What is House in a Hill?

For those who are new to our project (or those who are still scratching their heads as to why...), here is a relatively brief explanation.  We decided to purchase 10 acres of rural hillside and build a house on it in order to live our version of The Good Life.  There are several aspects of the good life - ethical, financial, nutritional, and cultural.   Ethically speaking, we want to live with minimal impact on the earth, with minimal inputs from outside sources.   Financially, we want to live in freedom from a 30-year mortgage and other forms of debt (and their resultant dependency on high-pay, low-satisfaction careers).  Nutritionally, we want to live on whole, organic, humanely-raised foods.  Culturally, we want to live like people have lived for the past 200,000 years or so (excluding the last century or so).  That is, close to the land, close to our children, participating in our community and filling our days with the honest work of living. 

So, what does all of this personal philosophy boil down to?  A modest 1200-square foot off-grid house, designed and built by my husband (who had no prior construction experience before this project).  A woodlot managed for firewood.  A garden large enough to provide all of our produce needs.  An orchard and berry bushes.  Honeybees.  Chickens and a few dairy goats or sheep (in my wildest dreams, a cow someday!). 

We know it will be hard work, but we think, overall, we will enjoy it.  Or at least find a lot of satisfaction in realizing our dreams (let's be honest here...not every moment of off-grid do-it-yourself living is going to be totally enjoyable).  Really what it boils down to is the belief that hard work that one enjoys (or finds meaningful) is better than easy work that one hates (or finds meaningless).  We've tried the latter and didn't like it...so now we'll try the former and see what happens.