Our Unplugged Nation TV Episode That Never Aired

UPDATE: Since this blog has been written, our episode of Unplugged Nation finally aired on 8/17/18, 2 and a half years after filming. Better late than never! I will keep this blog up as it still details our feelings and experiences from that time.

I was going through some old pictures the other day and came across some pics from our experience on a tv show called Unplugged Nation. I realized that this month would be the two year anniversary of the filming of our episode. The episode that never aired because the show got cancelled early in the 2nd season. Cue the violins. We weren’t allowed to talk about it at the time because they didn’t want spoilers. But since the show is well over and it’s been 2 years, I’m sure it doesn’t matter anymore. I wanted to take a stroll down memory lane of our very cool experience.

We were big fans of Unplugged Nation so we were really excited to be on it. If you haven’t heard of it, it was a show about families, couples or friends who want to unplug from the grid and get away from the rat race of the city. We’ve always had this fantasy of living this hippie life on some isolated plot of land, surviving on our own. So when we found out the show was casting again, we applied, hoping to get to see what off grid life would be like. One Skype interview and several emails later, we found out we were picked to do an episode in New Mexico for the second season.

We looked at 3 off grid houses that we had the possibility of buying. Whichever one we picked would be the house we stayed in for a few days. Although the network had already picked one for us, so we didn’t really have a choice. Reality tv for ya.

Our first house and stop was in Chama, New Mexico. This town was FAR out there. Very desolate. I felt lonely on the drive. There was a sprinkling of houses, lots of nothing, beautiful mountains and more nothing. However, in the middle of all the nothingness was a True Value Hardware store and a Dollar General. So, if nothing else, you can fix stuff and get some inexpensive knickknacks.

I had a sinking feeling that I would not be able to adjust to the truly isolated country feel of Chama, as beautiful as the surrounding area was.

The next morning, we met up with the crew of Unplugged Nation to get miked and have a camera put in our car.  Our tv filming experience had begun.

We got to the house in Chama and that’s where we met Jay, the host. He got a taste of my oldest son, an ornery 3-year-old (at the time) who was not interested in filming a tv show at all. I could tell poor Jay was getting a little weary of our dear son interrupting him at every turn, but he was a good sport about it.

We did our tour of the house and went to our next stop in Taos, New Mexico.

Taos was a lot less isolated than Chama. I actually saw signs of life. I got so excited when we saw banks and stores! I felt more comfortable in this neck of the woods. It is also the home of the Earthship house design. I love these type of homes. I briefly mentioned my love of natural/recycled homes during the initial interview and I had no idea they even caught it. But I’m guessing that’s what landed us there.

We pulled up to the house and it wasn’t an Earthship home. But it was still in the natural/recycled home category that I am intrigued by: a strawbale house. It was such a cool house! It was a half a million dollar house too. It was mainly just to show the viewing audience how awesome natural homes could be, because we certainly couldn’t afford it.

Meanwhile, my then 3-year-old son could not get used to the long filming days. Lots of tears and meltdowns. Jay started promising him joy rides in his Jeep if he would be good and let us finish filming. I thought it was going to be an empty bribe, but he actually kept his promise!

 

We landed in Grants, New Mexico next. It’s about an hour and 15 minutes from Albuquerque. This is where it got crazy. We followed the crew to the drive leading to the house. The director said that it would be an interesting drive up, so brace ourselves. Yeah, I know…bumpy mountain climb. I’m an old pro at this. But I had no clue what was coming. That was the steepest, rockiest, most terrifying climb ever. I’m bummed that I never got to see my reactions because I’m sure it was pretty funny. I don’t even remember being able to formulate a coherent thought going up that mountain. I was truly terrified! 

The final house turned out to be an Earthship house. Or Earth Shelter house as we had to call it on tv. Apparently, Earthships are copyrighted. It was a very unique and different looking house. Lots of solar panels. So much open light. Most of the house was made using earth packed tires and other recycled materials. Some of the structure was built underground, including the bedroom we slept in.

The bathroom, however, was the real show stopper. There were windows everywhere! In front of the shower. In front of the toilet. I know we were in no mans land on private property, but it was still weird and unsettling. I had nightmares of the crew or Jay pulling up while I was bathing in the buff. I would get up to shower at least an hour before they were scheduled to show up for the day to avoid such an experience. And there was an open ceiling in there, so you could hear everything. The bathroom was definitely the one part of the house I did not care for.

