All you need to go off-grid

OFG-HowToFreeYourself.svg
Search
Sign in / Sign up

Communities
Communities

Homeless and Roofless

By Jim Martin – Homeless Shelter Director, Delaware

Every day in Southern Delaware, I work in the trenches and on the front lines of poverty, fear, homelessness, loneliness, isolation, addiction and mental illness.

People ask me about what I am seeing and experiencing out here on the front lines. In my opinion, there are the “roofless” and then there are the “homeless.” Being roofless means living rough. You are living outside with no cover. It also means most

times…..ROOT-less with little or no ties,

Being roofless mostly means living in active addiction and/or enduring an untreated mental illness. Living roofless is extremely exhausting, very fluid, dangerous, dark and unpredictable. It also costs about $10 a day to be roofless because of the needed supplies and provisions that you normally would NOT buy if you had a hard roof overhead. Many of the roofless are also smokers so you can add at least another six or more dollars to the $10 dollars a day cost of being roofless. Living roofless is also ruthless. It is brutal. If you are chronically roofless living outside, then you will die 25 years earlier than the average person who lives inside.

Now, what does homeless mean?

Homeless means you do have a hard roof overhead and there is much more accountability about your behaviors. You are living in an emergency shelter, an abandoned building or living on a couch… also known as “couch-surfing.” Being homeless could mean being doubled up or tripled up with family members.

Being homeless also could mean living in your vehicle. You can’t sign a lease or a deed in your own name.

Being homeless means you have an income of some sorts but it is not enough to pay rent or sign a deed/mortgage.

You purchase a car instead. You are a low wage earner and you are working on your recovery and your sobriety.

Being homeless also means living in transitional housing or group housing or shared living without a signed lease.

You are precariously housed living under the graces of another person or people. I estimate there are 100,000 Delawareans who are homeless and 30,000 Delawareans who are roofless.

There are 200,000 Delawareans with a mental illness. There are 100,000 Delawareans in active addiction. Of course, there are many Delawareans who struggle with both addiction and mental health conditions.

With the start of the New Year, we have many huge social problems in front of us to solve. Population health experts routinely state that 1 in 5 suffer with a mental illness. 1 in 10 with a severe addiction. There are a little less than 1 million Delawareans in total. Twenty percent have a mental illness and 10 percent have a severe addiction. As far as the roofless/homeless population, I am involved in a “point-in-time” study each year that helps to count the Delawareans who are unsheltered during …

Read More »
January 12, 2017 No Comments
Communities

Oregon Community Cut off by Snow

An off-grid village of 150 souls in Oregon is running out of food due to the severe snowstorms in the area.  And there is a severe threat of the weight of snow collapsing roofs.

County commissioners declared a local state of emergency around Prineville near Bend,OR yesterday after being pummeled with feet of snow for weeks. But now, county resources are drained and they need state help, said county emergency preparedness coordinator Vicky Ryan.

Ryan said Juniper Acres, an isolated, off-the-grid community south of Prineville, is county officials’ main concern. The community of about 150 has been cut off from emergency resources due to snow-blocked roads, which the county does not maintain, she said.

Crook County officials have asked the state for money, equipment and manpower to help plow rural roads that the Central Oregon county does not maintain in the area 30 miles north-east of Bend.

Some roads have reportedly been covered in snow drifts up to 8 feet deep. Crook County Judge Seth Crawford tells The Bulletin newspaper they’re impassible and people who live in neighborhoods including Juniper Acres and Prineville Lake Acres can’t leave to get supplies. Some may be running low on food and heat.

Maya Bamer lives in Juniper Acres subdivision, southwest of Prineville. She says snowmobiles are being used to deliver donated goods to snowed-in families.

a large portion of the shut Woodgrain Millwork plant in Prineville collapsed last Sunday morning, four days after another part of the roof collapsed under the weight of heavy snow. And a Tumalo youth ranch’s arena also collapsed from wet, heavy snow — but fortunately, no injuries occurred in either case.

“My husband and I were just outside playing in the snow with our kids and heard what sounded like an earthquake,” Jennie Quinn of Prineville told NewsChannel 21. “The rest of the Woodgrain Mill collapsed!”

This time, photos showed the walls also had fallen, not just the roof, leaving large holes exposed to the elemets.

Another area resident said Sunday’s collapse on the northeast corner of the complex of connected buildings blew sawdust and small debris across Peters Road, prompting a closure in case more of the structure fell at the 83-acre site, which the Idaho firm has up for sale.

