We are moving!
Many of you know that I have been diagnosed with accelerated early onset Parkinson’s Disease. This means big changes need to take place in our lives now while I am still capable of getting things taken care of and established. Our current life living off grid is easy for a healthy individual and not to hard for someone with the back injuries and issues I had prior to my development of Parkinson’s Disease (PD). But with PD it is very hard to keep up with the daily chores that come with the off grid lifestyle. Chopping wood for instance is exhausting now and not very safe since I now have bad tremors and stiffness. It is hard for me to get moving in the morning and I don’t have a lot of energy to put towards doing tasks as my body burns most of its energy shaking all day. So life is getting pretty hard now. Living off grid just isn’t going to work much longer for us.
Some of the symptoms that are affecting me currently are:
Mild to moderate tremors, Tiredness, Soreness, Weakness, Memory issues, Mild stability problems, and Restlessness.
There are 5 stages to Parkinson’s Disease and I am in stage 2 currently.
Stage Two
Symptoms start getting worse. Tremor, rigidity and other movement symptoms affect both sides of the body. Walking problems and poor posture may be apparent. The person is still able to live alone, but daily tasks are more difficult and lengthy.
You can go here to learn more about these stages if you like: http://www.parkinson.org/Understanding-Parkinsons/What-is-Parkinsons/Stages-of-Parkinsons
So to counter this issue of Parkinson’s Disease Addie and I are looking at buying a new home in Upper Michigan where we can be closer to family and friends. Addie already has a new job in the area established and we are hopefully closing soon on a duplex home. We are getting a VA home loan through USAA who has already guaranteed our loan. We are just waiting on the VA to appraise and inspect the home which can take 2-4 weeks. Hopefully it doesn’t cause the sellers to back out. The VA is very slow at everything they do. But with a VA home loan we get all kinds of perks like no funding fees, lowest guaranteed interest rates, no down payment required, and financial backing if we needed to miss a payment for some reason, and more.
Our current home is not wheelchair friendly and though I am not currently in one I will be soon enough. Moving back on grid now and getting established in a home that can support my growing disabilities while I can still help with the process of moving just makes sense.
We do intend to continue this website and the many topics we discuss on here so don’t worry. Addie and I will continue to share our nature photographs, adventures hiking and backpacking, first aid how-to’s, bike trips, gardening, and yes even off grid projects.
Though we will be 100% on grid once we move we will still have our wind turbine and solar power equipment. We hope to setup various projects to share with you all that show what you can do with solar and wind power on a small scale to offset your on-grid power expenses. One project planned is an indoor year round solar powered garden with grow lights and more. I want to see if I can successfully grow a salsa garden in containers indoors all year around. We would also like to try running things like our fridge or freezer or perhaps lights off solar to help reduce the cost of grid power. And as soon as we are settled we will show projects like installing backup generator hookups to the main circuit breaker for power outages. Rest assured we will have that done by a licensed electrician.
This isn’t going to be the end. This however will be a new beginning. You will get to learn with us as we take a modern home and convert it to a handicapable living space with green energy supplemental power and more…
Stay tuned!!!
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