No Cell Phone Service? No ‘Dacks?
As much as this blog will document our smooth success along the road to building the Green Nettle Dacha, it will just as often descry the obstacles. Swinging both ways, this blog will hopefully become a useful reference tool for those looking for inspiration and advice when it comes to building their own off-the-grid home with their own hands.
Let’s blow the trumpets now so the kiddies know that we’ve been taking cellphone service for granted. I’ve got Verizon, you’ve got T-Mobile, and either plan is useless in most parts of the Adirondack State Park. Big deal for a bunch of peeps that want to live in the middle of nowhere? Sure is! Especially since we won’t be connected to a land line.
Having become attached to the idea of buying and building within the Blue Line, I wonder how we didn’t realize that this might be a problem before emotionally committing ourselves. After all, when we were up there our cellphones didn’t work, unless we were smack in the middle of some small town. Come to think of it, most times we were anywhere to look for land we didn’t have reception.
It must be that having cellphone since the tender age of sixteen prevented me from comprehending truly that some places never see reception. Somewhere deep in a dull part of my brain, could I have been believing that upon our arrival a crew would appear and erect a tower; or that the people there have some local secret service to which they subscribe? I think so.
It’s becoming clear now that my sleepy subconscious was in the wrong. According to an entry in the Adirondack Almanack from exactly a year ago, complete cellphone service in the Adirondacks is a “pipe-dream,” especially since the cellphone companies couldn’t profit off the not-so-rich, nor voluminous , full-time–as opposed to seasonal– population of the Park. Even if they were to profit, clear reception would mean a tower on every peak, and that’s just not cool man.
It looks like we might have to redraw our maps, unless Joe and Lily’s upcoming land search yields solutions to how we can build and live up there with absolutely no phone access. How would I call my mom for instance? Or how would I call my friends after hitting black ice and ramming into tree, so that they could take me to the hospital where they’d stick a painkilling shot into my butt and tell me I’ll be as good as new in five to six weeks? Huh?
This is all stuff to think about. We’re not too late and we won’t give up. It’s a matter of finding a solution, and I’m sure we’ll be writing about it here in the near future.
-Lea LSF
March 10, 2008 @ 11:48 pm
This is unlucky, and disappointing, yes. But it’s the route of many stories such as ours. In every good one there is a point at which the protagonists see some of their hopes wilt and crumble. No good story is without this crucial point (usually there are several), and our story is going to be a seriously good one.
So…cell…sucks…
In the words of the wise Vonnegut…”so it goes”
March 15, 2008 @ 6:01 pm
Thanks for the link. Sometimes I’m surprised to hear that people think that cell-phones, cable tv, and the internet are required to live. What did they ever do in the 1980s? How do they manage in the Adirondacks (and the millions of other acres across America who “do without”)?
Rather than change your mind about where to live, why not re-think what you mean by off-the-grid. I think you’ll find that living without all that technology is refreshing – kind of like a long hike into the backcountry, but for the long-term.
Besides, you can always go with a satellite dish, the local library, or – heaven forbid – your neighbor with a phone down the road.
Good luck on your adventure.