Fuelled by a desire to break free from mortgages, rent and commuting; searching for the simple life, in beaches and beauty spots a largely invisible, group are houseless but not homeless. Adam Butterworth, 26, an aeronautical design consultant, and volunteer at the RNLI, decided to live in a van after falling foul of an unscrupulous landlord. He explained: “I was spending £900 a month, nearly half my wages, to rent a one room studio flat that was filled with damp and causing me respiratory problems.
“Circumstance is the biggest thing. If you can afford a massive house, you always will buy one.
“A van is the most attractive alternative to haemorrhaging money on negligent landlords that couldn’t care less.
Yet financial freedom came at cost: the cold. Despite installing a log burner, wall insulation and getting creative with duvets, he said that low night-time temperatures, especially during winter, were “challenging.”
Without electricity or the internet, the van had taught him to enjoy the simpler things in life. He described how of a summer’s evening he would park facing the South Downs and admire the view with a bottle of locally produced craft beer.
“Where we live, we are blessed with places to go,” he said.
Henry Shanks, another long-term van resident based in Henfield, echoed this when he said that one of the best things about van life was the “constant stimulation from new places. “When you have had enough of that spot, you can just pack up and move along.
“It avoids any kind of stagnation of life.”
Being a musician, the mobility of a van was “ideal” for his career. Clad in lineage oak, it had running water, a kitchen, solar panels, gas, charging batteries and even a piano.
He spent £3,500 refitting the vehicle.
While people were “generally friendly”, there “wasn’t much space to park [and the] infrastructure is not great, recreation spots do not have facilities, like taps, toilets and rubbish bins.”
He also cited new laws aimed to clamp down on illegal traveller sites as “making life difficult.”
In January 2021, the Home Office implemented new ‘anti-trespass’ legislation that can land those camping on private land with hefty fines of up to £2,500 and jail terms.
Growing tired of living with her parents, 25-year-old Laura Bates from Steyning was planning on buying a van to “pay her own way.”
While studying a master’s and working part-time at an engineering firm in Storrington, she explained that “financial reasons” had influenced this decision.
“Trying to rent, save for a mortgage and have any sort of life is pretty much impossible.”
A van was also seen as offering the chance to “declutter” and “simplify” her life.
She said: “we have so much stuff,
The Washington Post reports an unprecedented rise in arrears owed to Utility companies by America households struggling in the pandemic. Those bills are about to fall due. And the Utilities are planning to collect.
There was a moratorium on Utility bills, but it has now been lifted in most states and now only DC and 14 States still protect consumers from Utility debt collection.
In the DC, area, Fairfax Water is “considering” shutting off service for nonpayment. There has been more than a sevenfold increase in unpaid bills since before the pandemic.
Nationally, As of Dec. 31, Americans owed their gas and electric utilities an estimated $32 billion, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association, which represents state directors of low-income energy aid programs. In the District of Columbia, NEADA estimates that almost 63,000 households owed about $50 million, while more than 400,000 in Maryland owed $251 million.
“We’ve never seen numbers like this before,” said Mark Wolfe, NEADA’s executive director. “The question is, how do we keep families connected to the grid and in their homes when they don’t have income coming in? . . . We’ve never had a situation where this many people haven’t paid a bill in more than nine months, and we still have a long time to go.”
Washington Gas plans to begin sending shutoff notices to unresponsive Maryland customers after March 31, which could lead to disconnections starting around Memorial Day, the utility said. About 80,000 accounts in the Washington region were more than three months past due as of Dec. 31 — a 30 percent increase from a year earlier.
A coalition of more than 600 racial justice, labor, environmental and religious groups have urged President Biden to declare a national ban on utility cutoffs. The administration recently extended a federal moratorium on evictions through March and proposed $25 billion in rental assistance and $5 billion for home energy and water costs as part of its $1.9 trillion pandemic aid package.
One economist estimated that residential electricity use spiked 10% on average between April and July 2020, leading to households spending nearly $6 billion on extra usage.
