Mark and Chera renovated an old cabin and turned it into a great off-grid home for their family of five. The tricky part? There’s no road to their home, so they had to use boats and barges to bring in building materials, equipment, their belongings, and even the workers.
They also use boats to go to town for school and work. They couldn’t change the cabin much, so they added a yurt to create extra bedrooms for the kids, connecting it with a mudroom. To keep warm, they use a wood stove in the cabin and a pellet stove in the yurt.
They also have propane heaters for backup on very cold days or when they’re not home in the winter to keep the pipes from freezing. Since getting propane by barge is expensive, they use it sparingly.
For electricity, they have three systems. They use solar panels in the summer, which work well despite the mountains around them. In the colder, rainier months, they rely on a hydro turbine powered by a nearby creek, which provides electricity most of the year.
They also have a propane generator for backup, but they try to use it only when necessary.
The kids go to school in town, and Mark and Chera have jobs that let them work either from town or home. They commute 20 minutes by boat, which has GPS and heat, to get to town.
