DrakeMaiden
Sourdough Slave
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big brown horse said:
Yes, I saw I Love Lucy shows on a very similar model . . . I guess it didn't really matter since it was recorded in B&W. 
Tips about and stories of~Off-grid Living:Tell us what interests you!
- Thread starter Beekissed
- Start date
Yes, I saw I Love Lucy shows on a very similar model . . . I guess it didn't really matter since it was recorded in B&W.
DrakeMaiden
Sourdough Slave
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Too true!Beekissed said:but, when its all said and done, we didn't miss much.
FarmerDenise
Out to pasture
Bee, sounds like a wonderfull idea! I've been toying with the same idea. I have the "little house" books in mind as an example with a healthy dose of Carla Emery..
Sounds like you and I have had some things in common when we were growing up. We lived off grid for a little while, because we were building our house and the last electric pole was too far away to connect to it. Out houses are very unpleasant to use in a blizzard at night!!! And it was no fun to empty the bucket in the mornings.
My father didn't believe in TV either, so we didn't have one. Grandma lived down the hill from us though and we could watch some shows, if we had his and her permission. She gave permission more often and what father didn't know
.
I love to read books that descibe how someone else managed to live off the grid. There are Helen and Scott Nearing's books, what about "The Egg and I"? that one may have helped me get into chickens. The movie didn't do the book justice. I was also moved by "The Good Earth", even the title is great.
I am always on the lookout for another "how someone did it book"
I keep a notebook next to my bed, so I can write things down, when they pop into my head in the middle of the night, since that is when they usually pop into my head, when I cannot get back to sleep...
Sounds like you and I have had some things in common when we were growing up. We lived off grid for a little while, because we were building our house and the last electric pole was too far away to connect to it. Out houses are very unpleasant to use in a blizzard at night!!! And it was no fun to empty the bucket in the mornings.
My father didn't believe in TV either, so we didn't have one. Grandma lived down the hill from us though and we could watch some shows, if we had his and her permission. She gave permission more often and what father didn't know
.I love to read books that descibe how someone else managed to live off the grid. There are Helen and Scott Nearing's books, what about "The Egg and I"? that one may have helped me get into chickens. The movie didn't do the book justice. I was also moved by "The Good Earth", even the title is great.
I am always on the lookout for another "how someone did it book"
I keep a notebook next to my bed, so I can write things down, when they pop into my head in the middle of the night, since that is when they usually pop into my head, when I cannot get back to sleep...
- Thread starter
- #44
Beekissed
Mountain Sage
Due to some interest expressed in off-grid lifestyles, I'm reviving this thread. Any stories or tips about your experience while living off-grid would be appreciated. I'll add a few of my own if anyone wants to know answers to particular questions like How did you do laundry? What did you use for lights? Bathing? Canning on a wood stove?
Feel free to go off topic or just meander around in the world of off-grid living!
I'll start with lighting. We used kerosene lamps and lanterns. I always laugh at movies where the globes are all blackened on the kerosene lamps. I keep thinking, "Someone sure doesn't know how to trim a wick!" Of course, one has to be careful when moving the lamps from room to room or with knocking into one of them. We lived so close knit that we were extra careful.
One time we got an Aladdin lamp. I thought we would be blinded with the brightness after using the kerosene lamps. We didn't use it much because the wicks( I think that is what we called the little net/cloth bag type thingies) were very expensive.
Anyone else use anything different for lighting while living off-grid?
Feel free to go off topic or just meander around in the world of off-grid living!
I'll start with lighting. We used kerosene lamps and lanterns. I always laugh at movies where the globes are all blackened on the kerosene lamps. I keep thinking, "Someone sure doesn't know how to trim a wick!" Of course, one has to be careful when moving the lamps from room to room or with knocking into one of them. We lived so close knit that we were extra careful.
One time we got an Aladdin lamp. I thought we would be blinded with the brightness after using the kerosene lamps. We didn't use it much because the wicks( I think that is what we called the little net/cloth bag type thingies) were very expensive.