A 13-year-old entrepreneur schoolboy has set up a farming business after renting a neighbour's land to rear his flock of sheep. Young farmer William Banham fed, watered and wormed eight animals before taking them to be slaughtered and selling on the produce.
William, of Long Bredy, Dorset, who’s not from a farming background, started out at the age of six, learning the ropes and determined to be his own boss.
He was just 12 when he found a patch of land to start ‘Will’s Lambs’. When he’s not attending Sir John Colfox school, he braves all weathers to single-handedly feed and water his flock.
William said: “I was determined to work for myself, not for somebody else.
“I don’t think any of my friends have their own businesses – sometimes they joke about it, but I think mostly they’re quite impressed.”
He doesn’t come from a farming family, but has helped out on a farm from the age of six. And while many adults are squeamish at the thought of where meat comes from, Will’s attitude towards the realities of life is mature beyond his years.
“I know I’ve given them the best life possible so I wasn’t too sad about taking them to the abattoir. You just have to accept that’s how it is.
“I also want to make sure every part of the animal is used, and will be selling the sheep skins.”
His mother Caroline said: “William would have me drop him down there at 6am – he’d stay there for 12 or 14 hours if he could.
“During lockdown, every morning and afternoon he’d have to go and check the sheep. “But he’s never failed to get up, he’s been really responsible.”
Feedback from customers has been ‘amazing’, according to Caroline.
“Everyone has been in touch to say it’s a great-tasting product. Will’s just got this amazing spirit, he gets things done.
“He’s quite self-motivated when he wants to do something. We’re really proud of him, and the fact he’s done everything himself.”
Oscar winning Frances McDormand is the most fascinating and enigmatic actor on the A-list right now. Having her pick of the most heavily funded movies, its revealing she chose Nomadland (see the brilliant trailer here) – which she produced as well as starring in – a relatively low budget feature about the Snowbirds – mainly older Americans -who travel the country in RVs and other vehicles, looking for work and sun.
The film opens February 2021, and has already received once-in-a-decade reviews at film festivals. “Chloe Zhao‘s ‘‘Nomadland” is that rare creation that not only lives up to the hype but also makes you forget about it, ” said one reviewer. “This is a gentle, humane and dizzyingly poetic ode to the people on the fringes of American society, the ones who choose to wander and drift across the great Western landscape,” says another. “Frances McDormand gives a performance that is so alive and unguarded that it feels like non-fiction.”
It’s relevant that 63-year-old McDormand is one of the few in Hollywood who manages to preserve a normal life outside the film world, appearing in public only rarely – usually to promote a film – but only if she believes in it. Nomadland is a passion project for McDormand, and for Director Chloe Zhao. “As I get older, the most important thing for me became the environment where my cellular structure feeds. And in that sense, it has nothing to do with bricks and concrete. I love the land.”
McDormand spoke about her similarities to the person she plays in the movie, Fern – a 60-something woman searching for work and identity and opening up to the possibilities of life on the road.
“It’s interesting, because the biggest difference between me and Fern is that I left my house, left behind my working class life when I was 17, and never came back. But in the film, Fern makes a very important decision to align herself with a man who fell in love with her,But she doesn’t create her own destiny until she was 61. I mean, she starts at 61, which I had started at 17. That’s why I don’t think her life is so much like mine.”
“Well, I’ve been practicing the idea of pretending to be someone else for 38 years now. I think there’s always a part of every character which has some resemblance the actor’s life. And in this case, it’s much closer. But I don’t know if I can say she’s just like me.”
As a child McDormand lived a nomadic lifestyle – travelling with her parents. Is this relevant to the nomadic lifestyle portrayed in the movie?
She was adopted with her sister, by the McDormand family, and together lived in Georgia, Kentucky, Tennesee and Pennsylvania. Frances won a place at the prestigious Yale Drama School. It was there …
A disused factory that once symbolized the dismal economic failure of Dimona in southern Israel’s Negev desert, has metamorphosed into a 21st century manufacturing hub for the country’s first off-the-grid neighborhood.