The heavy snow also caused a collapse of the indoor arena at Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch on Innes Market Road in Tumalo.

“It’s a total loss,” CEO/Founder Troy Meeder said of the 9:30 a.m. collapse. “We have close to $500,000 of equipment now buried under snow, wood and twisted metal.”

But it could have been worse: Just “a few minutes before,” Meeder said, as one of her team was parking a tractor inside after use. Another team member and his 2-year-old son “were just gearing up to get out one of the tractors to move snow.”

“The building collapsed while neither was inside — thank you, …

Read More »
January 12, 2017 No Comments
Communities

What happened to PB?

20170110_164631

There are some things that can be (or look) fun about living off-grid, but there are many things that are less attractive, but still have to be done. One of those for us is truck maintenance. I rely on my truck for work and getting to town and back. We live some 20+ miles from the nearest town, what I tend to go through the most is tires and oil. Driving on the rough, unpaved, rocky, mountainous roads is very hard on tires as well as suspension. I drive slow to keep the damage at a minimum, but it still wears my tires out, I have to be prepared at any time to change a flat tire, and on occasion I have had to buy tires earlier than I wanted to because of having my spare on (in use) and getting another flat. I will need to look at buying tires once work starts building up again. Being in merchandising, our work slows down during the holidays, it’s about to pick up again and I can’t wait.

The other part of maintenance is oil changes, I have 2 choices, I can go in and pay to have it done in a garage, around here that is expensive, we’re talking about $60 or more, that’s just for a standard oil change and new filter, regular grade oil, nothing special. Or we can do it ourselves, like how I snuck in the “we”? Actually PB did it.

I ordered the oil and filter from Amazon, and I purchase an extra 2 quarts at a local store because my truck takes 7 quarts. It’s handy to be able to order most of what I need from Amazon, with the Prime service I have, I can get most things (including the oil and filter) here in 2 business days.

Yesterday, PB crawled under my truck and proceeded to change the oil, being able to do that ourselves saved us at least half what it would have cost to do it in town. I put a lot of miles on my truck so I need to get more regular oil changes, that will help keep my truck going for many years. One thing PB wants to do is incorporate a remote oil filter, that would allow me to use a larger filter, which would ultimately be safer for my truck, it’s something we will be looking into soon.

20170110_175957

The other thing I did while the hood was up, I anointed the engine compartment with peppermint oil, it’s for the mice, out here in the country there is a terrible problem with rodents, they have a tendency to chew on things, and those things become expensive to repair, not to mention potentially being stranded somewhere because of an electrical problem. The mint is a rodent repellent, they don’t like it. Now my truck smells minty …

Read More »
January 11, 2017 2 Comments
Communities

Women off-grid

women

When you think of someone living off-grid, chances are you either think of a man or perhaps a couple (or even a family), but it’s doubtful you will think of a single woman going off-grid, especially an older lady. Well I’m here to tell you, there are women living off-grid on their own, homesteading, doing the things that are traditionally done by the men.

As a female myself, I can tell you it’s convenient to have a man around to do the hard jobs, to do the really messy jobs, to reach the taller things, even to unscrew that stubborn lid, it’s convenient but not a requirement! I love my man and am glad we are doing this together, but it’s not an impossible thing to do on your own ladies, if you really wish to do this!

As long as you are in decent health and have a few skills, ladies you can do this. Having some smarts helps too, of course there might be somethings that are just physically difficult to do, that’s when you hire someone to help, whether you pay with money, or you trade something you can do (cooking, mending, fixing, and the such), don’t get fussy with me if you are a liberal woman and are offended by my words, this is what I would do if I didn’t have my PB around to do the heavy lifting.

Out where I live there are quite a few ladies, some in the +60 and even +70 age range who live on their own, not necessarily living off-grid, but living in a wild place with no city amenities or conveniences around. Many of them grew up on ranches, but not all, some did come from the city and just made it work through their own strength and perseverance.

Here are a few ladies who are doing this on their own



web analytics


…

Read More »
January 8, 2017 12 Comments
Communities

Not getting sick

sick

With winter in full blast mode, people are sniffling, sneezing and coughing all around me, I work in the public, not necessarily with the public, but I’m still exposed to all sorts of nasties during the week. I haven’t been really sick in quite some time, I have those down bla days from time to time, but haven’t had a full blown case of anything since last year, and I intend to keep it that way.

