Thank you for spending time with us, and all your great editing. Hope to see you soon in Hawai’i.

Fences, dogs, cameras. That area is one of the most crime riddled on the big island. Sometimes they snatch the whole gate off. It’s home to many chop shops. The roads require an off-road vehicle and routine repairs. Big difference between upper and lower Puna. The Puna district is the size of the island of Oahu and only has 7 officers patrolling it. This is for the young and broke with nothing much to lose.

We are close neighbors. I too live against the Puna forest reserve just below you. Back in the Big Island jungle for forty years now. I sold some but now I have 8 one acre lots side by side. No one lives farther back than I do... No one can. My land borders the forest reserve. I worked for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park spanning over 33 years. Since 1983 I have never hooked up to anyones anything... no bills in the mail for 40 years! One thing I would say is... gravity feed water is Da Kine!

More food forest tours and urban homesteading please 😊

Just so people are informed Big Island lifestyle is not for everyone. It's affordable because it's in a lava zone. The jungle is continuous work with overgrowth where pigs run wild. There is one major road in and out. Hurricanes always seem to hit Big Island first and hardest which means most people are very much self-sufficient because public services are limited and not the most efficient. Lastly what people don't always talk about is the crime. There are a lot of fugitive sorts of people who hide in these areas. It can be a dream as long as you are prepared for all this and open to figuring out your own solutions. Everyone who lives there has reverence to Pele (regardless of religion) as Big Island is known to challenge your character. Some thrive and some get spit out.

We live off-grid in Puna district, although lower in elevation than Matt and Cristina. It is a challenge; gardening, learning, growing...living simply. Not everyone here can or wants to do it, or there are those who don't want people around them doing it (worried about property values; acting like everyone should live on a useless manicured golf course-looking property), but perseverance and commitment make it all worthwhile when you can grow your own food in a place with the highest cost of living in the US. Thank you, Kirsten! Mahalo nui loa, Matt and Cristina!

Kirsten, I love how you spotlight these incredible homes within unique environments because with that comes some of the most interesting people as well. With this couple, I loved their gardening and early planning of trees! Love your content, thanks for making it!

Kirsten, so fun to see this home! It is just a couple of miles from where I live in an off grid home, catching rainwater and sunlight for electricity. There are many such homes in this area. It is amazing when a person realizes how we can live a very rich life without all the things we think we need when we are on the mainland. Thank you for showcasing this incredible lifestyle!

Much Aloha for this. As someone who has been living on one of the other islands. Island life in general is NOT for everyone that has a dreamy image of it in their minds. Yes it is soooo beautiful tropically warm and diverse in recreational activities. That said if one has unlimited funds you can make island-living feel like the dream you want it to be. However if your someone that still needs to physically work to create income then moving to an island comes with many sacrifices that aren’t that aren’t advertised anywhere. I did my research before moving here and still felt extremely challenged the first 3 yrs of adjusting to all the changes. For me it has been the most amazing move I made in my life. Now the thought of leaving hurts my heart and My vision is to take my last breath here when ever that maybe. I find it fascinating how this couple made it work for them. 🙏

No experience building before this? What incredible talent.

even compared to some of the more lux and innovative housing situations i've seen before, i still honestly love it so much

You know why this land is cheap, right? This area of the Big Island is where all of the Kilauea vents have opened up w/ lava flows. Gotta live in the moment, though. Home in the middle of a Hawaiian forest -- life's pretty sweet.

this looks like heaven to me. thank you SO much for sharing this. I'm not off-grid, but that's my heart's desire. Thank you, also, for your channel. Hope in this crazy world.

Love these alternate life styles. Very creative and freeing

Yes, Kirsten and Family - great channel! Thank you for your work! ❤❤❤❤

Wow, what a beautifully crafted house in nature outstanding genius of the man and lady who created a place I would live in it until I passed, thank you dear people for showing it.☮ I moved to Thailand 24 years ago from Boulder, CO and it looks like parts of Thailand an amazing job these two people did.💖

I am so glad I found you Kirsten. Every video is well worth watching and learning from. Thank you.

Fascinating. A whole different approach to affordable living.

I was there on the big island for a month last year and I still want to move there anyday!! Such a peaceful and lush environment!

