Lately I have been feeling antsy with the thought of a leading a life that is predetermined by society. Almost everyone I know is a complete slave to the system: Mortgages, working til I'm 70, glued to technology. C'mon, UGH. This is such a depressing thought. I just want to live on a farm and grow my own food and raise chickens and goats and live off the land.

Okay, perhaps I'm having an almost-30, existential crisis.  But on a more serious note, my friend, Mollie, and I spent some time discussing the concept of going Off-The-Grid (OTG) and what that would mean as a life choice. We discussed realistic avenues to make going OTG feasible. I think it would actually require quite a bit of planning. Basically, simplifying your life is not a simple process. Most of us would probably have no idea how to live off the land and lead a self-sustaining lifestyle. I love the idea of growing my own food, but I can barely keep a cactus alive. Not a good indication of my ability to keep a whole garden or farm.

Well regardless of whether going OTG is an actually possibility in my future, it's nice to dream about the options out there. So for this post I dug through the Grid and found some homes that would be lovely choices. Some aren't necessarily 100% "gridless" - meaning many of the houses still have electricity and running water - but at the very least they strive to hit that mark.  Most are eco-friendly and located away from the normal hustle-and-bustle of the big city. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and feel a little inspired to determine your own fate in life.

I just completed the first month of my 2014 photography project, and I have to say, it is NOT easy to take pictures every single day. You will see that I missed quite a few days this month. However, I don't feel that bad considering I still took around 1000 pictures in January with my Canon.  I also missed a few days when I was sick with the flu. This is only the first month, and I need to remember that integrating photography into my schedule at such an extreme level is not supposed to be easy; it's a complete lifestyle change. 

However, I do want to try to get better about consistently being more creative regarding the subject of my pictures. You will see I got pretty lazy on some days, and as a result there are a LOT of pictures of my cats. I think my sub-goal for February is to take pictures with more variety.  So for next month I am enforcing a rule where I can only take pictures of items within my home once a week.

There are a few pictures I am especially proud of from January:
01/02/14 - This was my first action shot with this lens. I caught Lucy mid yawn as she is rubbing her head up against the wall. Plus it evokes an emotion in me every time I look at it --- pure JOY!
01/06/14 - This was one of those days that I realized late in the evening that I still hadn't taken any pictures. I looked around my house and wasn't feeling inspired... until I looked up and saw the old Christmas lights. I had to stand on my counter to get the picture!
01/11/14 - This painted cave was completely in the dark because the entrance was blocked off by a gate. I sneaked just the lens through one of the openings, and used all the Manual settings I could think of to increase the light in the picture. I didn't have to adjust the picture in post at all!

Anyway, without further ado, here are January's photos...