Living off the grid, being self sufficient - Page 7

GusMo · ‎07-11-2012

@Kachina624 wrote:
@CelticCrafter wrote:
@QVCkitty1 wrote:
Just surviving wouldn't be enough for me .
I watch Alaska the Last Frontier and just got into Life Below Zero and that seems as if that's all they do, work long hard days just to be able survive. That's not my idea of living.

Eat, sleep, work...repeat tomorrow.

No time for fun or a leisurely afternoon.
@CelticCrafter I'm addicted to the "Alaska" shows and often wonder why people want to make their lives so difficult, especially Sue on Life Below Zero. Single, middle aged woman living alone having to hunt for her food while being stalked by predators. Fun? No thanks.

I got hooked on those shows! I guess the homestead people actually live pretty close to Homer and own businesses there and are quite wealthy. The Life Below people amaze me. So. Much. Work. I'd be so lonely. Must be something that made them live like that.

i too live in the desert and wonder how the pioneers did it without a/c!

jubilant · ‎06-10-2010

I think it would be nice to know how to live off the grid in case you ever had to. If I had more land, I think it would be great to raise your own food, have a garden, etc. Giving up modern luxuries wouldn't be easy though.

nun ya · ‎03-09-2010

If I had to, I'm sure I would slowly adapt. Maybe.

I do think the people who do this lifestyle well, it took years for them to find what works for them, and a ton of hard work and ingenuity.

Sometimes I think, they are smart, the less people know about you, the better.

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@Preds wrote:
If they have electricy and are posting then they are not off the grid. They are doing what most of our families did years ago to survive and are proud of it.

Good for them, but they are not off the grid.

Could I do it? Yes. Do I want to? No, but I can and would if needed. No one would know about it either.

There are plenty of people 'off the grid' who still have power. They generate their own other ways, with wind or solar. It usually isn't the amount of power we experience, and they often run only a few things with it. If they are online, they technically aren't 'off the grid' in my definition, but that is debatable in some circles.

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@Noel7 wrote:
@tansy wrote:

@Noel7 wrote:
Never. I'm glad I was born when I was so that we could have things like electricity, hot water when we want it, the internet and modern medicine.

I have several skills that would have fit a couple of hundred years ago, including fishing, chopping wood, setting up a shelter, spinning yarn, etc. I'd rather not have to do all that.

Plus, I like people. For the most part, it seems to me those who go off the gird aren't people persons, and a lot of them are into conspiracy theories, which I am not, thank goodness.
The sales of underground bunkers have risen lately.
******************************

Hi @tansy

I'm not surprised. Biting my tongue...

Actually there was a spike beginning in 08

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@cherry wrote:
If it's back to living like they did in the dark ages, I'd rather not be around

This is what a lot of people assume that living 'off the grid' would be, but we need a little more definition of the state of the rest of the world before we all freak out about it.

Is the whole world off the grid, or is it just 'me' and my choosing to live that way.

If it is the first, no I don't want to be there! If it is the later, I could survive for some time, but as I age and have done many of the things that people who live off the grid have to do everyday, I know it isn't very sustainable individually as the body ages and you can't do as much as when you were younger.

We live in an Amish community, and they are some of the most strict of the Old Order Amish left around. They have no electric (or anything that uses it ), phones, motorized vehicles (not even tractors or lawn mowers). The only power allowed on their properties is gasoline powered engines to pump water from the well, or to run their wringer washing machines. They use horses for farm machines and for their buggies for transportation. They grow, can, and butcher most of their own food.

But even they don't live in a total vacuum anymore. The rest of the world around them, that has power and technology....they get some benefit and use from. They hire drivers to take them to town for groceries or many of the men work off the farms (many don't even farm anymore but work in construction etc.). Many have small businesses on their properties. They use medical facilities when they are sick or if they have a problem delivery (most of their children are still born at home if no problems though). We even had a young couple that went to Las Vegas for their honeymoon!!

