Living Off the Grid

June 2016: University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

"Lachlan Dale James, mechanical and structural engineering."

Lock shook hands with the university official he'd never seen before, turned to face the audience, flipped his tassel to the other side, then hollered out, "Love you Mom and Dad!" as his parents cheered loudly for their only child.

True to his word, the hiring rep for a prestigious structural engineering firm was waiting for him the next morning in the firm's HR department. Lock filled out the stack of papers and just like that he had a well-paying, full-time job less than 24 hours after graduating from college.

June 2017: Stewart Engineering, Seattle, Washington:

"You've got a real future here, Lock. Great work on the water redirection project. You can expect a very nice bonus within the next thirty days."

Lock thanked the man who'd hired him straight out of college for letting him have the number two slot on a very important project their firm had been awarded by the local government after underbidding all the other firms that had competed. Lock laughed when he thought about how many things had been built by the lowest bidder over the years in the military and in other areas where government was involved.

Then again, there'd been no corners cut, no shortcuts taken, and everything they did was structurally sound. So lowest bidder or not, Lachlan James took a lot of pride in what he and his team had done.

"Thanks, Mr. Stewart," Lock said.

He wanted to discuss his future right then and there, but he wasn't quite ready to let the managing partner know he was already seriously thinking about leaving the firm. Even more so, he didn't want to explain why. At least not yet.

Since his freshman year in college, Lock had been fascinated by the prospect of doing what so many others were out there doing. It was called 'living off the grid.' To his great delight, a TV show featuring people doing just that came out during the last year, and he'd DVR'd then watched every episode trying to pick up information he hadn't already gleaned from various websites or other online sources.

The concept was actually pretty simple, and for an engineer like himself, it was child's play. The hard part was finding the ideal location and pulling together enough money to buy the land and build a home on it. The other challenges like catching and reusing rainwater or generating electricity for all the home's needs was very simple and straightforward.

Lock continued to live at home with his parents and saved nearly everything he'd earned the last 12 months, but knew he was still a long way from being able to leave the conventional world and give his dream a real try.

He'd found a five-acre piece of property in central-northern Montana which butted up against a river that could supply the energy he'd need to produce plenty of power. It was a good 40 miles from the nearest town, but there were trails into it that were large enough he could get his four-wheel drive pickup to it without too much difficulty. He'd even taken a quick trip there during a rare four-day weekend in October before the weather turned bad, and by the time he left, had fallen in love with the place.

The realtor representing the seller told him no one had yet made an offer, but as realtors are prone to do, also told him he'd 'better hurry because it was going to be snapped up quickly'. Eight months later, it was still for sale at the same price, and while Lock wasn't sweating bullets, he was concerned it just might get bought out from under him as he waited until he had the money to pay for it in cash.

Taking out a loan was self defeating as he'd have to make monthly payments which meant large interest payments requiring a paying job which defeated the whole reason for living off the grid, making that a 'non-starter'. No, he wanted to buy the property outright and not have to have any contact with any financial institution. For that matter, he wanted no outside contact with anyone except for possible monthly runs for supplies.

So rather than raise the issue which would only cause problems, he thanked his ultimate boss who shook his hand then said, "I've got another project coming up in about a month or so. I'll email you the details once I know everything is set in stone. And Lock? I'm thinking you just might be ready to take the lead."

"Wow. That's incredible, sir. I'll look forward to it," he said without saying a word about his long-term plans. "But I was wondering if, in the interim, I might be able to take a few days off."

"Well, you've been here for a year and that means you've got five days coming. Based on the job you did, I'd say you've earned it. So, sure. Just let your immediate supervisor know and have fun. But come back ready to burn the candle at both ends, okay?"

Having secured the firm's approval, Lock made reservations at a hotel in Eugene, Oregon, and paid for a two-day pass to an event he'd been looking forward to since hearing about it three months earlier.