Since the spring, the Ayalim Association, known for the student villages it has established throughout the country over the past 18 years, has been producing parts for prefabricated homes that are then put together in a new temporary neighborhood that is already housing 18 families and 10 single people — the first residents of Ayalim’s new and ambitious green, urban initiative.
Benny Biton, mayor of this remote, largely working-class city — best known for the nuclear reactor on its outskirts — has enthusiastically embraced the idea of offering well-educated young people from within and outside of Dimona the chance to realize their sustainable dreams .
The first residents of the still barren-looking neighborhood due to be renamed Shahak Heights, after the late former army chief of staff and politician, Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, are paying a subsidized, monthly rent of NIS 1,800 ($560) for small, boxy homes with one or two bedrooms and balconies that look out over spectacular views of the rolling desert hills.
“In America, people pay millions of dollars for views like these,” Biton chuckled.m
Eco-villages: Pioneering, 21st century style
Shahak Heights — to be formally opened by President Reuven Rivlin in mid-January — is the first of a series of planned temporary neighborhoods that are not connected to the urban infrastructure that provides water, sewage and electricity, instead relying on eco-friendly solutions where possible. Not only is this increasingly feasible thanks to advances in green technology. It is also far cheaper.
The whole community of Shahak Heights, into which residents began to move a couple of months ago, cost only NIS 3 million ($930,000) to build, slightly more than the average cost of a single apartment in Tel Aviv.
“It’s sustainable, limits the damage to nature and is affordable for young families,” said Matan Dahan, who co-founded Ayalim in 2002 with the goal of reviving the Zionist spirit of community building while bolstering underserved areas of the country.
All the prefab structures’ roofs are covered in solar panels, which supply electricity during the day. Computers designed by US electric car and clean energy company Tesla measure the amount of excess energy produced and channel it to batteries, which supply electricity at night — but only according to each house’s need.
A diesel-run generator has been installed to charge the batteries if they fall below 20% and the expectation is that the generator will run for an average of 15 to 40 minutes per day during the winter, using around three liters of diesel.
Solar energy system supplies 250kw
To help cut down on electricity usage, cooking ovens, stoves, and heating/air-conditioning systems are being run on gas supplied in canisters.
Water is currently being transported into storage containers …
Celebrating its second Christmas, Ungifted allows you to take part in the Secret Santa tradition, 
without being a part of a mass-produced junk problem that’s harming the planet. And the online service is perfectly positioned to bring families together over the upcoming, self-isolated festive season.
More Mugs anybody?
While many of us are still working from home, Secret Santa traditions are still set to go ahead this year, albeit via Zoom, and many are bracing themselves for another cheap, useless gift from a colleague. Instead of giving each other unwanted stuff, the Secret Santa service from Ungifted offers surprises which are then revealed at an online Unwrapping party. Keep an eye on your emails to find out who you’ve got.
Suggestions include curating Spotify playlists or a month or memes; sending motivational memes for a month; watching and reviewing movies on behalf of friends; scheduled coffee-based (virtual) chats, sharing spooky stories or committing to a year of loyalty in the form of ‘Likes’. You can also create your own gifts, perfectly tailored for your office family. The gifts are unveiled via a shared-screen to mimic the real-life experience as much as is possible.
Ungifted founder Naresh Ramchandani wanted to transform the Secret Santa ritual and get away from “the mounds of novelty office tat we’ve bought each other over the years. Most of those unwanted gifts has ended up in landfill.”
Bad Santa
He was inspired by horror stories of the worst secret Secret Santa gift ever received. :
*“Condoms. From the MD. Mortifying!”
* “A mini hot water bottle with Anne Frank on the cover. I had no words!”
*“Sheep slippers – because I’m Welsh. They were too small”
*“I’m over sixty and someone bought me an edible thong.”
“While our motivations are worthy,” said Ramachandi, “we still think Ungifted is a more fun and meaningful option, and everyone who signs up could actually get something they really enjoy this Christmas.”
How does Ungifted work?
Step 1: Sign up your team or group of friends, and their secret sorter will do its matching-up magic
Step 2: Choose from a range of zero-waste, creative gifts (or create your own) and write your Ungifted message
Step 3: Set the date for your shared-screen gift reveal, and when the time comes, unmute your mic and let the fun begin.