So much variety in the plants, it's gorgeous.

Interesting to see beginning homesteaders in such a climate. Would be cool to do a video with people in the same area who are really experienced!

Aloha Kirsten, nice to have u back in Hawaii! Matt & Cristina, you've done a fabulous job with ur property & home! Mahalo nui loa & Aloha nui to you all!

The best building material to build with in hawaii is Cindercrete. Cindercrete is a mixture of cinder cement and water mixed and poured into a set of reusable forms walls are poured from 12"to 24" thick. Cindercrete is fireproof termite proof rust rot and mold proof non toxic and has a high R value and good sound attenuation solid. Cinder is the only local building material on the island Take care Ray

I remember when i visited 40 years ago when I was a teenager. The best part was the fantastic pineapple, all the beautiful foliage and the huge waves. 🌊

I love how you have included some footage of the inhabitants building the structures, not just featuring the people living in an already completed structure.

Such a beautiful house and area. I do envy you the tropical climate and the possibilities it gives for growing stuff, but not the earthquakes, hurricanes and possible eruptions! 👍🏾😊

Sure was amazing video ❤thanks for having us along 😀. Greetings from England 🇬🇧 Simon and Beth ❤❤❤

Love your place. Perfect. Thank you.

They should add a clean out on their freshwater in-line. So the first few minutes of rain don't rinse dust into their main container.

Another GREAT upload... Thank you!!

Loved the gardens, the none structure in the way it all was planted, makes it so much more fun & beautiful & stress free, as you are just walking & collecting what you want to eat. The beautiful artwork, the home & great designs make me appreciate all the work put into this wonderful home. He made it all seem easy, the can do attitude is so typical of Island life, where self sufficiency is always better & much more rewarding. May God bless you in this lifestyle & in making this your forever home. I loved it all, except for the kitchen stuff outside, although, we had it like that when i was a child in my Island... ☝️💓😅

Thankyou for sharing your home

Cristina & Matt, this is fabulous, what a wonderful video about your beautiful home/gardens. There's a deeper essence about you that i am honored & pleased to experience. Judy Hall Stapes

Nice, I just completed 2 small homes in Royal Hawaiian Estates just up the road closer to Volcano town. Turnkey, off gridders in absolutely gorgeous jungle setting, the area is stunning.

I would love to have this set up. Lots of people cook outside to keep heat, smoke and smells out of the dwelling. The outdoor shower is fabulous. You avoid mold and mildew inside. I think the house is stunning. They have a beautiful plot of land and have made everything so visually appealing. Just awesome. ❤️

Such an incredible and well done video! I’m honored to call Matt and Cristina friends! They are incredible people!

Love the house so beautiful

very inspiring. Congratulations. So relateable.

Per the usual, this video is very inspirational. thx!

What a great post! It takes a particular type of adventurous spirit to live in this section of the Big Island and these folks definitely have it. I have had wonderful experiences visiting friends who live similarly on this island. Mahalo, Kirsten! ☮️👍🏼❤🌋🏝

Nice couple, great place!

What a fulsome extemporaneous way to live! Marvelous.

Such a very beautiful place and home.

They have done well. And thank you for reminding us of life on the Big Island. It does not go smoothly for everyone. We met a woman who was trying to do the same thing. She had quite a harrowing story which left her living in her car as all the building materials she had gathered to make her home on the Big Island were stolen. I wonder how she is doing now. How do they charge the Tesla on 200w of Solar?

omg i miss hawaii. this is very tempting

Fascinating!

From the drone shots the house appears to be quite small but the interior video shows it not at all cramped. I loved the garden just merging into the natural 'jungle' beyond.

Thank you- I am planning to do this too. Thanks.

Lovely,cozy home ; you have done a fabulous build , and applaud you for your efforts, I live on the Big Island/HPP, and living mostly off my land; Enkoy my idyllic lifestyle, besides surrounded by lush greenery!

Wonderful home and a lot of great ideas. I have 3 acres in Fern Forest on Noe Kauhiwi rd. I hope to move there next year. paying off the land now. Mahalo, Janine

Love your videos Kristen! Thanks for getting all this info about affordable housing out to the people. Your videos have given me a lot of great ideas

beautiful. magical. thanks, that is a great story for humanity. 22K for 3 acres sounds right.

