You come to see all things in life differently when you do this. First of all, We were able to reduce our expenses first because we didn't have to pay a rent monthly or a mortgage because we built our own house ourselves. Then we decided to home school our kids through
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Then we did field trips with the kids all over the place to enrich their educational experience. We went to places like Lava Beds National Monument and into ice caves and skied cross country a lot because we got up to 7 to 8 feet of snow in the early 1980s from 1980 to 1985 when we lived there. Then in 1985 we came back to the SF Bay area and bought another business from a friend because our oldest son (my stepson) wanted to go back to an actual school then for junior high school and high school. He started a Wilderness Club at his High school and was active in the Audoban society and worked on creating nature preserves through some television programs as well in High School. He recently retired as a Fire Captain for Calfire (CDF) California Department of Forestry within the last couple of years. I think he is around 50 years old now and lives a wilderness lifestyle again with his wife in Montana at their house and land there.
The whole point of living without electricity then was that Solar Panels were still too expensive for us to use to have full electricity like in a TV or Internet then. And besides that the Internet did not exist outside of Universities then either in the early 1980s. It didn't really get going until the 1990s or after.
So, we spent a lot of time telling stories, playing games and traveling with the kids to enhance their educations. Then in 1985 in December we went with the children for 4 or 5 months to Japan, Thailand, India and Nepal which changed all our lives.
Also, at one point we took them to the Tetons, and Yellowstone and Banff and Jasper in Canada. So, the kids were educated somewhat in an International way between Canada and Japan, and Thailand and India and Nepal during these times from 1980 through 1986. However, by 1990 I believe my stepson graduated from High School. But, by then the younger three kids were living with my wife and I in Hawaii in 1989 and 1990.
I like to tell a story which was after being sequestered in the wilderness a couple of months with my kids and wife and friends:
I had to drive to Vacaville on business and I stopped at a gas station to get gas for my vehicle at that time. So, I just started to laugh at all the people all freaked out and hustle bustle in their lives and I couldn't help but laugh at all this extremeness. It was that I had a completely different view of reality maybe like someone from another century in the past who lived in the wilderness maybe. It seemed like all the people rushing around were hamsters caught forever in their hamster wheels and not realizing they really didn't need to live this way because they were all slowly (or quickly) dying from the way they were living.
You might or might not relate to this way of thinking but if you ever allow yourself to retreat to the wilderness for weeks or months or are able to do this for any reason you might see what I'm talking about here and laugh also (or something) when you have to go back to where there are thousands to millions of people after living 10 miles from the nearest gas station like we did then and the same to the nearest store or Foster's Freeze.
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