Communities

Talk is Cheep

[before_listing images= youtube=null] Could-a, should-a, would-a.
What’s it gonna take to wake you up?
Unless you get off your butts yesterday, you are toast.
In reality, when the social structure breaks down, there will be nobody to insure justice.
Might makes right.
There will be only two kinds of people.
The Perpetrator and the victim, the hunter and the hunted, The master and the slave.
Pretty much everything I have read on line describes these two elements in one fashion or another.
In my opinion, survival will be a crap shoot.
Whatever you do, whatever your resources are, have a plan.
Remember, before you can solve a problem, you have to recognize that there is a problem.
If you don’t see that not preparing is a problem, then so be it. I wish you all the luck.
In my next message, I will run through a few scenarios. If you have any scenarios, please post them. Any plan is better than no plan, although “No plan” could also be considered a plan. LOL
Love ya all till you try to take my stuff!

[landbuddy_listing youtube=null]…

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Communities

Nuns growing medical marijuana

Holy Smoke!  From the LA Times to ABC Nightline, everybody loves the Sisters of the Valley, a group of nuns from Northern California who make and sell cannabis-infused medicines.

Nightline tracked them down in their remote off-grid growing location near Merced, CA and screened a short report – here is the transcript:

 

NIGHTLINE ANCHOR:  Religion, something so personal for many of us. But the self-proclaimed weed nuns you’re about to meet put their faith in an all-encompassing, cannabis-based farm where the key to healing is hemp. Here’s my “Nightline” co-anchor Juju Chang.

NUNS (GROUP)

Bless our food and bless our folk, and keep us in your grace.

JUJU CHANG (ABC NEWS)

(VO) Prayer. Ministry.

CHRISTINE MEEUSEN (“SISTER KATE”)

Lead the way over to the abbey.

JUJU CHANG (ABC NEWS)

(VO) Servitude. But these are not your typical nuns.

NUN (FEMALE)

How much have we had today?

JUJU CHANG (ABC NEWS)

(VO) Meet the Sisters of the Valley, the self-styled weed nuns, putting their faith in the healing power of cannabis. And their sermons, so to speak, aren’t just shaped around the sticky icky, they’re political, radical feminists to boot.

CHRISTINE MEEUSEN (“SISTER KATE”)

My big, dirty sin is I voted for Ronald Reagan. But I grew out of it and I think I see more clearly now.

JUJU CHANG (ABC NEWS)

(VO) Their convent is nestled deep in northern California farm country, where I traveled to meet the unorthodox sorority.

NUN (FEMALE)

W for weed nuns.

JUJU CHANG (ABC NEWS)

(VO) But before I could enter the premises, a peculiar request.

CHRISTINE MEEUSEN (“SISTER KATE”)

We’d like to ask you if it’s okay to cleanse you and sage you. We ask anyone who comes, invited to our to house to be cleansed before they enter. Is that okay?

JUJU CHANG (ABC NEWS)

(OC) Of course.

CHRISTINE MEEUSEN (“SISTER KATE”)

Thank you.

JUJU CHANG (ABC NEWS)

(OC) What is this?

CHRISTINE MEEUSEN (“SISTER KATE”)

This is sage, it’s a white sage the natives used to cleanse your aura, to cleanse emotions.

JUJU CHANG (ABC NEWS)

(VO) On this sun-drenched property tucked among vineyards and apple orchards, the women grow cannabis, using a strain of marijuana that eliminates THC but still contains CBD, touted for its healing properties.

CHRISTINE MEEUSEN (“SISTER KATE”)

It’s medical marijuana. So, just like over the years they’ve been able to develop strains that get you super high, we’ve also developed strains that don’t get you high at all.

JUJU CHANG (ABC NEWS)

(VO) Which is the variety they grow in their “Garden of Weeden.” Sister Kate says their top seller, a topical salve to soothe achy joints, which rakes in $3,000 a day. A few of the ladies live in the compound, and a total of six sisters work in the business alongside two brothers.

CHRISTINE MEEUSEN (“SISTER KATE”)

We do …

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Monetize your off-grid home with a reverse mortgage application

In these difficult times, it is reassuring to know that if you are a homeowner yo may be able to raise cash that only needs to be repaid after your death.

