This Couple Spent Decades Building Their Own Self-Sustaining Island
Artists Wayne Adams and Catherine King spend their days completely immersed in nature – the Canadian couple lives off-the-grid on a floating sustainable island appropriately named Freedom Cove.
King and Adams say that the Cove, cast on Cypress Bay in Tofino, British Columbia, has allowed them to interact with nature without interfering in it.
Their eco-paradise features greenhouses, an art gallery and a lighthouse tower – all of which are fashioned from recycled materials and painted bright shades of pinks and purples. The couple grows their own food on the expansive gardens that weave through the property and harnesses energy from an array of solar panels.
"We live our life in a manner that, we hope, adds to the health of the environment," explains King. "We do our best to live conscientiously this way every day."
Freedom Cove is an escape more than 20 years in the making, and it's not finished yet. Wayne and Catherine continue to brainstorm new pieces to add to their already spectacular puzzle.
Check out their photo archive to see how the island became the place it is today.
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Emma Loewe is the Sustainability and Health Director at mindbodygreen and the author of Return to Nature: The New Science of How Natural Landscapes Restore Us. She is also the co-author of The Spirit Almanac: A Modern Guide To Ancient Self Care, which she wrote alongside Lindsay Kellner.
Emma received her B.A. in Environmental Science & Policy with a specialty in environmental communications from Duke University. In addition to penning over 1,000 mbg articles on topics from the water crisis in California to the rise of urban beekeeping, her work has appeared on Grist, Bloomberg News, Bustle, and Forbes. She's spoken about the intersection of self-care and sustainability on podcasts and live events alongside environmental thought leaders like Marci Zaroff, Gay Browne, and Summer Rayne Oakes.