Cheap vacation on the coast of Maine | General Homesteading Discussion | Forums

I should take my wife down there for the night to check it out

The Deer Isle Hostel is a magical place. It sits on three locations I always want to be: island, farm, forest. The word “hostel” brings to mind certain images, which you should toss out of your head right now. For one thing, this hostel is entirely off the grid — think solar power, a compost-heated shower and wood-heated everything. Owners Dennis Carter and Anneli Carter-Sundqvist opened the Deer Isle Hostel in 2009. The homesteaders are married and run the hostel and farm. Dennis built the hostel by hand in 2007 and modeled it after a house built in the 1680s. It’s timber-framed (made from local materials) with two bedrooms (six beds total, which sleeps eight). But there is also a small hut in the woods, which is where I stayed.

The hut.

A lot of people go to the Deer Isle Hostel to experience a sense of community and to learn about off-the-grid living. There is a communal dinner every night. People pick the carrots out of the garden, pump water, chop the basil tops and do the dishes while talking about where they’re from and their thoughts on composting toilets. Some student-visitors from College of the Atlantic may sing songs to the moon, depending on the night (and, perhaps, the moon). But that’s not why I went — I wanted a cheap getaway.

Hostel rooms cost $25 to $30 a person. The private hut in the woods cost $60 for two. I sent my $60 through PayPal on a weekday and was told I should call Anneli the morning of my leave to ask what they need for dinner, if I was going to eat dinner. I did. I brought olive oil.

http://mainetoday.co.....ast-maine/