Jake and Nicolle are widely recognized as popular vloggers due to their YouTube channel called “Off-Grid with Jake and Nicolle.” It was aptly titled, as the two were immersed heavily in the untamed splendor of the Canadian wilderness as they embarked on an extraordinary adventure of off-grid living. They chronicled their journey, sharing not only their triumphs but also the challenges they faced. Fans were inspired by the couple’s efforts in exploring the wonders of nature, growing their own food, and raising their child in this lifestyle. Their social media pages have grown since the first time they shared their experience.
Brief background on the off-grid lifestyle
Living off-grid is a lifestyle often described as freedom from the constraints of modern society. An increasing number of people feel that they’re relying too much on the use of modern technology, and also want to help in preventing the continuous depletion of natural resources, as it’s one of the negative impacts of technology. To put it simply, off-grid practitioners like Jake and Nicolle made the conscious choice to live a life independent of using public utilities supplying water, fuel and electricity. To understand the lifestyle better, here are its pros and cons:
The perks of living off the grid
There are several advantages to living off the grid but the four most important ones were self-sufficiency, financial freedom, a healthy lifestyle, and environmental benefits. The off-grid vegan couple gain control over their everyday basic needs such as generating their own power, eating healthier as they grow their own food by sustainable farming methods, practice eco-friendly waste management, and reduce considerably their dependence on external infrastructure. Doing these mean saving enough money for other needs such as education and investments, as well as doing the world a great deed by reducing human impact on the environment.
The challenges of living off the grid:
Just like any other type of transition, the upfront cost of getting into off-grid living can be financially challenging in the sense that an individual would be starting a new life in a new home. Setting up a renewable power system as well as an alternative water supply infrastructure involve a significant amount of money. The initial costs could go up if acquiring suitable land is needed. One should also set aside a budget for committing mistakes, as it was part of the learning curve that people would naturally undergo when tackling a new way of life, especially for those who had been accustomed to urban amenities and conveniences although due to recent discoveries, there are several alternatives available today. Future off-gridders should also learn the technical know-how of the new systems they would be adopting, and should be aware of any local and federal laws associated with building them.
Get to know Jake and Nicolle
The interests and backgrounds of Jake and Nicolle made the transition to sustainable living in the wilderness easy. Their personalities and goals complemented each other, so they didn’t have too much of problem a dealing with the challenges that they encountered along the way.
Meet Jake Mace
Years before Jacob Mace Rydberg started to make a name for himself as an off-grid lifestyle practitioner, he was relatively well-known in the online martial arts community through his YouTube channel called “Kung Fu & Tai Center w/ Jake Mace.” He started to learn martial arts when he was eight years old in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. His family moved to Arizona, USA, and he attended Chaparral High in Scottsdale where he also participated in wrestling competitions. While being active in school sports, he continued learning the different forms of martial arts, healing and self-defense skills such as Qi Gong, Tai Chi, and Shaolin Kung Fu. Jake lived one semester in China as part of his undergraduate education in Asian Studies at Arizona University. He dropped his last name officially because he didn’t like his father, after his parents divorced.
Jake played golf as it was one of his passions, and entered several golf tournaments but wasn’t successful. He also pursued gardening, which complemented his Vegan lifestyle that started when he was 19 years old, since when he only ate 100% plant-based food. In 2011, he married his first wife, Pamela, and moved to Tempe, Arizona where he built a vegetable garden. It became quite productive so he documented everything about it, and shared the videos on his YouTube channel, “Off-Grid Athlete.” However, his marriage didn’t work out and they divorced, which meant him losing access to his garden as it was attached to the house that became part of his wife’s settlement.
