Asyou head east along Interstate 64 in Kentucky , you easy but sure enough go from the bluegrass to Appalachia . As you approach the mountains on the other side of Lexington , you record some of the pathetic parts of modern America . But there , tucked away in roll hills and mountains that race from Pennsylvania to Georgia , you find an riddle .
There live on a family of six . The husband , Thomas , and wife , Rhonda , both attend to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on scholarships .
Their off - grid sign of the zodiac is powered by solar venire and Tesla battery run by a custom - programmed reckoner . Peach and apple trees grow next to a fully automate chicken tractor , complete with its own rain catchment system .
The hubby isRep . Thomas Massie , a sit member of the U.S. House of Representatives . The farm is home to the Massie syndicate .
Distinctly Off the Grid
The Massies live and farm on about 1,000acres of multigenerational family land in the northeast corner of Kentucky . But their homestead is unlike most anything you ’ll find in Kentucky , if not in all of America , kind of like the people who dwell it .
And it ’s not just because it ’s an off - grid home . ( Though this already makes it a stand out . )
It all started when the pair settle to leave corporate animation . Thomas and Rhonda establish an in advance robotics ship’s company straight out of college and live in New England before moving back to their Appalachian country of origin in their other thirty .
John Moody
They dedicate almost a decade of their lives to build up their dream — one tree , stone and story at a meter .
Even while they were newlyweds at MIT , they were n’t distinctive students , keep back a garden next to the pupil parking lot . Every yr they have been married , they ’ve grown some of their own food .
The off - grid planetary house , which valuate more than 4,4000 square feet — with a 2,200 - straight - foot basement — was built by Thomas Massie , Rhonda and their children . But it is n’t just any home .
John Moody
Many years ago , a neighbor had told the family about lumber - framed structures . After reading a rule book or two and take care a weekend workshop , Thomas laid out their family on a few rag of paper — every timbre , every mortice and tenon .
Have fallen forest on your holding ? Make it utile with a portable sawmill .
A Home-Sourced Home
They purchase a heavy - duty bulldozer and begin to drag logarithm after logarithm out of their own wood . The family line salvaged trees downed during a terrible methamphetamine violent storm that ripped through Kentucky in 2004 .
They provided more than 95 percent of wood and Harlan F. Stone used in their home . The only concession were slate for the roof from Vermont — the scrap pieces they used for blow out of the water in their bathroom and mudroom — the cabinets and some wood casings for the window .
With chainsaws , chisel and incredible tenaciousness , they crafted each timber and beam . Thomas even created his own 3 - by-3s to replace 2 - by-4s , giving him more flexibleness as he frame out the complex body part .
John Moody
The off - storage-battery grid firm contains just four metallic element fasteners . Worried that the two section of the house might come apart as the timbers dried and the foundation settle , the Massies compromise with four monumental assemblies that tie the two half together .
Supplying your own forest is one relatively easy matter , but a house is far more than that . The Massies quarried stone from various part of their dimension , produce floor , roof , window and doorway headers , and the centrepiece of the great way — a gigantic fireplace / hearth , complete with a Natalie Wood - fire pizza pie oven .
The Massies do n’t just purchase and grow local . They build up local .
One would recollect the couple with two academic degree from MIT were instead lifelong construction worker , given the care and craftsmanship found throughout the home . You take in when consider the Massies ’ homestead that off - grid building and animation is far more about a can - do attitude than almost anything else . John Moody
Solar Vortex
For all its gross materials , though , the off - storage-battery grid planetary house mull the family .
Solar panels ornament the ceiling are the primary root of energy on the homestead . ( Although they do have a backup source . ) But this is no standard solar setup .
Thomas Massie usance built the system , include last year ’s ascent . He made a roundtrip journeying of about 20 time of day to Georgia to get some Tesla batteries from a wrecked car . This ameliorate the capacitance and operation of the barrage fire bank .
If you seat in the living elbow room , a display tells you everything you need to roll in the hay about the setup . It ’s difficult to wrap your promontory around all the old - sports meeting - new in the Massies ’ house and life , where thousand - class - old construction techniques encounter the most advanced forward-looking computing equipment applied science .
oestrus and red-hot water are provided by a radiant heat wood gasification system Thomas and Rhonda designed . ( The social unit proper come from Europe . ) It ’s fueled by the same woods that provided the forest to construct the house .
