Ryan grew up hunting and fishing in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas – food from the land, and life in nature, was never a hobby, it was just life. Then came years of long-hours work, the last of it running a roadside convenience store.

When he saw a listing for raw land in the mountains, cheap because it had no road access, he sold the store, bought the land, and started building.

A single shipping container – cheap, simple, and fast enough that he could start living on the land without waiting years to do it. He did most of the work himself, added a long deck that opens the whole structure out into the forest, and settled in. No building codes. Low taxes under Arkansas homestead law.

He calls himself a hermit, and after years of working all day surrounded by people and noise, he was eager to get back in touch with the land, and appreciate the silence of being off grid in the woods. Most of his days are continuing to add to his little mountain homestead. He grows more of his own food each year, hunts and fishes the rest.

He’s also taking care of the mountain. Thinning non-native trees, controlled burns and trying to get the mountain back in balance- for wildfires and also for the wildlife and the game he hunts.

He captures his water off his roofs, uses an outhouse and outdoor shower that are a walk from his container home, but for Ryan none of this is sacrifice, but simply a way to stay in touch with the land — putting him outside, on his own land, at his own pace.

For now he’s just getting back in touch with the land, and the silence of being off grid in the woods.

For Ryan, self-sufficiency isn’t an ideology: it’s a pace of life that suits him and keeps him happy (check Ryan’s YouTube channel).