One of the most ridiculous statements directed at us is “how can you be off grid and still have Facebook/blog?
I guess I never corralated being off grid with social media. I think one part is that people automatically assume that if you are off grid you just don’t have electricity and live like the Amish. That’s not what off grid means.
Off grid doesn’t mean the rejection of electricity or technology. We just aren’t reliant on “The grid”. The grid is the system of public utilities connected into, well, a grid. You don’t have to live in the woods to be off grid either. You can take the home you have and make it off grid.
We power our house, with solar and gas. Because we have minimalized our electrical needs, we are able to maintain, with a small solar panel system, and a generator. If you have more needs, well, bigger system.
We have wood and propane for cooking and heating water. We haul and collect water. We have minimal electrical products, no appliances. Solar panels power those and the generator backs up on cloudy days or when we use extra owner such as power tools. We use an extra insulated cooler for the few items that need it. We wash our laundry at the laundromat. It’s cheaper and more ecological. We can run one large washer there as oppose to 5-7 small home loads.
Going off grid was the first step in reducing our families overhead and simplifying our life. It was not nearly as hard to make the lifestyle change, and not everyone has to make a lifestyle change. As I said, any home can be off grid, you just have to get a system in place to support it.
Loading Likes...
Tina Bina
To only1… Your cousin didn’t do ALL of that overnight though… It is a process… And making progress sometimes means you need a little assistance from the grid (i.e. fuel for a generator) they never claimed they were fully self reliant… Your cousin IS fully self reliant and in fact is where I would one day love to be… But it is a process and you have to take it one step at a time as you are able to.
Wesley Jones
Off grid is off grid…no commercial electrical connection. How else one makes the electricity they use is irrelevant.
Beth
We get the same things. People don’t get it. We mostly use solar but have a generator for back up. No gas, no problem, we just use less. Dosnt mean we don’t embrace technology, after all solar is provided by technology.
And if someone is selling electric back to the grid, they must be hooked up to the grid. It’s not like you can load it in the truck and drop it off at the electric company.
Kelly Hare
One thing I’ve learned through our process of going off grid is that most people don’t understand the lifestyle change. Off grid and self sustaining are two different things…related, but different. We began the process two years ago. As of today, we have no ties to the grid except for our cell phones. We haul our drinking and cooking water from a source in a nearby town. We use water from our very clean river for washing and use the laundry mat once a week for laundry. We use propane and wood for cooking. Once our cabin is finished, we will be heating solely with wood. To the Nauglers, you guys rock!! Haters are gonna hate…just keep sending the love out and keep on keeping on! 🙂
BlessedLittleHomestead
Sulphur is gross. There are several places that have water, some city, some well, and many wells have sulphur, one reason we didn’t dig one.
Sparkal Kashinski
You said you haul Water? Where do you haul it from? Does your community have places to get safe water that isn’t coming from municipal tap? You guys don’t have a well, do you? I’ve herd sulpher is gross.
BlessedLittleHomestead
That’s really great your cousin or whoever does that. I’m not comparing myself to anyone. We are doing our own thing. Not in any sort of competition.
It would be interesting to read about them, like how much money they had to start with. How long it took to get to a comfortable point, how many setbacks they had. It’s all part of the story.
Ben
I would like to get off the grid. Fact is I don’t know how much longer I afford to stay on parts of the grid. Electricity keeps getting more expensive to buy. Satellite and cable is too expensive for someone like me.
Mickie
I admire you and your family for living off the grid. Life is so much more simplistic and not depending on the “system” gives us a better life. It’s a shame that more people don’t realize this and stop depending on the “system” that is taking more and more from our lives. Bravo and kudos to you and you family.
only1
But, you are not off grid if you rely upon a generator because you have to go on grid to get the fuel that powers the generator. You may not use electricity from a power company and that is certainly your choice, but you are far from self reliant. My cousin lives off grid. He built a windmill to power his home and to pump the water from his well; in fact, the electric company buys his surplus electricity. He doesn’t use any form of gas and heats his house with his wood burning stove. They garden and preserve their food through canning, dehydration, and fermentation. They have a milk cow and they make all their butter, cheese, and yogurt; they also raise a calf and a pig to butcher and they raise meat chickens as well as egg laying hens. While they live off grid are pretty self reliant, they are not naive in that they do buy some food for themselves from the store such as coffee, flour, corn meal, sugar, etc., and they buy some of the grains they feed their animals, even though they do grow hay on their 40 acres. While I know you have this idea that you are living off grid and are trying so hard to convince yourself and your followers that you have some sort of choice in the way you live, you are far from self sustaining and without the gofundmeaccounts, you would not have a pot to piss in nor a window to toss it out…..