I live off grid; does anyone else?

[Crystine]

What happens when all go off grid? The biggest problem will be keeping what is yours. I wholeheartedly admire the lifestyle you have chosen. But if it all goes down? Do you weave? Do you spin? How did you get your water? Is your well the type from antiquity? You know, the kind with a bucket? My folks have a well. With a pump. Big difference. My family loves camping. Off the grid for only four or five days. That is fun. I don't know about having to live that way. Dad had a huge garden. But for that garden to sustain life he would have needed guards to keep the wildlife out.

[grannyfranny100]

I am glad people are pointing out the realities of living off the grid. It is romanticized and not something to be undertaken lightly. Highly recommend reading the diaries of early settlers in the midwest and west. Quite enlightening.

[jagman]

It sounds like you have a pretty good setup but I didnt hear you mention
anything about security snowflower. I would suggest a few good crossbows.
The reason I say crossbows is because of the silence factor.You also need
more help. You could enlist some trusted family members or friends. Oh if
I ever get the chance I'm going to build the ultimate survival compound.

[blufire]

I no longer think of the way I live as ‘off the grid’ . . . although I am capable of comfortable lifestyle without public utilities or grocery stores.

I concentrate on being as self reliant and self sustaining as possible in any kind of economic and societal atmosphere both present and future.

I am prepared basically for 3 different types of ‘living’.

1. Total break down of all economic and social structures. This means complete and total self reliance. This is the down and dirty of living off the land and your wits and knowledge. I have practiced this type of existence off and on over the years. Can I make clothing from furs and other fibers . . . yes. Can I tell where there is water by looking at the lay of the land , dowsing, and by what is growing near . . . yep. Can I grow food from saved seed and preserve it for a year for a large family . . . yep. Can I protect my land and livelihood by several different means . . . yep.

2. Living by means of future technology and perceived earth changes. This means reading, researching and observing everything that is happening on a global scale and slowly integrating those into your life and way of living. This takes a great deal of ability to adapt and change with the changes and projecting into the future. It is difficult because this means what is comfortable for many years will change abruptly and either you change with it or fall through the cracks and become a victim of ‘their’ planned structure for humanity.

This also means I watch carefully what those within the power structures are doing. If I see CEO’s bailing out of certain investments or corporations then I sit up and take notice and extrapolate why I feel this may be happening. I wait to see which way they go from there . . sit and wait and watch to see if new dynamics begin.

3. Most of all I currently I live with a happy blend of homesteading and ‘on grid’ methods. How ‘on grid’ I am depends on how sustaining that element may be on the farm. An example is I heat totally with wood in my home during the winter. I have enough wood where I live to literally last forever. During the summer when it gets uncomfortably hot I run the air conditioner in my bedroom so I can sleep comfortably.

One of the constant difficulties in living off grid as several have mentioned is fuel for tractors, generators or transportation. Think people how those produced their own fuel when combustible engines first came available . . . . there was no oil drilling rigs and refineries and tankers to haul to the local gas stations . . . . their local moonshiner become an even more popular guy.

Learn how to make your own fuel . . . all you need are a corn patch and a simple copper still. It can double as fuel for the tractor and rheumatism medicine for your aching back!! I ain’t kidding either.

Be creative and think both in the past and into the future and use both to your advantage. Living off-grid or self reliant doesn’t have to be a dirty word or met with disdain and hell no I ain’t living that way sort of mind set. I am comfortable with every creature comfort I need.

So many think it is an either/or kind of decision and its really isn’t. Blend all any lifestyle so that you can become as proficient and sustaining as possible. Set up several ways of life so you have options when things may change drastically.

And for those of you who think you are too old. I am 54 and female and started all over (for the most part) a little over 3 years ago when I moved back to the Appalachians from Kansas. There are days I definitely feel my age but the self gratification, security and pleasure I feel when I get a new spring house built or a cord of wood split or my water line split with appropriate valves and fittings where I can use public water or water from my new pond is worth every little ache and pain and bruise.

[c0rv0]

Here at eliopoli.org we are completely off grid (report).
this is our setup:

• Earth Sheltered Dome
  

  Integration in the landscape
  Superior insulation
  Hurricane-bomb-earthquake proof

  
• 4 Kw solar
• 3 Kw wind
• 16 Surette 640 Battery bank
• inverter 4 Kw
• Gas generator 9Kw
  
• Solar Hot water
• well with gravity feed
• 0.9 amp water pump
• LED lights only
  
• Geodesic Greenhouse

  Vegetables in winter: Plants grow in profusion in the moist, warm interior
  Energy-Efficiency: with solar design and thermal mass

• Wood Kitchen stove
  
  onion security concept <-- sorry no details here

Now, maybe you think that this is the "perfect setup", but - as the OP - I see the weak points:
We produce 50% only of our food, 95% of our energy consume (cars not considered). If anything break we need to get spare parts
Maintenance of all systems costs a quantity of time, without "producing money".
From the social aspect we face... some incomprehension

Nevertheless we are happy. It gives a sense of purpose that I never had in my previous life.
and.... by the way this probably is the only way to have a survival chance in the coming times.

