Why pursue this life of voluntary simplicity? And then, on top of it, feel a need to advertise it on the web?
Fanaticism?
Ill founded convictions running amok?
A product of preachy, extroverted semi-odd hippies?
Well..we do feel like reasonably balanced people able to smoothly integrate in society, if need be. We never have stood on a soapbox shouting our dogma to any and all. Maybe we're occasionally attracted to activities most folks would find unnecessarily risky, but that's just a knee jerk reaction to the way life has become too easy and sedentary in this part of the world.

"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell."

So what's up?
This site describes a way of living that, although extremely comfortable and civilized, is far below the acceptable minimum for most of the Western World. People have been trained from early on to seek uttermost comfort and convenience at all cost. Mostly, it seems, to proclaim 'success' in life.
Houses grow bigger to fit...what? Is the national average of 2400 square feet really necessary for 3 or 4 humans? The Baby Boomers erect huge structures that have Yoga rooms used once a month, craft studios that becomes overflow storage for plastic junk and bathroom #4, flushed only at Thanksgiving gatherings.

"Industrialism, whether of the capitalist or socialist coloration,
is the basic tyrant of the modern age."

As a response to legitimize this oversized opulence, a beginning wave of so called 'green' living and building has been growing in various hip locations for a decade or more. Think Sedona, Taos, Grass Valley, Bend and so on. Add a little strawbales or some Rastra Blocks and the McMansion is no longer a monument of greed and excess, but entirely PC. In fact, it will get featured in the next issue of New Age Monthly. But it is still just excess. Kyonaskatsi.

"In my case, saving the world was only a hobby."

I had to pen the rant above, not to satisfy my despair with the ever spiraling consumption of ignorant people, but because I like to write and a site like this should have some politically charged narrative on the opening page.
But, really, we're utterly screwed anyway. The world, the one not based on oil, is at the point where recovery will take a real long time, and we can't do anything about it.
I'm sadly too cynical to believe that we can turn things around to the better. That is is not why I built small, with an outhouse and solar power.
That said, there is one aspect of our methods truly and directly connected to the good of our child's future: An almost fanatic attitude to water conservation.

"God bless America. Let's save some of it."

The rest of what your will read about here on CoyoteCottage has been established so we won't be in debt to the system. Our aim is to be entirely free from a draining 9-5 existence lasting decades into the future.
We have one monthly bill, our cell phone. We pay property tax annually, and the old vehicles we creep around in require insurance and registration. That's it.
With a setup like that, namely a dirt cheap house on a modest piece of ground, we are free to pursue our passions beyond the wildest dreams of the typical weekend warrior. All while working about 3-6 months a year.

Thanks for visiting.

"The world is older and bigger than we are. This is a hard truth for some folks to swallow."

All quotes by the late, great Ed Abbey.