Anyone else use anything different for lighting while living off-grid?
dragonlaurel
Improvising a more SS life
Great idea and looks like plenty of people are interested. 
How to get started?
Have a hurricane, heavy snow, or tree limb damage the power line. Have a car knock a power pole. Have an unreliable power company, or be out of money. Move in a place and realize the power company didn't get there yet--- and wont till next Monday. Find a place you want to live that the electric company hasn't come close to yet.
Anybody can need to start living without electric. The trick is being able to not need it so much.
How to cook on a wood stove(can, bake, etc.)?
Lots of people have wood stoves and never cook on them. They don't know how. You could also make a separate booklet about using them for cooking with some recipes and market it to companies that sell stoves. I like cooking on one but never tried canning back then. I'd love to learn how.
These might be a good starting point so people will realize there are options available:
How to do certain chores without electricity?
A typical day?
How to get started?
Have a hurricane, heavy snow, or tree limb damage the power line. Have a car knock a power pole. Have an unreliable power company, or be out of money. Move in a place and realize the power company didn't get there yet--- and wont till next Monday. Find a place you want to live that the electric company hasn't come close to yet.
Anybody can need to start living without electric. The trick is being able to not need it so much.
How to cook on a wood stove(can, bake, etc.)?
Lots of people have wood stoves and never cook on them. They don't know how. You could also make a separate booklet about using them for cooking with some recipes and market it to companies that sell stoves. I like cooking on one but never tried canning back then. I'd love to learn how.
These might be a good starting point so people will realize there are options available:
How to do certain chores without electricity?
A typical day?
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
My great grandmother cooked on a wood stove until the day she died. Best biscuits EVER! We even got her an electric stove to use during the summer when it was so hot and she never would use it. Just kept on building a fire.
We had an outhouse for a while when we first moved our singlewide trailer to the lake property. I used to traumatize my little brother by locking him in there....I was a horrible child!
I would love to live off the grid, I think it would be hard to do without electricity though. I would have to have solar.
I have always told my husband that I want a wood stove, not a fireplace, but a woodstove so that I could cook on it if need be. We had an experience last winter where we were out of electricity for 4 days. We were fine except for the water issue (well water and no hand pump). Our local rescue squad had jugs of water for people so that got us through. We were fine. We played outside, we cooked outside, we bundled up in blankets, we read books and had a great time. We put candles in quart jars and they were a good source of light and great hand warmers.
We finally gave up on the fourth day when it got down to 40 degrees in the house. It was fine though, we went to my BF's house and took showers and then got a phone call from out neighbor that the power had come back on. I think if we had had a wood stove we would have been golden!
I would love to read a book about this type of living. There was a show on planet green called "off the grid". It was a one hour documentary about a family that bought a piece of land in canada and built several different dwellings instead of one large house. They had one cabin that served as the kitchen/bedroom area, one that was for a school room/play room for the children, and another for washing facilities/toilet. It was a pretty interesting show......just not long enough!
We had an outhouse for a while when we first moved our singlewide trailer to the lake property. I used to traumatize my little brother by locking him in there....I was a horrible child!
I would love to live off the grid, I think it would be hard to do without electricity though. I would have to have solar.
I have always told my husband that I want a wood stove, not a fireplace, but a woodstove so that I could cook on it if need be. We had an experience last winter where we were out of electricity for 4 days. We were fine except for the water issue (well water and no hand pump). Our local rescue squad had jugs of water for people so that got us through. We were fine. We played outside, we cooked outside, we bundled up in blankets, we read books and had a great time. We put candles in quart jars and they were a good source of light and great hand warmers.
We finally gave up on the fourth day when it got down to 40 degrees in the house. It was fine though, we went to my BF's house and took showers and then got a phone call from out neighbor that the power had come back on. I think if we had had a wood stove we would have been golden!