*****

June 2017: 'Living Off the Grid' Exposition, Eugene, Oregon

"Mom, check this out!"

Her mother looked at it for a while then said, "It's a wood burning stove, right?"

"No. It just looks like one. It runs off of electricity."

"Well, where do you get the electricity?"

"You generate it with water power."

Her mom shook her head then told her daughter, "Jessica? I really, really like all the modern-day comforts of home. You know, like running water, indoor plumbing, cable television, computers. Stuff like that."

Her daughter sighed then smiled. Even though she'd explained it several times already, her mom just couldn't understand that 'living off the grid' didn't mean a return to the Dark Ages. It just meant being as close to self-sufficient as possible and specifically not relying on any power company or public utility.

Her home, if she could ever find someone willing to build it and equip it for her, would indeed have electricity, running water, indoor plumbing, and even basic appliances. She just wouldn't be hooked up to or dependent on the power grid, hence the term 'living off grid'.

"I just don't understand why you'd want to do this, honey," her mom said for the umpteenth time. "You're still young and pretty and there's more than enough time to get married again and even start a family. So...why this?"

Jessica Quinlan understood her mother's concerns. Her husband, Norm, had been gone for just shy of three years and now, having just turned 40, she still hadn't met anyone she wanted to date let alone consider marrying. And, being 40 meant she wasn't likely to ever start a family even were she to meet someone new and had more or less comes to terms with that.

She and Norm had tried for years before learning he wasn't able to have children. After that, the two of them had focused on their careers in real estate, and on enjoying their lives together. A year before Norm's death, they'd talked seriously for the first time about adopting, and just days before he was killed they'd met with an attorney to start the process.

Norm loved bicycling and regularly rode between 15 and 25 miles around their very large development as well as another development adjacent to theirs. He'd crossed the road connecting them hundreds of times over the years, but on that fateful morning, a busy mom on the way to drop off her two children before going to work was texting her sister about an upcoming birthday party for one of the kids. She'd never so much as had a traffic ticket since she started driving some 17 years before, but that all changed when she looked up and realized she was not only running a red light but that a bicycle was in her lane.

She saw the rider trying desperately to get out of the way as she jammed on the brakes, but it was too late and her car hit the bike and its rider so hard that the force of the impact broke his neck instantly sending him flying a good fifteen feet before being thrown into the pavement. The bike was a twisted mess of steel and carbon fiber while the 40-year old man lay limp and lifeless, his body sprawled out on the road as though he was looking up into the sky.

He and Jessica had talked several times about the unlikely possibility of something like this happening, and he'd made her promise she wouldn't sue the driver unless his death was intentional. At the woman's trial, Jessica served as a witness for the defense pleading for leniency and asking the court not to take the mother of two children away from them for a single moment of neglect.

It was very powerful testimony and because of it, the prosecution was willing to accept a guilty plea to manslaughter with no jail time as long as certain other conditions were met. The woman thanked Jessica with tears streaming down her face when the sentence was handed down. It didn't bring her husband back, but she'd done what he'd asked, and knowing she'd done the right thing was the one and only positive part of having lost the man she'd loved.

Now 40 herself, Jessica still knew she'd done the right thing as there was no reason to destroy a second family for an unintentional act. Yes, it was gross negligence on the woman's part, but Jessica was convinced the woman would never again text and drive, and more importantly, she would be there to raise her two children. No, she'd never been blessed to have one, but she knew what it would mean to her child were she taken away from him or her, and that was simply too much to ask for some notion of justice or vengeance.

She'd moved back home with her also-widowed mother not long after the funeral, intending to find her own place once she'd gotten back on her feet. But six months had turned into a year and then two, and now Jessica's mother was very concerned her daughter might never want to try and get her life back. Or not least not anything close to the life her mother wanted for her.

And even more distressing to her was her daughter's recent obsession with 'living off the grid.' It started when a new reality TV series featuring people doing that came out, and Jessica began watching it with growing interest. The interest turned to obsession after several months, and Jessica found herself online for hours each day researching how to actually do it herself.

