Preparing For Off Grid Life

If you live on grid now and are fortunate enough to be paying a reasonable utility rate, why would you even consider going off grid, and pay triple for your energy, and suffer a lot of inconvenience in the process.  Here are a couple of scenarios to consider:

Egg Recall Points To Greed

Do you ever wonder how safe the food you buy in the store is? Does the recent recall of over a half-billion eggs disturb you? How about the fact that the eggs made 1,500 Americans ill from salmonella? Before the eggs, it was the tomatoes, before that, was spinach, and before that, were peanuts.

This disturbs me a lot. Not so much the safety aspect only because my family eats mainly what we raise or buy locally. It’s the damage that this sort of thing does to the small farmer. ... [more]

 Are We Done Yet?

RANT - I talk to people every day that are unemployed and financially in trouble. Many of these people are professionals with ten, twenty years experience. Electrical engineers, software engineers, computer programmers, copy writers, editors, the list goes on. Some have lost their homes. Some have taken out bankruptcy. And many are college grads with bachelors’ degrees, masters’ degrees, and PhD’s.

I want to know if we are done yet! Are we done expecting our governments and big businesses to help us out? If not, maybe you can explain why government complexes and military bases aren’t loaded with PV solar panels, and wind generators. Why doesn’t Costco, Boeing, Sears, Home Depot, Kmart, etc. install PV solar panels or vertical/horizontal wind generators? ... [more]

Got Water ?

It’s that time of the year again. Our water well is running dry. Two years ago we lost water for over a month. Last year we didn’t run dry at all. Every time we run dry, we don’t know if it will be for a day, week, or month. It’s best to have a 30 day supply of water whether you need it or not. So here are some tips:. . . [more]

Clean Power  and  Carbon Footprint

All too often we get caught up in slogans  and pop cult  notions without  really  examining what we  are supporting. These days  we  are bombarded by “Green this” and “Green that”.  Media observers have commented that a lot of big business are just ‘green washing’ the same old products with a new flashy packaging;  not really a new product. We hear a lot about  reducing our carbon footprint but how many people really understand  what is involved?

One slogan I saw said  “reduce your carbon footprint – leave your  dirty boots at the door” . . . [more]

Planning To Go Off Grid

Last week 2elnav submitted a nice piece on going off the grid. This has prompted me to write an update on our (my family’s) journey. In our section Who We Are, I say “… The beginning of our journey to become more self-sufficient. Not isolated . . . not "off the grid" . . . not even lacking in "toys"…” This statement should be updated to say, “… The beginning of our journey to become more self-sufficient. Not isolated . . . maybe "off the grid" . . . and reevaluate our need for "toys"…” . . . [more]