Join us April 21-27 for a Power Down week this year! Read more about it here.
Reprinted from The Grovestead Newsletter, Summer 2022
Becca:
To understand it, you need to know that Rory started his own software company 22 years ago. He wrote weather-tracking software used by logistics companies and municipalities, as well as residential users. Safety is at stake if something wasn’t working right. That means that Rory has always been tethered to his computer, checking morning, noon and night. He hasn’t had an uninterrupted vacation in 22 years.
So when Rory shut down his business in April I knew exactly how we would celebrate: we should shut our laptops for a full seven days. And as we are very prone to do, we got inspired and started adding more and more (or more accurately, eliminating more and more) things that would make this week a complete “Power Down.” We decided to turn off our phones. And then the electricity. And then the hot water. And the toilets.
Everything was powered down except for the well pump and garage freezers. We only had one cold water tap in the kitchen. We filled 5-gallon buckets in order to flush the toilets and heated water on the propane stove for bucket baths. Elsie and I did laundry one day outside in a big tub of hot soapy water, scrubbing the clothes as we broke a sweat, dunking in buckets, ringing each item out and hanging it on the clothesline. It’s all the cardio and upper body conditioning you would ever need.
It was a cross between Little House on the Prairie and camping. We worked hard the whole week: doubled the size of our garden, expanded the pig pen, milked the goats each morning and held family worship by candle light at night. We fell into bed exhausted, but so grateful for focused and uninterrupted time for our family and farm.
Honestly, I could sit here and write a novel on all that we learned. But I will say the most radical takeaway that I experienced was not my gratitude for flushing toilets (though they are not be taken for granted!) or a clothes washer or lights that flick on with a switch. The most profound thing experienced from a week of Power Down was the undivided attention I had from Rory and that I gave to my family. So often I am running in circles in my head, “I’m just going to text so-and-so real quick…” “Hang on a second, I need to write this email. I’ll be done in a sec…” For one week, there was no phone line to the outside world and it brought the peace and calm and quiet you might imagine.
I don’t know what to do about that one. Because we are social people and highly involved in our community and connected to many. But I will say it highlighted a real loss that we all have to confront with how accessible we are on these phones and screens. I don’t think we feel it as acutely because the water wasn’t boiling when we jumped in. But turning it all off, and then back on again, revealed a great liberty we have handed over: the freedom to focus simply on the life (and lives) right in front of us.
When we turned the power back on, our house was positively somber. No one wanted to do it. It was like a heaviness came and landed as the fridge began to hum and the water heater stirred and the thermostat kicked in and the vents began to blow. It had been silent for seven days, and then these background noises began to fill our house again. A fitting metaphor for it all: we live with so many background noises crowding our attention, which then divides our focus from the things that truly matter.
Our only consolation was that we will do this again. I tell you that because we are hopeful to get other families to join us—it is a vacation you will never, ever forget and a vacation in the truest sense of the word. To truly vacate the rest of the world, power down, work and rest.
Rory:
Day 1. Our vacation began about 6PM last night. We had hobo dinners over the campfire and family workshop by candlelight. First night was fitful—kept waking up waiting for morning.
Day 2. One of the biggest changes about power down week has been the quiet. No running motors—dishwasher, laundry machine, dryer, water heater, furnace, fans, etc. Of course the weather has been perfect. But if not, we would have a quiet crackle of a cozy fire in the wood stove.
Day 3. Long hard day of working with my family. We doubled the garden size, got everything down except wood chips. Going out now to do that before a storm arrives.
Day 4. Long day of storms yesterday… Held off just long enough to get the woodchips down, then poured and hailed. Ironically, we lost power and didn’t even know it until I went to put something away in the garage fridge. We were out of power— and water—about 4 hours.
Day 5. Much to be thankful for—we love the singular focus on our farm and family. The shutting out of distractions—not electricity—is the biggest felt change. Not even knowing what time it is because we are living by the sunlight.
Day 7. All good things must come to an end. Today is the last day of our power down. It has been so busy and full of activity, I truly do not feel disconnected from anything that matters. Yesterday we cleaned up the metal scrap pile, put the sheep on it to mow it down, started the new pig run, harvested asparagus and had hamburgers for dinner. And Becca did another load of laundry and all of the other activities like milking goats and taking walks. All of it is full. All of it good. I am grateful for this week.
I would sum up as this: if there was a way for this to continue, we would all do it. In a minute. This life is authentic and full and relationally strengthening. It is in tune with creation and nature’s clock. I feel as though for the first time I’m actually experiencing life as it was designed to be lived. It is a freedom I’ve never tasted.
Ivar: (age 11)
Power down week is awesome. Because their is no clocks, etc. The days are slow paced but we end up getting more done than on any other day. We work from sun up to sundown and then light a candle and take a bucket shower. Mom and Dad are not distracted by their phones or computers so there is more family time altogether. I honestly feel as though I miss power down week already, as if I am homesick far from home. Life this way is full, and I like living it.
Elsie: (age 9)
It’s so different not to have electricity—no hot water, no shower or bath, no water except for the kitchen sink, no lights except for flash lights + candles + lanterns, no clocks — I woke up this morning and the only sign of morning was the birds chirping! No fridge or freezer except in the garage.
You can wash dishes whenever you want—you don’t have to wait until the dishwasher is full! You don’t use as much dishes—you have to wash them all by hand. You realize how wasteful it is to flush the toilet whenever you go to the bathroom—it takes SO much water!
It was SO peaceful — it made me cry to turn the electricity back on. You can live without electricity—just dig a well and a root cellar.
You NEVER want it to end!
Sunday afternoon (Rory):
The power is back on. I can’t describe the somber mood. It’s like a vacation you don’t want to return from. But in this case, the vacation was more real than the life we are returning to. Family, farm, land, a few trusted friends. Whatever happened to us that we would trade this life for money? What is a million dollars worth if there is no life to live? Lord, help us find our way again. Strip us bare of the frivolous nuisances. Bring us to the more abundant life. To a better country.