She'd compiled a notebook of things to do and questions to ask, and she'd been beside herself when she learned a group of people who'd been living off the grid for several years were putting together a seminar/exposition on the subject in their hometown of Eugene.

Today was the first day of the expo, and Jessica was like a kid in a candy store, dragging her mother from booth to booth as she took photos, asked questions, and jotted down copious notes.

In response to her mother's 'why this' question, all Jessica could say was, "Mom, this is the first thing that's really interested me since Norm died."

She looked right at her mom then said very gently, "Why does it need to be any more complicated than that?"

Her mother, Cathy Denton, had loved having her daughter living at home with her, but she couldn't help but feel it was her duty to start gently pushing her back out of the nest. She'd have never dreamed of doing that the first year, and even during the second it seemed harsh if not still cruel. But now, with Jessica having been there for almost three years, Cathy worried she might be enabling her daughter, even though she wasn't sure what exactly it was she was enabling, as her daughter certainly didn't need to work.

Jessica had all kinds of money having sold their home which had appreciated some $250,000 in the time they lived there and had also been the beneficiary of Norm's very generous life insurance policy. She not only paid her mom for room and board, she'd also recently funded a significant remodel of her mom's home just using the interest that had accumulated on the roughly half million dollars over two and a half years.

Jessica had had a vested interest in doing so beyond the altruistic notion of helping her single mother. By bringing in various contractors, Jessica was able to watch firsthand how things were done. She'd explicitly told each contractor she needed to watch, video, and ask questions as part of the job. All had agreed and Jessica had learned a lot through the process.

While she thoroughly enjoyed it, the things she learned did little to increase Jessica's ability to do something as radical as lay a square foundation let alone build a correctly-framed home on top of it. She felt a lot more confident about handling repairs around the house when things broke, but she knew she was still going to need to hire someone to build the house. And finding someone willing to work deep in the woods of someplace like Colorado, Wyoming, or Montana wasn't going to be easy, and one of her big hopes was finding someone at this exposition who did that sort of thing for a living.

At this point, in spite of all her research and learning, Jessica was very aware she still didn't even know how many things she still didn't know. The number of things she did know was growing, but that paled in comparison to those she didn't.

Rather than risk getting into an argument, something Cathy Denton avoided at all costs, she said in response to her daughter's question, "It doesn't, honey. If this is what you want to pursue, then I'll support you."

Her heart wasn't in it, but she was at least trying to get her head into it hoping her heart could follow. Actually, she was hoping Jessica would come to her senses, find another good, decent man, and buy a house somewhere in Eugene. And if they were to say...give her a grandchild...

"Oh, Mom! Check it out!" Jessica said excitedly as though her mom had never asked 'why this'. She pointed to a display booth with various generators and a mock up of a water wheel.

"Come on!" Jessica said grabbing her mom's hand and pulling her along.

As they got close enough to hear, Jessica heard the man doing the talking say, " A medium size water wheel electric generator can provide enough electricity for one house running say...three light bulbs, one TV, and a radio or CD player all running at the same time or one bulb and a microwave oven or many other such combinations. Not only you will no longer be dependent on the power grid, but you'll have electricity when, pardon my French, the shit hits the fan. More importantly, it's absolutely free. And unlike solar panels, a water wheel electric generator can produce electricity 24/7."

Jessica squeezed her way between several people once her mom told her she'd rather stay in back and listen even though the last thing she wanted to do was hear about water wheels and electricity generation.

Jessica wasn't paying attention when the person next to her said, "Piece of cake."

When his words registered she said, "I beg your pardon?"

"Building a water wheel and generating power from it. It's really simple and I could easily double the power output he's talking about with some basic modifications."

"How do you know so much about that?" Jessica asked with sudden interest.