Last week, I thought I might be coming down with something, I had a sore spot in my throat, it lasted a full day but fortunately never turned into anything worse. I have a few tricks up my sleeve to help keep me in tip top shape, it’s not 100%, but I believe it helps. When I very first noticed the sore spot in my throat, I immediately grabbed an Emergen c fizzy packet, it’s packed full of nutrients, specifically the vitamin C and zinc were what I was wanting.

A few weeks ago, in one of the stores that I service (as a merchandiser), I saw an employee that I hadn’t seen in a while, I went over and shook his hand in greeting, it was after that handshake that he informed me that he was at the tail end of a cold… oh great I thought, I stayed out of his air stream and air bubble, that area in which viri accumulate en masse. I noticed him coughing a lot.

After washing my hands, I decided to purchase a hand sanitizer, now this is something I don’t typically use, but thought it prudent for now. Another thing I do is I try my utmost to not touch my face, especially my nose or eyes with my hands, especially if I have been handling the shopping cart handles, those have got to be the germiest place to touch.

If I hear someone cough or sneeze, I will stay away from their air space, if I am already walking past them, I’ll hold my breath until I am well beyond them. I know that might sound silly, but I’m not interested in breathing in whatever made them cough or sneeze, you should see the videos created that show sneezes and coughs in slo-mo, here is one

Now do you still think I’m being overcautious? I didn’t think so :)

If I have to cough or sneeze, I will often pull my shirt up as I duck my mouth down and sneeze or cough into my shirt, I don’t want to use my hands to cover my mouth, especially when I’m working because I’m handling items that the public will be buying, I’m also shaking hands with people. I don’t typically wear long sleeve shirts so I’m not going to cough or sneeze into my inner elbow. So into my shirt it goes, it might …

Read More »
January 6, 2017 No Comments

How to “go” when you are on the go

Food goes in and it must come out, that goes for you, me and even folk who live on the road. It’s one of the things that people either don’t think about or that’s all they think about. For those who live in their van, you can choose to toilet and bathe in your van, or you can stay close enough to places where you can toilet and bathe. It’s possible to go a few days (or even longer) between showers, you can so what my parents referred to as a spit bath (my dad used to say chorus girl bath), but you have to use the toilet on a daily basis.

For me, I would do the bucket method like Will Burson, I think he has a good setup, I’d personally want a better “seat”, but other than that, his setup is great, a double layer of trash bags in a 5 gallon bucket, a bit of kitty litter and a Gamma Seal lid and he’s setup.

He also shows a bit how he cleans himself, using baby wipes, and using a small sink to shampoo his hair. I understand he goes to a gym for regular showers, but when he’s not close to that gym, he cleans up between time in this manner. I read some of the comments people left on his YouTube page, most understand but it’s amazing at the number of people who say how gross this is… hello? Everyone poops, EVERYONE, how can that be gross? Do these people not use the toilet themselves?

Here is the video, enjoy!
https://youtu.be/KNh2IApLoAo



web analytics


…

Read More »
January 4, 2017 No Comments
Communities

Twenty seventeen

2017

I am not believing it’s 2017 already, in just 3 short years, it’s going to be the year 2020, now that will take some getting used to! People traditionally pick the New Year day to make their resolutions, I’ve never been one to stand on ceremony, I don’t do resolutions. I prefer setting goals, big and small. I will admit that I haven’t been setting goals for a while and I need to start doing that again. I think one thing I need to do is save more money, since we live very much on the cheap it should be easy, right? Well not so much but it’s something that has to be done.

I also want to, need to, start working on upgrading and replacing my solar system. I will keep my old stuff and use it in other locations around the Sky Castle, I really want to have my refrigerator (chest freezer to fridge conversion) on its own system, separate from everything else, I’ll most likely use my current setup for that and have the new hardware for everything else.

The reason I like separate systems is as a backup in case something should fail, having redundant systems is something I recognized as very important from the very beginning. Speaking of redundant systems, I have 2 separate on demand water heaters, one in my kitchen over the sink, the other in the shower. A few months ago, the one in the kitchen started acting strangely, when you turn on the hot tap, the tank clicks a piezo starter and ignites the propane, I noticed that when the water coming through was warmer (from the water tank), it worked just fine. But if the water coming through was really cold, the piezo clicker would continue clicking after the fire was lit, then it would shut off the entire thing. I thought something was failing on the system. We went the whole summer like this because it would work while the water coming through was warmish, not a problem in the summer. But once winter started in earnest, I knew we had to figure out what part needed to be fixed or replaced.

