"As an environmentalist and the partner, then spouse, of a fairly radical environmentalist, I entered into this lifestyle before I had returned to my walk with God and the faith of my childhood. One of the many things that helped to draw me back into a relationship with God and Christ, and into the United Methodist church, was the Creation/environmental movement connection. I realized that my respect and love of the natural world and my growing faith were harmonious, complimentary. It gradually came to me that living here, keeping this small space safe, leading an intentional, somewhat more simple life, was a big part of how I was following and serving God.

"[Our family's] primary focus for the past 20 years has been to live intentionally. When possible, rather than just accept the way things are done, we made decisions based on understanding, experience and personal conviction.

"...Based on the significant damage caused by the Centralia coal fired power plant and fisheries issues with hydro-power, we made a decision not to be on the grid. This has meant living with, at times, no electricity, and then very limited electricity. I am in the process of installing some photovoltaic solar panels now, a very slow process due to serious money and time constraints. I use car batteries charged at another location (yes, from the grid), relying on their limited capacity and the effort required to keep usage low. We have only compact-fluorescent and LED lights, propane for cooking and wood heat in a re-burner wood stove to minimize particulate and gas emissions. House temperature is 60-68 degrees.

"A decision was made to build the house with as limited impact as possible. Site location was chosen to be above potential high waters in this little valley and on a spot, which had no trees older than 3-4 years. The house was built without foundation, on pier blocks, with about 40% recycled materials (26 years ago, before re-stores had become more common). If the house were torn down, the area would return to a completely natural state within a very few years. Working right now on re-insulating using recycled jeans and/or wool.

"In past years, we raised food animals for personal use, focusing on small animals to balance impact - sheep, turkeys, ducks, pheasants, rabbits and chickens. Currently I only have egg laying chickens and my daughter's horse.

"The property is 16 acres: three adjoining parcels. The surrounding area, a large rural property used previously for agriculture and also containing the remnants of oak groves, has been broken up into 5-acre lots. The idea we had was to preserve an area larger than 5 acres, maintaining and promoting significant, contiguous 'wild' portions. So there is a large portion that is wetlands - mature ash, poplar, and oak trees (which have been wired against beaver incursion) -and only a small area that is permanently fenced (for animal pens/sheds/garden).

Mature oak trees on Laurie's land

"One goal has been restoration of the oaks, including some very limited selective cutting of other trees to encourage their growth, and restoration of salmon to the small creek which flows through the property. We have worked with neighbors (with varying success), Thurston co., the Nisqually Nation (Stream Stewards) and WA fish and wildlife. We started seeing a late run of wild coho about 7 years ago.

"So all of this sounds very ambitious and fine, but things have not always gone smoothly or as intended. In some cases, what is being done is not necessarily the 'greenest,' most efficient, or terribly attractive. It is definitely a work in progress (and probably always will be!) and, again, is mostly an exercise in intentionality - think about what we are doing before we do it, both large scale and on a daily basis. Another point, which arose somewhat from 80s environmental activism, was to demonstrate that money need not be the central issue. You don't always need to use the most advanced (expensive) technology, or conform to general cultural expectations. Nor do you need to be able to do it all at once. It's more about redefining what is truly necessary and/or important to how you live.

"There are a great many more things I could write about, good and bad experiences over the past 20 years. ...I will offer one story: Several years ago, shortly after the salmon run had returned to the creek, Thurston county decided to put in a bridge to replace the culvert which went under Bald Hill Road for Lackamas Creek (just upstream from us). There was a Washington Fish and Wildlife biologist assigned to oversee the project, which was designed for flood mitigation and fish enhancement.

"When the biologist went on vacation, there were insufficient funds for a replacement and the contractor, either in error or trying to cut costs, laid down inappropriate rock in the creek bed. Lackamas Creek runs very low in the summer, which is when construction was taking place, but it doesn't ever run completely dry. The large load of the wrong kind of rock cut off the flow entirely. We were left with large but rapidly shrinking puddles. Salmon fry, small fish, crayfish and other inhabitants were threatened. [My daughter] Ruth, 13, was horrified. She went up under the new bridge and tried to create a channel, moving rocks with her hands and a small shovel. She prevailed on her father to help, but it was insufficient. I started calling - the county, who referred me to the state, where I got the voicemail of the vacationing biologist that referred me to an emergency number in Snohomish. The biologist there was also horrified and was onsite within 24 hours. He enjoined the contractor to immediately provide mitigation, but 'immediately' was an additional 48 hours. By that time, all the stream dependent life on our property had died. We don't the full extent of the damage downstream.

"A positive aspect for Ruth, and me, was that we were put in touch with Nisqually Stream Stewards. Since then we have received training in and performed salmon monitoring and Ruth completed Stream Steward training - a fairly extensive, 80-hour classroom/fieldwork class. For her, the idea of Creation care has never been separate from her faith journey. As she recently put it, 'I'm not sure how accurate God talk is, but I've always thought we were told to take care of the earth.'"