"I'm an engineer," he said without any hint of arrogance. "I've done similar things involving turbines and equipment that's a lot more sophisticated than this. This is really very basic, simplistic power generation. It's not difficult at all."

"Can you build a house, too?" Jessica asked with a cheerful voice.

"Oh, sure. That's a little harder but still very simple. Paying for it all is the hard part," he said.

He turned toward her just enough so that she could see he was a rather nice-looking guy who was maybe 25—if that. He had a few days growth of stubble and was wearing a ball cap along with a tee shirt and a pair of jeans, but Jessica could tell he was someone she'd call 'ruggedly handsome'. She rarely looked at men at all anymore, and it was even more rare that she thought about how they looked, but he'd been friendly and was interested in the thing that most interested her, and unlike her, he seemed to know what he was doing.

She wanted to ask him some questions when the man who was speaking said, "Does anyone have any questions for me? Like I said, I've been livin' off the grid for nearly five years so if you've got a question, I've probably asked it myself and answered it a bunch of times."

Jessica listened intently as did the younger man to her right while the people standing around peppered him with all kinds of questions about power generation as well as concerns about storing fresh water, septic tanks, and paying taxes. The man answered each one of them patiently and thoroughly then excused himself.

"Wow. That was fascinating," Jessica said.

The younger man who'd also been listening very carefully said, "Yeah. I feel like I'm in heaven. I've wanted to do this for the last 4-5 years, and I'm trying to save up enough money to buy a an ideal piece of land in Montana."

"Are you getting close?" Jessica asked trying not to sound like she was being nosy.

"Unfortunately, no. I've got enough to buy the land, but there's no way I could build a house or any of the equipment I'd need."

He finally turned toward and said, "My name's Lock."

"Jessica," she said with a smile. "Is that short for something?"

"Lachlan," he told her as he smiled back.

He did a quick check and didn't see anyone with her and asked, "Are you here by yourself?"

"Oh, no. My mom is with me. She's not very interested in my newfound obsession with living off the grid, but she was a good sport and came anyway."

Jessica turned around, caught her mom's eye and waved with her left hand.

"That's her," she said as the older woman halfheartedly waved back.

Lock saw the wedding ring immediately and the smile faded from his face as she turned back around.

"Is your um...husband also not interested?" he asked wondering why he did as soon as he posed the question.

The happy smile faded from the woman's face as she quietly said, "No. My husband passed away about three years ago."

"Geez. Wow, I'm...I'm really sorry, Jessica," he told her in a way that let her know he meant it.

"Me, too. But thank you, Lock," she told him.

Not wanting to talk about it, Jessica smiled then said, "How about you? Are you here alone?"

"Me? Oh, yeah. All my friends and my family think I'm nuts," he told her with a laugh.

"Tell me about it," Jessica said. "My mom thinks I've lost it. She wants me to find another nice guy, settle down, move somewhere close by, and have her grandchildren."

"Nothing wrong with that, right?" he said with another smile.

"No. Nothing at all. If...that's your dream."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you don't exactly look like the outdoors type. I know looks can be deceiving, but I'd picture you more in a clean, quiet office or maybe teaching school than living out in the middle of nowhere fending off bears and avalanches."

She found herself smiling back as she noticed the cute dimples under the stubble. He was clearly very well educated, well spoken, and although he was much too young for someone her age, he was definitely very...appealing...in that rugged, outdoorsy kind of way. Jessica thought she could go so far as to call him 'handsome' although not in the classical kind of way that Norm had been.

"I think I'm just at a point in my life where I want to try something completely different," Jessica said. "I have to admit you're right about the quiet, clean office part. I sold real estate for many years, and have never really roughed it. But the more I watch and learn about living off the grid, the more it interests me."

Cathy had slowly made her way toward them and heard the last part of her comment when Jessica realized she was there.

"Oh, Mom. Hey. This is Lock. Lock? This is my mother, Cathy."