I would love to read a book about this type of living. There was a show on planet green called "off the grid". It was a one hour documentary about a family that bought a piece of land in canada and built several different dwellings instead of one large house. They had one cabin that served as the kitchen/bedroom area, one that was for a school room/play room for the children, and another for washing facilities/toilet. It was a pretty interesting show......just not long enough!
Blackbird
Goat Whisperer
I had been looking for that show Lori! I seen a preview but never caught the time. So it was only one hour long and that was it?
delia_peterson
Covered in Compost
I just finished reading "The Story Bible" by Pearl S. Buck.Beekissed said:I've often threatened to write a book called "My Hillbilly Soap Opera"!
Thank you all for helping me. It is definitely food for thought and I will have to start thinking about it. I don't want to tell anyone that I know....well, except you all.....because you know how folks react to that! Writing a book is not a normal activity around here and most would feel very skeptical about that endeavor.
I don't think any of them have read Pearl S. Buck, one of WV's more famous authors. Not that I could ever write like that but she was definitely the bomb!
Please write a book, Bee!!!!!
- Thread starter
- #49
Beekissed
Mountain Sage
Cooking on a wood stove takes a little practice and a pan ballet, so to speak. When you want to heat in a hurry, the pan is moved directly over the firebox, when you want to simmer, you move it farther away from the firebox. Simple!
When baking in the oven, dampers are your friend. Also, one cannot just walk away and trust the food will be done when your timer dings. Frequent checking of the food is needed, especially if you don't have a wood stove that has a thermostat built into the door. Ours did, so that helped tremendously, but the heat fluctuates some according to the type of wood being burned, the amount of coals built up and the position of dampers.
One lovely thing about cooking on a large wood cookstove is the amount of space available on which to cook. My mother could use a large cast iron griddle and a large cast iron skillet over the firebox at the same time, and have other pots simmering over on the less hot areas. Plus a pan or two of biscuits in the oven and then keep them warm in the warmers above the range.
Lori, you are correct....there is no food that taste better than food cooked on a wood cookstove. I don't know why that is, but it's definitely true. Weird, isn't it?
We had what was called a summer kitchen~which means it had screens all the way around on two sides. In the winter, these screened walls were covered with plastic. I will try to scan and post pics when Mom moves her pics up here. You all will get a kick out of how primitive our dwelling was!
When baking in the oven, dampers are your friend. Also, one cannot just walk away and trust the food will be done when your timer dings. Frequent checking of the food is needed, especially if you don't have a wood stove that has a thermostat built into the door. Ours did, so that helped tremendously, but the heat fluctuates some according to the type of wood being burned, the amount of coals built up and the position of dampers.
One lovely thing about cooking on a large wood cookstove is the amount of space available on which to cook. My mother could use a large cast iron griddle and a large cast iron skillet over the firebox at the same time, and have other pots simmering over on the less hot areas. Plus a pan or two of biscuits in the oven and then keep them warm in the warmers above the range.
Lori, you are correct....there is no food that taste better than food cooked on a wood cookstove. I don't know why that is, but it's definitely true. Weird, isn't it?
We had what was called a summer kitchen~which means it had screens all the way around on two sides. In the winter, these screened walls were covered with plastic. I will try to scan and post pics when Mom moves her pics up here. You all will get a kick out of how primitive our dwelling was!
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
Yeah, Merle, it was only an hour. I was hoping it would be a series or something but every time I've ever caught it it was the same one hour special. I was cool though, it showed them divining for water and digging a well, researching toilet options, installing rainwater collection for showers etc., restoring an old building, building a small one room cabin from a kit, and trying to put in a road. The weather gets so bad at one point that they have to bring in supplies by helicopter.....just the option for the average person, right?
All in all it was still pretty interesting. I would have loved it if they could have done a whole year, let us see all the seasons and dealt with animals and gardening, the whole nine yards.
All in all it was still pretty interesting. I would have loved it if they could have done a whole year, let us see all the seasons and dealt with animals and gardening, the whole nine yards.
