A Tiny Off-Grid Raft House on Powell Lake
Downstairs our main room is half living room and half kitchen. In 2014, we upgraded to pine paneling in the living room, kitchen and our log bedroom. Our wood stove is right in front of our sofa. It’s a great place to sit on a winter day. The stove allows us to live in the cabin year round. The lake view through our sliding glass door is always captivating.
We don’t have television (by choice), but listen to a lot of radio, read, write, and watch movies on a small TV screen using a connected computer. We have a cellular booster that gives us phone and limited Internet access. We are outdoors much of the time during the day, even in the colder months. Daily living keeps us busy with the wood supply, gardening, fishing, hiking, quadding, or just sitting and eating outdoors. But the living room is where we hang out after dark.
Our cabin is totally off the grid. Our main power source is solar, but augmented with a wind turbine during storms (otherwise our part of the lake is pretty protected), an experimental wood stove thermoelectric generator, and a backup gas generator. In summer we get more power than we can use to charge things like lights, radios, computers, cell phones, and for use with fluorescent and LED lights. In winter we have to be very careful, and recharge our battery banks with the gas generator about once a week. If they are discharged too far, the batteries can be damaged. For that reason, we don’t have any appliances that use a lot of electricity.
Propane is our other important power source for cooking, refrigeration, lights, and sometimes a portable heater.
our storage shed with the stairs to my small hillside garden
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