Community

I started prepping for Coronavirus in September 2019, after I heard about Disease X.   A World Health Organisation staffer told me of plans to war-game a major pandemic –  create a dummy Situation Room where various luminaries would form a world government once deaths reach a million.
 
The world ignored them then, but I didn’t ignore them.
 
In November 2019 I bought an acre of land in the West Country at auction, without even seeing the plot.   
After the hammer fell, I did my research. It took about a day to pinpoint the exact location of my remote field, in a hamlet of smallholdings dotted with sheds and horseboxes. At least I have neighbours.
 
Some of those neighbours won’t welcome an outsider, especially now. 

But they will have to learn to accept people like me.  I am part of a megatrend. As successive waves of the pandemic break over Western society, hundreds of thousands of newly-unemployed workers from the big cities may begin to think along similar lines. After all, how long will the state be able to pay everyone even a basic income? The gig economy is set to explode, and many of those part-time jobs can be done from anywhere with a phone and a computer.

Zoom Boom

The move from the suburbs to remote rural locations started a decade ago, as the ratio of house prices to income steadily increased. That migration is turning from a trickle to a flood. This is set to to be the Age of Exurbia, defined by Washington Think Tank the Brookings Institution as places at least an hour from the nearest city, with housing density in the bottom quartile. And the boom in video-conferencing during the lockdown has shown tens of millions there is a way to stay in touch with friends, family and work colleagues. That will be a huge benefit to the environment.

 Academics and demographers pooh-pooh the idea of a really major exodus from the cities, pointing to a lack of broadband and scarcity of medical facilities.  These are serious obstacles, but if you are determined to leave the city behind there are two ways to overcome them.  One is to make do without broadband, live a disconnected life, and ensure that your community includes a doctor, or at least a nurse.
 
This has its attractions, but I chose another way: my newly acquired land was purchased for its location – near one of the greatest concentrations of internet bandwidth in the United Kingdom – Morwenstow, the northernmost parish of Cornwall, and home to GCHQ’s  Composite Signals Organisation Station. In other words, the nerve centre for hundreds of spooks. There are excellent community hospitals in the area.

“If you think the world will end tomorrow, plant a tree today”

 I’d bought my agricultural acre both as an escape route from society, but also to plant a wood. I …

Lady Lola Crichton-Stuart, 20-year-old daughter of the Marquess of Bute, is having a very laid back lockdown.

She is in isolation on a remote island, near her family’s ancestral home with a gaggle of friends, including her half-sister Jazzy de Lisser, an actress, and model Adwoa Aboah. The group have shared snaps of their wholesome Scottish lockdown on Instagram.

Lady Lola has shared snaps of herself taking dips in the sea, strolling through the countryside, and baking up a storm with friends including Vogue cover girl Adwoa Aboah, 27, and Ruby Boglione, the youngest daughter of Petersham Nurseries founders Gael and Francesco, who works as a buyer for the family business.

It is thought the group is staying at a holiday cottage, rather than the family’s ancestral seat, Mount Stuart Manor House, which is home to Lady Lola’s father and fashion designer mother, Serena, 57. Her father, former F1 racing driver John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, takes his title.…

One of the most potent reasons for living off-grid is the amount of energy that is wasted by the grid. According to academic studies 32% of energy is lost in the transmission system between where it is generated and reaching the end user.

Sir David Attenborough appeared on BBC TV this morning to promote a film he made for Netflix, telling us we have one last chance to save our species. In the interview he urged people to “stop waste of any kind”, saying the world is precious and should be “celebrated and cherished”.

He added that Covid-19 was spread most quickly in the planet’s most densely populated areas – another reason to live in the areas of Exurbia most popular with off-gridders.

The broadcaster and naturalist warns humans have a “last chance” to change their behaviour and save the planet, as he urged politicians to address “the biggest problem humanity has ever faced”.

In an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Attenborough, 93, said it will be the younger generation who will have to make changes because “they will be able to see the consequences of what they do”.

He added: “My lot are dying off and we are the ones that caused the problem.”

He suggested people should see the world and their time in it as precious, saying “that’s the fundamental attitude”.

He warned: “The world is not a bowl of fruit in which we can just take what we wish. We are part of it and if we destroy it we destroy ourselves.”

Asked what people can do to help protect the planet, Attenborough said: “Stop waste. Stop waste of any kind. Stop wasting power, stop wasting food, stop wasting plastic. Don’t waste, this is a precious world. Celebrate and cherish.”

He went on to say that his message to world leaders would be: “This is the last chance.

“There are short-term problems and long-term problems.

“A politician is tempted to deal with short-term problems all the time and neglect long-term problems.

“This is not only a long-term problem it is the biggest problem humanity has faced. Ever.

“Please examine it and please respond.”

Attenborough has worked with Netflix to produce an upcoming documentary called A Life On Our Planet which looks at the challenges facing earth and what can be done to address them.…

The growing interest in living off the grid is a global phenomenon – hundreds of thousands every year are moving off-grid – either because they want to live a cleaner greener life, or because it is a less expensive way to live and allows them more financial freedom – or out of a fear of social and economic collapse, or combination of these factors.

But by the nature of this lifestyle it is low profile to the point of invisibility.

Using online research tools, Off-Grid.Net scraped the Internet and found the 5 UK centres of interest in this lifestyle.

The parishes (the smallest unit of local government in the UK) are in Hertfordshire, Suffolk, Cheshire, Dorset, and Northumberland. These are the places where people take the most about living off-grid, and therefore can be assumed to to be the most interested in living off-grid.

Wolverstone, Suffolk has a huge Marina and as a result many boat-dwellers and van-dwellers are there all the year round. Marina charges are low, and local farmers will allow camper vans or buses to park behind a hedge for extended periods.