[soleil]

snowflower, my hope is that communities will pop all over the place for those of like mind, helping others make it easier.

[blufire]

Posted by sway (here)
snowflower, my hope is that communities will pop all over the place for those of like mind, helping others make it easier.

You know sway, I have absolutely no idea what this means any more . . . the ‘like mind’ part I mean

At this point I believe the only way communities will pop up all over the place with people of like minds is if there is a complete destruction of current societal structures and way of life and to the point that the ‘like mind’ part is formed from sheer survival, in other words there will be no other choice.

There are little groups or families scattered about but these are in complete opposition to the norm.

[Anchor]

Posted by Zelig (here)
Here's a guy that has done the electric tractor thing.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=9YmbFtJlZpU

Not to derail the thread, but check this out - so cute

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=uDLr_VRRaWQ

[Snowflower]

Anchor, that was delightful.

Blufire, I agree. I don't know what "like minds" means anymore. I tried to make community happen. So far, bad idea. Now my idea is to just let it happen organically and let universe decide when. So I suspect it won't become until SHTF happens.

C0rvo - that last pic "what they think..." made me laugh out loud. Thanks.

Jagman, the property is pretty defensible. We've analyzed it and already have lookouts located, that kind of thing. In fact, we are prepared to defend against one specific person whom we totally expect will gather a gang and attack some day. Our best hope against him is that he isn't very smart and has no idea how smart we are. The very fact that we expect it makes us one up on him. We have "modern" defense tools, but also have more ancient ones, in addition to really primitive tools such as handmade bows and arrows (but also high tech compound bows - eclectic mix.)

Christine, that's why we need community. One person can't do it all. I don't spin or weave, but my daughter does and she has two spinning wheels and four looms: 48", 48", 26", and 11feet - yes, 11feet - the kind you can make a room sized rug on. I can make leather and we have both agreed that we're a lot more likely to have as much leather clothing as possible, because when you get down to making yarn from plant or animal, it takes a bitchin' long time to make a square of cloth! Granddaughter and I recently figured out how to make shoe soles from braided grass - to put on the bottom of leather shoes, to make the leather wear a lot longer - easier to replace grass soles frequently than leather!

Daughter also knows pottery intimately. The kind of science knowledge you get from a degree in fine arts, pottery major. She learned all kinds of things. Didn't even know there was to learn about the science of mixing clays, tempers, etc. My son knows engineering; how to build aquaponics, wood gas generators, maybe how to get water from hand pump over slight hill to garden.

About the well - if solar fails and well is still there after earthquakes, we have an old fashioned hand pump to get water out of the ground.

[Hughe]

I'm half way of off-grid living. I can live six months in my shelter in a village even if the grid falls tomorrow. My goal is to build healthy food garden, energy efficient geodesic dome, and independent electrical power. It gave it up finding likely minded people too. So I've been doing everything by myself that I have learned various skills under my belt. It's challenging every step I take.

@Snowflower

In my country population density is so high, very small in land mass. Most preppers are driven by fear with lack of vision and different perspective of living. I haven't decided yet whether I join prepper's community or not.

[Conchis]

I have been moving in this direction for years (and it seems like years and years). I haven't made nearly the progress that I'd like, but I've made some basic steps. I also feel like there is really no way out of the grid entirely, but if I had a community of people with different skill sets and an interest in barter, we could live pretty happily without getting the outside world too involved. When it comes down to it, the requirement to pay taxes represents the biggest risk of a loss of ability to survive because it can only be satisfied with currency.

The only constructive thing I can add might be that I have a hand pump water well that sits inside of the same 4" pipe that my solar well pump sits in so that even if the solar breaks down I have water. It was pricey, but the one thing you can't really do without very long is water. It is key, so I made sure that I had a source in any eventuality.

[Snowflower]

Speaking of being off grid...I have been without Internet or phone since Monday morning due to faulty connection fixed this afternoon. Been lonely around here. One foot of snow on the ground, still snowing, going down to minus 11 tonight. Hubby staying in town until Friday since road is so very, very bad after flood, will be impossible in snow. I'm mostly staying in bed with cold gone into bronchitis. Gonna be a hard winter...

