This Couple Left Suburbia to Start an Off Grid Homestead

Jon and Rachel packed up everything and moved to rural Idaho to experience living off the grid

When Jon and Rachel packed up their home and moved across the country to Idaho, they were leaving everything behind. 

They left family, friends and the comfort over the roof over their heads, to build something that was all their own. 

"It's a good life," says Rachel, adding that while it's required a lot of patience and hardwork, it's been incredibly satisfying to see their off grid life come to fruition, built on trees they've cut and milled with their HM130MAX Portable Sawmill, and their own food grown on their land.

The couple chart their journey on their Youtube channel, Little Lost Cabin Off Grid, and spoke to Woodland Mills about their experiences.

The start of their journey

Jon says ever since he met Rachel, the two have enjoyed going out into the wild and camping.

"Somehow, someway we ended up visiting the western United States and we fell in love with pretty much the scene, the culture, the people, the atmosphere and the nature, first and foremost," says Jon.

The ended up planning on leaving their lives on east coast suburbia to move to Idaho, where they would build their own off-grid homestead.

"It was a huge undertaking but we'd been planning for years and years," adds Jon.

The 10 acre stretch of land was completely "raw," he notes, and they would need to build everything from scratch using the resources from their land.

"It's so fun," says Jon. "Were just two kids than ran off into the woods and are having a blast."

Rachel adds that while it was difficult to say goodbye to friends and family, their new adventures have been incredibly fulfilling.

Their homestead grows

Now they've been living on the property for a year, and built not only their cabin but also a shed and their garden. Their next steps are a wood shed as well as a sawmill shed to protect their HM130MAX.

"We did land on the HM130MAX," says Jon, noting that while most logs they plan on milling are 26" wide or less, it's great to know you have the ability to mill larger logs when you need it. "It's been an absolute joy to use."

The pair learned about Woodland Mills from Youtube, especially from Two Guys Timberframing who helped show them all the basics on using the sawmill.

And there's been plenty of trees to make room for the new builds on their property. There are lots of pine trees, cedar and douglas fir to harvest and turn into new outbuildings, adds Jon. They need firewood for their wood stove but there's lots of timbers to mill on their sawmill.

"We've got so many projects listed out and we have a whole lot of milling ahead of us," he says.

It was also helpful to get upgrades like a track extension and the Power Head to make their setup more efficient and ready for whatever log rolls onto their track.

What's next for the off-grid couple?

All the wood for their new wood shed is already milled up and Rachel says she's already planning a larger structure to live in so they can move out of their cabin.

Jon notes he's just so excited to use the sawmill and build up the property from nothing.

It's been a big shift, from urban living to an off grid lifestyle, but the two say they're enjoying themselves. Jon notes that while they rushed early on so they could get their cabin finished, they find the process relaxing and for them it's just as much about the building process and learning new skills as it is the final product.

Rachel adds that she's excited to get to "know the property better" and build up the homestead using what's been harvested from the land.

She says that their journey is about finding the joys of being homesteaders and settling the land, as well as to "be more sustainable and being self-sustaining with the tools and technology that allows us to be self-sustaining, including the sawmill."