One Man's Dream of Living Off the Grid

One Man’s Dream of Living Off the Grid

Yesterday my daughter Jane and I took a ride to a place that made us feel we were going back in time. We went to visit Dexter, a retired electrician, who is living in a rock house owned by his friend, Fred Porter. Fred built the house more than twenty years ago in an area where a few people were able to buy up sections of government land to live much like the pioneers did about 150 years ago. It is out beyond any utility poles, and they have no electricity unless they generate it themselves. There aren’t many wells, and in some cases they rely hauled-in water. Also, cell phones don’t work there.

We drove about 10 miles up a terrible mountain road of imbedded rocks surrounded by steep, rocky outcroppings so close together there are only occasional juniper bushes and a little grass that can find a footing to cling to. At last we topped a rise and descended into a shallow valley where there is a corral for two burros and a mule that were looking expectantly our way to see if we had brought them a treat. We hadn't. We parked there where the trail divides – one path up to Fred’s older rock house perched up on a slope, and the other path down to a more conventional-looking, but house on a level area.  Fred built the second house for his mother. She lived there a long time before she was forced to move to a nursing home in San Diego last year, at which time Fred moved into it with his new wife and her five adopted children, and rented his rock house out to Dexter.

Long before his mother came to live with him, Fred had been building the rock house for himself, adding rooms as the spirit moved him. You could see that he chose the most beautiful or most unusual rocks he could find. Dex pointed out some granite rocks imbedded on the inside of an archway. He said Fred had picked them up at Ballast Point in San Diego where they had been dumped by a sailing vessel from Ivory Coast some time before 1900. But most of the rocks are a local conglomeration of granite and quartz with a lot of mica mixed in. We had passed the ruins of a mica mine on our way in to Fred’s ranch.

Before we entered the house, Dex pointed out a beehive oven outdoors where Fred baked bread while he lived there. He also showed us a walled in area with a cactus garden that is home to a desert tortoise that eyed us with curiosity.  Not far from the house is a shady chicken house well protected from varmints. I could hear the chickens but I couldn’t see them. We could also see a shed and a little tree that provide shelter and shade for the mule and burros at the far end of the corral. I think I remember a couple of other small trees down by the second house, but mostly there are just rocks.

 The rock house is built on at least three levels with a flat roof on top equipped for sleeping under the stars. The first room is cool and dark, and has an old iron stove to cook on, and a bed on one side of the room. It used to function as a summer kitchen, but hasn’t been used in a long time. There is a good-sized bedroom one high stairstep up off the first room. Dex uses that room, and has a wood stove to keep him warm in cold weather, but he has only the thick rock walls to keep him cool in hot weather.  I noticed several kerosene lamps and battery-operated lights Dex uses to read by at night. There is a beautiful antique brass bed facing a big window where he can watch sunsets

Back in the first room, we moved up some crude stone steps into a bright, more modern kitchen with a peaked ceiling. It is equipped with an antique gas stove fueled by propane, and it has an L-shaped counter but no sink. There are shelves and cabinets for supplies, and a place for a table and chairs by a window. Above one end of the room is a sleeping loft with a ladder to reach it. This would be the cold weather kitchen with its snug windows on the lea side of the house. There is no running water, and one thing missing is a bathroom. That ‘convenience’ is so far from the house, it is actually out of sight beyond the paddock, and a chamber pot is used more often than not. 

When Fred’s mother came to live with him, he built the other, more conventional-looking, house with planks and stucco, with a cool room constructed of rock attached, for a pantry. He had a well dug, and a generator runs the pump to supply conventional indoor plumbing. There is a large loft over the kitchen reached by very steep stairs, and another sleeping area in one end of the living room. As a book lover, I couldn’t help but admire the large collection of books on shelves around the living room. He is especially interested in plants, animals, rocks and Indian lore. Dex said Fred’s new wife is a Cheyenne Indian, and they sometimes go with their adopted Indian children to pow-wows where the kids compete in dancing. There was a big pow-wow held on a local reservation just two weeks ago. Entrants in dancing and drumming competition came from as far away as Wisconsin.

 Fred is a collector of historical things, from tools and cowboy paraphernalia, to dozens of toy trucks that are displayed on shelves in the living and dining rooms. He also has two well-done paintings – one of himself, a large gray-bearded mountain man, and the other of Granville Martin, a rugged-looking legendary cowboy of this area, who died about 20 years ago.

 It is obvious from the piles of materials around the place that Fred intends to do a lot more work on the both houses, including the addition of a room built out of wine bottles when he gets enough of them accumulated. I saw a bottle house once at Calico and they create a lovely light inside. He also intends to put new clay roofing tiles on both houses. I think he has more work lined up than he can do in his lifetime, and you can sense the enthusiasm he has for his project. He still has to work a day job, doing carpenter work, or building houses out of straw bales, or rammed earth. He even teaches classes in those skills from time to time. The main thing is that he is living off the grid where the authorities don’t bother him, or have much say in what he can or cannot do. If he eventually adds solar power or a windmill generator, he won’t have to miss any modern comforts in his old age.

Meanwhile Dex occupies the fascinating, but no-frills, unfinished rock house like an uneasy ghost from a long time ago.