– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

...

They were an all-American family.

Our life in Boston was like a typical suburban family.

I had a pretty stressful job.

I had a long commute in the city.

But they weren't happy.

It made me feel like an absent father.

It felt kind of like we were in different worlds sometimes.

So they decided to make a change, a drastic one.

Esther Emery and Nick vouched their family, their entire life

savings, and left everything they've ever known.

...

Hi Esther.

Hi.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too.

Hi.

Nick, hi.

The family moved deep into the backwoods of eastern Idaho

into this 314 square foot yurt with no electricity,

no running water, and no means of communication.

So you guys literally built all of this?

Yeah, all this.

All the structures that are on the property.

Wow.

We heat the yurt with just this small, wood burning stove.

You just feed from the top.

It's got a cast iron bottom and a cast iron top.

And those heat up quite a bit.

Each person in the family gets one drawer.

It's easier than you think, and Nick and I

don't change our jeans every day.

Are standards of cleanliness, I think,

are completely acceptable, but also

not entirely what everyone else in America is doing.

And then this is where we have our sink.

We run water into just a bucket, and then under the bucket

is my worm bin.

And how many worms do you think are in here?

10,000.

10,000 worms in here?

There's about 10,000 worms in here.

OK.

And so what goes in here with the worms?

Just any organic material.

They make this wonderful black soil.

And then so you'll use the soil for your garden and--

And for our trees especially.

And the trees.

Whose idea was it to move off the grid?

Esther planted a lot of the seeds

of thinking independently and thinking

outside of the societal norms of what people need to have.

And then I think I just kind of took that all the way

and wanted to actually do it.

...

We knew that we weren't going to have a septic system

out here at all, so we knew we needed an outhouse.

There's a six foot deep hole.

We put paper in a basket, and we add

sawdust each time we use it, which helps add carbon

into the carbon nitrogen balance,

and it also helps to mask the smell.

...

What was your biggest fear?

I couldn't have necessarily articulated it.

I didn't really think there would be a bear coming.

I didn't think that we'd be eaten by cougars.

You know, I think I was the most afraid of the unknown.

...

So this is a natural spring, and there is a concrete holding

tank under the ground.

And every day you come out here, and you

collect about this much?

Yeah, we use about 15 gallons a day.

That's still pretty insignificant in the scheme

of things.

Well, right.

Compared to suburban household, which

would be using 300 gallons at least.

I'm in training.

I'm in off the grid training right now.

It's not going so well.

No.

[LAUGHTER]

...

Oh, yes, we made it.

Thank you.

...

Do you member your life back in the city?

Yes?

You do?

Well, some of it.

The TV was really awesome.

And you got to watch a lot, but now I don't get to watch a lot,

because we don't have electricity here.

Did your dad used to work a lot when you lived in the city?

Yeah.

Would you see him very often?

No.

Sometimes I missed him a lot.

But now I get to spend more time with him.

Did you ever think that you would

be living a life without electricity, without hot water?

No.

To tell the truth, it wasn't until I got out here

and realized that I could survive and have

so much happiness and so much satisfaction that I realized

this is the long-term plan.

But after just a few months when winter started setting in,

the family's dream of a life closer to nature

started to unravel.

What I felt was a sense of being trapped.

I want you to calm down.

Find something else to do.

When the bear came, my husband was out of town.

And I have no communication, so I couldn't call someone.

[COCKING GUN]

Going Off Grid is a part of Seeker Stories.

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Thanks for watching.

...

Key Grammar Structures

• They were an all-American family.

  ➔ Subject-Verb Agreement

  ➔ The verb 'were' agrees with the plural subject 'They'.

• I had a pretty stressful job.

  ➔ Past Simple Tense

  ➔ The verb 'had' is in the past simple tense, indicating a completed action in the past.

• It made me feel like an absent father.

  ➔ Object Complement

  ➔ 'Absent father' is an object complement describing the result of the feeling.

• So they decided to make a change, a drastic one.

  ➔ Appositive

  ➔ 'A drastic one' is an appositive renaming 'a change'.

• We heat the yurt with just this small, wood burning stove.

  ➔ Adjective Order

  ➔ The adjectives 'small' and 'wood burning' follow the correct order: opinion, size, shape, age, color, origin, material, purpose.

• Each person in the family gets one drawer.

  ➔ Singular/Plural Nouns

  ➔ 'Person' is singular, while 'family' is plural, demonstrating correct subject-verb agreement.

• And how many worms do you think are in here?

  ➔ Subject-Verb Inversion in Questions

  ➔ The subject 'worms' and verb 'are' are inverted in the question.

• I was the most afraid of the unknown.

  ➔ Superlative Adjective

  ➔ 'Most afraid' is a superlative adjective indicating the highest degree of fear.

• We use about 15 gallons a day.

  ➔ Present Simple Tense

  ➔ The verb 'use' is in the present simple tense, indicating a habitual action.