To find out more about Ungifted, head to https://ungiftedsecretsanta.com…
Shepherd’s Hut stays are becoming popular as the multiple lockdowns give us all a taste to break free from TV, electricity and even buildings with roofs.
Shepherd’s Huts are quirky getaways that have long been a hit with those looking for something a little sturdier than a tent for camping – you get all the comforts of a bed, kitchenette and bathroom, while still getting to enjoy remote landscapes. They tend to be popular with couples, but there are also some properties for families if you do want to bring the kids on an adventure.
To give you a helping hand, we’ve rounded up some of our favourite Shepherd’s Hut stays across the UK worth having on your radar…
1. Rock View Shepherd’s Hut, Devon
Hidden in the woodlands three miles from the village of Gunnislake, this cosy hut has everything you need for a comfortable stay -there’s no TV and no access to Wi-Fi.
Spend the day exploring the landscape there are some nearby market towns.
How much: Prices from £249 for seven nights with Sykes Holiday Cottages. Sleeps two people. Find out more here.
2. The Hot Tub Hideaway, Brecon Beacons
As the name suggests, this charming hut offers a luxurious perk for guests; an outdoor hot tub with views of the breathtaking scenery.
Located in a private meadow, you’ll get exclusive use of the hut and its hot tub, while other highlights include a wood burning stove inside, and a large fire pit if you do fancy some al fresco dining. There’s a separate hut for the wet room and toilet.
How much Prices from £409 for three nights with HolidayCottages. Sleeps two people. Find out more here.
3. Maylies, Northumberland
If you’re looking to get away from the daily grind, Maylies could be just the spot. For a start, the outdoor bath is the stuff of dreams with views of the sprawling countryside, while inside you’ll find two bedrooms with cosy beds, as well as an open plan kitchen and lounge.
The hut actually sleeps up to four people, so it can also be ideal for friends or families looking to have a fun countryside escape together.
How much Prices from £200 per night with Canopy & Stars. Sleeps four people. Find out more here.
4. The Happy Hare, Dorset
Couples after a romantic getaway surrounded by picturesque landscape won’t be disappointed at this quirky spot in Dorset.
The Happy Hare offers an idyllic camping break from the outdoor seating area and fire pit to the hot tub. Inside the hut expect modern and sleek interiors, including a double bed and a kitchenette with everything you need for a hearty post-countryside-walk meal.
How much Prices from £80 per night with Canopy & Stars. Sleeps two people. Find out more here.
Black Farmer Calls For Church, State And Private Land Owners To Make More Allotment Space Available For ‘Farming Lite’ – 45% Increase In Demand For Allotments Due To COVID-19 Accentuates 18 Month Backlog
THE BLACK FARMER, a Jamaican, born-again country gentleman, has backed our Landbuddy campaign for more renters to get access to small parcels of land where they can grow food, live or work off the grid.
There are an estimated 330,000 allotment plots today in Britain, but up to 500,000 individuals who want an allotment, and in the USA there is a similar shortage of spaces to grow food.
Rather than responsibility for allotment space purely being placed on local towns and counties, The Black Farmer, Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones MBE, says: “The Government, Ministry of Defence, Church of England all own vast swathes of land and could be doing a lot more to welcome people from diverse urban cultures – but particularly black people – into allotments and ultimately into the countryside.” Overseas companies own 279,523 acres of land in the UK, but this is tiny compared to the tens of millions of acres of land available in the USA. UK owned holdings in the USA are several million acres.
Emmanuel-Jones was appointed Member of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to British farming.
Emmanuel-Jones says: “Tending to my father’s allotment in Birmingham, aged 11, I made a promise to myself that I’d own a farm one day. To me, that small green patch was an oasis and an opportunity to escape from the cramped two-up, two-down terraced house I shared with my family of 11. It took 30 years of hard graft.
“Gatekeepers of pastoral Britain have the power to make a difference and it’s time they were challenged to do so”.