As long as you have no intention whatsoever of selling your off-grid residence, a reverse home loan
could be of great value as another way to keep control of your finances. Here are some pointers to help you find your way around the retirement home loan, more commonly known as a reverse mortgage.
How does the payback work?
The payback terms on a reverse mortgage are very different to those of a normal loan. The first
significant difference is that you have a lot more time in which to pay the amount back, than you
would have otherwise. The payment terms are very flexible, and you will only have to pay back the
total if you ever choose to sell or leave the house. A reverse home loan is a great way to free up
some extra money during retirement. Its flexibility gives you more control over how you choose to
handle the repayment of the amount you borrowed.
Keep within your means
Especially for those who are well-versed in the workings of traditional loans, the relaxed conditions
of a reverse home loan can seem idyllic. In spite of the very definite benefits this kind of loan, it is
crucial that you don’t lose sight of the fact that it is still a loan like any other. This means that you
would still have to consider the impact of interest, which will still accrue during the loan term, and
for which you will be responsible at the end of the loan term. If you reach the end of the loan period
and are unable to pay back the amount owing, the house will have to be sold in order to recoup the
costs. For this reason, the value of your house is a large consideration in the application process, as
the overall value has to be great enough to cover whatever is left outstanding.
When you approach a lender, they will assess your financial situation using a tool known as a reverse home loan calculator.

Using this points system, factors such as the age of your house, its location and its general condition will be used to rate your application. Due to the intervention of federal laws, you will be blocked from
borrowing the full value of your home. This is where the reverse mortgage calculator come in handy
– it simplifies and regulates the application process without bias.
How do you get your money?
Upon approval of your loan application, you can pick one of several ways in which you can take
receipt of your money, from regular payments that occur monthly, almost like a salary, to taking it as
a line of credit, so you can spend …

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A Tyalgum resident poses with his electric bike
Communities

Australia Decentralises

When folks first hear about Tyalgum, in East Australia they picture Mad Max.

Steampunk locals power this dieselpunk outpost with renewable, ethanol-based Guzzolene. Tyalgum has free Wi-Fi and a day spa.

Tyalgum is also going off the grid.

And for the people in this bohemian town in Australia’s east coast hinterland, the stakes are high.

A tourist may be forgiven for ignoring the harsh realities of climate change in such a picturesque spot, but the locals are serious. They’re concerned about carbon emissions and rising temperatures. They’re sick of relying on coal-fired power stations for their electricity.

They’re not the only ones. As the existential threat of climate change grows, people and communities across the world are growing frustrated with governments dragging their feet on environmental policy and investment in renewable energy.

Australia is deeply dependent on fossil fuels, with around 90 percent of the country’s energy generation coming from oil, coal and gas. Australia’s federal government is unabashedly pro-coal. While other nations turn to renewables, Australia contemplates building a massive coal mine in the northeast of the country. When debates about volatile power prices hit the news, Australian politicians call for the construction of more coal-burning power plants. In 2017, the deputy prime minister at the time said he would support clean energy targets — if they included coal.

But climate change is real, and Eastern Australia is feeling the effects. With unstable energy prices, statewide blackouts and a fierce debate over fossil fuels, more Australians than ever want to take action on electricity.

For the people of Tyalgum, solar is the future.

That’s where the Tyalgum Energy Project comes in. The ambitious project wants to power the entire town with 100 percent renewable energy and, one day, begin selling excess power to the wider local area, turning Tyalgum into a community-owned energy retailer in its own right.

Tyalgum isn’t alone. Far from it. Just down the road, the town of Lismore switched on Australia’s first community-owned solar project back in January. The 99kW solar farm floats on the overflow pond at the town’s sewage treatment plant.

From homeowners installing a few solar panels on the roof to entire community-owned solar projects, Australians are starting to take back their power.

There’s a reason Australia is called the “sunburnt country.” The continent has the highest solar radiation per square meter in the world, according to Geoscience Australia. Despite its sunny disposition, the country is 15th on the World Bank’s ranking for sustainable energy use.