[MargueriteBee]

Well I wondered what it would be like. I just spent a few days without power. The generator broke down. $150 of food spoiled. Got just enough sun to be online a few minutes. Can't get anyone out here in the boonies to fix it. I am outta here next year.

[Arak]

I had slight off grid experience after we had storm two nights ago and power went off for 1.5 days. Here in Finland it is winter now and it usually means tempeatures below freezing point. It has been relatively warm lately, so in these southerns parts there is no snow, which could be melted to water. We have a fireplace in our house and it was very usefull as with out it there would be very cold as said it's been -5 to -10 degrees of celsius past few days... We have slight emergency supply of canned and dry food, so i was not abit worried about food, but water was bigger problem. See our well works only with electricity and without it we cant drink, flush toilet and so on. So what i basicly had to do was to drive nearest village and buy water bottles from there. But as we didnt want to use drinking water to flush toilet, we went to nearby lake and took few big buckets of water and carried those to home.

What we are now planning to buy is a emergency generator (solar wind is not option in Finland, there just isnt enough of it during winter.) but that would ofc only help us few days or weeks max in SHTF scenario. We also need to consider building up backup toilet in our yard which would work without water.

In short, the biggest problem in our off grid life is waterwithout electricity. In very bad emergency situation we could ofc boil nearby lake water and drink it also. So if compared to people who live in towns I would say we are quite well prepared. And ofcourse it helps a bit that I have been in a army for one year and during that time we spent quite many weeks in forest, both summer and winter time. So basicly I could hunt (I can shoot quite well), but dont have a gun and getting one is quite tricky. Atleast becouse I dont want to get hunting licence as I am pesco vegetarian, atleast during these normal times.

[Anchor]

Arak,

Thanks for highlighting the most important thing to take care of. WATER.

No matter how good your systems are they can fail and when they do you need a way of being able to quickly process water into safe drinking water. Get yourselves a Katadyn or UV Steripen - or both!

If you think you are off grid, temporarily switch off your power sources and see how you cope.

If you only have one generator and this is your backup and it is essential then, in my opinion, you don't have enough redundancy in your design.

John..

[Arak]

Thanks for the tip. Both look very good options to ensure drinking water, but I think Katadyne is better, becouse it doesnt require electricity.

[Crystine]

Posted by Snowflower (here)
Anchor, that was delightful.

Blufire, I agree. I don't know what "like minds" means anymore. I tried to make community happen. So far, bad idea. Now my idea is to just let it happen organically and let universe decide when. So I suspect it won't become until SHTF happens.

C0rvo - that last pic "what they think..." made me laugh out loud. Thanks.

Jagman, the property is pretty defensible. We've analyzed it and already have lookouts located, that kind of thing. In fact, we are prepared to defend against one specific person whom we totally expect will gather a gang and attack some day. Our best hope against him is that he isn't very smart and has no idea how smart we are. The very fact that we expect it makes us one up on him. We have "modern" defense tools, but also have more ancient ones, in addition to really primitive tools such as handmade bows and arrows (but also high tech compound bows - eclectic mix.)

Christine, that's why we need community. One person can't do it all. I don't spin or weave, but my daughter does and she has two spinning wheels and four looms: 48", 48", 26", and 11feet - yes, 11feet - the kind you can make a room sized rug on. I can make leather and we have both agreed that we're a lot more likely to have as much leather clothing as possible, because when you get down to making yarn from plant or animal, it takes a bitchin' long time to make a square of cloth! Granddaughter and I recently figured out how to make shoe soles from braided grass - to put on the bottom of leather shoes, to make the leather wear a lot longer - easier to replace grass soles frequently than leather!

Daughter also knows pottery intimately. The kind of science knowledge you get from a degree in fine arts, pottery major. She learned all kinds of things. Didn't even know there was to learn about the science of mixing clays, tempers, etc. My son knows engineering; how to build aquaponics, wood gas generators, maybe how to get water from hand pump over slight hill to garden.

About the well - if solar fails and well is still there after earthquakes, we have an old fashioned hand pump to get water out of the ground.

I have tried to get my family interested in living like this. More than once. No takers. But I have educated myself. I sew. I am learning to spin. I weave on an Native american style loom. I can make soap from scratch. I cut hair . And am getting better at herbal treatments. And also pretty proficient at foraging. If I don't recognize it. There are books. I envy you. Now I feel too old. Unless we are forced to go this way. I am a hippie at heart.