FAQ
Welcome to our most frequently asked questions (FAQ).
FAQ
Where do you get your water from?
We haul drinking/cooking water from Missoula, since I (Nicole) travel there at least once a week on Mondays. We have three main water jugs we use for this purpose: 2 7-gallon containers and 1 5.5-gallon container. Typically I fill 1 or 2 of these containers each week. It’s been plenty to keep us well supplied, with extra to spare.
For washing water, we fill up an assortment of buckets, collapsible jugs, and water coolers at the nearby national forest campground, which has a potable water spigot. We have a 50-gallon drum on site and we fill that with the water we acquire from the campground. While the campground water is drinkable, we’ve not felt great about using it for such purposes, due to the amount of sediment in it. Given our on site capacity for water storage, we do a water run to the campground about once-a-month or so. It’s also worth noting that the campground we use is seasonal and is only open from mid-May to mid-September (it just closed this week). This past spring, we were able to collect enough rain off the roof of our cabin to meet our washing needs, which was great.
Can you get a well put in?
So here’s the thing about wells. You can find water just about anywhere, it’s just a matter of how far down you have to go to find it. Also: there’s apparently no real way to tell how far down you’ll need to go. Also: wells are hella expensive. It wouldn’t be uncommon in the area that we are in to have to dig down 300 (or more)-feet to find water, which would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $20-30K. So the short answer is: yes, we could get a well put in. The longer answer is: we don’t have that kind of money and we aren’t interested in taking out bank loans, so getting a well installed isn’t on our list of to-do’s anytime soon. The much more probable & practical upgrade to our water system would be for us to get a cistern and pay to have water delivered by truck. (I’m pretty sure that’s a thing.)
Are you staying warm? (asked in spring & fall); Are you staying cool? (asked in summer)
Given the smallness of our cabin, the dope insulation we have in the walls, floors, and roof, and the fact that we have a woodstove and an ample supply of wood to burn, we have no prob staying warm when the temp drops. As an added frame of reference: this morning it was 34-degrees out and even without a fire, it was 60-degrees inside the cabin, which shows you how great our insulation is working. On the staying cool front, our cabin’s insulation value also keeps things pretty darn comfortable even when it’s in the upper 90’s. It’s amazing what good insulation can do. We are also fortunate to live close to the Clark Fork River. In a 5-minute drive we can be at the river, which we frequent often in the heat of summer.
Will you ever winter over there?
Eventually we’ll get to the point where we’ll be able to winter over here, but we’re not there yet. We also have the added wonderfulness of really enjoying spending longer stints at our home away from home at Deer Park Monastery, where we’ve been traveling annually to since 2014 for retreat stays. So right now, it’s working well for us on a few levels to head south to the monastery for the winter months. Logistically speaking, what we’ll need to do in order to winter over here, involves coming up with creative solutions for water storage & usage. Right now all of our water storage - as well as our pump sink for washing dishes & our shower set up - is outdoors. We’ll need to get a propane heated shower going, water storage that won’t freeze our supply, and an indoor sink set up before we can winter over here. Small steps. All in due time.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve encountered so far?
Whelp, I’ll speak for myself on this one, as Mike may have a different response. One of the biggest challenges has involved being on such a steep learning curve with figuring out how to live how we’re living. We choicefully entered an entirely new way of life when we purchased and moved onto 24-acres of bare land last summer, sans services or structures. We’ve never lived remotely or in the woods, let alone off-grid & without running water. There was a LOT to learn, and there continues to be a LOT to learn. So the newness of what we’re doing, while it’s what we signed up for, has been a lot to take on. These days, both Mike and I revel in doing tasks that don’t involve any sort of figuring out. We’ll take any chance we can get to do things that give our brains even a small little break, to help lessen our energetic load. I can speak for both of us when I say: decision fatigue is real, and we’re often at or very near our capacity for what we’re able to take on and do right now.
And while I hope this comes out okay, I’ll say too that one of my bigger challenges centers around fielding so many well-intentioned questions from our lovely crew of friends & family. While I 100% know that they mean well, because I’m so close to being at my capacity for just doing what we’re doing, sometimes the questions can just feel like too much. Folks will come and visit and ask us about what we’re going to do about x, y & z, while I’m still trying to do my best to figure out how to tend to a, b & c. It’s sometimes difficult to convey to folks that we’re dealing with a lot of temporary systems and set ups right now; that we’re taking things one step at a time and doing what we can as we’re able, in a tone of voice that doesn’t convey my irritation with being asked questions that feel rather dismissive of all the work we’ve been doing and have had to do just to get where we are right now.