Off the Grid Living!!

[Jesse]

Does anyone currently live "off grid" from something? Such as solar power, well water, providing own food through gardens, etc. ?

It's a subject that has interested me for a while now and I've looked through many options for off the grid living. I recently stumbled on to something very cool called Earth Bag Houses.

http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/index.htm

I'm looking into designing an earth bag house that is solar powered (planning on building my own solar panels- instructions can be found online), and uses well water as well as a wood-burner for heat and cooking. I believe I could build a house like this for under 20,000$!!!

After I get this little dream house of mine I will attempt to live off the land by gardening and canning foods as well as raising chickens and rabbits to start with for meat.

Anyone else have anything to share about off the grid living?

 

[SophiaGrace]

I think it's a cool idea and might save you money. Might want to look into small windmills for power as well.

 

[kamya]

We have very similar interests dood. How much land are you going to be trying this on?

There is a great youtuber that has his whole family set up off the grid. They grow their own food, raise animals, produce their own water, power, heat. The cool thing is everything is very modern and even though they are off the grid it's not as primitive as you would think. http://www.youtube.com/user/engineer775 This guy does everything you could think of.

My favorite videos of his are of him powering the generators and his truck with a wood gasifier. You might want to look into growing mushrooms, and getting a small air rifle to hunt small animals and stuff. Fishing nets too. Raising rabbits is fine but it's almost impossible to be able to feed them without using rabbit food. They can eat greens that you give them but they will need a lot of greens. You would end up spending half of your days foraging for your rabbits.

Chickens are another option. Eggs and meat when they stop laying. You have to move those around and clean up their waste but you don't have to provide much feed. You could even have a black fly larvae trap that you put your scraps in to produce free maggots for them to eat, or for you to use as fish bait.

I also really like the idea of earthbag homes. I think I decided though that if I ever wanted to build an off the grid house it would just be a strawbale house. Same concept pretty much, just a little easier to put up.

 

[EveWasFramed]

Does anyone currently live "off grid" from something? Such as solar power, well water, providing own food through gardens, etc. ?

It's a subject that has interested me for a while now and I've looked through many options for off the grid living. I recently stumbled on to something very cool called Earth Bag Houses.

http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/index.htm

I'm looking into designing an earth bag house that is solar powered (planning on building my own solar panels- instructions can be found online), and uses well water as well as a wood-burner for heat and cooking. I believe I could build a house like this for under 20,000$!!!

After I get this little dream house of mine I will attempt to live off the land by gardening and canning foods as well as raising chickens and rabbits to start with for meat.

Anyone else have anything to share about off the grid living?

Head out to Cali....they have Slab City there. No water, no electricity and no laws. lol

 

[Ak5]

I'd like to retire like that, but in Italy next to a lake!

 

[whispers]

Id love too live like that, i do it in the summer at camp. Well i do bring groceries. I am studying plants in my area, alot of them are eatable and i make my own medicine from them. This is awsome, it works better than medication because it is gentle to the body. (sometimes, lol)
I've also noticed that living off the grid is verygood for lowering stress levels and is calming to the energetic body. All this frequencies scew with our natural frequencies and make us crazy or sick imo.

 

[Jesse]

I think it's a cool idea and might save you money. Might want to look into small windmills for power as well.

Yes. I don't want to rely solely on solar power. I know there are some affordable windmill options for supplemental power.

We have very similar interests dood. How much land are you going to be trying this on?

There is a great youtuber that has his whole family set up off the grid. They grow their own food, raise animals, produce their own water, power, heat. The cool thing is everything is very modern and even though they are off the grid it's not as primitive as you would think. http://www.youtube.com/user/engineer775 This guy does everything you could think of.

My favorite videos of his are of him powering the generators and his truck with a wood gasifier. You might want to look into growing mushrooms, and getting a small air rifle to hunt small animals and stuff. Fishing nets too. Raising rabbits is fine but it's almost impossible to be able to feed them without using rabbit food. They can eat greens that you give them but they will need a lot of greens. You would end up spending half of your days foraging for your rabbits.

Chickens are another option. Eggs and meat when they stop laying. You have to move those around and clean up their waste but you don't have to provide much feed. You could even have a black fly larvae trap that you put your scraps in to produce free maggots for them to eat, or for you to use as fish bait.

I also really like the idea of earthbag homes. I think I decided though that if I ever wanted to build an off the grid house it would just be a strawbale house. Same concept pretty much, just a little easier to put up.

I'd like at least 3 acres of land, but up to 5 would be perfect. Yeah when I try to tell people about living off the grid they compare me to an Amish person. It really doesn't have to be primitive at all. You can build a house that has all of the modern conveniences but is far more sustainable than normal living.

