“My thought was a homestead would be an off-grid home where you have to do everything. …I garden, but is this a homestead?”
EDITORS’ PICK
Rainfall in Oregon
After publishing Mark S. McNutt’s article about living on solar power in the Pacific Northwest (“Off-Grid Living in Western Oregon,” Firsthand Reports, August/September 2023), several readers wrote to us to challenge his claims of receiving 100 inches of rainfall a year. We confirmed with weather reports that he didn’t exaggerate. Mark says, “All weather is local. While Oregon averages about 30 inches of rain per year, most of the state is ‘high desert.’ Most people live in the ‘oak savanna’ with 60 inches per year, and I live in the ‘temperate rainforest,’ which pulls in the marine air through prevailing westerly winds. We got 118 inches last year according to the U.S. National Weather Service. I under-exaggerated on purpose.”
—MOTHER