On a whim, I changed out the batteries for the piezo clicker and voila! It worked again, well duh! It was needing fresh batteries, what threw me was the fact that it worked when the water was warmer, then it would stop working if the water was icy cold, it would work in the daytime when the temps were mild, but once it began to get cold at night, it would stop working right. So now I have both of my water heaters working again.

As I said above, I don’t “do” resolutions, especially not ones based on an arbitrary date, I set goals, big ones, small one, and even achieve many of them, we all need …

Read More »
January 1, 2017 No Comments

Living in the Future

An ongoing documentary series celebrating sustainable communities and ecovillages around the world is promoting the off-grid way of life. Living in the Future hosts a free online series, a regular blog and a set of three feature documentaries – Ecovillage Pioneers, Lammas and Deep Listening – which follow the development of ecovillages, and communities, around the world.

Ecovillage Pioneers follows filmmaker Helen Iles’s search to find various sustainable, affordable, alternatives to our modern, consumptive way of life. Her journey takes her to a permaculture village in Australia, small communities in Ireland, Somerset and the Gower Peninsula, the more established Findhorn Foundation in Scotland, and the Centre for Alternative Technology in mid-Wales – all projects that inspired Lammas, the UK’s first legal low-impact settlement.

The second film, Lammas: How To build An Ecovillage, shares the highs and lows of the nine trailblazing families who embarked on the pioneering venture to create their homes and a community while dealing with the nightmares of planning applications. After more than six years of planning and construction, Lammas is now a successful off-grid community, spanning almost 50 acres of depleted pasture land in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Living in the Future’s online series celebrates the innovative and creative individuals who are finding new ways to build self-sustainable houses, including Rachel Shiamh, who won a Grand Designs Award for her two-storey load-bearing straw-bale home in Wales – the first two-storey load-bearing house in the UK, and only the second in Europe.…

Read More »
January 1, 2017 No Comments
Communities

Preppers can relax now that Trump is in

Trump

I typically steer clear of politics and religion as topics for me personally to discuss here, not that I’m anti religious or not political, quite the contrary, I’m a conservative Christian with slight libertarian leanings, the reasons I don’t typically discuss it here is, to those who believe as I do, well I’d be preaching to the choir, and those who don’t believe as I do, I’m not likely to exert much influence on them, and I’m not interested in arguing with anyone :)

That being said, let’s talk politics ;)
Honestly, I’m not going to talk about whether or not President Elect Trump should or should not be… I’m going to discuss what I’m seeing on the Internet about prepping. The question has been asked if people should stop prepping for the worst now that Trump is about to step into office. The short answer is NO! This is just plain common sense, it doesn’t matter who is in the oval office, it’s important to be prepared for as many potential problems as possible, from major social upheavals, think people rioting in your town, wouldn’t it be better if you had enough supplies to shelter in place at home for a few days to a few weeks rather than having to try to get to the grocery store through crazy people? It doesn’t matter what political affiliation the rioters are, doesn’t matter what their skin color is, if they are in uniform or not. You don’t want to leave your home and family unguarded and try to drive through a riot because you ran out of food.

There are other reasons to continue to prep for emergencies, from major weather related catastrophic events, to just getting snowed in for a few days. There are financial emergencies, from having your hours cut, to losing your job, perhaps an unexpected bill hits at an inopportune time.

These are just a few reasons to continue prepping for emergencies, there are many more, too many to list. Don’t let the political affiliation of who is in office, liberal or conservative, trick you into becoming complacent, don’t be tricked into thinking the government will take care of us in a major catastrophe, I don’t care if those in charge have a D or R next to their name, they will be more concerned with themselves first, then maintaining their power, we the citizens will be pretty far down their list, with the possible exception of controlling the masses. We, that means you and I, need to be more responsible for taking care of ourselves in as many situations as possible. Are you ready?



web analytics


…

Read More »
December 28, 2016 4 Comments
Communities

Christmas! And off-grid vlog 05

20161225_150432-01

This Christmas, we celebrated our 9th year living off-grid (actually the 22nd), I thought it was our 10th year and was so excited, then I realized I was having a senior moment and apparently forgot how to count. Oh well, 9 years isn’t anything to sneeze at, right?

Yesterday we had our Christmas Eve music special at church, I’m in charge of the music, I even have a title, Music Director, sounds fancier than it is, I pick out the music for church and our special events, including Christmas. It was quite nice, we had some new voices in our choir, good strong voices. Today we had our regular service, after which I came home and made a brunch of fried potatoes with onions, in butter of course, toast and fried eggs with runny yolks. It’s one of our favorite meals, it’s easy to cook, it’s frugal and tasty.