This was most inspiring!!

Indah sekali pemandanganya kawan

Awesome!

Simple and very nice. Dont think I could ever get used to sleeping with windows with no drapes though.

❤❤❤thanks for the insight ✨🌎

So beautiful

WoW. GORGEOUS 😍 😍 House in Hawaii , is So Calm Cute Heaven Life , wonderful House , 🏠. GOD bless you all , Excellent Videos , 😊🎉🎉❤❤❤

Beautiful.

If there were mandatory pockets of land that were set aside for off grid living, there's be no housing shortage.

I went here and stayed in a similar home on Pahoa. It reminded me of rural Appalachia where I grew up. You had some “yahoo village” people out there with trash everywhere in their yard. But it was beautiful. Wild pigs came and ate the avocados that fell in the yard each day. Rooster with early wake up calls. So many frog sounds. But it had a beauty. I considered moving there.

Very nice, you're living the life, I wish I could be doing that.

AWESOME hale.

He has a Kenyan Bracelet. He is one of us now! I love their house and art, just beautiful

I ❤ their style

Untreated wood, bamboo and anything else with a high cellulose content does not last long in Hawaii because of the Formosan termites. They will even eat books, magazines and cotton fabric. I know because I lived in Hawaii for more than 20 years and it was a constant battle to detect new termite infestations in our home and kill them. I hope this couple treated the wood and bamboo they used to build their home so the termites do not destroy their hard work. Periodically a nest of termites will swarm and fly to a new location. They can land on roofs and crawl through roof vents to get to the wooden rafters. Just treating the ground around the house is not all that effective against flying termites. In the old days lumber was dumped overboard from sailing ships and floated to shore. The sea water "treated" the lumber with enough salt that the termites did not want to eat it. If this couple have to rebuild at some point, I recommend using steel studs for the framework, corrugated steel panels for walls and roof and installing metal doors and metal window frames. Insulation is not all that important in the subtropics if the windows are usually open to catch the trade winds. It is also good to have furniture that is not made of wood. Plastic lawn chairs are good. So are glass-topped metal frame patio tables and stone or concrete benches. Anything not made of cellulose is of no interest to termites, but they can still gnaw through other materials (mortar, plasterboard, thin plastic...) looking for cellulose (learned this the hard way).

Their idea and project is awesome. However, something that bothers me a lot in this video is that the man never lets his wife finnish a sentence

Very cool. All you really need.

RAINFOREST LIFE DEEP BRIGHT GREENS COVERING THE GROUND RAIN WATER COLLECTION BEAUTY ALL AROUND OFF-GRID LIVING SIMPLISITY AT ITS BEST INDEPENDENCE AND SECURITY A HOME AND A NEST A WORLD WITHIN A WORLD A SHOWER TO CLEAN MEASUREMENTS OF TIME IN A CANVAS OF GREEN LIFE IS SIMPLE LIFE IS CLEAR LIFE IS LIVING OFF-GRID YEAR AFTER YEAR

Wow. Self made heaven ❤

Love this

I desire living like this .I never forget COVID 19 .where we had no freedom in the city. The lockdowns were getting me sick . Going to the supermarkets was a big distraction for me especially with the mask on,. Nausea was my name😢😢

I grew up in this area. It is DEFINITELY not for everyone. I saw so many people move from the mainland and they would leave in less than a year. You have to slow your life waaaaaaaay down. Island fever is very much a thing. And so much has gotten harder than when I lived there. So many more invasive species that have made it so much harder...and the damn pigs. Just like living anywhere, learn as much as you can about the area. It might seem like a paradise at first glance. But really only if you embrace the lifestyle. The area doesnt and won't change. It is all on you.

Super!

Recorriendo el paraíso.

What about the sun? was it just a clouded day or is it mostly like that?

