Talking the talk, walking the walk of sustainability
For three decades, Ruah Swennerfelt and Louis Cox have lived largely off-grid on their homestead in Charlotte.
Their homesteading endeavor is a callback to the farming history of the town. It stems from an idea they both shared even before meeting one another — to live sustainably.
Photo courtesy of Ruah Swennerfelt.
Ruah Swennerfelt and Louis Cox with their great-grandchildren.
As the town becomes increasingly suburban, they remain steadfast in their commitment to homesteading. Through the nonprofit they co-founded, Sustainable Charlotte, they connect a community of like-minded people.
Their homestead is just over the historic Seguin Covered Bridge. They’ve been building and updating their home for the past 30 years.
Over time, they have equipped it with solar panels, a large canister for collecting rainwater and a sizable garden in their backyard. With these, they are able to live mainly off-grid and grow a wide variety of their own fruits and vegetables.
Swennerfelt, born in Sweden, was living in Boston before moving to Burlington to work for then-Mayor Bernie Sanders. She later moved to Charlotte after being invited to build and create a community on some friends’ land.
Cox moved often as a child as a part of a Navy family. He was living in Missouri when he met Swennerfelt through the Quaker Earthcare Witness program and moved to Charlotte to be with her.
Cox says he realized that the way in which the planet is being used was just not sustainable. This drove him to become an environmental activist and, eventually, a homesteader.
“There is no safe place and therefore, if you want to save the world, you’ve gotta be out there with everybody else trying to save the world,” Cox said.
“Both Louis and I, before we knew each other, had a commitment to living rightly on the planet,” Swennerfelt said.
Swennerfelt’s commitment to homesteading comes from a deeply personal and spiritual connection to nature and the land around her.
“My journey is really about being rooted to place,” she said. “It comes from this place that’s deep inside that says that these birds we count, they’re my kin. The trees out here, they’re my kin, and that nature isn’t out there. It’s inside me.”
Sustainable Charlotte hosts a wide range of events for the community, including twice annual repair cafés, where volunteers (including Cox himself) repair household items.
It’s completely free. Sustainable Charlotte asks that, if possible, attendees bring food or make a monetary donation to the Charlotte Food Shelf.
Volunteers from Sustainable Charlotte also provide and install custom-fit window inserts for homes in the community, collect electronics on Green Up Day and host book clubs, talks and films.
Sustainable Charlotte connects Cox and Swennerfelt with a community that gives them meaning. Along with the hard work that is homesteading, helping people in this community keeps them healthy — physically, mentally and emotionally.
“There’s not some end goal here,” Swennerfelt said. “It’s a journey of respecting this beautiful planet that we live on and doing our best.”
To learn more, visit Sustainable Charlotte.
(Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Charlotte News.)