![]() Her yurts are fully equipped with a stove, a sofa which converts into a bed, as well as a tapestry and colourful velvet curtains. I think modern living is downgrading people’s opinions of themselves and what they are capable of.”ĭespite needing to move every six months on average, because of what she calls draconian planning laws forcing her to uproot, Briar has become a master of moving everything within two or three days. There have been some really tough times but also really exciting times. She said: “Since I was 19 I have been collecting rain water to drink and collecting wood to make a fire. ![]() Likening herself to novelist Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn character, who loved exploring and getting up to “no good,” according to Briar, she threw herself into outdoor living. And you just learn how to survive with what you have.”īriar learned how to collect wood to make fire and rain water to drink from the age of 19, when she was living self-sufficiently in the cottage and has continued to soak up survival knowledge like a sponge. At the time I think my children loved it. “We were pretty self-sufficient and I absolutely loved it. ![]() My children grew up there and I lived there for 20 years. She said: “We lived in a cottage in Oxfordshire in a field with no electricity in the middle of nowhere. Living off-grid was not new for Briar, as she raised her children in an abandoned cottage without heating or electricity in Oxfordshire. Even now I’m 55, I am still learning every single day.” Being outdoors and living this way is all about learning. “I haven’t had a collapse since then though, so I learned a lot that day about how to structure the poles. I knew how to make the structure, but only for festivals, when they only needed to last days. She said: “The first yurt was about 12 feet in diameter. While it collapsed within a week, she says none of her structures have fallen apart since. ![]() While I was excited to be back in nature, I was struggling mightily with everything else.”Īrmed with only her experience building tents for music festivals, Briar moved into her first 12ft wide yurt at Christmas time in 2015. “When I first moved into a yurt, it was a really tough time for me. I feel very lucky, because I have been able to live this niche lifestyle and avoid this energy crisis, which is unbelievably difficult for so many. She said: “With the current energy crisis, I understand how families are feeling when they are stripped of choices. Her own nomadic life was prompted by a £10,000 credit card debt, which crept up when she had to stop working for personal reasons and was forced to abandon “modern living,” first moving into a yurt in her friend’s garden, which she says collapsed after just a week. I feel really claustrophobic and stressed thinking of it.”īut she has every sympathy for people making tough life choices, as they face mounting costs, with inflation at its highest rate for 40 years. The thought of having to live within walls is horrible. “I want to carry on living like this for as long as I can. Now moving around the Welsh countryside usually every six months, a horse groom and part-time gardener, she assembles a yurt wherever she goes using wooden poles and canvas, collecting rainwater to drink, burning wood to keep warm and building a compost toilet – thus avoiding soaring utility bills.īriar, who is single and has sons aged 35 and 28 and a daughter aged 30, said: “I am the happiest I have ever been. When mum-of-three Briar Miller, 55, left her £400-a-month two-bedroom rented flat seven years ago after her last child had left home, she was keen to live amongst nature.īut she was also struggling financially with massive credit card debts. A Star Trek fan who started living as a nomad in a homemade yurt in 2015 when she faced debts of £10K is now “happier then ever” and finely attuned to an off-grid lifestyle that will provide perfect protection against the current cost of living crisis.
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