If you're logged in to Facebook, you can likely see this picture of a school bus that has been converted into a moving home if you click HERE.
This will take you to this picture, which is part of a photo album going with the Facebook page, Living Off The Grid. You will be able to find many more really neat photos about living in simple, natural, and unconventional ways as many thought-provoking discussions on the Living Off The Grid page.
Living Off The Grid also has its own website called Homesteading and Survivalism Store, which is also worth checking out.
Don't be concerned! This isn't some sort of fringe operation that is out to get people whom they consider to be "the enemy."
It's simply a place with information re: how to live more simply and more independently. How to--as George and Lenny described their dream in John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men--"live off the fat of the land."
It's also a great place to check out for people who want to continue living more conventionally but, still, would like to incorporate some parts of homesteading/survival (e.g. canning fruits and vegetables, knowing how to do first-aid when conventional methods aren't available, etc.) into their lives in the city, suburbs, out in the country, etc.
My great-grandma--Mary Jane (White) Chambers, who is the mother of my maternal grandma, Fayra Katrina (Chambers) Jobe, who is the mother of my mother, Lillian Ainsley (Jobe) Phillips (This is starting to sound like the Biblical begats, isn't it!?! LOL) who, of course, had me--was known for doing some pretty out-of-the-ordinary things (for that time, anyway) when she was in this earthly realm.
One of the things she did was being a homesteader out in Montana.
A widow whose youngest (my grandma) had recently gotten married, she moved out there for several years. Although she had a brother living near-by as a fellow homesteader, she chose to set up her own homestead.
While homesteading was a common thing for families and single men to engage in, it was very unusual for a woman to do it at that time.
In time (after several years), she would move back to Cunot, Indiana to live with her daughter and her family (where she, eventually, passed away at the age of 75 on December 29, 1928).
As with her great-granddaughter, Grandma Chambers was a writer--and even a published one during her earthly lifetime in at least one place: a newspaper that accepted the poem she'd written about The Titanic.
Close to 60 years after her passing, she became a published writer again when I shared some of her poetry and other writings in a monthly poetry (with some prose included also) publication called Poetry By The Seas (Jan Renfrow, Editor & Publisher).
Another story in and of itself, I wrote a couple of funny poems about two of her granddaughters--Georgia (husband, Marion) Crawley and Juanita (husband, Ward) Davis--during a couple of their hilariously-flatulent moments where I identified them as Mrs. C. and Mrs. D. Those poems were a real hit when read at open mics and shared with high school kids--not to mention eliciting laughs from the subject matter and other family members, too.
I think this is a good place to close, as it's drawing towards the time when my mom and I have our evening telephone conversation--which is a highlight of our day for both of us!!!
Earth Day!
Coming soon
to your neighborhood!
