Off grid living in 2021

a reply to: Nyiah

...and, very selective pictures!

(judging by the google view).

Oops!!

a reply to: Nyiah

But it will be 51 degrees there tomorrow with a drop to the high teens that night...

And yea.

Not "off-grid" at all, in the conventional sense.

It's like saying I am "off-grid" because I live in town and my power is turned off.

Hell, I got to ask why would somebody lie on message board? Im sure there are reasons but what are they.

You are blessed to live in such a pristine area. It's good for your soul but hard on the legs! Good luck to all going and currently off-grid. Learning your wild edible plants and basic wildcrafting skills like how to use saws, axes and knives are essential starting out. Plan on needing to remove sizable trees from the road regularly (chainsaw or large bowsaw? both!).

Glad you asked. I plow the roads up here. The community has a 350 with a western blade on the front.

This year hasn’t been bad at all because it’s La Niña, but years prior have seen incredible amounts of snow. It’s critical to get the propane trucks up. We don’t use salt on our roads so they drivers put on chains. Since I’ve lived here... two have ran off the road.

Now comes the kicker... we live in the midst of a national forest, so our dirt and gravel road way up here connects to a highway... DoT takes care of that and I take care of our private roads...

In the winter I go through about 300 gallons a month... in the summer about 80 gallons a month..

We still rely heavily on solar. But if you were wondering, this is my price breakdown for the last 12 months...

Jan 13 (2020) - $453

Feb 4 - $363

Mar 23 - $341

April 24 - $375

June 4 - $233

July 27 - $286
July 31 -$105 tank rental

Sep 25 - $376

Nov 19 - $657

Jan 11 (2021)- $664

originally posted by: Lumenari
a reply to: HunkaHunka

SoOo...

You are at 8,500 feet elevation, are an hour from anywhere but use propane for heat, for your generators, for your stove, fridge, lights, water heater, I am assuming your freezers, etc...

Not only your generator for light and for heating the house and powering your satellite service, your computer, but another generator for filling two 10k gallon water tanks, from a 700 foot deep well that services at least 6 families.

You do know that propane generators (decent size ones) can go through 5-6 gallons an hour...

I just have to ask...

How do you get propane in the winter?

You know, the 3,000 gallons a month you are going to use?

You must get a sweet deal on propane!!!!

Or does it not snow at 8,500 feet elevation where you are in America in the Pacific North West?

Just wondering....

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Actually I’m the plow jockey up here..

Not sure why you are so full of animosity but whatever

I grew up on a farm in Ohio, and moving here was a lot like moving back home but with more mountains and less cornfields

I wish! It’s not going to get higher than 22 for a while... lots of snow coming this weekend

originally posted by: Lumenari
a reply to: Nyiah

But it will be 51 degrees there tomorrow with a drop to the high teens that night...

And yea.

Not "off-grid" at all, in the conventional sense.

It's like saying I am "off-grid" because I live in town and my power is turned off.

not gonna give out too much info........suffice it to say i checked everything to make sure you were telling the truth about your "off grid" situation

originally posted by: HunkaHunka
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

So I'm not planning on making identifiable information public. Suffice it to say that this is in the Mountain West.

Id call it more the southish west not to be a jerk, but suffice it to Say a person can find out exactly where you are just by those pics my friend.....scrub your data

originally posted by: Nyiah

originally posted by: HunkaHunka
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

So I'm not planning on making identifiable information public. Suffice it to say that this is in the Mountain West.

Then you SHOULD have deleted your photos' iPhone EXIF data if you expected people to buy your line.

One, nice town.

Two, nice neighborhood. For being "off-grid".

Three, you ain't off-grid by a LONG SHOT. Summer homes don't count.

Exactly thats the first thing i did too, which i ususally do when people post pics to see if they are telling the truth lol

a reply to: HunkaHunka

Too bad you put in all that propane stuff, it is going to get expensive and harder to get in the next few years, and you will be be coerced to spend lots of money to build your panel grid and hook up to the grid. Also, everyone will have to have a meter on their panels to pay for the cost of the nations conversion to solar, even after you paid for it and maintain it on your own. Also, if you own a well, they will require a meter on it and will charge for water use. They have been trying to do that for many years already but so far are just forcing people to abandon their wells and hook up to the community water supply which has water you can't even drink so you have to buy bottle water.

It is all coming in the next ten years.

Great looking pics.
Though I thought the premise of being OG was being off the grid? Off grid to me at least, means:

Self sustaining power, water, and food supply.

No bank account, no email, no stocks, no credit cards.

Matter of fact, you shouldn't even be posting...
If you were truly off the grid.

But way to let us all know and post pics too.
Strange flex, but alright.

a reply to: HunkaHunka

Welllllll, I'll explain it to you.

As much as I hate to admit it, I had another poster here on ATS call me out a while back for allegedly misrepresenting things. I wasn't doing that exactly, but I had omitted some things which were probably relevant, so they had a point. I had to take a step back and think about the way I portrayed things. It's kind of like taking a picture; you can crop the image in such a way that it looks like paradise...when there's really a bug ugly factory or a major freeway just out of the frame. Yes, the picture is real, but it doesn't tell the whole story. This can be equally true for words, not just pictures.

