in the beginning…

Life has a funny way of taking you where you need to go. In March of 2022, I was involved in a devastating, out-of-the blue break up. As it turns out, that is the paradigm shift that would change everything. At the time of the break up I had one dog, but just over a year later, I would find myself, my two dogs and a cat and our 30-foot RV, ensconced on our 12-acere hardwood forest paradise.

For those curious about our setup, we are sans any utility connections here. We are 100% on solar power. I went with an Ecoflow system because it was plug and play and honestly I wasn’t very educated on solar and I needed something simple. I hope to upgrade the system in the next year. For non-potable water, we typically pump it from the creek. As the creek is quite a distance from the homestead site, this can become quite a chore. I am in the process of transitioning to a rain water collection system, which should meet most of our needs. For sewage, I currently use a dry toilet, but will be transitioning to a propane incinerating toilet in the future.

I think that most people assume that I know what I am doing, after all, it has been a year and we are all still alive. Please do not make that mistake! While I do consider myself reasonably intelligent and I have project management experience, nothing could have prepared me for this journey. I often tell people who ask me how I do it…I plan and I try and I fail and then I try again until I figure it out. Some days are magical and some days are hard, and some days are really, really hard. But even on the worst days, I know in my soul that this is where I am meant to be and Woodvale is what I am meant to be doing. I wouldn’t trade that feeling for anything.  

And so here we begin. I don’t know what is ahead for us, but it is bound to be an adventure! We would love for you to be a part of our journey!