The family lives entirely off the land, growing their own food, foraging and hunting animals such as moose and birds. The five girls play a large part in the family’s survival, with each learning to hunt once they reach the age of 10 and then learning to weld at the age of 12.

The Burkinshaws’ home has solar energy and log-burners but no running water. Instead, rainwater gets collected and stored underground before being brought into the house in buckets. It’s then heated on the wood-burner for washing or filtered using a Berkey filtration system before drinking.

With exposed beams, plenty of books on show and a colourful hammock, the family’s cabin is rustic but homely. The main difference between this and the average modern home is the bathroom; a three-sided outhouse with views over the forest! Thankfully, two indoor compost toilets are also available during the coldest months – particularly important given the typical two-metre snowfalls and below-freezing temperatures of Canadian winters. 

The family’s five daughters are homeschooled using an online interactive schooling programme. But once they finish school at lunchtime, they have plenty of time free to do chores, including contributing to the building of family projects like this root cellar. The two older daughters even built their own house on the family’s land, all of which the family documents on their YouTube channel and website.

With land cheap and building codes lenient, Northeast Missouri seemed like the perfect place for Teri Page and her family to build an off-grid homestead. With over a decade of experience in self-sufficient living and some carpentry skills under their belts, they began building their homestead from scratch in 2013, documenting their progress on Teri's blog, Homestead Honey.

Before they installed solar panels, the family spent a year and a half living without electricity and using rainwater catchment and a pond in place of running water. Initially, they planned that the tiny house would eventually transition into a guest space or office. But once the 350-square-foot home was complete, they loved it so much that they decided they wanted to live in it themselves!

It took the family six years to build up their homestead from scratch. As well as growing organic gardens and food forests, they constructed features such as a root cellar and outdoor pizza oven. Teri’s family are pictured here collecting sap from a black walnut tree to make homemade syrup.

The property sits on 10 acres of land, so there’s lots of opportunity for growing produce and plenty of space in which to store it, from a canning kitchen to a root cellar and barn. Plus, the family’s land is located within the rolling hills of the Bear Creek Community Land Trust – 184 acres of community land with shared pasture, forest, ponds and wild spaces for them to enjoy.

In the bustling family kitchen, there are signs of the family’s self-sufficiency everywhere you look, with jars of preserves lining the shelves. With four people sharing just 350 square feet, the family is together a lot and has grown very close. After all, Teri and her husband both have home-based businesses and they homeschool their children too!

Deep in the Canadian wilderness, you’ll find this picturesque log cabin – home to blogger, self-reliance educator and photographer Shawn James, as well as his dog. Shawn made the move away from the city to enjoy a more simple life, free from the stress that he associates with material possessions.

After spending time learning traditional skills, Shawn built his cabin from materials he harvested himself from the forest, using mostly hand tools. Since starting this venture in 2017, he has continued to document his progress on his YouTube channel and blog. He’s even added an outdoor kitchen, outhouse, woodshed and sauna!

A log-burning stove and animal skins make the cabin feel warm and inviting. But the stove isn’t just important for comfort – it’s what Shawn uses to cook food indoors! When the weather permits, he also enjoys cooking outside with an outdoor kitchen he set up for the purpose.

Keen to live mortgage and debt-free, Becky sold everything she had to purchase a plot of affordable land and all she needed to build her two-bedroom log cabin. She’s since become popular on YouTube, where she shares her tips for other willing homesteaders keen to take the plunge as she did.

Becky did the majority of the building work on the cabin herself, which came for the most part from a log cabin kit. She then added the front porch at a later date. With its own water and septic, the property is almost completely off-grid, with Becky working hard to save up for the solar panels that will allow her to ditch the grid completely.

Inside, the property has a warm and cosy feel with exposed logs, fairy lights and colourful shelves and accessories. With just 800 square feet of living space, Becky has had to utilise every inch to pack in as much as she can.

Lexie, Amy and Doris decided to move off-grid to live a simple life with their animals, with no prior experience of this lifestyle. Doris made the move from San Francisco, where she says she spent most of her time in heels. They share their unusual journey with their followers on Instagram.

An hour from the nearest shop, the trio was forced to learn new skills quickly, from fixing their own plumbing and septic to setting up solar panels and learning about different generators. And of course, that’s not to mention the hard graft that’s needed on the farm itself.

Although their love of animals played a major part in prompting Lexie, Amy and Doris to set up the farm, it isn’t without its problems. With bears and coyotes rife in the area, it’s not unusual to find that their livestock has been killed or seriously injured, which Doris states is the hardest part of life in the wilderness.

Deep in the mountains of North Idaho, you’ll find this amazing chalet surrounded by a sweeping deck. Nikki Mulder and her husband met in the armed forces and soon decided to swap modern-day pressures for a life off-grid with their two young boys – a journey that Nikki has documented in detail on her Instagram profile.

The family designed and built this gorgeous chalet themselves, spending the first year living with no electricity other than a small generator they used for power tools. Now, the property has solar power and a backup generator, although Nikki states that having lived for so long without electricity, they use a lot less than most families would. In fact, they only have 200W worth of panels.

This homely corner of the chalet boasts a large log-burner along with stunning mountain views – ideal for staying cosy during those freezing mountain winters. In order to save energy, Nikki often uses the log-burner for cooking and states that her one regret is not placing it closer to the kitchen!

The family kitchen is a truly social space and has all the mod-cons you’d expect from a 21st-century home – other than running water. The family keeps 11 hens and two female ducks, laying between them roughly 10 eggs a day. And they also keep their own beehives! They are also able to shop around once a week for other supplies by driving approximately 20 miles to the nearest main town.

The family’s two boys are homeschooled and pictured here in an art lesson. This means the family has plenty of time to spend together enjoying the mountains, making baskets, preparing eggs for sale and more. Nikki says that she has no desire to return to life on-grid and will always homeschool her boys.

Love this? Check out these tough wilderness homes that can survive any challenge