Q & A - Living Off Grid (Part I)
Copyright 2012 by Lori-Ann Willey
Copyright 2012 by Lori-Ann Willey
We get alot of questions about our lifestyle, so a few weeks ago, I decided to publically ask our "Followers" on our Willey's Dam Camp Facebook Page to "ask away", and I would answer their questions in a series of blog entries. If I did not cover your question, please read the list of previous blog entries at the bottom. If you have more questions, feel free to ask, and I will answer them in another blog entry under that topic or below your question here or at the Facebook link above. Thank you.
In April of 2004, we purchased our camp in
which we quickly named, Willey’s Dam Camp due to its location between an old
now submerged dam and a hydro dam below us.
We are a privately owned camp on leased land in unorganized territory in
the northern Maine wilderness. That
means, our camp is located by coordinates and land plot references only, and
that we do not actually own the land, but lease the rights to use three lots,
while owning all structures upon those plots of land.
Our land plot name is T1R8, which stands for
Township 1, Range 8. Our camp sits on a
clear, beautiful, and cold Millinocket Lake, and our view is of picturesque
Mount Katahdin, Maine’s tallest peak. The
beginnings of it rest in the depths of the lake, and the summit is approximately
13 miles from our camp (as the crow flies).
There are other camps, but the lake averages about one camp for each
mile of shoreline.
Because our camp is “off the grid”, we have
no power lines, LAN lines, or mail delivery services of any type, so we greatly
rely on natural resources for our “electrical” needs. I will get into our alternative power sources
in another blog.
We chose to purchase this camp due to its
seclusion. Initially, we had no
intentions of going to camp during the winter months simply because we did not
own snowmobiles to get in that far. Paul
and I both grew up hunting and fishing, so we knew we wanted to be as secluded
as possible, in the woods, yet able to fish.
This camp would provide both lake and stream fishing, and lots of
wilderness. We still are not as secluded
as we would like to be, but with our aging bodies, Paul is disabled, and I am
nothing short of a klutz, so we figure we are in far enough when all factors
figured into the equation. However, in
our minds and hearts we would love nothing better than be deeply embedded in
“no man’s land”.
Because there are no mail services, we have a
Post Office Box in the nearest Town of Millinocket. We go there for our gas, groceries, supplies,
etc. Due to our location, needed
supplies can be hard to come by. Often,
when we venture to town, we try to get everything we can in one trip, but that
means visiting several different stores, and often not being able to find a
needed item, so it is easier for Paul to order it online and have it shipped to
our friends in town, or to our daughters house two hours south. We usually chose to send shipments to our
daughters, but sometimes necessities cannot wait and that is when we rely on
our friends in Millinocket and Medway.
These friends are very good to us, and we are always thankful.
We do get covered by emergency services, if
they can find our location, but it often takes a minimum of two hours for them
to reach us, and sometimes several calls
along the way for further instructions or clarification that they are on the
right “path”, they finally arrive at camp.
Sometimes, however, we simply get a callback over 21 hours later. Therefore, any real emergency and we are
pretty much “shit out of luck”. I have
been hurt a few times where I needed medical assistance, but I am too stubborn
and prideful to call that 911 number due to an injury that is not life
threatening. I do not consider a broken
leg or ribs a 911 call despite being the only driver. Stubborn, maybe, but I feel that if I do not
call 911, then I also do not need to seek medical assistance for those breaks
on my own either. I am pridefully
stubborn, I know. I have been told that
all my life. At some point, one would
think I would learn a lesson or two along the way, but I do not. Some of my injuries were covered in previous
blogs.
Due to our off grid location, we were
“forced” to live a somewhat “green” lifestyle.
As mentioned above, we do not have electrical lines coming into camp
from the nearest town, thus we have to provide ourselves with our own means of
electricity. We do have 10 large solar
panels dispersed in groups of twos or fours to gather as much solar power as we
can throughout the four seasons. We also
have a generator, and a windmill, but I will get more into that stuff in
another blog later. I will need hubby’s
help in explaining it so it makes sense.
I know the basics, but not the intricates by far.
The roads to camp from the nearest town are
owned by logging companies from which we lease our land. Our leaseholder is Katahdin Paper so they not
only manage our lease; they maintain the roads, somewhat, so the logging trucks
can travel more efficiently and safely for the logging crew. This is a huge area of woods up in these
parts, so they only work on the roads that they use at the time. When I say, “maintain”, I simply mean they
may grade the road with a machine 1-2 times a year in the area they are working
in. Otherwise, they go unattended and
the driving is often slow and tedious. I
cannot blame them any. We live in the
woods; what more can we ask for other than access into our camps? We are off grid so I for one do not expect
the landowners to spend large amounts of money on road maintenance. We are the ones that purchased a camp way in
here. If I wanted a well l maintained
road into it, I would have purchased a camp elsewhere.
With that being said, our camp is “only”
about eight miles in from “pavement”. To
me, that is a short distance. Our winter
travel is rather unique. Because the logging
company works in different areas, the roads into camp are not plowed during the
winter months. This means that our only
mode of transportation during those long winter months is via snowmobile. Because our winter travel is reduced to
snowmobiles, we cannot drive our truck in and out from camp, thus we have to
park it eight miles away and then snowmobile in from that location making for a
16 mile round trip via snowmobile just to get from camp to our truck. From there, we have to clean snow off the truck
and shovel away the snow so we can drive to town from there. The process is not bad, but we make sure our
trips to town are worth it so they are not frequent. I would be very happy if I went to town once
a month, but it does not work out that way.
We also have a Polaris Ranger with tracks. I will talk more about winter and winter
travel in another blog.
We are often asked if we have a house
elsewhere, and we do. It is two hours
south of camp, and in the Town of Palmyra.
For the most part, our families live in that area, and we have
businesses there as well, but I personally feel as if camp is my “home”. It is where I truly love to be and I
literally do not like leaving it even for a day. They say, “Home is where the heart is.” And I
believe that. Camp is my home.
Later in this blog series, I will talk about
living “green”, the advantages and disadvantages of living off grid in the
Maine wilderness, and last and certainly not least, what it is like living here
during the long, cold winter months.
If you have any questions, please feel free
to ask here or on our Willey’s Dam Camp Facebook page. Below
are some previously written blogs that may help you understand the above a little
better. Some are a bit compare-contrast
type blogs with my odd humor thrown around a bit.
ABOUT US
