Worst Mistakes To Avoid When Going Off Grid: “We Wish We’d Known”

SHTF Plan ^ | 1/8/16 | Mac Slavo

[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.

[PIF]

Ring the tree(s) you plan to cut the year before - tree dies and dries by the following year ready to fall. (Ringing - removing all bark all around the tree’s trunk in a 6-12” wide strip.)

Once the system is in place, makes the effort just that much easier, especially when one has to cut some 10-20 cords or more per winter.

Some books:
The Forgotten Art of Building a Good Fireplace - the Story of Count Rumford & His Fireplace - Vrest Orton (Yankee Inc - 1974)

Hot Water - Solar Water Heaters and Stack Coil Heating Systems - Scott & Chole Morgan/David & Susan Taylor (by the authors 1975)

How to Sharpen - A Craftsman Handbook (Sears, Roebuck and Co. Chicago)

How To Build and Furnish a Log Cabin - The Easy-Natural Way Using Only Hand Tools and The Woods Around You - W Ben Hunt (Macmillian Publishing - 1974)

FOR THOSE LONG HOURS:
Whittling and Woodcarving - E. J. Tangerman (Dover Publications - 1936)

If you live in an area which has stone walls around fields built before 1930, take a metal detector along the wall and you might find mislaid tools - the steel will be far better than anything you buy today and will not rust.

Pick up a book on the vegetation in your area - plants that are useful and edible; same for fungus; same for fish.

[4Liberty]

Whoa, good to know. Thanks very much.

:)

[Lee'sGhost]

Well said.

[Lee'sGhost]

As someone who has split a few logs in his time, that thing blows me away. It’s a perfect example of something that can be done easier/better if you had only taken a minute to think of it as a problem that needed to be solved. In other words, people use an ax and a stump because that’s just the way it’s always been done.

Of course, I’m leaving out the gas splitter because that is not a solution in a SHTF scenario.

[mad_as_he$$]

I am working on a solar powered splitter! ;-)

[Lee'sGhost]

I think he needs a new saw. It’s taking him forever to cut the end of that log off.

[Lee'sGhost]

Ha! Good luck with that.

[mad_as_he$$]

It will be solar/steam powered and environmentally friendly.

Not.

[central_va]

I almost live off the grid now. I have propane and wood for heat. I have my own well and septic.

The biggest problem is generating electricity. There really is no way to generate electricity quietly and efficiently yet. I can buy it for 10 cents/KWHr. That is hard to beat.

[Ditter]

I am OK with simplifying but these people are nuts. What about when they get old and become disabled? Who is going to chop their wood and haul their water? A sprained ankle will mean that one of them has to do the work of two. When they get old they have to move to town and who pays their bills then?

Better to live on a tropical island where you don't freeze in the winter, can fish for food and catch rainwater to drink. That would get very old too. Just wait for a hurricane to blow you away, that’ll help!

[Ditter]

Aunt Sara is that you? ; )

[Twinkie]

Nope. Not Aunt Sara. Your Aunt Sara is actually a lot
tougher than Twinkie! :O)

[Twinkie]

Yeah. In winter, we wore our coats to the outhouse.
- Chamber pots were emptied into the outhouse hole, then
rinsed out. We didn’t use them during the day unless we
were sick. (We weren’t sick much; got enough germs to be
healthy!)

[Ditter]

My Uncle Joe and Aunt Sara living in east Texas didn't have electricity or indoor plumbing in the 50s. We used to go up and stay with them when I was a child. That's how I know I don't want to live like that.

Kerosene lanterns at night, cooking on a wood stove in the kitchen ( in summer it was hot) outhouse with spiders in it. No thanks!

[Ditter]

I meant to include you in post 94.

[trebb]

Yeah. In winter, we wore our coats to the outhouse. - Chamber pots were emptied into the outhouse hole, then rinsed out. We didn’t use them during the day unless we were sick. (We weren’t sick much; got enough germs to be healthy!)

I remember the days when ample quantities of dirt were a sign of a healthy kid doing what healthy kids did - spend lots of time out of doors playing. If kids were caught doing half of what we did for fun in today's climate, lots of parents would be charged with neglect/abuse. It shows.

I believe the 50's and early 60's were the last truly "good old days".

[trebb]

My Uncle Joe and Aunt Sara living in east Texas didn't have electricity or indoor plumbing in the 50s. We used to go up and stay with them when I was a child. That's how I know I don't want to live like that.

Kerosene lanterns at night, cooking on a wood stove in the kitchen ( in summer it was hot) outhouse with spiders in it. No thanks!

Even the hunting camp we used to spend time at had more facilities.

Had electricity for lights and a old fridge but used a wood/coal stove for heat (and to heat water from the pumps - one outside for big jobs like filling buckets of water for bathing and flushing the indoor toilet (had a sign on the wall "If it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down") and a smaller one at the kitchen sink.

It was my kind of camping - beds with quilts, fireplace and the wood/coal stove kept the place cozy. Also had a natural gas tank to make the cooking stove convenient.

I miss the days of spending a "men's week" in the foothills down by Angelica, NY for deer season - cards and food (liver and heart meat if we had a deer "in the bag" and eggs, bacon, potatoes, cheese, onions, etc., cooked in a huge cast iron skillet (along with steak night and other delicacies, not to mention going into town one night to "see the dancing girls (what we told our women but actually a hole in the wall with a pool table/bowling machine/jukebox). Round it out with a wheel of pepper jack cheese and copious amounts of beer and we were in Heaven. The "dining room table had a huge jigsaw puzzle to round out the entertainment - I went for 5 years running and I think we had the puzzle about half done...

[Ditter]

Our hunting camps were state of the art, even back 30 years ago. The one we have now is amazing! Not roughing it like the old OLD days.

[Daffynition]

Heh. His pioneer spirit is the essence of what it means to be an American. ;)

[Roos_Girl]

Yep, hubby and I have talked around and around and over and under moving to solar power, but it is WAY too expensive of an initial investment, takes up WAY too much space for batteries to store the power that is generated, and close to the time you’re about to break even on the cost of the initial construction versus not paying an electric bill it’s time to replace the solar panels and batteries. We have bought all the equipment and hubby is working on moving our water well to strictly solar power, and that was a pretty penny, but we feel good about having an uninterrupted water supply.