Emmanuel-Jones believes central government should start seeing allotments as part of the answer to national food security and acknowledging the valuable role that they play in raising public health and well-being.
The National Allotment Society recommends that local authorities provide 20 plots per 1000 households. For 20 years, the NSALG has been promoting National Allotments Week (10th – 16th August 2020).
The National Allotment Society (NAS) is the leading national organisation upholding the interests and rights of the allotment community across the UK. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales is Patron of the Society. The Prince is an avid gardener himself and advocate of green issues, he is also keen to promote and protect the UK’s enduring traditions.
Emannuel-Jones set up a marketing agency in London, specialising in food brands, including Lloyd Grossman, Kettle Chips and Plymouth Gin.
He is married and the couple have a son and a daughter. He has an adult son from his first marriage.
Smug eco-charities like Friends of the Earth held to account for drawing huge salaries and doing nothing for planet – except flying around to meetings…
Couple living alone in wilderness for decades -REUTERS SPECIAL REPORT-
SOMEWHERE NEAR RESERVE, New Mexico, June 5 (Reuters) – To leave society behind was a wedding vow Wendell and Mariann spoke only to each other. It was a solemn one, though, and to save for it Mariann spent only $66 on her bridal gown. Once they were married on that winter day 35 years ago, they just started driving.
Wendell and Mariann Hardy had lived most of their lives in the fast-growing southwestern city of Tucson, Arizona. But each was drawn to solitude. Mariann began distance-running into the mountains on high desert trails. Even before they met, both relocated to log cabins up on Mt. Lemmon, the 9,157-foot peak in the Catalinas range that overlooks Tucson. Still, city types came up to party there on the weekends. It wasn’t isolated enough.
Wendell took a job installing windows at Mariann’s cabin. Shy at first, the two got to talking about how they weren’t made for crowded places. One afternoon, Mariann offered him gin and tonic. Just how far, Wendell asked her, would she be willing to go?
In search of solitude
The question, open-ended and thrilling, marked the beginning of a union between two people who sought solitude – and instead found a life alone together.
Decades later, a pandemic has thrust the concept of social distancing into the daily lexicon and lives of Americans. As the nation’s death toll from COVID-19 tops 100,000, a new reality has set in: With few effective treatments and no vaccine, maintaining distance from others in society is the only sure method of stopping the spread.
Few people are as accustomed to the rigors, or rewards, of sheltering-in-place as Wendell, 75, and Mariann, 69. Soon after their 1985 church wedding in Tucson, they started exploring the wildest reaches of the American West for a place to be on their own.
A jack of all trades, including driving race cars, Wendell had a knack for fixing up vehicles like their salvaged pickups and a 1978 Jeep. They’d load one up and scout out Arizona’s parched borderlands to the south, and its ponderosa pine forests up north.
You can tell something by how couples sit on bench seats in old pickup trucks. Some sit apart, at either window. Others, like Wendell and Mariann, sit close together, behind the steering wheel.
Their search ended in Catron County, New Mexico. It is among the most rural in the United States, bigger than some U.S. states. Elk outnumber people 4 to 1. Traffic is so sparse, the county doesn’t have a single stoplight. Some children wait for the school bus in wood and wire cages. These serve as a precaution, against the wolves.
Miles down a washed-out dirt road along the San Francisco River, they saw 25 acres for sale. The $40,000 stretch of land, 6,000 feet high and zoned …
Remote vacations will be all the rage as the unlockdown begins.
Outdoor recreation is slowly beginning to reopen in Oregon with social distancing rules. Playgrounds and restrooms remain closed, but some public campgrounds will be allowed to open on June 9. Until then, there are still plenty of places in nature where you can be far from crowds. Why not hide away on a vineyard or alpaca farm? Here are getaways to inspire your Memorial Day weekend and beyond.