Australian communities and businesses are beginning to switch to renewables, though. Elon Musk’s Tesla, best known for electric cars, just installed the “world’s biggest” lithium-ion battery farm in South Australia. AGL, one of the country’s biggest energy providers, has plans to convert one of its ageing coal-fired power stations into a clean energy hub. And the country’s biggest beer maker, Carlton United Breweries, is moving toward …

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hemp encompasses the globe
Work

Hemp – key off-grid industry, USA & global events 2018

Hemp is Hot! It is going to be a busy 2018 for Cannabis expos and conferences domestically and internationally. Below is a running list of some of the events taking place in 2018. At Off-Grid HQ, we have also been invited to a few below-the-radar events and will be reporting from them in due course.
Off-Grid.net recognises that the hemp industry was the catalyst for the solar industry and the off-grid movement, and we will continue to cover the industry in great detail. Please send any info to nick@off-grid.net

UPCOMING USA HEMP EVENTS

March 7 — 11, 2018 — Expo West – The CBD Summit — Anaheim, CA

The CBD Summit is your chance to better understand the opportunities and challenges that exist for the hemp-derived cannabidiol market in the United States. With a better understanding of the regulatory, supply, scientific, labeling, retail and standards issues surrounding the hemp-derived CBD market, you will leave the CBD Summit with new intelligence to help inform your next steps as a supplier, manufacturer or retailer of CBD products.

April 6, 2018 — NoCo 3rd Annual Hemp Summit — Loveland, CO

The NoCo Hemp Expo is proud to host the 3rd Annual Hemp Summit, an important gathering of hemp-focused executives, founders and investors. Receive an intimate, insider’s view of the hemp industry during this VIP-level networking and special programming featuring business-focused information, market intelligence and analysis from leaders and influencers in the hemp industry.

April 6-7, 2018 – NoCo 5th Annual Hemp Expo — Loveland, Colorado

An important gathering of hemp-focused executives, founders, and investors. Receive an intimate, insider’s view of the hemp industry during this VIP-level networking and special programming featuring business-focused information, market intelligence and analysis from leaders and influencers in the hemp industry.

April 14, 2018 – PDX Hempfest Expo — Portland, Oregon

A full day of educational sessions with professional Cannabis speakers to bring you up to speed on rapidly changing developments in the Cannabis industry. A high concentration of Cannabis industry technology buyers will be present.

April 14, 2018 — Oregon Hemp Convention — Portland, Oregon

A full day of educational sessions with professional Cannabis speakers to bring you up to speed on rapidly changing developments in the Cannabis industry. A high concentration of Cannabis industry technology buyers will be present.

May 9 — 11, 2018 – MJBizCon 2018 — New Orleans, LA

MJBizConNEXT focuses on the near future of the expanding Cannabis industry. For executives growing their companies and emerging industry professionals looking at cutting-edge innovations, new technologies and how cannabis businesses grow in a rapidly advancing market, NEXT is your show!

March 2 – July, 2018 – First Friday Tour — Spring Hope, North Carolina

These exclusive bonus tours will take shareholders behind-the-scenes of North Carolina’s burgeoning industrial hemp epicenter to see Hemp, Inc.’s processing equipment in full operation and producing product… from the cultivation of its …

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How to Make a Great Campfire – Easily

Going camping is a fantastic way to relax and unwind. And it’s a first step towards a life off the grid.
Its an activity you can enjoy by yourself, or you can invite friends and family. When you are preparing a camping trip, there are several points that you will have to keep in mind, such as a suitable shelter, and packing enough food and water for your adventure.
Another aspect of camping that you should plan carefully is how you are going to create your campfire at night. The main requirement is dry wood, and a way of lighting the fire. You might want to take a few logs with you, as well as collect some on the way. Wet wood is harder to light, burns slower and gives off more smoke and pollution.