Meet Nicolle
There was little information about Nicolle that was shared publicly. She was an holistic health coach and yoga instructor with a passion for music, art and animals. She met Jake when he was still having urban garden tours in Arizona – her boss knew that she was interested in gardening, and bought her tickets to Jake’s workshop. She said that it was there that they got to talk, exchanged contact details, and later started to date. Some people thought that Jake cheated on his wife with Nicolle because, at that time, he never shared that he and his first wife were already separated and their divorce process was already ongoing. While they no longer lived in the same house, he still continued to work on the garden, which was on the property, so people thought he and Pamela were still together. He only left the garden that he built after the divorce was finally granted. It was then that Nicolle started a more serious relationship with Jake.
The off-grid living with Jake and Nicolle
With a shared passion for eating what they grow in the garden that they built, and pursuing a sustainable lifestyle that could help Mother Earth in reducing its ecological footprint, Jake and Nicolle started off-grid living in 2019. The couple documented their lifestyle by uploading videos onto their official YouTube Channel, “Off-Grid with Jake and Nicolle,” which gained over two million subscribers in a span of five years. Here are some of the interesting facts about their journey:
Major decision: left their homes and jobs in 2018
After the divorce from his first wife was finalized, Jake left a thriving huge garden that he built in Phoenix and lived in an apartment that he later shared with his girlfriend Nicolle. They were happy, but found a new calling and sold everything they owned to pursue off-grid living. They had a going-away party with friends and family before they took off to see the world together. Their first stop was Portugal, where they entered into the woofing program, which was practiced internationally by some countries where farmers trade work in exchange for housing and food. Their first farm was called Nova Taro, which meant New Earth. Their hosts were a German couple who immediately put them to work on a variety of projects on their farm.
Traveled the world for a year
Jake and Nicolle visited about 15 countries under the woofing program. They went to Spain and stayed in Catalonia for a month, which was near the French border, as they continued to explore different farms. It helped them acclimate to the off-grid lifestyle, which most of their hosts practiced. Out there, he said, they felt like a 17th-century couple as they explored new terrain in a new country for the first time without the benefit of cellphones; the place was too remote to have a cellphone tower. The couple went to France by walking for three hours, and then taking a seven-hour bus ride to reach another farm. This type of adventure continued in other countries. Nicolle asked Jake how he would describe all the places that they traveled that year, and he said that each had a different vibe to it – ‘For Mexico, relaxed; Canada, home; Netherlands, safe or maybe clean; Portugal, free; for Galicia, magic; Madrid, hustle; Barcelona, sexy; Marseilles tough; and for Paris, human.’ Their trip to Paris was quite special, since they made a video of their time visiting the Eiffel Tower.
Starting over in Vancouver Island
After traveling the world for a year, the couple spent two months in Oregon with Nicolle’s famil,y and then built an off-grid home in the wilderness on an island in Vancouver where they bought an 8-acre raw property. Nicolle described it as a raw property because it meant that it had nothing except for acres of trees, dirt, soil, and rocks. It could be reached through riding a ferry and so they bought everything that they would need to build a home there. Initially, they would go back and forth from their home on the island to the Air Bed and Breakfast (Airbnb) in a town across the sea until they made their new property livable to some extent. By May 2019, they had a 30-foot diameter Yurt built on their property, and the following month, their garden was looking great and thriving as they had an off-grid water and power system working efficiently. Jake said that all of it gave them financial independence from monthly rents and mortgage debt. He was also quite happy to share that their yurt was a low-cost structure with a very low earthly footprint.
A new home in the wilderness
Jake and Nicolle had a long list of things to do to make their new home in the Canadian wilderness as comfortable and safe as possible. They constructed what they called a hippie tub wood-fired Jacuzzi, a pizza brick oven, a Bushcraft shower, and a Bunkie cabin. They made almost everything by themselves, although there were times when a friend would help them if they needed a more skilled assistant or if things were too heavy to move around.
A pregnancy announcement
In a video uploaded in September 2021, during the 140th episode of their YouTube channel “Off-Grid with Jake and Nicolle”, the couple surprised everyone by announcing that they were pregnant. The first-time parents were ecstatic about the pregnancy, and Jake told Nicolle to stay healthy because if something bad happened to her, it would be major chaos for him. They weren’t together when she first found out that she was having a baby, but with her family back in Oregon when she took the pregnancy test. She was initially undecided if she should call Jake or wait to tell him in person – apparently she chose the latter and he teased her that 10 people knew about the baby before he did, but Nicolle said that she was confident that he would understand.
