by Cari Eden Kindl

Created on: August 18, 2009   Last Updated: October 23, 2009

I have always been a hippy at heart but my eight to five government desk job paid for my stonewashed jeans and computer to listen to my Pink Floyd mp3s. There was something wrong with this high definition picture. I always knew that but I wasn't sure what to do to make the changes I wanted to see in the world. Why do we work to make money to pay for antibiotic loaded genetically altered food when we could be working to grow our own organic food? Why are we buying water in toxic plastic bottles that pretends to be from some secluded mountain stream in Canada when it is actually just tap water from some guy's basement in Milwaukee? All I wanted was a place to grow my own food and get away from the insanity we call civilization.

My mother worked for a senator in for many years and would drive back and forth between Jacksonville and Tallahassee. She suddenly got the urge to search for land to buy on the outskirts of Tallahassee. When she found the spot that really called out to her the owner wasn't so sure he was ready to sell after all. So she would drive there on the weekends and just camp out all alone. She had it in her mind that this place was going to be hers no matter what and she longed for the same peace and tranquility that I did. While I was busy trying to survive wild teenagers in Jacksonville she was spending her weekends in a tent with bugs and snakes on some man's property. I really believe that the man finally decided to sell it to her because he felt sorry for her and thought she was crazy.

Mother eventually bought a storage barn and converted into quite a fancy little cabin. She spent years with a camping stove and a chemical toilet. Her big moment was when she finally got well water. She hung up a portable shower and stood under it one day with such eagerness and excitement. The arctic chill of the well water as it rushed out of the hose nearly knocked her unconscious. After she had the tub, toilet and stove brought in I decided I would move out there with her.

I got a job working for the Department of Agriculture and made the forty-five minute drive every day to my boring little office. The drive was the best part of my day. And every day at lunch I would rush out of the office whether I was hungry or not to drive to the park and just stare at the trees. All I could think about was living off the grid. It was my dream. I would say to my husband and mother "We have to be prepared. What if the economy collapses?" and "The Mayans weren't

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