then, magic happened. we immediately fell in love with our new house and our fears vanished. we felt totally free and extremely happy to live in nature, according to our core values: running our house on rainwater, solar panels and wood, and eating mostly what we grew and cooked ourselves. the very low costs of our new way of life also allowed us to travel three to four months each winter, which is another aspect that we love. it has now been three years since we’ve been living this life full time. we would never go back to our old way of life.
of course, there are challenges and not everything is perfect. there are always new improvements to be made, such as installing a fridge and freezer for the summer months, when the cold room is not so cold, and digging a well so we have easy access to drinking water. we don’t have a washing machine and we work a lot to accomplish all the daily chores that come with an off-grid lifestyle. we are close to nature, close to our garden and close to outdoor activities, but far from our friends and family, healthy food stores and public swimming pools.
overall, though, we prefer this way of life compared to life with all the conveniences the city has to offer. when our daughter comes back from school, we are no longer stressed out and we have plenty of time to share with her. and when we go to bed, we know we can afford nine hours of good sleep and are happy with our choices in life. we are proud to live by our core environmental values, empowered to eat our own food and satisfied to work at a job we are passionate about.
marie eisenmann lives off-grid with her family in a earthship built in québec’s province 40 years ago. raised in france, she came to canada for three months…18 years ago ! after being a journalist and editor-in-chief in an outdoor magazine, she became a leader in urban agriculture, co-founding and managing a pioneer organization promoting this activity. now she shares her time between homesteading in the earthship she renovated with her husband and promoting industrial hemp through their new organization, hempbassadors. email: info@hempbassadors.ca website: https://www.hempbassadors.ca/en/
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life off the grid in quebec