Posted on 01/26/2024 7:12:33 AM PST by grundle
Our journey from city life to live in a 600 square foot shed and homesteading.
(Excerpt) Read more at tiktok.com ...
I do not understand. In my part of the woods, you can easily buy several 100 lb propane tanks and hook them up to your propane connection. OK it is cold, so you drive a hundred miles and buy three 100 lb tanks. Yes, you will have to take them to Tractor supply several times a week. But how different is that from cutting wood. What am I missing?
We live on a family farm in southern Indiana.
I’d love to pick your brain sometime. I’m sure you could teach me a few things that I really should learn to do.
There’s no storage space in a 600 foot building if you are living in it.
Hope you all live where you can grow crops all year long.
Happy to tell you everything I know; it won’t take long.
We live in a 1000 sq.ft, 2 bedroom, post WWII one story home in a small depressed town. No basements in this area due to clay soil and low water table. We are bursting at the seams, but a lot of it’s clutter. I’m in the process of decluttering, but even at that, we have only 2, 4x4 ft closets, a 2x4ft coat closet, and a 5x6 walk in pantry that I let my husband have for a gun room. We do have an 8x8ft. laundry room, but my husband has taken that over for his tools. Screened in back porch is packed to the gills, too. The 2nd bedroom is basically storage, and I’m trying to clear that out some. I do not know how people in “tiny homes” live. They must have like, 2 changes of clothes. What do they wear to church, if they go? I have cookware items that I use only occasionally, but when I need them, I need them. I’d go crazy if I had to live any smaller.
I wish I knew where to start. I have a lot of questions about living more remotely.
Randomly, how far is it to good health care for you?
We are in great shape right now, but I figure in 15-20 years that could change dramatically. And I guess it could change dramatically at any time, though as we get older, it will be something we will want pay attention to. Right now we’re about 10 minutes from decent health care, and 45 minutes to the bigger places. That’s always one of my first considerations.
Being off grid doesn't require that you be physically remote from the rest of the world. Yeah, you're probably not gonna buy 80 acres right outside of Carmel to live on, but once you're away from the state capitol, life is still possible.
I didn’t mean you have to be completely remote to be off the grid. And I don’t live anywhere near the snooty snoots of Carmel. I just was curious about what health care you have available. It sounds sufficient.
I should amend my previous post, in that there are probably some snooty snoots near where I live, too, so it’s not a requirement to be in Carmel. I’m sure there are some fine people who live there, and I just tossed them in with a bunch of people unnecessarily. Mea culpa.
In Indiana, a homeowner is permitted to build a residence and related structures for his own use free from local land use regulations. In establishing your own game plan, familiarize yourself with this law. Several on-line resources comparing off-grid living on a state-by-state basis are wholly unfamiliar with this law.
That sounds like welcome advice. We’ve only been in Indiana for 10 years. Still plenty to learn, but we like very much what we’ve experienced here so far. Kind of a gem, although few in our country realize it. I’m happy if it stays that way. I like being under the radar.
“Happy to tell you everything I know; it won’t take long.”
reminds me of the old joke were the boy’s father says:
“I taught that boy everything i know, and he still don’t know a goldarn thing!” ...
I talked to our friends about your suggestion and they talked to the fire department. The official word from them is that what you are suggesting is not safe. I don’t know any other details.
I use a 100 pound tank and it is no problem at all. We use it for cooking and emergency heat like we needed last week when it got down to 7 degrees. Other than that we use a wood stove for our 900 sq feet cabin on 14 acres on the side of a mountain here in NE Alabama.
Here is my background. I lived in the mountains of VA. There was only one powerline into my section of the very narrow valley. We lost power one to four times a year. The house I bought had a generator installed connected to a 100 lb tank. The generator ran critical parts of the house (oven works, bathroom lights did not work). The old owner showed me how to disconnect and connect a propane tank. I used about 200-300 lbs of propane a year. I later moved and I no longer have a generator, but my neighbor does. He is a a professional propane installer and drives a propane truck. He has propane fireplace. During a cold snap, he ran out of propane. He asked me to hold the flashlight while he swapped out tanks from a large empty tank to a full 100lb tank. He changed the tanks exactly like I did it. The hardest part is getting the empty tank into and the full tank out of the truck. There are Youtube videos that show what needs to be done.
Remember, NJ does not allow you to put gasoline in your car's gas tank, "because it is too dangerous." If our "experts" had their way we would need a professional to load our shotguns and forget about handloading ammunition.
Thanks. Useful. I’ll show your post to Mr. Mercat. In the meantime, our friends changed companies and they’ll get their propane on Thursday.
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