In summertime , the waste heat from a geothermal reference deal over hot piss duty . As a fill-in , they have an on - demand propane unit . H2O come from a well that Thomas and a neighbor dug — not drilled — and installed .
All this took time . The Massies devoted almost a decade of theirlives to building something sustainable andbeautiful on their familial nation ’s hillside .
instruct how to ramp up your own solar panels !
Grass-fed Beef & Google Maps
I first suffer Thomas Massie in the little , rural city of Staunton , Virginia .
If you know it , it might be because , like Thomas , you were there to visit the famousPolyface Farmand the Salatins who call it home .
As he walk into the hotel for an outcome we were both attending , I introduce myself . After pleasantry , he looked at me quite seriously and said , “ you do n’t happen to ask some eggs ? I have a crowd in the back of my railroad car , and if I get home with them still there , Rhonda is going to kill me . ”
Now , this was quite unexpected . As a farmer , I am used to give but not bewilder eggs . And when it comes to pol , the only eggs I generally wait to get are rotten .
Massie accommodate to snoop on Polyface via Google Maps to see what young things come about on the farm , what melioration are made and what projects are in the works . Then , whenever possible , he mimicks those on his piazza .
In Salatin style , the Massies provoke locoweed - feed beef on their grass . When I visit recently , they had just end up band the new crop of beeves . After the Polyface event , Thomas and I keep in touch , sell phone calls and text messages about homesteading and husbandry .
Bonding Over Butchering
My sojourn accompany one of the strangest phone calls you could get from a seat member of Congress .
“ Are you meddlesome in a few weeks ? ” Thomas asked . “ I need some help slaughter our chickens . ”
It was n’t the kind of invitation you’re able to — or want to — turn down . So I pack up my crew and headed east across Kentucky to spend a daytime or so with Thomas Massie and his folk .
Their house sit down richly above the wind valleys that make this area of the state what it is . The retentive , winding driveway seems normal — gravel and filth — until you get to the door and see the Massies wait . The route holds a series of sensors so that any metre someone approaches , they know it .
A small pond sits just below the household , home to their ducks . In the yard , a chicken tractor roofed with aprevious election cycle ’s “ Vote Thomas Massie ” sign shows sign of having been freshly moved to raw grass just a few hour prior .
An orchard sits on the south side of the house , just a little below and away from one of Thomas ’ favorite additions — a walipini , or belowground greenhouse .
They get peaches and apples in time of year from their plantation , company by various produce just about yr - rotund .
produce their own is n’t all that they are into , though . With childly glee , Thomas asked us to go hiking and forage for chantarelle mushroom that we could habituate in our dinner that evening . John Moody
A Work Still in Progress
The Massies get going on their off - grid homestead some 20 years ago . After almost a decade , Thomas won his first election , and ever since , lifetime on the homestead mainly happens during congressional break and holidays .
Like with any homestead , you begin to realize that it is , and probably will always be , a oeuvre in progress .
Many rooms in the house still need to be finish — door here , paint there , casing for windows , snip for bathrooms , and so on .
The grove is undergo another expansion this spring with numerous extra yield trees . This is partly , Thomas sound out , because my Logos rust him out of apples and peaches after last summer ’s visit .
I remark this as a reminder for those who go off - grid and DIY : You need to learn to know not just the finished product but the unconscious process as well .
You ask to appreciate not just the finish but the X it will take to get there . The Massies incarnate both , and their immense joyousness and atonement in everything about their home — from the stone hearth to the freshly butchered poulet in the oven — reminds us to do similarly .
This article appeared inLiving Off the Grid , a 2019 specialty publication produced by the editors and writers ofHobby Farmsmagazine . Living Off the Gridincludes stories on permaculture , growing plants without seeded player and long - terminal figure produce storage . you’re able to buy this volume , Hobby Farmsback issues as well as special editions such asBest of Hobby FarmsandUrban Farmby followingthis link .
