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Woman off grid living6/25/2023 ![]() Once she moved near where her children lived, she seemed to lose her way. When Annie was on her own, she made good decisions, for the most part, or at least she made decisions that were good for her. People make bad financial decisions and get in over their head all the time. Annie's story once she left the "ole House" was, unfortunately, quite typical of that area, and undoubtedly other areas as well. There are other memoirs I've read that are inspiring until events take a turn late in the book, as they did here. And although winters were usually mild where I lived near the Gulf Coast, further inland where Annie lived, they could be severe as well, especially in a house with no insulation and no heat source except for a makeshift stove in the beginning and a real wood-burning stove later on. In any case, the heat of summer in that area can be brutal, as Annie describes. It's Annie's story, and she has the right to leave out anything she doesn't want to share, but to say the landlord decided to "do something different" with the property - what does that mean? Why did she have only a week to vacate the premises? There were numerous instances like this, with details that would make situations easier to understand omitted. There is no way of knowing whether the house still stands, which brings me to one of the things I found greatly frustrating about this book. I know all too well what that area of the country is like, since I grew up about 150 miles southeast of where Annie's "ole House" is. Nonetheless, I kept reading because there is something fascinating about someone living in such primitive conditions and braving the elements. Just as I can't imagine willingly moving into a house with no electricity, no running water, and no bathroom, not even an outhouse. I understand her need to earn money, but the job she chose splitting logs, with its intense physical labor - not to mention horrible working conditions because of her employer's son - well, it was her choice but I can't imagine what it was like doing that job for six years. ![]() She took an incredibly difficult situation and made it, if not perfect, certainly much better than it was in the beginning. Throughout the story, my opinion of Annie and her trials and troubles went back and forth. Also, the clunky title as well as the author calling her own story "inspiring," which strikes me as a bit inappropriate, put me off. I resisted reading this book for a long time because although I would like to live outside the city, I have no desire to live completely off the grid. When reading a memoir, you never know what to expect, even given the descriptions available from the publisher and in reviews. Those readers who own copies with the errors now have collector's items, of a sort. We're pleased to report those issues have been fixed. March, 2014: Thank you to all who pointed out some embarrassing editing oversights in the book. But as she pulled into the driveway that first day, she could not imagine the challenges she would face, the obstacles she would overcome, the self-doubts she would master, and the soul-strengthening peace and contentment she would find living in a rundown old home on fifty acres of country heaven. One day, when her son told her he knew of an old house on fifty acres, she knew it was time.įeeling empowered and prepared by having read so much over the years, she loaded her belongings into the back of her pickup truck. ![]() Homeless, with little money, she wondered if it might be time to pursue a decades-old dream of living a quiet, self-sufficient life alone, off-grid. When her husband passed away after a long, trying illness, Annie Dodds was forced to sell almost everything to settle his estate.
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