We quit our jobs & ditched our house-buying dream to live off grid

A COUPLE quit their jobs and gave up on their dream of buying a home and went to live off grid in a horse lorry.

Essex vets Charis and Matthew Watkinson decided to drop everything and start their lives again.

When they made their big decision it was daunting for them – as they both lacked farming experience.

Now, after two children Elsa and Billy, they say their only bill is having to pay council tax.

They’ve managed to adapt to a completely new way of life which nowadays involves a man-powered washing and machine and horse-poo powered cooking gas – and generally living off the land.

The family now run Beeview Farm in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Charis told WalesOnline: “We just figured we wanted to be able to look after ourselves and be a bit more self-sufficient.”

She added: “I think by the time we handed in our notices I knew I needed to do it. As we were just locuming after we moved we didn’t have a job lined up so living without a stable plan was a big thing. But we were ready to get going.

“Otherwise we would have bought [a house] – we almost had it that way with a mortgage and a job but we didn’t want to carry on with the rat race. We almost did it without thinking about it.”

Instead of living in a bricks and mortar property, home is now a converted horse box – along with a couple of hay trailers on the side.

An old car is now used as a makeshift greenhouse while old tyres act to wall in their vegetable gardens.

Possibly one of Matthew’s proudest achievements is known as Biff the biodigester which is hoped will fuel all their cooking gas needs by using food and animal waste.

Charis said that at first they got a seven-and-a-half tonne horse lorry and completely stripped it and used it as a kitchen, dining room and lounge, along with a couple of “cheap caravans”.

Then when their children started growing up they added two 26ft-long flatbed hay trailers.

Their radical lifestyle change was made possible, in part, thanks to the Welsh Government’s One Planet Development Policy.

Essentially, the policy gives a helping hand to people to build a home on open countryside – with the provision it is carbon-neutral in construction and can be used to support those who live there.

Before the radical change Charis was earning £30,000 a year but now she says the family makes do by selling the eggs from their 50 chickens and six ducks as well as the honey from their bees.

They get their water from a stream running through their land and use solar panels for electricity.

They run a TV which runs off 12-volt electricity and also have a tiny fridge and freezer.

Bottled gas is currently used for cooking but hope to swap to the biodigester which produces methane, once it is up and running.

Charis said they had to grow at least 30 per cent of their own food and would like to produce more.

The mum-of-two said one winter when the weather was cloudy and dull, things did get “a bit close to the wire” as they couldn’t use the fridge or freezer but added they were looking at installing something to harness wind energy or perhaps put a hydro in the stream to “make sure we keep ticking over”.

While things may get a bit hairy at times, for the couple one of the big perks of their lifestyle is the sense of well-being they get from it.

Now, the former vet is less stressed – or at least stressed in a different way.

She admitted they still worried about selling eggs – which Charis said was a “nicer thing” to have to worry about.

Her health appears to have improved too.

Before, she said she got migraines and had eczema but having moved to Wales she claimed she hadn’t had either.

She added: “It’s just nice to be able to wander around at a slower pace in life.

“The children love the chickens wandering around and collecting the eggs and we have three acres for them to run around it. Elsa is really getting into growing.”

For the family however, it was important that living off grid didn’t mean going without the little luxuries of everyday life. 

According to Matthew, one thing was essential.

He said: “We didn’t want to go back to the stone age, we wanted Netflix!  There’s no phone line but we found a solution, we get all our Internet from mobile phone deals.

“It’s terrifying but exciting at the same time, it’s the only way to describe it. We are forging a new path and I know we can do it but I’m just not sure how entirely we do it.”

For the busy dad, learning to live off  grid has also been an on-the-job experience.

The 42-year-old said: “There are probably better times to start a family than when you’re building an entire life from scratch, but there’s probably no perfect time to start a family.

“The one thing I want to crack is use a compost heap to heat water.

“Any extra solar is dumped to heat water so on a good day we can get a lot of hot water. If the weather is bad it would be good to have hot water without having a fire.

“Compost heaps can get to about 70C so we are building one out of the chicken bedding.”