Some people have told me that I am living their dream, while others have said that I must be out of my mind. After living five years alone and completely off-grid on a barrier island, I think that maybe it’s a little bit of both.
In March 2006 I retired from the Victoria Police Department after 22 years of service, the last 15 as Detective. I had performed these duties for exactly half my life, and though for the most part I still enjoyed the job, especially the camaraderie with fellow officers, I felt it was time to get out.
In January 2000 I had purchased undivided interest property on this barrier island, roughly four miles across Matagorda Bay from the small mainland town of Port O’Connor. For about a year prior to retiring, I had began making plans to make the island my permanent and only residence.
The property is accessible by boat or aircraft only, and the proper name for it is Matagorda Peninsula, even though in reality it is an island, becoming so in 1962 when the Army Corp of Engineers cut a quarter mile wide swath through it creating a jetty passageway for ships and tankers to access the local industrial factories via the Gulf of Mexico. The island is about four miles long, 3/4 miles wide and roughly 3,000 acres total, with the Gulf bordering the southeast side.
With the help and guidance of a master carpenter friend, Louis Boldt, construction slowly began on an octagon designed two-story cabin, 600 square feet total. I boated 225 bags of Kwik-crete across the bay, 20 bags at a time (that’s 18,000 pounds!), to pour a slab first, mixing four bags at a time. Keep in mind that all materials must come by boat across and often times rough open water bay, meaning that work, taking place on weekends and vacation days, was a slow and laborious process.
The day finally arrived when the cabin was dried in, so now I could at least get out of the weather and not have to boat back to the mainland at the end of each day. Other than some native salt water cedars in one area of the island, there are no trees, so I would have to put my own saplings in the ground. But would anything even grow on a barrier island surrounded entirely by salt water? There was only one way to find out, and locating a source of fresh water would be vital.
I learned that, provided you get far enough back from the bay shoreline, at least a quarter mile, an underground fresh rain water basin could be found and utilized. Sure enough, using at the time a gasoline powered post-hole auger with extension, there was fresh water at about 11 feet down. That’s right, eleven feet. A 4-inch PVC casing was quickly pushed down, and then an above ground 12-volt Flojet pump was used to pull the water up through a half-inch PVC pipe. A 20 watt solar panel keeps the single deep cycle pump battery charged. I’ve been using this same water well set-up for eleven years now with no problems. I use the well water for all of my outside water needs, having now run ten underground lines to faucets and sinks throughout the yard area.
Now that I had a fresh water source, I began trying to get a yard and trees started. After laying down small squares of St. Augustine grass, it began taking off and continues to do quite well, even after several hurricanes have covered it with salt water. Small palms, oleanders and even beautiful Norfolk pines have done very well, with the palms and pines having grown over twelve feet tall now and still going. I have since also done well with a Brown Turkey fig tree and am currently trying to establish a Meyer Lemon tree.
In March 2006 I retired from Victoria PD, moved out of my apartment, and began living full time on this barrier island, the first person to do so since the small establishment of Port Cavallo was destroyed by a hurricane in the 1870’s. There are other weekend use cabins out here, but no one else makes the island their permanent and only residence. . . and I like it that way.
Once out here full time, a gutter system was devised wherein all of my inside cabin water is fresh rain water that is collected in two 525 gallon tanks and pumped into the cabin with another 12 volt pump. All of my lights and ceiling fans are also 12 volt, all operating from a deep cycle battery bank system that keeps charged through solar panels located on the roof. I also have several inverters tied into the battery system and these power any necessary 110 volt items, including a television that I have primarily to keep track of the tropics during hurricane season. My fridge, freezer, stove, water heater and winter heater all operate off propane. I primarily use the 25 gallon cylinders and transport them by boat to the mainland when they need to be filled. I run in for supplies, mail and any other necessities, depending on weather conditions, every 7-10 days.
Clint’s Norfolk Pine
Clint’s Palms
Being conservative with power and water usage comes without even thinking about it now. It’s amazing how much a person can conserve when you live completely off-grid and rely on Mother Nature for those needs. I have a generator that I use for a washing machine, and the clothes are dried using solar power, aka… clothes line. I very rarely use the generator for AC use as I’ve acclimated myself to the sultry south Texas weather conditions here on the island. Besides, I love the peace and quiet and don’t want to contaminate that with loud noise.
Several years ago I constructed several raised bed gardens and tub containers using all native island soil, but I had poor growing results. I sent a soil sample to Texas A&M and discovered the soil salinity (salt) level was too high, so I began mixing in large amounts of organic matter. I make my own compost using fresh grass clippings, hay, cow and chicken manure and sea weed that I collect from the beach when it washes ashore. I also concocted an organic fertilizer mix of lime, cottonseed meal, bone meal and kelp meal.
With gardening advice from my dad, and lots of reading from organic gardening books and magazines, I have been able to grow wonderful tomatoes, corn, okra, squash, cantaloupes and watermelons. I also built a small hot house where I can start all vegetables from seed prior to transplanting. Growing tomatoes from seed, especially huge ones, is my favorite Spring and Fall pastime now.
A few years ago I built a chicken pen and coop area, and I’m now raising 30 chickens for fresh eggs to eat, sell for expenses and barter with. I’m also wanting to get a dwarf milk goat for fresh milk and also just to have for a project.
My companion on the island is my faithful dog, Barnacle, a beautiful boxer that is nearly five years old. I got Barnacle the day he turned six weeks and this island is the only home he has ever known. The two of us scour the beach and bay shoreline daily for what treasures may have washed up, including beautiful seashells and starfish. The only wildlife to speak of out here are a few raccoons and coyotes, but also large rattlesnakes up to five feet long. There are also a large number of scorpions and wharf rats.
I rarely get lonely here on the island, but instead enjoy the peaceful solitude. I truly love living on this barrier island and being totally self-sufficient off the land and water. The bottom line is I’m happy out here, and isn’t that what we all strive for in life? I have no desire to ever live back on the mainland, and God’s willing, will never be forced to do so. It’s certainly not a bed of roses or the easiest way of living, but for me the positives far outweigh the negatives.
Being an off-grid homesteader on a barrier island surrounded by billions of gallons of salt water can be accomplished, it simply takes determination. . . . and maybe being a little bit out of your mind.
CLINT BENNETSEN writes a monthly column for the DOLPHIN TALK newspaper about his life on Matagorda Peninsula Island. He can be contacted at ccbennetsen@yahoo.com or dolphin1@tisd.net.
Clint’s Chickens
Eggs