The weather has been so very nice, we have had a few cold days & nights, but for the most part, it’s been in the 50s, 60s and 70s (F) during the day all month long, the nights get cold, cold enough for a fire in the woodstove, but nothing terrible. It’s been nice enough that PB has been pouring concrete again, this time working on the back of the SkyCastle.

I will leave you with another chatty vlog, ignore my pleas for the phone, I’m just having a droolfest over the phone mentioned in the video, I’ll eventually get one, hopefully this coming year, my son got one and he has been telling me all about his, I’m only a tiny bit jealous :) but I’m glad he has one.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a wonderful New Year!

https://youtu.be/QCF-bucVOwQ
…

Read More »
December 25, 2016 No Comments
Communities

Best Beats Unplugged

Music, Festival, Off-Grid

It is not often that large events can call themselves self sustaining. But two upcoming music festivals on two entirely different continents are bucking the trend and doing just that – going off-grid.

Introducing Off The Grid Melbourne Festival in OZ and Camphill Village Music Festival in South Africa. Two very different but self-sustaining events. Off The Grid Melbourne is taking place on 21/12/16 at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Arts in Melbourne and Camphill Village Music Festival on 25/02/17 at Camphill Village near Cape Town. This will be the third music festival for both events, which have been getting bigger and better each year.

The Melbourne festival will be powered entirely through solar energy. Panels will be connected to a battery bank, which is rigged up to the sound system. This ten hour event will have music, food and plenty of dancing, with not a single piece of waste going to landfill. The company behind this festival, Finding Infinity, aim to make Melbourne a completely sustainable city – one renewable event at a time. Artists playing at this event include home-grown Australian Andras Fox and the eclectic, high energy No Zu.

The Camphill Village Music festival is a slightly different affair, but no less energetic. This festival helps to raise funds for Camphill Village, a community home to 90 intellectually disabled adults who aim to live self-sustaining lives. The farm includes a dairy, bakery and cosmetics shop, whose products are sold in the Cape Town area. Partnering up with Rays of Hope helped Camphill take the first steps towards living with no reliance on the grid. The dairy is now entirely solar powered, taking the community one step further to complete self-reliance. The festival will bring the whole community together and create a great atmosphere, with the sounds of Rockers Bootleggers, Albert Frost and the soulful Majozi keeping everyone dancing long into the night. Being located approximately 40km from Cape Town, there is the option to camp overnight – so the party really can go on all night long.

 

Both events are set to be real showstoppers, proving that you don’t need to be on the grid to have a good night out.

 

More information for both events can be found here:

Off The Grid Melbourne               –              https://www.offthegrid.global/

Off The Grid Camphill Village      –              https://www.camphill.org.za/camphill-village-music-festival…

Read More »
December 24, 2016 No Comments
Communities

Positively negative

positively-negative

I’m amazed at how the people in your life can become your biggest and loudest critics when you decide you are going to do something, especially something positive and life changing. You have decided to take the plunge and move off-grid, then there they are, your friends, your family, they begin telling you all the things that can go wrong, all the mistakes you are going to make, how you are going to fail, how risky change like that is, how you shouldn’t even try, bla bla bla.

What’s even worse, is these people will most likely never do anything like this with their life, they are afraid, afraid of change, afraid of risk, perhaps even afraid of succeeding. As a result, they don’t think anyone else would be able to or even should be able to make such a change in their life. They will take every opportunity to let you know that your chances of succeeding are so slim, your chances of failure are so sure, they will do everything they they can to pull you down to a point where you will give up your dreams.

I’m here to tell you, yes stepping away from your regular life is risky, everything you do is a risk, sitting still is risky too. Don’t listen to the naysayers, don’t allow the negative people to decide which road you take, you are the only one that gets to do that. Choose to walk the path that leads you to your dreams, to the things you have always wanted to do. If you are here, reading this, I have to assume your dream includes living more independently, perhaps even off-grid.

Start making your plans, set some goals, learn more skills that will help you now and in the future. If your circle of people around you aren’t supportive of your plans, then enlarge your circle to include more positive supportive people. I’m not saying to ditch your current friends, just know which ones are supportive of your dreams and which aren’t and understand that the ones who aren’t supportive, aren’t necessarily trying to pull you down, they are just afraid, or perhaps they are content in their current life. If you aren’t content and want to move toward a different life, then DO IT, surround yourself with folks who will support your dreams and even help you achieve them. Start the new year off with a new direction and a more supportive set of friends.



web analytics


…

Read More »
December 21, 2016 No Comments