So choosing to live off the grid, but in a world where it still all exists if you need it, is quite doable for many people. The other, where the whole world goes back....kind of a scary thought.

CrazyDaisy · ‎03-20-2010

@happycat wrote:
@Noel7, I think you are right. I think a lot of the folks who do this don't like to be around people. On one of the shows, they said there are more wild animals than humans in the area, and showed a grizzly bear.

There are many parts of this country where there are more wild animals than people. Just because a person may live in a rural area will not necessarily mean they do not like to be around other people.

Someday, when scientists discover the center of the Universe....some people will be disappointed it is not them.

gardenman · ‎03-09-2010

One of my all time favorite TV shows is "Good Neighbors" where Tom and Barbara Goode go off the grid and become self-sufficient with comedic results.

If you have the money to spend, and it would be a lot of money, you could live a relatively normal lifestyle off the grid and being completely self-sufficient. A passive solar designed home would be one step required. (By the way, passive solar design is vastly underused in this country, but that's for another thread at another time.) A massive array of photovoltaic panels to generate power and multiple storage batteries like the Tesla Powerwall to store excess power would be another part. Ground source heat pumps to heat and cool the home and greenhouses efficiently would be required. Did I mention the greenhouses? Lots of greenhouse space would be required. I would likely go with a hydroponic system combined with an aquaculture system to raise my own fish, but use the fish waste to supply the nutrient to feed the plants.

Chickens are relatively easy to raise and provide both eggs and meat. Greenhouse grown food that's not up to snuff for human consumption or excess could help feed the chickens, likewise vermiculture (using worms to make compost) could supply you with worms to supplement the chicken's diet and the compost could be used to make compost tea to help feed the plants.

Lots of the chores could be automated (if you had the money) and you could lead a relatively normal lifestyle. Excess produce/livestock raised could be sold to local restaurants or traded for items you're incapable of raising yourself.

Barring a major disaster, you could live a completely self-supporting, off the grid, existence without a lot of trouble if you had the money to invest up front. And it would be a lot of money to invest up front. To do it right, depending on the land costs, you'd be looking at around a million or so in upfront costs.

Back to "Good Neighbors" for a minute or two. I've long thought a version of that from Hollywood or Silicon Valley where a top software developer or Hollywood producer decided with his wife to forego his normal lifestyle and become self-sufficient in his existing neighborhood of mansions could make a good show. Convert the swimming pool into an aquaculture tank raising tilapia. Plow up the front and back yard and make them into gardens. Move the orchids out of the greenhouse and use the greenhouse for tropical fruits. One of those guys would have the cash available to do it right and the reaction of the neighbors could make the whole thing kind of entertaining.

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@Goldengate8361 wrote:
Never! I really don't even like the outdoors. I love AC, electricity, the internet, TV, etc. The "preppers" seem to be filled with fear about the world. That's not have I live my life (full of fear and paranoid).

This is people's perceptions because that is what sells on TV and makes for good ratings.

Real 'preppers' might just surprise many of you. They are your next door neighbors, your co workers, and maybe even some of your family members that you don't even know have that 'mindset'.

Prepper isn't (or shouldn't be) a bad word. Like most labels we place on people, they come in varying degrees or levels. Some are flat out true survivalists and off the grid folks that make good TV (but think about those, how much are they getting paid to be in those shows, and what are they doing with that money? Not truly independent, are they?) Then there are people who can simply breeze through a two week power outage because they plan ahead and have backup systems for those conveniences we use every day and take for granted.

In my opinion, everyone has an obligation to have a little 'prepper' in them. If you aren't prepared for the next storm, power outage, earthquake or whatever might befall people in the area you live, you are part of the problem and not part of the solution.

