Homesteading "off the grid"

[cobweb]

I am just wondering if there is anyone here who is into homesteading, voluntary simplicity, or living "off the grid".

 

[puppy]

is that like being self sufficient, growing your own vegetables etc ? this is something id like to do in the future, i used to work with a lady who did this and brought her produce into work to share with us and it was fantastic stuff !

 

[cobweb]

It can be. From what I understand their are varying levels of "homesteading".

"Off the grid" usually refers to not using things like public utilities, I think. Mom and Dad have been doing this stuff since the mid to late 80's, but I've just now started reading up on what other people call it... so I don't know all of the proper terminology.

My folks are homesteading. Since I was kid they have been pretty consistantly living in a very small shack with no plumbing (or electricity for most of the time... the did have it for a couple of years when I was a teen). They usualy keep sheep and goats, grow a big garden, and make a lot of their own furniture, too.

 

[handmaiden97]

hmm, I have often been intrested in it. I aint sure though.....it think it would be great to grow my own food, etc....but I sort of like indoor plumbing, electricity etc.....I could do it for a season though

 

[S682]

Hmmm... not sure I could live like that all of the time, but I'm with handmaiden97, I could do it for a season. It may be interesting, and perhaps even enlightening.

 

[little_lily613]

Currently, I do not live this way, but I am hoping someday to live in the very rural countryside and live completely off the land (including no modern technology of any kind). Whether or not this will dream will come true...only time will tell. This is what I want though! G~d bless!
~Lily~

 

[PacificPandeist]

I too would like to live "off the grid" - it can be done quite comfortably, and without surrendering electricity or plumbing, if your home is set up properly. I do not consider using public sewer for diposal as being on the grid so long as you do not use water supplied by another. All the water that we need has been provided for us, and a good combination of roof catchers, basins, wells, and a water cellar will provide all that is needed. As well can the power you require come from that which is provided, solar energy, wind, water turbines, and home refined ethanol, that will suffice if you can limit your needs by adjusting your schedule to conform with hours of daylight.

 

[Henaynei]

baby steps - we have our own well for water (but use elect to pump it) and a septic tank (no sewer) and we pack our own trash to the central recycling center --- would like to have our own electricity but the local co-op forbids such if you want to use their electricity and we just are a long way from being able to afford a reliable solar/wind system that can carry the household needs.... in G-d's time though, I pray

 

[Torah]

When my wife and I first got marred this was our dream and for a good part of out life we did get back to the basics. We would read books & books & books about getting back to the earth. I built a small log cabin, (used very little nails in the cabin) Planted [heirloom] plants
[to reuse the seed]
, Raised chickens, turkey, duck-{meat & eggs,fether for stuffing), goats-{milk, cheese, meat, skin for clothing, shoes, thread),
Pig-{meat, oil/fat for light, skin, shoes, strong cord, & sold piglets for cash) Bees-{sweet / sugar, wax for candelas & sealer} I have put in 3 wells with hand pump, Bug wholes for out house.
There is a satisfaction of living a life like this but it is hard. Still had to work part time jobs to pay for gas to run truck & tractor Ect. And when we started having kids this created a new set of problems. Our first we had at a hospital we weren’t living our dream yet. But # 2, 3, 4, I delivered, # 5 I delivered but in a birthing center. [Another story]
There is always the fear of “what If”. We left the home steed in 89. We have all ways had livestock till about 98, (I had a car accident) Now we have Just the 5 kids and 3 are in collage, & 1 grandson. After the kids are all gone I would like to get some chickens & turkeys.

PS, the more modern thing one uses the more dependent one becomes on modern things. A tractor breaks down you need money to buy the part. Solar panel burns out you need to buy a new panel. Living like this in a community would work better. One person being a blacksmith, could trade with someone with cows for milk, cheese. Carpenter, Miller, each family would work together. (but like anything living in a community means having to get along with each other)

 

[PacificPandeist]

The ideal would be having a solar panel factory powered entirely by solar panels!!

Sad story about that tho...

//// Pacific PanDeist

 

[PacificPandeist]

Very disillusioning story to tell - my friend who is an engineer, very into this idea, came up with a way to make solar panels much more effective... so he went to try to market this to some alternative energy companies, next thing you knew he was threatened with a lawsuit by one of these companies - they had taken out a patent on that idea a few years ago!! They threatened to sue him and forced him to sign a document that he would not talk about his idea, or their threats, to anyone, ever.