Making a Campfire
Making a fire when you are out camping is useful for two reasons. First of all, a campfire is a great way to keep everyone warm when the temperature drops at night. Your fire will be a fun place for everyone to gather and spend the evening together. This will help everyone get warm and cosy before they go off to their own tents.
Secondly, if you dont happen to own a sun oven, a campfire can be used to cook on when you are sleeping outdoors. You might be tempted to take a stove with you for convenience and ease, but why not cook on a campfire for a more authentic outdoor experience!
Flint and Steel
Using flint and steel to start a campfire is a reliable solution and does not require much time or effort. You simply strike the steel, and sparks will fly into your char cloth, which you then use to ignite a pile of kindling, allowing you to easily start your campfire. Preppers recommend make sure to shop this flint and steel collection. This is going to come in very handy if you find that there are no other ways to make a campfire, so always ensure you have access to tools like this if you want to keep warm while camping.
Teepee Campfire
This is one of the easiest ways to start a campfire. Simply lean your logs together in a pyramid shape over some kindling and add pieces of fuelwood as the fire is getting started. Depending on the size of your teepee campfire, you may find that the logs fall as they burn, so make sure nobody is sitting too close to the flames when you are using this method.
Star Fire
This is a great way to make a campfire if you do not have access to much wood or if you want to keep your fire small for any reason. To make a star fire, get a small pile of kindling going and then position logs into the fire …

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I Am Off-Grid And I Want Others To Join Me

Come out of her! Seeking Christian Woman for Wife, and Friends

Lord God Almighty Bless your soul, and strengthen you up, gird yourself up and come on. Its getting late. I know what to do…. I am ready and.. Prepared, but something is missing, BONE of my BONE, flesh of my flesh, Two is One One is None…

jkey7777@yahoo.com, jason key FB, ph#828-435-5465 (limited time – call me), vras traceur YT.

About Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgAFcvIw8J4

I can think of younger days when living for my life
Was everything a man could want to do
I could never see tomorrow, but I was never told about the sorrow

And how can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
How can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go round?
How can you mend a this broken man?
How can a loser ever win?
Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again
I can still feel the breeze that rustles through the trees
And misty memories of days gone by
We could never see tomorrow, no one said a word about the sorrow

And how can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
How can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go round? It don’t go ’round’ Duh…(1Cron16:30 Psa93:1 the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.)
How can you mend this broken man?
How can a loser ever win?
Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again

Can you keep up with me?

– Who I am –

My name is Jason Key, I am a very spiritual man, The Holy Spirit. I have been thoroughly and gloriously saved by the lord Jesus Christ. I am a man of Dichotomy, Simple/Complex, Mature/Child Like, In the world but not Of the world, etc.
I was a truck driver on and off for about 10 years.
I have an 12 year old son, his mother died when he was 3. It has been a very long hard road (sometimes literally…) for me to survive Alone until now. My mom and dad have been a huge help to me in taking care of my son, he lives with them now and will continue to do so, for some time.

I am my Father’s Son, a Joint Heir with Christ.

I have a Huge range of skills/areas of interest/knowledge.
First of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit –

I am a survivalist, and woods man, a hunter – how to obtain water in an urban or natural environment, building shelters and other camp craft (rope,clothes,tools,traps) all come quite naturally to me and I have experience as well. Ultimately Almighty God is the source and only hope of survival. I serve a super natural God who’s favor and love for me, will Keep me alive.
I …

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Ben and Danny with empty wallets
Communities

Merry Pranksters go Off-Grid and try to Eat Free

Ben and Danny (pictured) are two of the merriest pranksters on the green scene. They have been spending some time in London and kindly agreed to take time off from their own work in order to help out on the off-grid web site. In their first film they see how hard it is to eat free in Britain’s capital city.

Over the next few weeks they will be making videos on all sorts of issues important to our readers – from water supply to van dwelling to mental health.

In their first video, I send them off to see how hard it was for them to eat for free in London. The answer is – its tough, and slightly disgusting. They are remarkably resilient duo but the tasks I set them are hard to endure and over the months ahead, will test the relationship between us to its limit.

See what you think of the video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gxtr19jR6w

Things were very different in my day. As a young man in London I was able to eat free 24/7 in a permanent round of openings, closings, community events and commercial freebies.

Post-Brexit London is a much tawdrier place, and Ben & Danny’s films will reflect that I think. Ben and Danny are both highly motivated by the new paradigm of minimising your carbon footprint, living without impacting on the earth, and keeping yourself outside the system – I am very proud to have them as our new Ambassadors in London.

