Firsthand Reports from the Field: Discover the Peace of a Country Life

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When her high school English teacher asked the class to write about their passions, 17-year-old Corrie Ryder submitted this report. It chronicles her choice to abandon her routine life in the suburbs for the challenges and rewards of country living.

At my house, deep in the woods outside of Parsonsfield, Maine, we don't stay up very late. We don't watch television much either, or spend useless hours glued to a computer screen. It's probably been a few months since I've heard the ching! of a toaster telling me my toast is done, or the annoying beep of a microwave after it pops my popcorn.

In fact, the only sounds you'll usually ever hear around my house might he the sound of chickens crowing, my brother and I bickering, or occasionally, the coyotes singing their hearts out under the dazzling starlight. It's amazing how quiet and calm things become when you live without on demand electricity and spend your days hidden like a secret, miles into the woods. It makes you realize how really chaotic and impatient modern life can be, and how wonderful and peaceful nature is.

The summer I learned to live without electricity, pavement and nothing but my family in a 16x16-foot house marked the beginning of many astounding discoveries and experiences for me. First, I found that living off the grid wasn't very hard; it was actually quite fun. I also discovered the magic and power in nature, an inspiring experience I will never forget. Last, I learned the love, support and comfort of having your family become your best friends, a bond not broken, but woven tighter, even after small—or big—arguments.

My creative, tenacious mother certainly had aimed for the "old style" of living when it came to finishing her house. Its character seeps from the walls and floor, revealing the story of a life created with love, talent and amazing imagination. The house itself is tucked safely away, sunken deep into the belly of the forest.

At first glance, the house I moved into from my suburban environment didn't, to say the least, seem to offer much for your average teenager, but it certainly was a new and challenging adventure I was willing to try. I had briefly visited a few times, and I assumed I knew what I was in for. I expected the daily chores and responsibilities, and I thought I was fully prepared for absolute isolation—so far from the world that you enter another: one of babbling brooks, leafy giants and their mysterious inhabitants.

A few weeks into my new adventure, I was slapped in the face with the realization that I needed to learn how to live all over again. Most of the day we live without electricity and do just fine with our gas refrigerator, gas stove, grill and six 1-gallon milk jugs tilled each morning with water we pump when the generator is running. We turn the generator on in the morning and evening for one hour to charge the batteries and run the water pump so we can have showers and wash dishes. When it is running, we can watch our satellite TV, use our computer and turn on lights.