Many aspire to escape the stress and dependency of modern life, but few have started from the ground up to make that vision a reality. Over the last 8 months GoSun Ambassadors, Jesse and Alyssa, have done just that on their 5 acre lot in Idaho.
Cataloging everything about their journey on their homesteading blog Pure Living for Life and YouTube, they have created a plethora of resources on essential topics such as purchasing land, saving money on building materials, mending soil from scratch, milling your our own lumber and even expense reports to boot!
We sat down with Alyssa to ask her about their journey, from it's passionate inception to the pitfalls and any advice they would give to anyone planning to follow suit.
What inspired you two to jump ship and take a more self-sufficient lifestyle?
A couple of years ago, Jesse and I were living in a tiny apartment in Boulder, CO. Jesse was running a business remotely and I was working a 95 corporate job. Both of us had a lot of stress and didn’t feel satisfied with our lives or where we were going. Life was okay but we wanted more we wanted freedom. We had this dream of buying our own land, building a home with our bare hands with trees from our property, being in control of our water and power, growing our own food and being debt-free. We also had the crazy idea that if we made a few sacrifices that we could own our land outright, own our home, and be fairly self-sufficient within a short amount of time. Shortly after realizing our dream, we took action immediately and started trying to make that dream a reality. Two years later, and we are living on our own land in a remote part of the United States, with a beautiful view of the mountains to wake up to every morning and we’re working on building our first home.
What has been your largest hurdle so far?
So far, our largest hurdle has been that our eyes are larger than our stomachs! Because we’re so driven to achieve our dreams, sometimes (okay, always!) we take on more than we can chew. On any given day, we’re trying to run multiple online businesses from our cabin, build a home, start a garden, keep up with blogging about our journey, and make sure our basic needs are met. We haven’t had a slow moment since we’ve arrived on our land, but we’ve never been happier and every day we are getting closer and close to being self-sustainable.
How does the GoSun play into your journey? Any GoSun tips to share from a power user like yourself?
Because we’re completely off the grid (off the power grid, that is), we don’t have a stove yet. We’re currently living in a travel trailer while we build our home, and all we have to cook on is two small propane burners. Having the GoSun Stove allows us to enjoy some of the comforts that we miss such as baked goods. Some of the things we’ve enjoyed include brownies, chocolate chip cookies, gingerbread and even coconut flour bread. If you’re new to solar cooking as we are, I think the GoSun is a great way to start out as it’s extremely straightforward and we’re able to cook most anything in an hour! Jesse wants to make sure that I say a big “thank you” to GoSun for him, for satisfying his back-home banana bread craving!
What part have your fans and followers had to play in your journey?
We’re so thankful to be part of a large community of like-minded folks that are interested in pursuing a more self-sustainable way of living, whether they’re completely off grid as we are or whether they find ways to be more self-sustainable in an urban setting. We’ve received a large amount of support from people that follow our journey on our blog or social media channels, and we are thankful for that every day.
What advice would you give to others looking to take the leap as you two have?
I think the most important piece of advice we can share is to start taking action today. Most people we connect with are stuck in some sort of analysis paralysis when they could be taking action right now. Tiny steps each day will put you on a path to living your dreams sooner than you think. It really is that simple. Whatever your dreams are, walk confidently in the path you choose, and you can always be closer to achieving your dreams today than you were yesterday.