for the last year i have been living in an off grid site, outside a small village in a European country. being that a lot of folks in the community are talking about trying this type thing i thought i would give my account of living off grid for the last 10 months.
the site is solar powered, heat comes from wood burning stove/ fire place, and water comes from a spring on site and creek.
my wife and i rented the property for a year to see if the off grid life was something we wanted to do full time. long story short, we don't.
however, we are looking to buy a small off grid site to use as more a vacation/ spiritual retreat but not full time...
why? its very difficult.
keeping your home warm in the winter with wood is almost a full time job. so a lot of your time in winter is spent gathering kindling, keeping the fire going, etc.
this is a double edge sword. at one level it is very fulfilling to have to use wood to keep yourself warm in the winter and seems to be an antidote to seasonal affective disorder (SAD) / the winter blues. but at another level it just is a huge time suck... we work from home so keeping a fire going is a 24/7 type thing...
solar power is not powerful enough to power any kind of portable electric heater. heat is the bugaboo of using solar power. turns out heating something takes a crap ton power.
Also, with solar you can't use a hair dryer, this will be a big deal with those with long hair.
in the winter there isn't enough sun to have power all the time. during the winter we sometimes would only have 2 hours of power. it is not a problem in the spring / summer but in the winter you will prob need a generator to supplement the solar, this is what we used.
if you're handy then the off grid life may be easier...but i am the opposite of handy so there was no way i could fix the ample stuff that broke during the year.
also, being out in the woods you will be living with -a lot- of bugs. got stung by some freaky bug just the other day i'd never seen before (maybe it was an archon, lol) and now weasels are living in one of the cabins.
in the summer of course there is no air conditioner and it is taxing to never have that relief that AC provides.
i now joke that if the SHTF and civilization collapses i'd just assume choose suicide (or wait for the mothership, lol). also...thinking it through...my thought is if we are in a situation where civilization collapses to the extent you need an off grid property, then shit will be so fucked up having solar power will be the least of your problems. of course being away from a big population center will increase your chances of survival.
a medium who gives prophecy in this country has recently said that things will collapse and the best place to be will actually be in the cities because services will not be functioning outside the cities. this is an interesting notion...i can see this playing out in this european country but not so sure that is how it would play out in the United states. so, basically that things will continue to function normally in the cities but the gov. will not have the ability to provide services in the small villages.
so, before living off grid i would have said that off grid is the 'answer' to the world's craziness...but now i'm not so sure. for myself, anyway, i don't think its a feasible 'answer'.
now dont get me wrong, if i were to move back to the states i wouldn't want to live in a big blue state city...i would want to live in a smaller city but not off grid.
i think the answer is more to be found in raising your consciousness... more of a t. mckenna / new age type thing.... as opposed to simply going off grid.
this is just my two cents.