Turns out that the 'alternative energy company' that owns patent, they're actually controlled through some complicated business scheme by one of THE major oil companies... needless to say, my friend's idea has never been put on the market, and the companies involved claim that they are working on such advances but they are years away...

Let us pray that these advances will no longer be hidden from us by greed and bureacracy, so that we can enjoy the fruits of the gift that God has given us in our Sun, and stop defiling creation to hunt for oil that enriches a very few at the expense of the rest of us!!



//// Pacific PanDeist

 

[PacificPandeist]

The ideal would be having a solar panel factory powered entirely by solar panels!!

Sad story about that tho...

//// Pacific PanDeist

Sad story about that, tho... I have an engineer friend who improved solar panels, and tried to market them but was threatened with a lawsuit by an energy company (which turned out to be owned by one of the big oil companies) - the energy company had taken a patent on a similar improvement four or five years before... but they were not doing anything to develop it, just holding the patent to prevent anyone else from using it...

//// Pacific PanDeist

 

[Henaynei]

there needs to be a grassroots hue and cry for other forms of energy - but as long as the consumer is not motivated the market will not move in that direction....

My car will take enthanol, but I can't find any source closer than 100 miles - it would be wasteful of the energy to drive for 2 hours to fill up a tank - sad but true

 

[Sojourner<><]

Just a thought about the alternative energy...

I heard recently by word of mouth that some energy companies are required by state law to purchase back excess energy from energy producing homes. I've always been sort of a geek so I'm thinking about looking into this. I think it would be great to own your own energy farm.

 

[Big Dave]

I have been lookin for yall. I am a homesteader.
No we do not live off the grid but we try to raise a garden to offset the amount of food we buy. Black Butt Dave the hog is going to Disney world tommorrow. He weighs 227 lbs live weight. Youngest boy showed and actioned his chickens at the fair this last saturday. We sell firewood and I am excited to find like minded people. We make soap and do not use no artifical anything in it. We eat alot of what we can grow and give the ecsess to feed the homeless. I would like to see a homesteader page on this forum. Think they will? If yall have any questions on alternative energy, welding, livestock, herbs Give me a shout
TRUTH & MERCY Big Dave Redneck for Christ

 

[Henaynei]

I'm a little confused about the issue of alternative energy in this part of NC - it seems that the local energy company does not allow it's co-op members to independently produce their own supplemental energy - solar/wind/etc (except wood burning for heat in the winter) - I remember having to sign something to that effect when I joined the co-op (only energy company servicing this area)

 

[Big Dave]

Yep thatt is the way of it with rural co op's . Same for the power company we are hooked up with. You could take them to court but,? I have a friend in central Texas and he built a wind generator and the power company came out and dissconnected him from thier grid. For a really good look go to otherpower.com It will be two years down the road before we can produce our own energy here. May the Lord shine on ya.
TRUTH & MERCY Big Dave Redneck for Christ

 

[C.F.W. Walther]

Yep thatt is the way of it with rural co op's . Same for the power company we are hooked up with. You could take them to court but,? I have a friend in central Texas and he built a wind generator and the power company came out and dissconnected him from thier grid. For a really good look go to otherpower.com It will be two years down the road before we can produce our own energy here. May the Lord shine on ya.
TRUTH & MERCY Big Dave Redneck for Christ

Whoa---Big Dave---fancy seeing you here

Depends on where your at. Every state has differant rules about back feeding electric into the grid.

Anyway I decided to go "alternate energy" "off the grid" whateve you want to call it many years ago. Planed for it most of my life. Unfortunately I got to a certain point and stalled. Got the first 100 magazines of Mother Earth and got lots of alternate energy books to research out. My whole library is books I've collected through the years to get to the point of living in the boonies.

Well I bought the 20 acres and the log cabin, put the garden in, raised chickens, two steer and solar panel for the hot water heater. Since then the chickens got eaten by the coyotes, one steer died, the other one walked out the gate and wound up in someones freezer, the garden got ravaged by the deer and rabbits and the solar panel got smahed to bits in a hail storm. Besides that I get so much excess from other peoples gardens that I can't raise my "stuff" as cheap as I get it from them.....mostly free.

Now all I do is cut grass and do odd chores around the place and forget about going "back to the land".
That's for young kids.....not me.

PS. It's still a great idea though

 

[Aldesa]

I kinda want to do something like that... i would love to have a bunch of land , nice log cabin, plant my garden,maybe have some horses... but live in the country, and i mean country , moutain views!!!...a place where my kids could explore ! That is my dream!

 

[Henaynei]

come to North Carolina mountains!