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Worst Mistakes To Avoid When Going Off Grid: “We Wish We’d Known”
SHTF Plan ^ | 1/8/16 | Mac Slavo

Posted on 01/08/2016 7:26:53 PM PST by Kartographer

Want to build your own life back on the land, instead of keeping pace in this insane society headed for implosion?

There are lots of things that you’ll have to learn the hard way in order to go off grid.

The path is not easy, but that’s no reason not to get started, and move forward on your ultimate plan to live more independently.

This off-grid couple, at Fouch-o-matic Off Grid, had to relearn some of the basics to figure out how to live an alternative lifestyle without losing their minds, or facing impossible, labor intensive tasks.

(Excerpt) Read more at shtfplan.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Outdoors
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To: disndat
It's better to paint an attractive scene on the outside of the outhouse, along with a name, like "Latrino", it makes it seem like a vacation to Italy.

41 posted on 01/08/2016 11:13:38 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: Rebelbase

That’s freakin brilliant.


42 posted on 01/08/2016 11:16:28 PM PST by Stentor
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To: Daffynition

I love watching that when it is on PBS. Such a calm voice. And an older guy we he decided to try it out for a year - and stayed.

We have just an outhouse at our shack/cabin in Northern Minnesota. Their was an old gal that ran a small grocery store a few miles away on the main road - surrounded by woods and swamp. She lived there for as long as I could remember in the back of the store. No running water (like our cabin), and an outhouse. She lived there year round by herself.

Was murdered by three Indians at the age of 92 when they robbed her store.


43 posted on 01/08/2016 11:23:40 PM PST by 21twelve (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts It is happening again.)
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To: caww
As someone who used to heat my home by wood (approx 25 plus years) went with propane to dam old and the wife didn't want to chance losing me to another heart attack.

This may sound crazy, but the wood heat, I felt warmed your bones, thus you were much warmer. Don't miss going to the wood shed in the cold mornings, for heat.:-)

44 posted on 01/08/2016 11:24:38 PM PST by Stanwood_Dave ("Testilying." Cop's don't lie, they just Testily{ing} as taught in their respected Police Academy.)
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To: SunkenCiv
It's better to paint an attractive scene on the outside of the outhouse, along with a name, like "Latrino", it makes it seem like a vacation to Italy.

We got our first indoor toilet in 53. My mother used to give me a bath in a galvanized tub in the kitchen using hot water heated on a coal stove. In retrospect, what cracks me up was that we had a FADA television in 1949.

All I remember from the outhouse was spiders and a big catalogue.

45 posted on 01/08/2016 11:26:14 PM PST by Stentor
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To: Stentor

The smell strikes my chords of memory. ;’) We shed our, uh, shed early in the 1960s.


46 posted on 01/08/2016 11:31:09 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: SunkenCiv
We shed our, uh, shed early in the 1960s.

We were early because we moved out of anthracite coal country to a purpose built steel town complete with company store. There was a guy working in that store who was missing an ear and the old man informed me he was probably a scab. Three generations and the world is unrecognizable.

I enjoy your posts.

47 posted on 01/08/2016 11:43:08 PM PST by Stentor
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To: mj1234

Love that film.


48 posted on 01/09/2016 1:09:25 AM PST by Theophilus (Be as prolific as you are pro-life.)
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To: mj1234

“Richard Louis “Dick” Proenneke (May 4, 1916 – April 20, 2003) was an amateur naturalist . . . .

* * *
We recorded that on our DVR from PBS and watched it a number of times when my kids were little. They were fascinated by all the things he made by hand! It’s a really interesting film.


49 posted on 01/09/2016 2:17:48 AM PST by Hetty_Fauxvert ("Cruz." That's the answer.)
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To: cherry
...better to cancel cable, and the newspaper and have just one car then to be swimming in bills

Better yet, look for good older used cars.

We have a small herd, and usually most are running, if not all.

Insurance is cheap, parts are cheap, and if you are a little bit handy and have old enough vehicles, you can fix them yourself.

Some jurisdictions have such intensive emissions checks that may not be practical, but in others you can do very well.

50 posted on 01/09/2016 2:31:08 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: disndat

When it hits -30F, the line forms quickly (no one wants to be first, and everyone wants a warm seat...)


51 posted on 01/09/2016 2:47:03 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Kartographer

Unless you live near an old grown or second growth forest in the PacNW where old Doug Fir bark can be 3 or more inches thick - very dry, sometimes pitch laden - also called womens wood - breaks and crumbles easily - burns very hot and long - no need for paper of other tinder to start the fire - pitchy bark lights with a match.


52 posted on 01/09/2016 3:03:45 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: Rebelbase

How;s it woirk on hurliqued wood? Tree that twisted and has lots of branches - usually found on Doug Fir old and second growth trees - lower or center rotten sections discarded by loggers.

Try machine that with dry Oak or Madrona.


53 posted on 01/09/2016 3:11:16 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: Rebelbase; Drumbo

That log-splitter is friggin awesome. Imagine the damage I coulda done with that back when I was a kid getting wood for the stove with Daddy!


54 posted on 01/09/2016 3:14:49 AM PST by Titan Magroyne (What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.)
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To: cherry
if you have to poop and pee in an outhouse in the middle of winter, why live?....

That's why they have chamber pots....

55 posted on 01/09/2016 4:43:52 AM PST by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: july4thfreedomfoundation
My dad used to quote Henry Ford who once said

That is probably where my dad got the saying

56 posted on 01/09/2016 4:57:30 AM PST by ReformedBeckite (1 of 3 I'm only allowing my self each day)
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To: trebb

The chamber pots are for the nights; they still have to be emptied.

Living off the grid is unfathomable to someone like me who grew up in the suburbs of the northeast (though I love camping - backpacking in the woods, not in campgrounds); I certainly wouldn’t try it in places with harsh winters. The area needed to provide for a family is so large in terms of growing food and providing firewood. Small “sustenance farms” in our area centuries ago often provided only part of a family’s livelihood; it had to be supplemented with other work (usually iron mines, furnaces, and forges along the NY/NJ border). The iron industry didn’t just provide work directly for those employed at those locations, but also a lot of work for those that grew the food for men (and draft animals), chopped the wood (and later made charcoal) for the furnaces/forges), and transported the ore and finished products.

Many of the things you couldn’t provide for yourself would have to be obtained elsewhere, and if you are too remote you risk being snowed in for indefinite periods. Living off the grid definitely seems to be for areas with less severe winters, for longer growing seasons and less required heating.


57 posted on 01/09/2016 5:17:18 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Kartographer

Thanks !
BOOKMARK FOR WEEKEND!


58 posted on 01/09/2016 5:19:44 AM PST by Faith65 (Isaiah 40:31)
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To: Rebelbase

bkmk


59 posted on 01/09/2016 5:25:33 AM PST by novemberslady
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To: kearnyirish2
I agree that living off the grid is not for the faint hearted or old, or inept and I wouldn't want to do it after being spoiled by modern living. It would reallly take a community of folks with a variety of skills to make it truly feasible.

The chamber pot bit was in response to a guy saying it would suck to have to use the outhouse in the Winter - may be mainly for the night, but can still be used during the day when conditions say "ouch - frostbitten arse!" Can be emptied at one's discretion while fully bundled...

Back it the 50s we knew some country folks that still had pumps, outhouses and chamber pots.

Even then, it wasn't considered a comfortable lifestyle despite the ready availability of convenience/repair items.

60 posted on 01/09/2016 5:49:33 AM PST by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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