couple of basic stores. That’s actually one of the main reasons we moved here before starting a family: still very rural, but with everything needed for small kids.”

Photo: Abe Connally

 

The kids seem to dig it.

Photo: Abe Connally

 Laundry gets done the old-fashioned way.

Photo: Abe Connally

 

Sunlight and fresh air are all the dryer they’ll ever need.

Photo: Abe Connally

 

It’s always nice to have relatives visit, like the kids’ grandparents.

Josie: “We’re in constant contact with family and friends over the Internet (huge fans of Skype and the like). However, visits are unfortunately much less frequent. If we ever get around to building the blimp we’ve always wanted, we’ll be sure to stop by a lot more often.”

 

Abe: “We’ve been able to save a few years worth of income, but also, because of our lifestyle, we don’t have to earn as much. So instead of working 40-hour weeks for money, we work 5-10 hours a week. This gives us enough for savings and expenses. The real value is the 30 hours a week we gain.”

Photo: Abe Connally

Abe: “It took a long time, but cost almost nothing. That was 12 years ago and we are still amazed by how far we’ve come since then.”

Photo: Abe Connally

To see more from the Connallys’ off-the-grid home, check out thier blog, VelaCreations or their Flickr page.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/family-life-off-the-grid-abe-connally-vela-creations-144054081.html

14 thoughts on “How this family of four lives ‘off the grid’ in the middle of the desert

  1. I’m surprised the feds haven’t come to try and condemn
    the house and the CPA to take the kids. They don’t want
    independent people.

  2. Living this way goes against every rule of the system they’ve created for us. To not slave your life away for money, sounds like a permanent vacation to me……. Glad you guys enjoyed it:)

    1. We did this for a few years and then as the kids grew (home schooled) we figured one of us (my husband) needed to get a steady job in an area (far west Texas) that lacks good paying jobs, so he became a medic. They’ll figure this one out especially if they realize their kids are college material…who knows? Maybe by then tuitions will be cheap again (Sul Ross in Alpine about 80 miles north of them is still reasonable though…housing a bit high though).

      Vacation? yep…when you live in this part of the world it is like a vacation…and you don’t even have to leave home!

      Long live far west Texas!

  3. Right near the Mexican border, out in the middle of the desert with no money, a piece of land that costs only $1000 and rainwater from the roof.

    I have a few questions,

    1. How is that no Mexicans have raided your camp?
    2. How can you build that house with cement and steel, brick and mortar when you have no job or money?
    3. How come the government hasn’t confiscated your land?
    4. How come the government hasn’t fined you for collecting rainwater from the roof?
    5. How in the hell do you get an Internet connection out there?
    6. How come CPS hasn’t picked up your kids yet?

    Lastly, I hope you have a gun, since you are near that border.

    Otherwise, good for you! I’m all for that kind of lifestyle.

    P.S. Forgive me for being a little pessimistic.

    1. NC I live about 100 to 150 miles north of them, more or less. I would say that while I expect eventually the govt. will get more involved in far west Texas at this point they only seem to get involved if it is in Big Bend National Park or the nature reserve next door to it. If they are living in the subdivision Terlingua Estates then as long as they follow subdivision rules they can pretty much do what they want. This area of Texas does NOT have rules against collecting water–everybody, and I mean everybody, in rural far west Texas collects water: for gardening, flushing toilets (manually), raising livestock (including fish), pets, etc, as well as for wandering wildlife (deer, burros, mountain lions, etc.)

      As for them building a house without money: that’s exactly what we did and I figure our house (wood cabin) and theirs are about the same size (800 square feet is the minimum in most subdivisions).

      Why doesn’t the govt. take their kids? Same reason they didn’t take ours: there is nothing illegal out here about solar panels, lack of building codes (our house actually excedes codes for sturdiness since the entire house is reinforced not just the corners), outhouses, self made drainages like French drains and ceptic tanks that you install yourself which is still legal, raising livestock as long as it is confined…like I’m sure I’ve said before one is a lot freer in far west Texas than most areas…but yes, a gun or two is a great idea..even if to scare away mountain lions…

  4. Surprised they aren’t home schooling. I know several families who have home schooled in this area, which is about 150 miles south of our place.

    Only problem I have with Terlingua: too damned hot in the summer.

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