Imagine for a moment the perfect off grid cabin in the wilderness. An off grid survival cabin you can call home. Living off the grid the way it’s mean to be. What does that look like to you? Where is it? Is it nestled in the evergreens high in the mountains, or alongside an alpine lake in a lush valley surrounded by nature and beauty. A peaceful place you can call home. A place untouched by the concrete hand of the city dwellers, money brokers, bankers, lawyers, and giant concrete and crystal towers of Main St. downtown anywhere. No more horns honking, screeching of tires, sirens, or signs selling you every imaginable wonder of the world except for what really matters. Happiness. Freedom. Peace.

The Perfect Off Grid Cabin

That calm you feel when you look out over the lake from the comfort of your log cabin built with your own hands, on your own time and on your own land. The feeling of accomplishment, satisfaction and pride that comes with from building your own home. That’s perfection. That moment, that peaceful bliss warmed by a cup of tea or coffee brewed on your cast iron stove you hauled up the mountain to place just so, on stones you moved just a little ways from it’s place in the wilderness to borrow for a short time.

You’re the temporary caretaker of that land, your dream and this little peace of paradise for a little while. The trees give you shelter, the rock a foundation to build on, the iron stove to keep you warm during the cold winters. Through it all, you can relax and enjoy your cabin, you little peace of perfection. That to me is the perfect off grid cabin.

You can’t get any more perfect than Dick Proenneke’s off grid cabin in the Alaskan wilderness. When you think of the perfect off grid cabin, this is the cabin that comes to mind.

Author’s Note: I think that when people watch Dick Proenneke Build his off grid cabin in the unspoiled gorgeous wilderness of Alaska, I believe this to be what the believe the perfect off grid cabin is supposed to look like. Built into nature, not on top of it. Living one with it, not exploiting it. Respecting the earth. Not destroying it for a profit. I think people watch Dick build this cabin and get inspired to build their own. It inspires dreams of living off the grid in the wilderness, away from the hustle and bustle of city life. Free from being stuck in traffic, spending 2-3 hours a day just commuting back and forth to work. Your work on a homestead is just right there. Just a few steps out your front door. The view of the lake, the mountains, the forest and all the wildlife. Proenneke live in that cabin for 30 years. Filming the wildlife, helping to protect the area, and now that whole area is under the protection of the Nation Park Service and Proenneke’s cabin is still there today, preserved as a historic monument to his love for nature and the simple life. Which is exactly why I think so many millions of people are inspired by his story. It truly is the perfect off grid cabin, living the off grid life the way it was meant to be lived. 

Proenneke built his log cabin with his bare hands using hand tools he hauled up into the mountains. The cabin itself it 12×16 feet, 192 square feet of log cabin perfection.

Dick Proenneke “Alone In The Wilderness”

Watch the video of Proenneke building his off grid cabin here:

Proenekke build his cabin with hand tools. A saw, ax, drill, draw knife. He dragged the logs to his cabin by himself, and hoisted them into place. At 52 years old. That’s an amazing feat, and one I doubt many folks could do today.

To match Proenneke’s physical stamina and the strength it took to move all those logs, and complete all that work, it’s an amazing accomplishment. The whole build is exciting to watch and as the cabin grows you can see a real home being formed before your eyes.

Proenneke spent many days canoeing and paddling, and hiking the wilderness around his cabin, sometimes hiking 30 miles in a day. Can you imagine!? At his age. Could you do that? I know I probably couldn’t.

Living alone in the wilderness. But he wasn’t really alone. He had all the wildlife to keep himself company and I imagine he talked to them too. He was immersed in nature and respected it appreciated it and wanted to preserve it for future generations.

Shawn James built his own log cabin inspired by Dick Proenekke’s log cabin. Shawn also used hand tools for most of the build.

You can view his build video here:

Here is Shawn’s tour of Dick Proenekke’s log cabin in Alaska.

Shawn James’ off grid log cabin build is just as inspiring as Proenekke’s cabin build. It’s the perfect little off grid cabin to live in. You don’t need a giant house in the suburbs or a mansion on the hill. This is all you really need. You’re only using it for shelter, the nature around your is the important part. Sure the cabin itself is an off grid dream I think most people can relate to. Shawn’s cabin build too is built mostly with hand tools, and he puts in a lot of work. You can tell he’s inspired by Proenneke and his cabin, and I think Shawn wanted to experience what that kind of accomplishment felt like.

To build a home, a perfect off grid cabin in the wilderness with your bare hands. Now that is amazing.

Off Grid Cabin Life

It’s what most people picture when they think of the off grid lifestyle and their own little log cabin. But it’s much more than that. It’s more than a cabin. It’s home. A place to call your own. your cabin is protection from the elements, but it’s also an accomplishment you can be proud of.

A sense of self reliance, to know that you can survive and thrive out there, alone in the wilderness. But you’re not alone, really. Nature accompanies you.

The birds sing, the squirrels and rabbits scurry about foraging for food and a place for the winter. The wildlife around you, all living in harmony. And you are living within it. You’re part of nature.

Free. Independent. Completely self sufficient. Content. Happy. Calm and at peace.

That is the perfect off grid cabin.

More to come…

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AUTHOR’S NOTE:

I can’t imagine a more perfect example of an off grid cabin than Dick Proenneke’s hand built Alaskan wilderness cabin. Perhaps it’s the age at which he built it, perhaps it’s because he built it with his own bare hands and a few hand tools he packed into the wilderness. Perhaps it’s the location, the solitude, the peacefulness.

Maybe it’s the accomplishment of a job well done, a piece of American history that will always be remembered forever as the perfect off grid cabin. It’s the cabin I think of when I think of building my own cabin.

I remember when I was younger watching a show about this old man that built a log cabin with his own hands in the wilderness way back in the day. That cabin is now part of the National Park System and preserved for all future generations to enjoy. To me it brings me back to my childhood dream of building my own off grid cabin in the wilderness.

Perhaps one day, when I’m older and wiser like Dick Proenneke. This is an article I wrote about his cabin that will forever live in my heart and mind when I think of “The Perfect Off Grid Cabin: Living Off The Grid The Way It’s Meant To Be” – Eric Wichman

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Read more about Proenekke and his off grid cabin build, and buy and watch the original video here:
Alone In The Wilderness

Proenneke’s Cabin – National Park Service

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REFERENCES: 

Shawn James Off Grid Cabin Website – MySelfReliance.com
Shawn James YouTube – My Self Reliance
Log Cabin – Wikipedia
Richard Proenneke – Wikipedia
Off-The-Grid – Wikipedia