A cash-built, off-grid home in rural Maine

February 11, 2020

In this first interview of the Finding Home series I talk with Naomi Kilbreth.

Naomi lives with her husband, Glen, and their four children ages 7-13 in rural Maine, in their cash-built and off-grid home. Naomi homeschools their children, and also works as an Herbalist and Aromatherapist at Laurel Tree Wellness.

This season on my Patreon Podcast I'm doing a series of interviews about how we define home and how we make a home; our experiences of home, through childhood and adulthood; and what home means to us - geographically, structurally, and relationally.

For Naomi, Maine is home. It's where she's from and where she's raising her family.

photo credit: J. Lynn photography

One of the things that's unique and interesting about Naomi's story, is that "home", as the structure where she lives, is both off-grid and cash-built. Which sounds to me like something straight out of the classic and enduring Mother Earth News.

In order to achieve that goal her family lived for 6 years in a camping trailer (in Maine, where it's cold and snowy in winter) - dreaming, scheming and saving for something permanent and secure. A home that couldn't be lost to a mortgage company, like Naomi and Glen's first house was after the economic downturn of 2008.

Through our conversation about these events, and the vision, hard work and tenacity required to build her family's home, Naomi and I explore the "purpose" of a home. We talk about how security and stability is not just about a structure that we can call our own, but it's about our relationships and the web of connection with others.

Find Naomi on her author's page at Facebook - she's writing a memoir of her experience, which I can't wait to read. And at her herbal business Laurel Tree Wellness.

Listen to this interview

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This season I'm producing the Finding Home series so each episode will be about that theme.

If you only want to listen to this particular interview with Naomi you can sign up, listen to the interview, and then cancel your support at any time. But while you're signed up make sure to check out all the other interviews I've released. You may find more that interests you.