koviashuvik

I had the amazing opportunity to spend time at Koviashuvik, a local living school, while I was in Maine.  I declared to my kids that this was Mom's choice.  And what a wonderful choice it was for a way to spend time in Maine - truly off the grid.  Ashira and Chris Knapp are wonderful hosts, guides, and teachers, as they share the beautiful homestead they have created with their own hands.  Their electricity comes from their solar panels.  They grow most all of their food, and preserve it in their root cellar or by fermenting it.  Their daily flour comes from acorns from nearby forests, that they grind and dry (using rainwater to leach out the bitterness).  They keep ice from the pond yearlong in their icehouse.  And they harvest and make delicious maple syrup as well.

A wonderful outdoor kitchen is the center of cooking and eating throughout the summer.  A simple wood hearth and a homemade rocket stove do most of the cooking.  Delicious water comes from a nearby spring, and from rainwater collection.  

We were guided through our days with such wonderful intention about everything we were doing.  We harvested mint and made tea in their solar dehydrator.  Using the shave horses and draw knives was one of my favorite activities - and my daughter's as well.  We carved spatulas.  My son learned how to use a scythe.  Under Chris's guidance, I finally learned the proper way to sharpen a knife. We also made our own spoons using a coal burning and carving method.

Our shelter was a platform tent at the edge of the clearing.  One night there was a fabulous thunderstorm.  We looked out the tent flaps that appeared as stage curtains with a great lightning show in the fields, hills, and sky beyond.  Awe inspiring.