You've spent a good deal of time brow beating, virtue shaming and passively aggressively passing off your political ideology. You've used your lifestyle as an example of why you're better than others. Then you post this thread, as if to be a justification of some of the things you've said. But, like the picture analogy above, what you've presented doesn't really tell the whole story...and...in fact, it actually skews the real picture heavily away from reality.

Honestly, it seems like you've got a nice spot where you live, and I'm happy for you. Just don't make it seem like you're living on the edge of creation, and that you did it all yourself (when I don't think you did), because you don't and you didn't. There are a number of people here who live way out in the "boonies" (I might be among them), and some of them truly are "off-grid" (I don't claim to be one, albeit close). Being self sufficient is not about what you have, but rather about knowing how to truly do things yourself when times get difficult and there's no one else around to do it for you. You can't buy that, you have to earn it. And, when you do, it's not something you shame others with as much as it is what you use to steel yourself against what comes tomorrow with.

Just a thought.

What??

The OP was a falsehood? A fake? A fraud?

Color me surprised

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

This is why I explained in the first part of my OP that there are many ways to live off-grid. That it’s not necessarily off radar or Amish, but it’s disconnected from the power grid.

I got very fortunate that I found this place. We had been living on the other side of the mountain for a few years as renters. When our lease was up, and the owners were moving in for retirement we had to chose from what little inventory there was. This was the only available place, and we had never lived so far out that there wasn’t power or cell access anywhere... though like many, we had talked about it for years.... it was almost as if the universe aligned with our desires perfectly because we love this mountain and it’s people and it’s uniqueness and history.

But to be honest I had no idea what I was getting into. The first winter we were here was an el Niño year and we got 20 foot. What made it particularly bad was that when I returned from a trip, the resident who plowed and pumped water before me was having a double knee replacement. Someone had to plow and pump water, and We were the only eligible people available. So we learned to plow snow on a canyon wall on dirt/rock roads. At first I had to learn while doing. But everything that could go wrong did... the hydraulic hose sprung a leak, the controller in the cab was old and intermittent, I threw a chain, it was godawful. Luckily there was a guy who lived in the area who I became friends with. He’s grew up here and was the groomer at the local ski area, and he was taught to plow by an even older guy who moved here when he was 4, before anyone else and spent a winter in an army tent while his dad dug the basement for the house they built. Roots matter to me, and I got to learn from some of the best.

But while learning to plow in the most snow in about a decade, something was wrong with the water... I had to pump every day. I didn’t know it then but there was a giant leak in one of the cabins. 40,000 gallons a month were being wasted... on top of that both generators had gone out... and we got someone to lend us one, installing it during the beginning of a blizzard.

I’ve never grown so much since moving here. I’ve had to deal with things I never expected I would... like getting propane up here in a year when it never stops snowing; or troubleshooting a water distribution system...

But I’ve also experienced things that are wonderful, like making friends with wild horses and their families. Gaining the trust of wild burros and deer is something I’ll never take for granted.

As for my political posts... yeah I’m totally an elitist. And yeah it’s folks that live like this or even grittier that I feel are elite in a world of sameness. My real politicos are local... when it comes to federal politics I feel like everyone on every side is a complete moron because of lack of experience dealing with survival. I do feel it makes us all weak when we outsource our adulthood to others instead of taking responsibility for our world. So I get why I come off some kind of way in that other forum. But here, in this thread, just like on this mountain.... I’m not speaking on federal politics, I’m speaking on how I live, in order to generate discussion and hopefully some knowledge transfer.

We may not see eye to eye... but I got no qualms with you.

originally posted by: putnam6
Hell, I got to ask why would somebody lie on message board? Im sure there are reasons but what are they.

Inferiority complex

a reply to: HunkaHunka

Nice setup.

This is the type of setup I've seen built for Yuppies.

I have a different idea of off grid.

Not sure if it's true, looks cool though....

originally posted by: argentus
a reply to: LSU2018

People that are mostly or entirely self-sufficient are rightfully hesitant to identify their locations. There is a plethora of information available on the internet, and I bet with what I have posted just here on ATS, a person could identify where I live. I was a dumb # in the past. Hunkahunka is not a dumb #.

I've specified mine pretty well, too, with everything but an address and the color of my house. I wouldn't consider you, nor myself a dumb #. But I do see your point.

originally posted by: ManBehindTheMask

originally posted by: HunkaHunka
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

So I'm not planning on making identifiable information public. Suffice it to say that this is in the Mountain West.

Id call it more the southish west not to be a jerk, but suffice it to Say a person can find out exactly where you are just by those pics my friend.....scrub your data

Whoopsie, lol... I'm nowhere close to off-grid, but I'm way out in the country where I've been since 1985 and could be self-reliant here with all but solar. I don't have that yet. In fact, if S ever HTF, my parents and I already have a plan worked out to get back and forth to each others houses.

You walk directly across the street here where my parents live and follow it north for about 200 yards.



Then follow the creek west for a mile and go south for 150 yards. This is the back of my property.


These are real so they can't be found on the Goog...

Really cool ! Thank you for sharing !!