The Earthship House would turn out to be the house we ended up staying in for 4 days.

The first day in the house, we got our first task: taking care of the baby chicks. Actually that task was given to my daughter. That was really fun to see the kids’ eyes light up and witness their excitement. My oldest son would spend so much time sitting next to the chicks and just watching them. My daughter struggled a bit with taking care of them. She didn’t want to touch them and didn’t like cleaning out their box, especially after she got peed on.

When we went to the chicken coop, I knew what was in store. Somebody was gonna be killin’ a chicken. I’ve seen this show before. I know what happens. Someone always kills an animal to harvest it for food. It’s about self-sufficiency, right? I tried to get the thought out of my mind. Maybe we would somehow get away with just harvesting eggs. Yeah, right!

Things I could have done without during my off grid experience: bat poop. They had me use bat poop for fertilizer. When I poured the poop into the dirt, there was this cloud of poop dust that made me want to immediately go bathe. It was gross and I told them I did not want to use it again or take it home. Somehow, it still ended up in our possession after the crew helped us pack our stuff into the car after filming. I didn’t realize it until after we got home. Dang it!

The most fun I had was making a Chili Roaster with my husband out of an old beer keg. I got to use power tools!! (I struggled a lot with them, but I still enjoyed it!) And we got to make something out of a keg that was not only cool, but functional. We actually used it when we got back home.

The days were a lot longer than we could have ever expected. Trying to film, be on call and take care of three rambunctious children was draining. Some days were close to 12 hours long. But everyone in the crew was so kind and accommodating. And they were pretty darn entertaining as well and kept us in good spirits.

During our experience on the show, our youngest son celebrated his first birthday! What an awesome way to turn one!

We didn’t have a whole lot of free time to dote on our little one, but we did get to sing to him and enjoy some cake and ice cream. And it was still a special day for us.

Our cool trip did have it’s tough moments. I was right that someone would be killing a chicken and that would be me. I did have a choice, as the host asked who wanted to do it. Frankly, I felt the need to redeem myself after my sorry attempts at gardening during filming and then my struggles with drilling during the Chili Roaster project. I needed to know what I was made of and whether I could handle an off grid lifestyle. Little did I know I had already been pegged to do it. But at least I felt like I chose it.

It took forever for the poor chicken to die, and I said in the middle of it that I didn’t think I could do it. But I managed to complete my task. I found out later that I was cutting the chicken’s neck too high and that’s why it took so long to draw blood. I was light headed afterwards and felt the adrenaline running through me. I thought at least my job was done and it was going to be over after that. But I was told it still had to be butchered.

At this point, I had had enough. I was over this chicken. I told my husband he could do the butchering. But the director convinced me that it would be better for the person who started the process to finish it. It made sense, so I reluctantly continued my chicken journey.

I was initially under the impression that Jay would be the one bringing the chicken into the tool shed where we did the butchering. So when the cameras started rolling and Jay told me to pick up the chicken, I was caught off guard. It was bad enough cutting it’s throat, I did not want to pick up this dead chicken. I reluctantly picked the chicken up by it’s feet and carried it in. As hard as it was, I’m glad I am the one who harvested the chicken. I was pretty proud of myself that day.

I will be honest, I did not enjoy eating the chicken however. It wasn’t because of my intimate encounter with it, although that did make it a little strange. It was just a really tough piece of meat to chew. Thank God we added some store bought chicken or I would have been hungry that night.

As much as we enjoyed our time in the house, we were exhausted and ready to return to normal life by our last night. We didn’t have much time to explore the grounds during our stay (all 400 acres!!), so the night before we left I took a last walk around. How amazing to have so much land with such glorious views! As we settled in for the night, I watched the hubby put wood into the wood burning stove and I felt nice and cozy as it crackled. I also looked up at the night sky one last time and saw all the stars we don’t get to see in the city. It was quite romantic.

As tiring as it was, it was an awesome and unforgettable experience. New Mexico wasn’t right for us and I don’t think we’ll ever get to truly be unplugged the way we wanted. But I’ll always fantasize about it.

I wish I could have gotten to see our episode after all that filming. It’s been airing in other countries, but unfortunately not in the US. Nevertheless, I’ll always have my memories and pictures to look back on! I would do it all again in a heartbeat!

Last day with his buddy Jay!