The Inspiration

With a sigh of relief, we left the institution and made our way back to Madrid and beyond to stay with our last hosts. They were a Spanish/American man and his Finnish wife who were just about the same age as us. They had had a busy summer with volunteers and weren't looking to take on anyone but they read our profile and email and were intrigued enough to take us on for 10 days. It worked out perfectly for us as they were just an 1.5 hour bus ride west of Madrid, where we were to fly out of on the 10th of December.

The couple lived outside of a small town down an unpaved road. Like us, five years prior, they had been searching for a perfect spot to live lightly on the land and embark on the road to self-sustainability and off-grid living. This particular part of Spain appealed to them because the land was cheap and there were a good number of trees (something that is hard to find in the high plateau of central Spain) and, perhaps equally important, it was close enough to mom and dad to use their washing machine once a week.

They designed and built their own house, used solar panels for electricity and pumping water and had a small wind turbine to supplement the solar panels. They used mobile phone technology for internet access and harvested vegetables from their garden. Heat for the house came from a super-efficient Tulikivi soapstone stove which kept the majority of the house warm with just two fires per day with a total of 6 kilograms (13 pounds) of wood.

  

Our host was working hard digging a partially below-ground greenhouse but we did less strenuous work clearing out the raised garden bed for winter, chipping wood, treating trees for caterpillars, pruning, collecting wood and prepping downed wood for either the stove or the wood chipper. The work wasn't particularly exciting but the discussions and meal times certainly were. Our hosts were absolutely wonderful people with a great sense of humor. Our hostess was particularly sweet, caring and charming and our host was a walking encyclopedia of self-sufficiency.

  

When we weren´t learning from our host, talking about the world or doing our volunteer tasks, we enjoyed borrowing from their extensive library, checking out the surrounding countryside and trying to win the trust of their four big and lovable dogs.

   

Sadly, our time here passed far too quickly but it was absolutely inspirational to see two people doing what we hope to be doing in the future and living quite comfortably on about €6,000.00 ($8,000.00) per year. We left Spain on a high with new friends and new-found hope.