Nicolle gave birth to a boy
Throughout Nicolle’s pregnancy, Jake built an off-grid forest nursery cabin as he prepared diligently for the coming of their baby. They planned to have a natural delivery with a midwife’s help, but Nicolle had contractions and her water broke ahead of schedule. There was a complication as it turned out she only had a small puncture on her water bag and the water never really gushed out. They took her to a hospital via a small plane, which would have been alright but it happened during the Covid-19 pandemic, when there were too many restrictions and regulations that were being demanded in hospitals. Nicolle prayed hard that the baby wouldn’t come out of her tummy yet, wouldn’t be premature, because that would mean that the baby had to stay for a few days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU.) Unfortunately, it was a premature birth, and she recalled that there were too many people in the delivery room who she didn’t know, except for Jake, and that she felt quite uncomfortable. She had to leave the baby in the hospital, and when she returned, Jake couldn’t be with her due to several Covid-19 testing and quarantine regulations. She said that she was a mess through all that, and the way everything went down in the hospital was just crazy. In the end, it was all worth it because the baby they named Fox was healthy.
Built a new off-grid home in the tropics
By the time their baby was two months old, Jake and Nicolle were already living in a new tropical off-grid location in Moe Uhane. He said that it was practical to invest in two or more homes just in case something happened to the other. They weighed the pros and cons of the two properties, and liked the fact that the tropical off-grid home had a hospital an hour and a half away instead of a boat ride or a two-day trip from their Canadian home. This time, they would practice a 100% off-grid lifestyle. Their new home was located in a rainforest and had warmer temperatures, so they were excited about the kind of trees that they could plant without worrying about water supply.
Went on a sailboat adventure
Jake and Nicolle along with their baby, Fox, went to have an adventure aboard their sailboat named APPA. Prior to this, Jake made sure that Nicolle had enough knowledge of how to handle a boat by having her take sailing lessons from professionals. With only the three of them onboard, if something were to happen to one of them out at sea, the other could easily navigate the waters to bring them to a safe place. It was interesting to note that it was in one of the sailing lessons that they went to that Jake proposed to Nicolle. She was quite surprised, and said that she fell in love with him even more as she appreciated how he planned everything to perfection.
Glassy lake. pic.twitter.com/tu4qru49Fp
— hannah teter (@hannahteter) February 8, 2018
Recent updates on Jake and Nicolle
Even as they went on a sailing adventure, Jake and Nicolle made preparations to build a permanent home even if they already had a yurt on their island in Vancouver. They ordered large 40-foot shipping steel containers because they wanted something sturdier and safer as their son was starting to move around, exploring on his own. Jake likened their situation to the classic story of “The Three Little Pigs.” He said that the yurt that they built was the straw hut, the cabin was the sticks, and their new home would be the one to represent the brick house. They knew that there were times black bears would be poking around in their property, and he didn’t want their little son without ample protection. This would be a two-story home with two bedrooms and enough space for his growing family, as well as privacy that the yurt couldn’t provide. They planned to transform the yurt into a guest house so their family and friends would have a place to stay when they visited them on the island.
Even back in Arizona, Jake dreamed of building a Cobb Earthship home, which meant incorporating natural raw building materials such as clay, stone, sand, and glass into a home, with an attached greenhouse for natural cooling, heating, and water usage. Based on their recently uploaded videos on “Off-Grid with Jake and Nicolle,” they are currently completing their new home in Komorebi. It is a Japanese word, which meant sunlight flowing to the trees, that they used to call their property in Vancouver. In the meantime, they are busy making their sailboat off-grid so it would complement the lifestyle that they wanted when they are off sailing somewhere.
