Almost two years ago, James Alofs ditched life in Los Angeles and China for a 40-acre piece of land in the middle of the Canadian woods – and he hasn’t looked back since.
Alofs, 39, has chosen to live his life entirely off-the-grid, building everything from scratch, including his own home, which is a log cabin he constructed completely by himself.
‘I came out here with a Toyota Prius, a chainsaw, and that’s about it,’ Alofs, who is known by his online moniker as Wild Homestead Canada, told Daily Mail in an exclusive interview.
When the 39-year-old first arrived to his brand new piece of land, it was the middle of winter, and since he hadn’t built his log cabin yet, he was confined to living in a tent, surrounded by bears and mountain lions.
Still, he joked that being in the company of wild animals was better than having an overbearing boss.
It’s a far cry from his previous life, which included a long career as a host of a nationally broadcast talk show in China, and as an actor in various Chinese television series and feature films, like Gank Your Heart.
But after living in Beijing for many years, he was forced to come back to Canada due to a political conflict in the country, and although it was less than ideal, it also allowed Alofs to finally live out his longtime dream of building a homestead.
So, he found himself getting rid of his apartment and even breaking up with his girlfriend, who was moving to start school in the United States.
Almost two years ago, James Alofs, 39, ditched his life in Los Angeles and China for a 40-acre piece of land in the middle of the Canadian woods – and he hasn’t looked back since
Alofs has chosen to live his life entirely off-the-grid, building everything from scratch, including his own home, which is a log cabin he constructed completely by himself
When the 39-year-old first arrived to his brand new piece of land, it was the middle of winter, and since he hadn’t built his log cabin yet, he was confined to living in a tent, surrounded by bears and mountain lions
Alofs used the money he had saved, which he said was enough to buy a condominium, and instead used it to buy a piece of 40-acre land outside of Ontario, where he’s been living ever since.
‘I just thought it was healthier than living in a big city like Toronto, you know, the fresh air, working physically all day,’ he explained to Daily Mail.
‘Fishing for wild food and collecting wild food. It’s just a health thing,’ he shared.
Each day living on his homestead looks different, he said, but his 24 hours almost always involves doing something outside.
‘You might be doing lumberjack stuff, selling trees,’ Alofs said. ‘I just got a tractor. It might be like spreading and gravel with a tractor. It might be fishing,’ he continued.
‘There’s so many different things to do when you’re doing everything by yourself, which makes it very interesting.’
He’s also hoping that by building this homestead, he’ll be able to find love, and eventually start a family out there in the wild.
Each day living on his homestead looks different, he said, but his 24 hours almost always involves doing something outside
‘I just thought it was healthier than living in a big city like Toronto, you know, the fresh air, working physically all day,’ he explained to Daily Mail
He’s also hoping that by building this homestead, he’ll be able to find love, and eventually start a family out there in the wild
‘You know, you might be doing, like, lumberjack stuff, selling trees,’ Alofs said of his typical day
Though, so far, he hasn’t had much luck with that, save a few ‘short’ relationships with girls back in Toronto.
‘They were kind of like, big city girls, you know, so it was just hard to spend any time with one another,’ Alofs said.
‘I really have to be careful. I think I really need to narrow my search to people who really want to be in the country, because I would say 90 to 95 percent of both men and women would not want to do what I’m doing, right?’ he continued.
‘But five percent really would. So it’s just about finding one of one of the five percent, right?’
However, don’t get it twisted – Alofs isn’t necessarily looking for a ‘traditional wife’ to have keep him company out there in the wilderness.
‘I would say I’m open to all situations,’ he shared.
‘If it was a lady who was a CEO and earned $5 million per year, but she could work over the Starlink internet that I have at my place, I’m all for it,’ Alofs said.
‘I think it’s less about traditional gender roles. It’s more about a true, more traditional lifestyle, right?’
However, don’t get it twisted – Alofs isn’t necessarily looking for a ‘traditional wife’ to have keep him company out there in the wilderness
He explained that in some states and provinces, you cannot finance rural land, which means that you’ll have to pay for everything in cash
‘I’m very extroverted, so I thought it would be a good way to kind of stay connected with, like, a community of people,’ Alofs explained to Daily Mail
Despite the fact that he’s out there completely alone right now, he actually has quite the audience watching him, as he’s been documenting his journey from the very beginning.
Alofs has a combined following of over 500,000 subscribers on YouTube channel and Instagram page, where he shares his lifestyle.
‘I’m very extroverted, so I thought it would be a good way to kind of stay connected with, like, a community of people,’ Alofs explained to Daily Mail.
He said that documenting everything online makes the process less lonely.
‘I’m sharing with all these people, and then every week people are leaving me thousands of comments and Instagram DMs and all this kind of stuff about what I’m doing,’ he said.
‘It’s very interactive. I think for my personality type, it makes it very rewarding.’
But interestingly enough, staying online is what pays his bills.
He claimed that YouTube gives their creators 70 percent of the money they earn in advertising revenue.
‘I got a relatively inexpensive tractor, but if you’ve got, like, an excavator or skid steer or something like that, those things are like, five times the cost,’ Alofs, who recently bought a tractor, shared
If you’re looking to ditch the city life for your own homestead, Alofs advised that you really need to look into the seemingly minute details of everything before buying a piece of land, such as the financing that goes into it
‘I definitely feel happier just generally living here than I did in Toronto,’ he admitted to Daily Mail. ‘It’s definitely more rewarding. It’s more interesting’
‘It pays for the stuff that I do, so it’s also necessary,’ he admitted.
However, just because he’s living in the woods doesn’t mean that his homesteading lifestyle is cheaper than living in Beijing or Los Angeles.
In fact, in some cases, it can be more expensive to be living out on these 40 acres of land than it is in the mainstream, he said.
‘It can be more expensive in certain regards,’ Alofs said, noting that it is possible to live the homesteading life with ‘many different budgets.’
‘There’s a lot of gear that you kind of need to do this. Not necessarily, like when I started I didn’t have a lot of gear, but the cost of living can differ wildly depending on how much gear you have,’ he explained.
‘I got a relatively inexpensive tractor, but if you’ve got an excavator or skid steer or something like that, those things are five times the cost,’ Alofs shared.
It’s not something that’s unattainable, though.
If you’re looking to ditch the city life for your own homestead, Alofs advised that you really need to look into the seemingly minute details of everything before buying a piece of land, such as the financing that goes into it.
He explained that in some states and provinces, you cannot finance rural land, which means that you’ll have to pay for everything in cash.
The other biggest obstacle, according to Alofs, is finding that perfect home for yourself.
‘It’s very hard to find nice land in the country, because it tends to get bought very quickly,’ Alofs told Daily Mail.
‘Most land is 80 percent swamp and just really, really gnarly,’ he continued.
Many land listings aren’t always available online, he said, so it’s important to network within the community where you’re looking to move.
If you find something you like, he recommends acting almost immediately.
‘You have to look at the real estate listings like an absolute hawk,’ he shared.
‘If something lists, if you can get there the same day and look at it, and then, you know, make an offer, because you can’t be naive about how quickly you know some of these places go.’
And in the end, it’s totally worth it – at least for Alofs.
‘I definitely feel happier just generally living here than I did in Toronto,’ he admitted to Daily Mail. ‘It’s definitely more rewarding. It’s more interesting.’