I look forward to hearing what you think in comments – or write to me at nick@off-grid.net. …

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Tara Westover - Portrait
People

Tara Westover – Off-grid abuse

The shocking story of Tara Westover which she tells in her recently published memoir ‘Educated’ casts an undeserved shadow on off-grid-families and their ways of life. Off-grid abuse is not the norm.

It seems like Tara came a long way from growing up on a mountain in Idaho with her radical Mormon family of survivalists to studying at Cambridge University and writing a book that is surely going to make waves. Just the story of her being sent to work in a rubbish dump make scary reading.  But there were compensations as well.

“There’s a sense of sovereignty that comes from life on a mountain. It calms with its very magnitude, which renders the merely human of no consequence.”, Westover says as she describes her old home in the book.

Young Tara suffered from severe emotional and physical abuse by family members and had no access to medical care or higher education for most of her life. ‘All abuse is foremost an assault on the mind.’, Westover states.

While this story is heartbreaking it is a shame that it may give the alternative lifestyle of being off-the-grid a negative reputation.  Living in a remote, self-sustained community can be a wonderful experience, even for families.

I personally think that children should be given equal opportunities when it comes to education or going to college and be given the choice whether they want to spend their lives living off-grid or not. The issue in Tara’s case, so it seems, is that her parents were very anxious and paranoid about the ‘outside world’ (Westover had no birth certificate for 9 years, she was told to sleep with a knife and her and her siblings weren’t given medical care when injured).

There is no excuse for parents to abuse their children in any way, and although I don’t believe living off-the-grid has led to that kind of behavior, it certainly makes it easier to conceal.

I think it is crucial to always be open when raising children and to show and teach them as much as possible, to allow them to find out what is right and good for them, and give them the option to set goals and follow their desired path in life, even if it something the parents disagree with.

Tara’s parents allegedly did not give here those options and tried to keep her away from society as much as possible while limiting her physically and mentally for many years growing up.

The author has taken impressive steps to get to where she is today and I am very excited to read ‘Educated’ and find out more about her view on off-grid-living and also perhaps some of the positive aspects of it.

Tara Westover now is on her way to becoming a confident successful author and despite her strict Mormon upbringing she seems to have recovered from her childhood of off-grid …

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¡Comunidad Francesa necesita un nuevo líder!

¿Te gustaría experimentar las montañas francesas viviendo en nuestra comuna? ¿Te ves viviendo en una sociedad inclusiva y creativa? ¡Ven a colaborar con nosotros! Tu sabiduría y talento a cambio de ser parte de nuestra pequeña comunidad.

 

La Catfarm francesa es una comuna Off-grid para viajeros y creativos que nos visitan para experimentar un estilo de vida enfocado en la comunidad, sustentabilidad y creatividad.

 

Ahora buscamos a un nuevo miembro que comparta nuestra visión de construir una comuna sustentable Off-grid en lo antes era un viñedo al pintoresco sur de Francia, donde el verano dura ocho meses y la playa esta solo de un par kilómetros. Ofrecemos la oportunidad de vivir aquí gratis y convertir este en tu nuevo hogar. Serás capaz de utilizar un taller lleno de herramientas (desde tractor hasta martillo), y tener un espacio para explorar tu expresión y creatividad, mientras simultáneamente compartes esta experiencia con otros voluntarios.

 

Qué esperamos:

  • Un compromiso mínimo de 6 meses
  • Sentido fuerte de liderazgo
  • Experiencia con herramientas
  • Capacidad de planeamiento y organización
  • Claro/a para comunicarse
  • Experiencia viviendo Off-grid
  • Lado artístico y talento para escribir son un extra

 

Lo que ofrecemos:

 

  • Vivienda gratis
  • Comidas
  • 1/3 de las rentas que generamos en primavera
  • Comisión por ser cocinero en entrenamientos de Erasmus.
  • Espacio para trabajar en tus proyectos independientes
  • Taller equipado
  • Una gran comunidad llena de personas encantadoras

 

Para mas información checa nuestra pagina web www.catfarm.net

Para descargar la forma de aplicación https://bit.ly/2ooTNkd

 

Este artículo es una traducción directa del original en inglés https://off-grid.net/catfarm-needs-community-leader/…

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Communities

Three Rivers

FIRST there were the propane lamps. Then came wind turbines, followed by solar panels that powered William Shay’s off-the-grid vacation home overlooking Lake Billy Chinook.

