I live off-grid, AMA

[Toomanyparsnips]

If anyone is interested in what it's like to be living (or striving to live) a largely self-reliant life...

@WaxOnFeckOff

Tom and Barbara Good had electricity from a generator, but were connected to mains water. No phone.

Bitchy bothy

Jealous. Converted my garden to a veg patch and wondering if I can get a couple of chickens in... but the cost of land in this country (and in our county in particular) is just so prohibitively expensive. Following the thread to daydream.

Brieandchilli I agree our set-up is not unique - I never claimed it was! Although I live rurally too and only know a handful of other people who are doing anything like we are. We do get asked questions regularly about the practical aspects of living like this, which is why I started this thread - not to claim I was doing something special that no-one else was doing.

Ah so you didn't actually mean Ask me Anything.

I'm not cross but yes I will bore off as it was so succinctly put as you are not actually very interesting.

Another middle class family with money saving the planet one lentil at a time.

Well, I'm interested. It is the kind of lifestyle dh and I have flirted with, but never quite got as far as you, and now, as we approach retirement age, I would feel too nervous to commit to.

I would like to ask how much money, if any, you are able to generate as a byproduct to your way of life, e.g. do you sell eggs, wood from your woodland, or was that never your aim?

A bit more about our finances - yes, our living expenses are very low. We don't have a mortgage, as we owned the land outright and were able to build the house from the proceeds of our house sale (which was less than £50k). We have a small food bill and rarely go on holiday, as we need to be here in the summer when the garden needs our attention. We live pretty frugally though, it wouldn't be to everyone's liking
In response to the poster who asked if this would be accessible to most people - yes I do think so, if you decide it's what you really want to do. A lot of people think we're "living the dream" without realising how much work we put in. We've had to become very practical in lots of ways - building, animal husbandry, land management, food growing - although these are things we'd been learning for years anyway. We were very very lucky to already have the land when the law changed though; a similar sized property with planning permission would have been way out of our reach. So it's been a combination of a lot of luck and a lot of hard graft.

Seriously waxon, go fuck yourself. I'm not saving the fucking planet, I'm just living my life in a way I find fulfilling and some other people find mildly interesting. You haven't actually asked me anything, you've just been abusive.

Kitty we don't really generate any money from it tbh, although we could in small ways. In the spring/summer we sell some eggs which more or less covers the cost of their feed. We could breed lamb for meat - we've sort of attempted to do that a couple of times, but we're really shit farmers and we end up keeping them as pets or giving them to other people as pets (they make great fertilising lawnmowers!). We've grown a bit of basket willow and sold that but only for pocket money really. Making money isn't the point of it right now; we enjoy the jobs we do and just enjoy where we live.

You are so not off grid OP. My Mum who is 79 is as much off grid as you 🤣

Mastergland you're right about the price of land, in England anyway, and we were very very lucky to be able to move onto our land when we did. If it hadn't been for that it would most likely still just be a dream for us too.

Ginger - we're not connected to the national grid. Literally off grid.

wonkylegs I didn't answer your question about drainage/sewage. We have something in-between a septic tank and a soakaway and I can't actually remember what it's called right now! It's mostly fine although we have to open cover and poke things with a big stick once a year or so, which isn't much fun. We used to have an outdoor compost toilet which fell into disrepair after we built the house. The house is so tiny that there literally want space for an indoor compost loo, so we've got a normal one. But the plan is to build a better outdoor one that's actually pleasant to use, and use that one for poo it's just slid down the list of building jobs for now.

Hi Parsnips
Sounds awesome. We're doing the military lifestyle at the mo but we dream of this, or living in a van at the other end.
I'd love to learn more in the meantime. I don't have any specific questions, I'm that ignorant!! But are there any good books/magazines etc?
TIA

do you have stuff like telly? Do you go to bed when it gets dark?

What's the inside of the barn like? Do your kids have their own rooms?

Do you work?

If they are generating their own power and are not connected to the National Grid, then they are living off grid. By definition. Honestly Toomanyparsnips, ignore the idiots.

I had to smile at your failed attempt to sell your animals for meat. Yes, I would be the same. Are there any further aspects of this way of life you haven't yet tried but would like to develop, beyond giving up the car which you mentioned earlier.

@Toomanyparsnips

Seriously waxon, go fuck yourself. I'm not saving the fucking planet, I'm just living my life in a way I find fulfilling and some other people find mildly interesting. You haven't actually asked me anything, you've just been abusive.

I did ask you something and then you left but it was answered in other answers. I asked how you supported yourselves. You said that you had part time jobs and were living on land you already owned. You followed up later saying you'd sold your house etc.

I don't think I've been abusive and if I have, feel free to report the abusive posts.

Clairey maybe have a look at Permaculture magazine, or The Land? I'm also a big fan of John Seymour, who lived wrote about self-sufficiency in the 70s. "The self-sufficient gardener" is my gardening Bible. For the alt-tech stuff there are various useful forums online, although it tends to be my partner who talks about stuff like that online. There's a Facebook off-grid group which has some useful pointers.

Also, have you heard of WWOOF? It's an international network of organic farms, crofts, smallholdings etc where you can go and stay for holidays in exchange for some work. I did a lot of that in my early 20s which is probably what first made me realise I wanted to live like this, and also taught me lots of practical things like food growing and woodland management. Another similar group is Diggers and Dreamers, although that's more for intentional communities.

Hmm. I have a few friends who live off grid - they live in yurts, aren't in paid employment, and home school their children. Your off grid sounds easier, but also not what I expect from the term.

You live in a house unconnected to mains water and electricity. I guess that is off grid but the term conjures up yurt living more than alternative sources of electricity.

We need a "I live in a yurt, AMA" next!

We don't have "a telly" but we do watch the odd thing online. No we don't go to bed when it gets dark - we've got electricity!

Oh and your clarification later made my statement about middleclass-ness etc inappropriate so I do apologise for that but certainly the earlier posts came across as if you were able to do this as you were already on a sound financial footing - e.g. owned land, part time work etc

Yes Gales you're right and I should have gone into more details originally, to stop people from jumping to conclusions. Off grid means lots of different things to different people it seems; we literally do live off grid and that has implications for our day-to-day lives. It's not the extreme lifestyle some people seem to think it should be, but it's also different to how I used to live and how the majority of people live.

The inside of the house is small but it's a proper house. One bedroom upstairs in the eaves, two more v small bedrooms (one each for the kids) downstairs, plus bathroom and kitchen/living room. When the kids are bigger we'll probably have to get them a caravan or something so they've got a bit more room and somewhere to hang out with their friends.