People who don't have some food and water stored for emergencies (not a bunker full of long term storage freeze dried goods, but enough food in the house for a week or two, preferably that doesn't need a lot of prep/cooking), haven't thought of backup lighting (a couple of flashlights or some flameless candles or even the outdoor solar lights that can be brought inside....and the batteries to run them) or located an alternate heat source (propane heater, kerosene heater, wood stove) if they live where it gets cold enough to freeze, and put together a good first aid kit that includes any needed prescription medicine, well they becomes a burden to the rest of society in even the smallest of disasters.

Most 'preppers' live a mainstream life. They work jobs, go to school, get degrees, volunteer in their communities, go to church, vote, take vacations, and any other number of 'normal' things. They way they are different is that they think about how they would live should some of the things we rely on daily suddenly no longer be available.

I can tell you from our own experiences, that while we never consider ourselves 'preppers' we do live a life that tends to be closer to a sustainable lifestyle (supposed to be a very popular and proper thing to be/do now) than not.

We garden and preserve some food, we have a fruit orchard, we have backup heating systems (several), we have alternate lighting and power for it to last really for months (enough batteries to power lanterns or flameless candles, solar lights, and kerosene lamps and candles as a last resort...fire hazard). We have our own well, and don't need power to get the water of it (Artesian), and our own septic system. We have a gasoline powered generator that will power the entire house (but we cycle it to save fuel, we don't really need power every hour of every day in an emergency situation). The men here can hunt and know how to butcher (not something we do regularly, but we do know how to do it).

Even in a bad enough situation (especially a flood) we would be as lost as everyone else around us, but that is no reason not to prepare for other things that we could sail through more comfortable than those that don't.

Even if we lived in a small apartment in a big city, there is still much one can do. Keep some food and water and first aid supplies on hand, get an alternate heat source, have some lighting that isn't electric, and a camping potty with the proper chemicals if the water/sewer isn't usable. None of this takes up a ton of space,costs a log of money, and makes life much more comfortable when our 'creature comforts' disappear for awhile.

I've stated it before on other threads, but we had an ice storm here about a decade ago, and power was out in much of the area here for 5 days. We had friends that both parents were highly degreed, the dad was an Eagle Scout, the two boys were working on being Eagle Scouts, and they had to leave their home and check into a bed and breakfast, as they couldn't cope without electric for that time period. Pretty sad when our Boy Scouts can't rough it for a few days!

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@RedTop wrote:
For me, this would be like reliving the earliest years of my life. I love and appreciate the simple way my family lived, and that I know enough about that way of life to do it if I ever need to.

My parents lived in their basement for 4 years before we moved upstairs. The outhouse was 20 ft from the door. Our well was on the other side of the house; we used a pulley to bring buckets of water out of the well several times each day. Mom cooked on a wood fired cookstove; our heat source, that also warmed water for washing dishes, bathing, and doing laundry in the wringer washer. We bathed in a galvanized washtub in front of the cookstove. We had electricity for the refrigerator, and the few overhead lights in the basement, but used a kerosene lamp as well.

The majority of what we ate was raised on the farm; all beef, pork, chicken, fruits and vegetables. The cow was milked twice a day; Grandma churned once a week to make butter and buttermilk. My dad and grandpa killed squirrels, rabbits and deer on the nearly 200 acres of the farm. Animals on the farm were there for us to eat; they were not named, nor considered cute, and we thanked God for all He provided for us.

2-3 paper bags held the basics my farm grandparents bought at the grocery store once a month.

@RedTop

This type of farm life is exactly what many of our parents and grandparents lived in the days before and during WW II. It was simply seen as normal back then, even when many of the people in cities and towns had much more modern conveniences.

And people were happy! They survived AND thrived.

So much of what we have today is simply creature comfort. It is wonderful, and fun and makes life easier, but some people certainly would die without it for even a short time. They have no idea how to do or obtain the basic things for themselves, and have zero interest in learning how. Most likely they will never be tested (very hard or for very long) but for those of us that have the skills and knowledge that was simply considered 'normal' life back then, well, we understand and are grateful!