Part II (view Part I of this interview series here.)
By Adrienne DiPiazza, WABI-TV
For city-slicker couple, Kimberly and George Callas, migrating to the Pine Tree State always seemed somewhere down the road.
“We had a five year plan, we had a three year plan, and we went on vacation and came back and put our house on the market and sold it and moved to Maine,” Kimberly says.
“We wanted to really explore that, gee, is there a way that just a normal American family can significantly reduce its dependence on fossil fuels,” explained George.
Now they live in a nearly 100% fossil-fuel free home in Brooks, and things have never been the same.
“It seems like Maine is a place where people come to change their life a lot of times,” says Kimberly.
But the change from a long-time New York City life did not come easy.
“Being naive urban dwellers, you know coming back to the land is an incredible education,” said George.
Part of their education was in building their own home.
“Its a relationship with every stone, you know you’re touching it, you’re handling it, you’re washing it, you’re staging it, you’re placing it,” he said.
George now trains others to help people make their homes more energy efficient, and the rural life has allowed Kimberly’s art to flourish.
“More of a wholeness way of life, better land, and better air, and better water and better relationships with the rest of the world,” she said. The ease of calling a plumber or electrician is a past luxury the couple no longer desires.
“The challenge of creativity and problem solving is a lot higher here a lot higher and I think I like it that way,” said George.