This story is a little bit tree-hugger, but it's worth the read. If you haven't ever lived off the grid, you don't realize that it really is a beautiful and blessed lifestyle, and -- after a while -- you don't miss the conveniences you gave up.
~ grower

Could You Live in a 12' x 12' Cabin With No Water or Electricity?

Returning to the U.S. after a decade of aid work, William Powers finds himself in the heart of the world's richest nation, but living a subsistence life.
May 24, 2010 |



Editor’s Note: Why would a successful American physician choose to live in a twelve-foot-by-twelve-foot cabin without running water or electricity? To find out, writer and activist William Powers visited Dr. Jackie Benton in rural North Carolina. No Name Creek gurgled through Benton’s permaculture farm, and she stroked honeybees’ wings as she shared her wildcrafter philosophy of living on a planet in crisis. Powers, just back from a decade of international aid work, then accepted Benton’s offer to stay at the cabin for a season while she traveled. There, he befriended her eclectic neighbors — organic farmers, biofuel brewers, eco-developers — and discovered a sustainable but imperiled way of life. In this excerpt from Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream, Powers first arrives at the cabin in the cold of early spring.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/...ricity/?page=1