Life on an Off-Grid Wilderness Island
Welcome to My Wild Holm. We’re Ryan and Melodi, and in 2022 we bought a 62-acre island on a remote lake in the Canadian wilderness.
Since then, we’ve been building an off-grid homestead from the ground up, one project, one mistake, and one hard-earned lesson at a time.
We’re not trying to disappear from the modern world completely. We’re focused on building a life that brings together wilderness freedom, practical self-reliance, solar power, internet access with as many of the modern comforts that will make this place livable for the long haul.
Follow along as we turn a raw wilderness island into an off-grid home, with all the work, weather, wildlife, setbacks, systems and everyday learning that comes along with it.
Mailing Address:
My Wild Holm
PO Box 282
Station Main
Nanoose Bay, BC
V9P 9J9
Email: hello@mywildholm.com
My Wild Holm
🌲 WE’RE LIVE TONIGHT! 🏝️
Come over and join us for our regular Thursday night livestream on My Wild Holm — Open House! at 7pm CST, 5pm PST
We’ve got one more winter episode before Season 5 begins, so tonight we’ll be chatting about our winter adventure, what we learned, what surprised us, and what we might do differently next time.
We’ll also be looking back at Season 4, answering your questions, and talking a little about what’s ahead as we get ready to begin Season 5 — The Island Comes Alive!
Mostly, though, it’s just a chance to get together, catch up and spend the evening with our Holmies. ❤️
👉 Come join us tonight on My Wild Holm — Open House. We’d love to see you there!
youtube.com/live/Pjz13ZbTqfQ
2 days ago (edited) | [YT] | 13
View 1 reply
My Wild Holm
IT’S LIVE! ❄️🏝️
Our second winter bonus episode is up!
This one takes us back to March, when our island was still buried in snow and the frozen lake opened up an entirely different side of our wilderness home.
Snowmobiling, snowshoeing, off grid winter challenges — and a few things we definitely didn’t expect. 💚
👉 Watch here:https://youtu.be/fXBwgVieAaI
Come back and tell us what you thought after you’ve watched!
4 days ago | [YT] | 6
View 0 replies
My Wild Holm
We’re going LIVE tonight on My Wild Holm — Open House! ❤️
It’s After the Episode, and tonight we’re talking all about Bonus 1: Winter — our first real winter experience on the island. ❄️
We’ll be sharing some of the behind-the-scenes stories, what surprised us most, what didn’t make it into the episode, and answering your questions about the frozen lake, the snowmobile trip, the cabin, the power, the snow… and yes, even the forgotten keys! 😂
Come over and have a visit with us — we’d love to hear what YOU thought of the episode too.
👉 Join us here: youtube.com/live/_8E1xGWF0Zo?si=oDJYsz7YHGjafVv8
We're live in 30 minutes at 7pm CST (5pm PST) Holmies! ❤️
1 week ago | [YT] | 27
View 0 replies
My Wild Holm
❄️ OUR NEW EPISODE IS LIVE! ❄️
We’re finally heading back to our remote island — but winter has completely taken over. #mywildholm #offgridlife #offgridisland
Three feet of snow. No power. Buried solar panels. A frozen lake to cross and more than a few surprises waiting for us when we arrived.
Come along as we make the long journey North and see our island in a way we’ve never experienced it before.
We Return to Our Remote Island — Buried Under 3 Feet of Snow
👉 Watch the new episode here: https://youtu.be/Lok5RMkgR8A
See you on the island! ❤️
1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 7
View 0 replies
My Wild Holm
Well, Holmies… we really hate having to post this. ❤️
After missing last week, we were determined to have our new episode ready for you — but now we've run into a bit of a sound problem that we simply can't ignore.
We could put the episode out as it is, but after all the work that has gone into it, we don't want to give you something we know isn't up to the standard we try to maintain on My Wild Holm.
So, unfortunately, the episode is going to be late again.
Believe us, nobody is more frustrated about this than we are. This is a special couple of BONUS episodes for us, and we're going to keep working on this one until we can get it right.