I really like the wooden gasifier thing; that's something I will definitely look into. As far as having a rifle and fishing nets, that's good too. I want to be able to hunt for food in addition to growing my own and taking care of farm animals. I had heard that rabbits were a good idea. What I'm thinking of is some sort of large enclosed area that is full of different greens they could eat, but I do think chickens are a better option. I just don't want to eat chicken all the time. I like your maggot idea too.

I haven't looked into strawbale housing very much, but I have read that it isn't as durable or long lasting as well constructed earth bag homes. I'll definitely look into both though before I build anything. There are a lot of sites and videos that show you how to build every aspect of an earthbag home. I don't think it would be technically difficult as much as it would be labor intensive. Those earthbags can be heavy!!

Head out to Cali....they have Slab City there. No water, no electricity and no laws. lol

Lol I do want water and electricity. I just don't want to have to depend on someone else providing it to me.

Id love too live like that, i do it in the summer at camp. Well i do bring groceries. I am studying plants in my area, a lot of them are eatable and i make my own medicine from them. This is awesome, it works better than medication because it is gentle to the body. (sometimes, lol)
I've also noticed that living off the grid is very good for lowering stress levels and is calming to the energetic body. All this frequencies screw with our natural frequencies and make us crazy or sick imo.

That is one thing I really need to look into- medicinal uses of plants. My dream is to be as independent of money as possible, but I will always need money for medications unless I can find something natural that works.

 

[nerdygirl]

I have been progressively becoming more self-sufficient, but I don't think I'll ever be off of the grid.

Rabbits make really good fertilizer; high in nitrogen and you can put it directly onto your plants. You can also use their fur. I understand chickens are easier to raise and cost less, but rabbits are easier to butcher. I've read that turkeys are actually not much more work than chickens- but of course, they produce much more meat. You could also raise fish and set up a hydroponics situation so that your fish and veggies are taking care of each other.

 

[SophiaGrace]

Eh dont rely on plants for medicine, that's how the guy in Into the Wild died. He ate the wrong plant.

 

[Jesse]

I have been progressively becoming more self-sufficient, but I don't think I'll ever be off of the grid.

Rabbits make really good fertilizer; high in nitrogen and you can put it directly onto your plants. You can also use their fur. I understand chickens are easier to raise and cost less, but rabbits are easier to butcher. I've read that turkeys are actually not much more work than chickens- but of course, they produce much more meat. You could also raise fish and set up a hydroponics situation so that your fish and veggies are taking care of each other.

Wow that would be cool. I'm not sure how I'd go about raising fish.

 

[kamya]

Get tilapia. They are really easy to raise. Just look up or get a video or book on aquaponics. There are some Murray Hallam videos that teach the basics of home aquaponics on thepiratebay. You will need some fish feed but once again, farmed maggots and duckweed can go a long way. Raised beds are also a pretty lazy and noob friendly way of making tons of food for yourself. I follow this guy on youtube. I personally can't wait to own my own place to do this stuff. He has probably a thousand videos by now. [video=youtube]
Rabbit meat is good. Extremely lean. The fur is useful. The only reason we are a nation of chicken eaters and not a nation of rabbit eaters though is because chickens are easier to clean and provide better cuts of meat. With rabbits, the legs are the main cut that everyone eats. Chickens provide legs, thighs, breasts, wings. Both are pretty easy to raise and keep. Rabbits are probably a little easier.

 

[Jesse]

Get tilapia. They are really easy to raise. Just look up or get a video or book on aquaponics. There are some Murray Hallam videos that teach the basics of home aquaponics on thepiratebay. You will need some fish feed but once again, farmed maggots and duckweed can go a long way. Raised beds are also a pretty lazy and noob friendly way of making tons of food for yourself. I follow this guy on youtube. I personally can't wait to own my own place to do this stuff. He has probably a thousand videos by now. [video=youtube]
Rabbit meat is good. Extremely lean. The fur is useful. The only reason we are a nation of chicken eaters and not a nation of rabbit eaters though is because chickens are easier to clean and provide better cuts of meat. With rabbits, the legs are the main cut that everyone eats. Chickens provide legs, thighs, breasts, wings. Both are pretty easy to raise and keep. Rabbits are probably a little easier.

Wow that video was awesome! That is really helpful. I need to do a lot of research about gardening and preserving food. My goal this summer is to build an earth bag shed. I will use it to store canned food in. The shed will serve as practice for building a home. It will have an electrical outlet inside and lighting which will hopefully be powered by homemade solar panels.