Big Love from lower Puna. So nice to live in the real world and not an artificial one. Fully present, fully alive, comfortable in any situation because you know how to take care of yourself no matter what. You learn acceptance and letting go. You learn to embrace change. Continuous growth and creation. Never a dead or dying dream. Love our self sufficient community and people who respect the land and don’t over develop. Function over form. Seeing all the connections. Life as art, creation. Free. Living our own dreams. Not working for someone else’s. Some company where you’re just a tax ID number they want to replace with robots anyway. So many people in the world are depressed because are so disconnected with themselves. They depend on everything outside and haven’t learned to survive in the natural world at all. We lost our way from even 200 years ago. The wisdom of how to do things. Farm, garden, forage, make medicine. We just listen to what capitalism told our doctors to say and take their pills. Never learning to listen to our own bodies because we are too busy serving the capitalist overlords lol. Keep Oprah and all those big companies out of here. We don’t need your jobs. We’d rather stay home and garden, play with our pets and kids, trade with our neighbors, have no TVs and no distractions and we know that boredom births creativity. That’s how it’s supposed to be. Not addicted to phones and tvs and false energy like mindless zombies. We become more mindful. We can hear and feel deeply. We develop amazing skills like music and painting and whatever other hobbies we enjoy, and we bring REAL value back to our communities. Who needs a lot of stuff or material things when you’re already spiritually rich and content. What else to you need? That’s why places are banning off grid and catchment and even backyard gardens. Saying they are harmful…ha… We are realizing we don’t need the cookie cutter dream they sold us. Beware of all media it’s almost always propaganda for an agenda. Announcing a catalyst to invade or justify, to create fear. It’s all to push agendas. And all the news companies are owned by the same elites. Who cares anymore what they say anymore. walk away that’s how we reclaim freedom from a system that no longer serves the people but has enslaved them into codependency on the system

Its beautiful 👣🌻

Hi Kristen, you might have shared this before, how did you get in touch with folks like Matt and Cristina, and all the hosts for your videos? Given how offbeat the path is, you must have a way to track them down and able to interview them. We appreciate and love your work. Thanks for showing to us there are folks living outside the cookie cutter that most of us were told that's the "only" way to live.

Wow lush! Do they ever see the sun though?

Aloha Kirsten … wondering where they do their wash? No wait, they just hang it out in all the rain they get … LOL … I live Kona and could never live where they do … too cold wet damp humid mold mildew of ewh … but HUGE RESPECT for all they created that is so simple, so beautiful and off the grid for very little money! Another wonderful video, thank you!

Really love the simplicity of all of this (not that it was simple to build or do). But just the simple practicality, functionality and low use of resources. It's inspiring. There is something about an outdoor shower that is super uplifting and life affirming. And cooking outside is just better. Was NOT expecting all the art before we saw inside, it was a really pleasant surprise and just made the house! Thanks for another great video 💚

Looks like Mountain View, or close to it. 💚

The Lockheed Martin shirt is sending me lol, hippie death merchant is a new one

wieder mal...zum weinen schön... 🎸🎸🎸🎶🎶🎶 with greetz from germ?Any!

Seems safe 👀 But in my country (in the provinces), self-built homes are very common - also unpermitted. When huge storms come and their houses get destroyed they just simply rebuild it again. You have to have a lot of grit to make living in a remote area enjoyable.

Howzit neighbor lol love from Makawao, Maui

This is beyond awesome! For refrigeration just purchase 12 volt cooler/freezers that sip power from solar many sizes from large to small and most are on wheels what am switching to ,also don’t buy new solar panels buy used warranty tested panels from SanTan Solar 1/3 the cost or less than new panels

Do miss the big I.

Was this place ok in the eruption about 5 years ago? Lots of lava flowed down from the volcano around there and roads were cut.

How do you like the weather there? Cool house!

Cozy!

Really beautiful location but for me it would be a little too isolating. The home is really lovely. And I liked all of the art. I was surprised when they mentioned that it could get down into the 40's. I always thought that Hawaii was a tropical location. Can't imagine doing all of your cooking, and better yet, showering outside during the cold days.

A hard way of living but ultimately very rewarding

This channel has been at about the top of my subs since I first watched about five years ago. Not all the videos interest me, but about half of them are like no other channel. Lucky him. Didn't move to Maui.

I looove it 🎉❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

So fortunate to be in the right place at the right time -- to live like this. It's a dream come true.🍌🍌🌶🌶🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴💖💖💚💚💚💚💚💚

Lovely home. Another great video, thanks. How on earth are they charging a Tesla on 200watts of solar??

Best one yet!