Really interesting story in the Portland Press-Herald about some hippy types who went off the grid decades ago, and are finding the lifestyle harder to maintain as they hit their 70s. (The whole piece is here)
Forget harvesting wood, even loading the wood stove becomes a huge challenge after a hip replacement. The arm strength it takes to lift a five-gallon bucket to feed your siphon shower? It’s not there anymore.
This is my favorite paragraph, though:
The American Association of Retired Persons doesn’t track how many senior citizens might be living off the grid, either in Maine specifically or nationally, said Maine AARP executive director Lori Parham. The Maine Solar Energy Association, which is led by Richard Komp, a 77 year-old who lives off the grid Down East and relies on solar power, like many other older friends – “there are a lot of aging hippies in that part of the world” – doesn’t have hard numbers either. “At one point we actually tried to count,” Komp said, “and they made it very clear that they never wanted to be counted.”
Return to the Concord Monitor