And now, two decades after the first road was paved in Mr. Shay’s unusual central Oregon vacation community, sun-powered super homes hug the rimrock above his humble-by-comparison octagonal cabin.

”When I first came out here it was wild, wild West,” said Mr. Shay, who owns a vegetable oil distribution company in Portland, three hours to the northwest. ”People walked around with six-shooters and you thought there was a snake under every rock.”

Now it seems more as if there is a Porsche Cayenne S.U.V. in every garage at the 3,800-acre Three Rivers Recreation Area, home to more than 500 off-the-grid vacation homes, from trailers too long in port to air-conditioned McMansions with solar arrays costing tens of thousands of dollars.

”The lifestyle here, you can get simple or you can be real extravagant,” said Lorne Stills, whose late father, Doug Stills, started Three Rivers roughly four decades ago. The history of Three Rivers has been a trend from the former to the latter.

At first, what today is perhaps the country’s only off-the-grid second-home subdivision was just juniper and bunch grass, grazing land for cattle and sheep across the Metolius River arm of Lake Billy Chinook from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation.

Mr. Stills’s father originally envisioned building a hunting preserve, but his financial backers preferred the idea of selling lots to Portlanders and others looking to escape east of the Cascade Mountains on weekends, said Mr. Stills.

In the beginning people just pitched tents or parked their pickups on lots down beside the lake, said Mr. Stills’s widow, Delores. It was a place for working men to come and ”let their hair down,” said her son.

”When the campgrounds were full or they got kicked out for being too noisy, they came up here,” said Ms. Stills. There was no marketing beyond word of mouth, but by 1979 all the lots were taken, she said.

Eventually rough cabins started replacing the tents and trailers, but one problem remained: no power, water or telephone service for miles around.

Most buyers were of modest means but significant ingenuity, so there was a period of experimentation in power sources, from windmills to simple generators to modified automotive parts.

Some tried lighting their homes with propane lamps, but ”it was just about as dark inside as it was outside,” said Lorne Stills.

A hot shower was a coffee can with holes in the bottom hung from a peg out on the deck and filled with water heated on a propane stove. Or, if it was a hot enough day, a splash bath in the lake would suffice.

Three decades later, off-the-grid vacation homes have become practical for those not inclined to tinker and jury-rig car parts …

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Communities

It doesn’t feel like a sacrifice


After finishing school, Jocelyn and Jarvis had $96,000 of debt from student loans, credit cards, and buying a small rural property. This is the story of how they paid it off in just 20 months, and then built themselves a debt-free custom tiny house for their family of 4.

After ignoring their finances for a long time, the couple finally faced reality one night when they sat down and added up all of their debts, and compared it to the revenue they had coming in.

When they realized how much they owed, they decided to make some drastic changes so they could pay it off and stop worrying about money. To start, they moved to a smaller apartment, changed jobs, shopped second-hand, froze a credit card in a block of ice, switched to using cash only, and made a budget that allowed them to chip away at their debt.

They had a white board with a list of all their debts, which they updated every time a payment was made so they’d continue to be motivated. After 20 months, they were completely debt-free. After that, they continued with their minimalist, frugal habits and were able to save up enough money to build themselves a custom tiny house on wheels.

They’ve been living in the tiny house for over two years now, with their two children, and plan to continue living in it for as long as they can. They are currently saving money to buy a small acreage where they will build a larger off-grid home and keep the tiny house as an income property.

We’re very inspired by this young family’s dedication to improve their lives by paying off their debt, by their awareness of their energy consumption, by their efforts to buy less and live a low waste lifestyle. They’re trying to make positive change in every aspect of their lives, and that’s not always an easy thing to do.

Thank you, Jocelyn and Jarvis, for sharing your story with us! And for the beautiful day we spent at your place! Thanks for watching! Mat & Danielle



Web
Analytics


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