Suburban Off-grid living

[sunsaver]

I've been going back and reading some of y'alls journals. Theres lots of really cool stuff. I just started reading the epic story of offgridgirl. I cant tell you how impressed i am. If they arent already, they should be written up in Mother Earth News, Popular Science, etc. Those guys should be famous. Their property is stunningly beautiful. I have some other favs that i follow closely. Most of my posts were just to test the waters, and most of my toes are still here; so i guess i'll start a journal. Just be forewarned: my life is pretty boring. Except for my gourmet meals and drunken rants, or the occasional wildlife sighting, i don't experience much excitement. Im just a bag of water, filled with mostly useless and highly specific technical information. I always know the jeopardy answers to the questions that none of the contestants know, but don't know the answers to any of the questions about pop culture that they all do know. So, If it's a bizarre science question that no one can get, ask me. I'll probably know it.

 

[savingdogs]

sounds like you fit right in.....

heh how many years has jeopardy been on the air, anyway? Hubby and I used to compete on who could shout out the question but he always beats me so it got dull. I do really well when i get a good topic however! We played the computer jeopardy game for awhile as well, was fun at family get-togethers but maybe we are all nerds in our family.

Mother Earth News is a cool site but it is better to have live people to chat with. I don't know how many times I've had some sort of emergency or problem.....for instance, when my goat Ginger had her kids, I'm such a newbie with this, my online friends were helping to midwife (there are no goat vets around here) while my husband ran in and typed questions for them. But that is just one example, but the story is written there in my journal, our questions about what happened and what we were told to do.

I've learned a lot just by reading the journals and I'd love to have some sort of master link to all the recipes and how-to instructions here. But I think our combined knowledge on many topics becomes quite an interesting encyclopedia of self sufficiency.

 

[BarredBuff]

I love Mother Earth News but live people is much better!

 

[sunsaver]

I'm like, don't know it, don't know it, don't know it. Then they're standing there all going "duh?" And i'm jumping up and down screaming at the tv, "186 thousand miles per second!186 thousand miles per second!186 thousand miles per second!"

 

[CanadianDoomer]

Just like to add a comment here. If i fell in love, and it was true love, and i added enough solar panels; i could always get my slightly used appliances out of the guest bedroom and hook them back up! And a word of warning for you guys who are married: i recommend a full rig of panels and a massive battery bank. If you throw out the washing machine and get your wife a washboard for chistmas, you'll probably get served with divorce papers!

You're serious? What an opinion you have of women. About a year ago, I started getting rid of my appliances - microwave, bread machine, blender. The only appliances I still have are my stove and fridge, a rarely used toaster, and two dehydrators. I do ALL cooking by hand, and all dishes are washed by hand, too.

I'd love a wash board. My "wish list" for this Christmas was a manual food grinder (I got the meat grinder last year). We're taking steps to go off-grid in the next year, and the first year, we will either have no electricity or very minimal (like 240-300 watts of panels). We just bought nine LED solar powered shed lights that we'll use as our household lights in the evening.

Don't assume all women are energy black holes. I would strangle my husband if he even considered "a full rig of panels and a massive battery bank."

 

[Marianne]

Awww, don't be too hard on Sunsaver. He's a lot of fun, he can take it as well as he hands it out. He hasn't been around for a while, I hope he comes back after he gets a working computer and a few bucks.

I see this is your first post, so welcome!

 

[CanadianDoomer]

Awww, don't be too hard on Sunsaver. He's a lot of fun, he can take it as well as he hands it out. He hasn't been around for a while, I hope he comes back after he gets a working computer and a few bucks.

I see this is your first post, so welcome!

I actually signed up a while ago - I don't know why I never posted. I'll try to participate more.

When I was reading his post, I was thinking "Oh, cool, oh, cool, oh ... wait a minute, he thinks a woman would demand tons of electricity?" LOL My husband's the energy hog in our house. If my post came out as nasty, it was intended more as a poke to the ribs.

Oh, it's too bad he's not around. I wanted to ask him more about the ice box.

 

[Marianne]

He had some great experiments, that's for sure.

I understand about who's not on board w/ energy savings. I was driving DH nuts by having everything unplugged, and I was eyeing the old washboard for a while. Around here, it was a lot easier to find some middle ground. Sometimes I get tired of getting 'the look'. Man, he's good at that.

 

[CanadianDoomer]

DH is mostly on board. The day before yesterday, we picked up nine solar 'shed lights' and he's happy to use those in our future homestead. But when I suggested we hook a bicycle up to a generator so that he could make his own electricity to use the computer, he said, "No way!" LOL Maybe I go too far sometimes.

Right now we're still stuck in the middle of the city, saving our pennies for land.

I can add my website to my signature, can't I? I should do that.

 

[deb4o]

Welcome Doomer,

Have been reading your blog--nice, keep posting please.