September 12, 2008

Living With Less…

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privacy that is.
There’s nothing like using the toilet while sitting 3-5 feet away from your sweetie, especially when doing something particulary smelly. In one respect, we have lots of privacy, heck we don’t have blinds or shades or any sort on our windows, for the most part, no one can “sneak” up on us, we have trained all of our friends to honk and/or holler well before they get to our place, they all understand and comply. Besides, with the cabin being so high off the ground, anyone walking up wouldn’t be able to see in, short of someone sitting across the mountain with binoculars or telescope, we don’t have to worry much about anyone seeing us inside the cabin no matter what state of dress (or undress) we may be in. If someone were to go to the trouble to try to spy on us, Lord help them for what they will see, they deserve what they get! In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, “There is good naked and there is bad naked…” nuff said. :)
Living as we have for the last 9 months, Bob and I have gotten particulary close, living in one room for most of the time, you either have to adapt or kill, so we chose to adapt. LOL
Along with making sure you have all the equiment and food to survive, one other thing to consider before moving to and living in a place like this is how well do you get along with your partner? Many couples live nearly separate lives, generally both of them have to work, you spend most of your day separate from your partner, upon getting home, there are so many things to do before bed time, make dinner, clean up, get ready for the next day… if you have a family that takes even more time. Living as we do, we are together nearly 24/7, with the excepetions of the days I’m at the store (usually 2 days a week) and the rare occasions when one of us leaves to go to something, we are generally together most of the time. Fortunately Bob and I do not have a problem with this, we are so much alike in our thoughts, likes and dislikes, we do just fine being together as much as we are. We also understand that each of us needs our “private time”, and we are pretty good at giving it to one another. I have been reading several blogs about people moving to or living in remote places like Alaska, living in small, one room cabins, I think it takes a special breed of people to be able to do it, and not go nutty, or maybe one has to be a bit nutty to survive, I don’t know…
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Energy

Wave powered computers


From big oil to big wave
The data centres at the heart of the global Internet may soon all be off-grid. Google has filed a patent for a datacentre that uses wave motion to power on-board computers and the ocean’s water to cool them

The search giant has filed a patent for a ‘floating datacentre’ that uses wave motion to power on-board computers and the ocean’s water to cool them.…

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Food

Freedom beer


Freedom: Secret is in the water
FREEDOM BEER, which was kind enough to provide 50 cases of its amber nectar for the launch last year of “How to live Off-Grid” by Nick Rosen, gets its key ingredient from an off-grid source. The entire water supply at the Midlands base of the organic beer company is now from a local underground lake.

And the couple who took over the brewery earlier this year are celebrating after being ‘highly commended’ in a top industry awards ceremony.

Susan and Edward Mayman officially relaunched the brand at the end of August.…

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