We don't want to promise a day or time until we know we've solved the problem — but the episode IS coming.
Thank you for sticking with us through a couple of very frustrating weeks. We appreciate our Holmies more than you know. ❤️
Ryan, Melodi & Opal
1 week ago | [YT] | 113
View 29 replies
My Wild Holm
Hello there Holmies! ❤️ We’re having an Open House tonight and we’d love for you to come on over for a visit!
No big agenda tonight — we’re just catching up, visiting, answering questions and spending some time with all of you. 😊
☕ Grab your coffee, tea or favourite Friday-night beverage and come hang out with us!
🏡 My Wild Holm – Open House #5
🕖 Tonight at 7:00 PM CT / 5:00 PM PT
👉 Come join us here:
youtube.com/live/ev6jZsugqJQ?si=HNvdK7yixqjLnKSR
If you haven’t subscribed to our new Open House livestream channel yet, come on over — this is where all of our Thursday/Friday-night visits with the Holmies now live. ❤️
See you tonight!
Ryan, Melodi & Opal 🐾
2 weeks ago | [YT] | 46
View 4 replies
My Wild Holm
Hi Holmies! ❤️
A little behind-the-scenes update…
I’ve been working almost non-stop on our new **winter visit episode** — nearly 12 hours today alone — and I was really hoping to have it ready for you today.
But I don’t think I’m going to make it, and it may not be ready tomorrow either.
The truth is, we recently had to change the software I use to edit our episodes, so I’m learning an entirely new editing system while actually trying to put this episode together. 😂
After doing things one way for so long, suddenly even some of the simplest things take me much longer. I know exactly what I want to do… I just have to figure out how to do it all over again!
I’m getting there, but this episode is definitely taking me longer than usual.
Rather than rush through the final edit just to get it uploaded, I’m going to give it the time it needs and make sure I’m happy with it before I send it out into the world. ❤️
Thank you for being patient with me, Holmies.
The **winter return to the island** IS coming… I’m just taking the slightly more scenic route to get there! 😂❄️🏝️ #mywildholm #mywildopenhouse #editing #offgrid
— Melodi
2 weeks ago | [YT] | 90
View 27 replies
My Wild Holm
JOIN US FOR OUR WEEKLY LIVESTREAM over at our 'Open House' CHAT YouTube channel. 5:00pm PST, 7:00 CST (8:00 EST)
We’re living off-grid—but we’re not trying to go back in time.
We’re retired, we appreciate the comforts of home, and we came to our remote Canadian island for the peace, quiet, beauty, and freedom of the wilderness—not to make life unnecessarily difficult. We may just be creature-comfort homesteaders!
Tonight at Open House, we’re asking: Do solar power, a Kubota, a hydraulic log splitter, Starlink, hot running water, and modern tools mean we’re not really homesteading—or are we simply working smarter?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-_SI...
3 weeks ago | [YT] | 10
View 1 reply
My Wild Holm
We’re going LIVE tonight!
Would remote living be right for you?
Ryan once imagined spending retirement at his place in Costa Rica. Melodi pictured something very different—and we definitely weren’t always on the same page!
Tonight, we’re sharing how two completely different retirement dreams eventually became one shared adventure. What changed? What compromises did we make? And could remote living ever be the right choice for you?
We’ll also play along with the chat and visit two more places on the Holmie Map.
Don't forget to subscribe to our OPEN HOUSE YouTube Channel which will notify you of our livestreams every Thursday!
youtube.com/@MyWildHolmOpenHouse
Join us tonight at 7:00 PM CT / 5:00 PM PT on My Wild Holm – Open House.
👉 Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7961...
We hope to see you there, Holmies!
4 weeks ago | [YT] | 45
View 1 reply
My Wild Holm
UPDATE: The episode is now live!
Enjoy!! Please tell us what you think the tracks are that you see in the snow in this episode. 🌲🪵
https://youtu.be/rJ5zcGqsFzw
1 month ago | [YT] | 7
View 0 replies
Load more