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20 Responses
Hello Les and Jane, and others!
I am 23 yrs old and I am beginning to dedicate my life to living off the grid. Mainstream society is so far away from who I am, naturally. I’m not sure how long it’ll take me to be in a position to afford even the start of living off the grid, but I am the only person that I know that wants to do it and so it’ll take time. If anyone can give me some info about small communities of off the grid-ders or websites where I can communicate with people who are in the process, that would be great. I’m excited to get the adventure started, but I need lots of help. Thank you guys
I want to leave my 9-5 boring job in Kelowna BC and live somewhere in the north free, off the grid and remote. I have no idea how to start a dream like that. Any advice or pointers?
Someone please help me. I’m trapped in the city and it’s draining the life from my veins. I need the wilderness. The north. Forever to be indebted to whomever can save my soul from the sounds of this highway and the doom in these streets.
I too am looking at off-grid living in Ontario
We moved two years ago from 30 years of living in the city to a little two-acre place about an hour out. Since then, it’s become my passion to become as self-sustainable as possible. To my delight, I’ve found a tiny copse full of chamomile flowers, shaggy mane mushrooms growing on my front lawn, scores and scores of wild food just on this two-acre site. We grow a garden and I try to companion plant as much as possible. I use rain and snow water to water my plants and this year, I’m trying to grow greens and other foods indoors over the winter. I am also planning to make my own soap and my own cheeses. It all takes time, though. I’m almost sixty. But I’m happier and more at peace than I think I’ve ever been and my husband, a bona fide city boy, says he’d never move back!
I am interested Corey in living off the grid where in ontairo?
i have been thinking of off the grid living also. I have been doing some research and found in Ontario you can’t just buy a piece of land and put a trailer on it for some reason you have to build a house which can make it very costly, if however you purchase land in an unorginized township than those rules don’t apply, so i am deffinetly going to go that route myself. If there is anyone in Ontario Canada who wants to join me for this adventure then you are more than welcome, i want to start to grow my own food using this new aquaponic technique that i have been researching and just live off the grid, i think this would be a great adventure but better if like minded individuals join me also
We have found a company in Canada that will sell you land with very little down..low monthly payments and you can live on your land while you pay for it. http://www.wolterland.com
Dignam no longer allows this. You have to pay for your land but can make improvements but not reside on it until paid in full :(
I am planning on doing the same, The only problem is to find someone that is wanting the same life adventure as me.
People always fail to mention how they are able to “quit their job and live their dreams” without a massive savings. Obviously this person had a great deal of money saved, and that had to of been calculated in their decision. I know I would never be able to afford 20 acres anywhere around me, I would have to move a thousand miles away. I really wish someone would go over all of the details, and not just the glamour of it. There are several people wondering the same thing I see, so if anyone could help us, I’m sure we’d all appreciate it a great deal. Thank you all.
Not sure my post came through, but would like to know with little money, no credit, and no financial help to get a piece of land to call my home. Looking to live of land like my mennonite realitives have yrs back. How to keep up with taxes, gov’t rules/regulations, and little expences.
Hello. I want to live off land, but would like to know with no credit, and low income how to get started. I also am in Ontario And what Gov’t rules and regulations, taxes, etc. need advice. I grew up with mennonite background and on a farm. I miss this life and can go back but issues with money or credit, I m being held back. Any advice would be appriciated. Plus how to make enough income to keep taxes up. Ive been researching online about living with little money and no bills etc, even freegan life.
me and my family are wanting to go off-grid can it be done with childern ?? and where can we find affordable land ??
Love your story. My wife of 52 years and I at the age of 65 built our own home from paper and concrete (paprecrete) We hand dug the foundation and made every block you can see a short video https://youtu.be/_8rGiZR8W-c.
We our on the desert no utilities, we use solar and wind for power and propane for refrigeration and heat. We would be happy to share information on what we did and how just contact us by e-mail
Hi jc, All very good questions. We bought the land in 1992 from a company specializing in recreational land, dignam.com. Very good prices. Only $1200 down, and $212 per month. And still deals like this available. We paid this out of our existing income. We built our home when we moved with a chainsaw mill. I did not say we didnt work, I said we didnt have a job. But soon after we built our first solar panels, we had offers to do the same for others, and it quickly developed into a business we loved, but still no job. We keep warm by cutting our own firewood, we drink water from our own well and we hunt , fish and grow a huge garden to feed ourselves. It is probably very different from your experience, but our work was mostly on reducing expenses. And our taxes are pretty low, most off-grid land is very inexpensive unless you are in a cottage zone on a lake and then you pay city prices. the online part of what we do is only very recent and does not offer a huge return, but we feel it is very important to share our knowledge and experience. Still the main point we want to make is that lowering expenses, and having resources from which to draw your basic needs is essential to making this work. If our main focus was income we would have been better off staying in town, but being able to control those expenses provides benefits we could only dream about before.
Where did you get the $$ to buy land?
How did you build all this stuff , eat, keep warm etc. with no job? How do you pay land taxes. unless your books and www site are generating a lot of money for you.
Hi Donanne,
Jane and I have always loved Maine, visited the Nearings Farm at Harborside. One of our earliest inspirations actually, I used to correspond with Helen, until her untimely death.
She would have told you the same thing I am going to- the community is much harder to find than providing for your own self-sufficient needs. Surrounding ourselves with like minded folks is sure a lot easier with the internet. I have friends all over the world, from Tasmania to Chile. Finding friends with the same beliefs locally, or even within our own family has been much more difficult.
In a memorable letter from Helen she said, ‘you just might have to go it alone’, and for the most part we have done just that. It’s ok to lead and let the rest of the world catch up.
Take care,
Les and Jane
Thanks Pat,
We have several more article ideas from our nearly 18 years of off-grid experience. Looking forward to helping as many people as we can.
Les and Jane
incredible! My dream too and we have our land and are making it a reality. My goal is to help many others create this dream too. We hope to have a whole community around us. We live in beautiful western Maine.
love the article, planning on doing the same in Colorado, currently living in Arizona, please keep on writing so we can see how you are doing.