A couple have lifted the lid on what life is like living off grid in a swamp where they shower in murky water, eat rodents for dinner, and aren’t afraid to swim near alligators
A couple have shared what life is really like living off grid in a swap, surrounded by alligators and having to feast on rodents.
Tara and Keith Gaudet love spending their time in their remote home in the Louisiana marshland where they shoot and cook wildlife for dinner, spend their days fishing, and hose themselves down with murky water for a shower. They see snakes and alligators “everywhere” and can only get around on foot or by boat – the area is so remote that it cannot be accessed by cars.
The couple, who say they work in the oil industry, do not worry about crime on the bayou. They split time between the houseboat and another home in Houma because of their work schedules – but if they could, they would live full-time in the swamp. Keith said: “This is God’s country, that’s why we spend so much time out here. It’s very fulfilling for us to be able to catch your own food, come back to your camp, cook it. Just another day on the swamp.”
Tara added: “A lot of people when they think Louisiana they automatically think New Orleans, Bourbon Street, stuff that like, you know? And we have a whole other world out here that we enjoy. We don’t even have a fast food restaurant. We don’t even have a stop light.”
US filmmaker and travel lover Peter Santenello, who has 2.95million subscribers on his YouTube channel, recently spent the day with the couple and filmed a typical ‘day in the life’ on the swamp. He showcased inside their floating boathouse home where there isn’t much – but enough for the couple to live and enjoy life their. The living area has stove, a futon coach, a grill, a TV, some storage space, and bunk beds.
The boathouse has a bathroom with a toilet, but no bath or shower. So, the Tara and Keith hose themselves down outside on the back porch if they want to wash. “We shower with bayou water,” Tara explained. They added that they use the bayou water for all cleaning – but don’t drink the water.
There is no cable or Wi-Fi out in the swamp, so the couple use their phone’s hotspot if they want to use the internet or watch anything on the TV. Regarding electricity use, the pair use solar panels and a generator to keep the house running.
But the couple love being so disconnected from the world, and told YouTuber Peter that they would not enjoy living in a big city. Tara said they haven’t even turned on the news in “months”. “It would just upset me so much to see all the stuff going on,” she said. Keith added. ‘I’m a lot happier not keeping up with that stuff. This is what we do, and we enjoy our lives.’
The couple say they feast on nutria rodents – compared to the size of a “big dog”. “They’re actually very clean meat,” Keith said when speaking about eating rats. “It’s like the biggest rat you’ve ever seen.”
He added: “‘They’re a very invasive species. They tear up a lot of these marshlands around here and they eat all the roots of the vegetation,’ he explained. ‘And they dig holes in a lot of levee systems we have around here.”
Speaking about their off grid home being surrounded by alligators, Tara added: “There’s alligators everywhere around here.” But that hasn’t stopped the couple from swimming in the bayou. Keith said: “They will not come after you. I think they’ve had maybe two deaths [from alligators] in Louisiana in hundreds of years.”
The couple, who have a YouTube channel of their own called Dat Louisiana Life, have a social life on the swamp – everyone who lives in the area gets together every few weeks. Keith explained: “It’s usually like 20 to 30 people. People like to get together, we do a crab boil or a crawfish boil and everybody wants to bring a dish. Everybody gets together and just has a great time, and we cook some good food. We like to cook and we like other people to enjoy our food.”
Tara added: “Every time me and Tara go crabbing or shrimping, we’re calling people, like, ‘Hey, meet us at the house, we’re boiling something’.”
Keith added: “You seem very free out here. There’s no crime, no police. It’s a unique perspective, and I’m very fortunate to have gotten it. It’s just so peaceful. The bayou is more special than I thought it would be.”
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