Perry and Audrey Hnetka
Audrey and Perry Hnetka, who farm near Archerwill, have opted for a lifestyle designed to reduce their impact on the Earth.
"We all have to take from this earth," says Perry. "We should all give back what we take." Giving back for the Hnetkas means planting shelterbelts, farming organically, and repairing and using smaller, older implements. It means living the three R's - reduce, reuse, and recycle. And it means saying "no thanks," to the power grid and opting instead for wood heat and solar energy.
Two wood stoves heat their home. Eight PV panels in the front yard catch the sun's rays and store it in batteries. The batteries power the lights and appliances in their 1600 square foot, two-storey log home.
The cook stove is located just below the open stairwell, which allows the rising heat to be drawn up into the house's upper level. That helps keep the upstairs warm in winter. In summer, much of this heat can be channelled out of the house through open windows.
Besides an electric stove, appliances not found in the Hnetka house include a clothes dryer and refrigerator. Clothes are dried outside in summer and on lines upstairs in the winter. Food is kept cool in a cooler built over the basement well. Produce from their three-quarter acre garden is mostly canned or dried. Perry says most conventional fridges gobble up far too much energy.
Several times a day, water is pumped from the basement well to a holding tank on the second floor, and from there it flows by gravity to the various taps. The hot water tank, also on the second floor, is built around the chimney and wrapped with two layers of covered fibreglass insulation. This unique hot water heater provides hot water most months of the year. Even on summer days when the stove is only used for cooking, the water is warm.
Perry and Audrey own 494 ha (1220 acres) of land. About a third is rented out. They organically farm about 134 ha (330 acres) and the poorer, less productive land has been returned to grass and bush. Neither has an off-farm job.
They grind their own flour from their own wheat and harvest wild herbs, mushrooms, fruit, and meat. They recycle paper, plastic, tin cans, and used oil
Every year they try to plant more trees to prevent soil drifting and to provide a habitat for wildlife. They also practice sustainable logging, cutting the branches on spruce trees as they grow so that eventually they will have 16 feet of clean, high quality lumber.
Though their lifestyle has been in many ways different from that of their contemporaries Audrey and Perry don't feel they have made any huge sacrifices or done anything most other people couldn't do.
"People tell us, 'It's great what you're doing but I could never do it,' "Audrey said. "But they could. It's really not all that difficult."
Submitted by Shirley Byers
"The Hnetka family in their off-grid log home."