Off the Grid is a photo series on Raw File documenting what it's like to live the simple life. We visit people in various degrees of disconnectivity – some have no internet, some have no power, some have no car – to see if the technology most of us use every day hides a deeper truth about being human.
About an hour into the drive to the Vogler household, one's sense of time and place starts to distort. The road couldn’t possibly be any longer, yet it continues to lead farther and farther away from civilization and modern conveniences.
At the base of Frank Vogler's gravel driveway, we pull over. It's still another 30 minutes to the house. Frank jumps out of his pickup truck to grab a couple of beers from the back. Finally we round the hill to see the beautifully constructed cabin under two huge oak trees, surrounded by a garden and chicken coop. Beyond the cabin is endless forest.
Silas, Frank’s four-year-old son, is running out to the driveway to greet his dad. As we park, Silas fetches his toy pickup truck and loads up the groceries, pushing them toward the house. Inside, Frank’s wife Carrie is steaming artichokes for dinner and greets Frank with a long kiss.
The scene here is reminiscent of the lives of the early settlers to the Appalachian Mountains in the 18th century who came to create homesteads on cheap land. The 302-acre plot of land in Cocke County, Tennessee was all thick woods eight years ago when the Voglers purchased it. The process of clearing the land in a thoughtful and conscientious way and hauling in supplies to build their house inspired their decision to start their green land development company, V&V Land Management.
They've now cleared over 30 acres into usable farmland where their four horses freely roam. It’s easy for visitors to feel like they've stepped back in time until Frank walks over to his iPhone sitting by the window and consults the weather for tomorrow. The reality is that the Vogler family is straddling two seemingly contradictory worlds, and they stand by their decision to incorporate the best aspects of modern and primitive lifestyles into their lives.
“It sometimes feels like my business and farm are in competition with each other," says Frank. "There are many weeks where I drive more than 25 hours and hardly see home at all. For me it’s essential that I maintain rituals that allow me to pass back and forth between these two very different worlds.” To which Carrie adds, “The only thing I would change about our life right now would be to have an extra day at the weekend. We spend so much time away from home that we attack the weekends with a huge list of catching up tasks, and don't leave much time for the more renewing past times.“
This whole transition into the homesteading lifestyle for the Vogler family was a slow, natural progression. As a “leap of faith,” Frank and Carrie traded their house in Asheville, NC for the plot of land.
“We didn’t decide to go without power or running water for five years, it just happened as part of an internal shift," he says. "I know it looked crazy and absurd to friends and relatives especially since we prioritized other essentials like pasture restoration and having a baby and even the acquisition of horses before basic services.”
Crazy or not, over the years the Voglers have developed a system that works for them. "I’m not so different from most folks … The difference I think is that we understand that these are tools and don’t mistake them for solutions,” says Frank.
The Voglers are working toward creating a video library online to help other modern homesteaders learn rural arts such as bee keeping, animal husbandry and seed saving. Carrie, who is in charge of the administrative end of V&V spends most of the week in her office in Hot Springs, NC responding to emails and managing clients, but chooses to keep their home an internet-free sanctuary and enjoys spending her weekends outdoors. “I increasingly believe that so many modern conveniences are huge detriments to the human race, mostly through their overuse,” she says.
On a sunny day in May, Frank and Silas walk an injured chicken to a chopping block to butcher it. “We gotta give him the news,” Frank says. The chicken had been severely wounded by a wild animal, one of several chickens picked off that week. Silas watches solemnly as his Dad cuts the head off of the chicken and asks several questions about why the chicken had to die.
Lessons like this one come daily as Silas explores the land, independently wielding his hatchet that he’s had since the age of two. An issue of much debate for the family these days is whether Silas will go into public school or be homeschooled. He attends a preschool now and displays great social skills and enjoys time with other kids. “Especially girls,” Frank adds.
The concern with homeschooling is that Silas will not get enough time interacting with kids his age. On the other hand, public schools in rural Tennessee may not be stimulating or challenging enough. In the future, Frank and Carrie hope to create a community of friends and families living on the farm to create a social atmosphere and share the workload.
For now, Silas loves to chip in around the house in any way he can, enthusiastically volunteering to collect eggs, harvest from the garden, or chop wood. He tenaciously struggles to haul locust logs out of the woods to build a fence and rides on Frank’s lap on the tractor as they haul the logs back to the house. “I think Silas is having an enviable childhood and will carry it with him for all of his years," says Frank.
All photos: Mike Belleme