Farm Stays
Leaping Lamb Farm and Farm Stays: Owner Scottie Jones, who wrote “Country Grit: A Farmoir of Finding Purpose and Love,” conducts private tours at her farm in Alsea, on Oregon Highway 34 west of Corvallis. Watch lambs romp, pick berries, collect eggs and breathe fresh air on this 1862 homestead, then stay the night. The lodging staff is taking extra safety and cleaning precautions. Book via Priceline
The 1895 farm house, which sleeps 12, starts at $300 a night, depending on travel dates, and the two-bedroom cottage that sleeps six starts at $250 a night. Wake up when you want. Jones says the alarm clock is a lazy rooster. Check out other Oregon farm stays on Airbnb, from a five-person bunkhouse at Wine Down Ranch in Prineville (about $90 a night depending on travel dates) to a one-bedroom apartment on an alpaca farm in Hillsboro (about $80). Priceline has a McMinnville farm house for rent with four bedrooms, but reviewers say bring earplugs because of road noise. Find quiet hotels across Oregon at a discount.
Tiny Houses to Check Into
People who don’t want to walk down a hallway to their hotel room are renting standalone micro houses, says Deb Delman, co-owner of Caravan-The Tiny House Hotel in Northeast Portland’s Alberta Arts District. When guests arrive, they find everything is within reach inside the five compact dwellings, which are spaced apart around an open courtyard. Each tiny house is fully furnished with an efficient seating area, kitchen, two beds and a bathroom with a flush toilet, shower and hot-and-cold running water. Hotel rates of $125-$185 a night are being temporarily discounted. The family-friendly Vintages Trailer Resort has refurbished retro travel trailers with an outdoor grill and no contact check-ins. For Father’s Day, The Vintages is offering dads 20% off already discounted prices.
Campers and RVs for Rent
Release from the long lockdown may inspire a road trip. You can ride your own wheels or rent a roomy RV, sleek Airstream or colorful camper van, through a company or private owner, a la Airbnb, RVs are in Oregon’s DNA. Wally Byam, who founded Airstream in 1931, was born in Baker City. Holiday House modern travel trailers were dreamed up by Medford’s David Holmes of Harry & David fruit basket fame. The canned ham-shape Alohas started in — you guessed it — Aloha and Timberlines hailed from Sandy. Outdoorsy, which matches …
Have your circumstances changed recently? Have you realised you’re no longer tied to an office, or even a city? Has your boss agreed you can work from anywhere? Or are you contemplating a new life without a steady salary?
Millions across the country are thinking the same thing – what happens next?
Moving to a piece of land somewhere, living in a tiny home or an RV, might be the right answer. Cut your costs, enjoy clean air, end the commute, anywhere with a broadband signal. City living, mass transit, bars, clubs, offices just got old.
Landbuddy.com is a match-making service. We help unite the global community of people who love the land, who live off the grid, or are thinking of doing so, who own land & want to share it so it’s used and enjoyed by more people.
We serve particularly those who want to earn a living from the land.
We offer a seamless environment for owners and renter to come to an agreement; we act as a clearing house for all the services needed for improving and living on the land. and a place where the community can share ideas and support each other and itself.
If you are a land owner you can go here and offer your land for rent. It might be for farming, or camping, or making art, or mending fishing nets – or living off the grid. If you own land that is up to you to settle with the people who contact you – and it depends what you want your land to be used for.
If you are a seeker after off-grid land you can go here to register and search our database.
If you just want to help, or find others to move in with, or find a more informal deal, go to our old
Landbuddy service which already has over 1000 postings from people who are looking to create new off-grid communities or offering land where communities can form.
If you just want to help, or find others to move in with, or find a more informal deal, go to our old Landbuddy page which already has 1000 postings of people who are looking for others to create a new community or offering land for communities to form
you can buy and sell land on our free classifieds here.https:// Off-grid.net/classifieds
Here is a quick guide: https://landbuddy.sharetribe.com/en/infos/how_to_use
Explore New LandBuddy Go To Old LandBuddy
If renting is not your thing, you can buy and sell land on our free classifieds here.
Here is a quick guide:
https://landbuddy.sharetribe.com/en/infos/how_to_use
– please check out our new Landing Page and let us know what you think of it.
You can register and offer your land for rent to like-minded folks in just a few minutes – GO HERE.…
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