Ord in Northumberland is near the Lindisfarne Nature Reserve, so it combines bountiful natural produce with the plants found near the sea, as well as the possibility of sea fishing. It is near the River Tweed which also affords opportunity for living on a boat moored in one of the many tributaries, such as Whiteadder Water.

Henbury, Cheshire is near Macclesfield, with a very low population, and plenty of lakes and small rivers. It is a wealthy area so neighbours might oppose off-grid living if they happened to come across it, and it is home to the world famous Jodrell Bank telescope, so there is top quality internet bandwidth in the area.

Leigh in Dorset is also a very wealthy area, where the local working class cannot find any affordable housing. The landscape is gently undulating and predominantly agricultural, with good quality pasture; cheese and cider are a common product of the area, with at one time every farm possessing an orchard. The small Wriggle River passes through the parish.

Tewin, Hertfordshire is the most densely populated of the 5 off-grid centres. Quintessentially English, with pubs, woods, footpaths and meadows, the parish has 1400 residents of whom over half are in the village of Tewin, a commuter village with a thriving cricket club.

Although it would be a stretch to conclude that there were actually a higher proportion living off-grid in these places, that is also possible. Further research would be needed to prove it. Any academics or others willing to sponsor the research please get in touch at news@off-grid.net

We know of off-grid communities all across the country – but this is the first reliable evidence that interest in concentrated in specific communities.

lt can be hard to find an off-grid community when you …

This is a shout-out to our readers to ask – please send us thousands of your off-grid photos – hundreds of minutes of video footage of you and your off-grid life. C’mon down to our YouTube channel – you can even star in it – we are looking for off-grid communities or individuals to become our next YouTube stars.

With the amazing Smartphones most of us now possess, we can all make photography and videography a part of our life. We are all citizen journalists.

lease send us your stills or videos using photo and video apps, via Google docs or Wetransfer.com.

You can email news@off-grid.net for more guidance on what to send and how to send it.

If you do not live off-grid – you can still share videos of yourself talking about why you want to live off-grid – especially at this difficult time, when Coronavirus confines so many to their own homes.

We know from emails we receive from our readers how many of you want to flee the city now, and start a new life of self-sufficiency.

We also understand you want to look great in every picture you share on our social media platforms. You can even hire a professional to edit photos, for example using On Click.
But we can also edit the footage for you and please ret assured that whatever you send us will be used to best effect. We want you to look good – when you look good, then we look good. So don’t be shy – send us your most revealing moments and most interesting off-grid technologies and we will take care of the rest.
And it really is very easy to film and shoot stills on a phone camera these days – the only limitation is he amount of memory and the bandwidth to send it to us being included in your tariff – but will all-inclusive phone plans even this is within the scope of many. And if not, just wait until the next time you go into town and then jump on the bandwidth in a cafe or library.

Photo and video apps are a boon, allowing you to edit with just a few taps on the mobile. Stills editing apps can change the look and feel of the photographs, from cropping unwanted objects to the addition of stickers or background. There are a few advanced photo editing apps which allow you to remove imperfections on the face, such as wrinkles, dark circles, and white spots.

Video editing apps can be used to do a basic edit – try Vidtrim, Quik, and Adobe Premiere Clip.

There are multiple reasons to use photo editing apps:
Add stickers
If you want to capture yourself standing outside your off-grid home, you can do it. There are various ways to add and remove elements that are in the …

While some of the world’s wealthiest reserve themselves “bargain” apartments in central London for up to £22.5 million, other realty agents representing large landowners say they have been flooded with enquiries from the Middle East and Asia’s wealthiest seeking an investment that can serve as both a bolt-hole from the raging pandemic and a long-term investment.

Mansions and apartments in ultra-desirable London locations like Islington, Kensington and Notting Hill are being shown remotely by agents via 360-degree online tours, allowing prospective buyers to view the property without leaving their home.

Among the properties currently available to view include a six-bedroom Belgravia mansion, on the market with Beauchamp Estates for £22.5million, and apartments in Borough, south London, from Galliard Homes, which are available from £1.3million.

Jeremy Gee, managing director of Beauchamp Estates received interest from buyers from the UK, Middle East and Far East who are looking for a secure investment amid the ongoing stock market crisis. The same is true in the more rarified world of private islands, and while some of these idylls sell for up to US$100 million, others go for as little as US$55,000, a fraction of the cost of the average Hong Kong apartment.

Edward de Mallet Morgan, a Partner with Knight Frank’s International Super-Prime Sales Team in London who specialises in private-island sales, said there had been a clear uptick in interest since the first reported coronavirus cases emerged in Wuhan, China, last year.

“For many who are already interested, the current world situation has meant that their resolve, intention and motivation to find a safe and protected haven for themselves and their families has only increased,” he said.

“As well as a financial investment, a private island would certainly be an investment in health and well-being and in very special family time. For some buyers, this is the key to real wealth – health and happiness and the family.

“For Asian buyers, there seems to be a driver, not only for the best and most beautiful, but to acquire such properties in an environment which is unpolluted and as pure as possible.”

While the coronavirus has spurred buyers to look all over the world, there is particular curiosity about parts of the Americas.

“There’s been a definite uptick of interest in freehold islands in recent months, especially in the Caribbean and Central America,” said Chris Krolow, CEO of Ontario-based Private Islands Inc and the owner of Gladden Private Island, a bonsai resort on the Barrier Reef in Belize that rents for US$3,695 per night.

“Asian buyers are careful investors, looking for a hideaway for their own use as well as somewhere that will bring in money at a later date, whether they develop it or resell it. And a private island is a definite ego trip too.”

Krolow’s company lists nearly 700 properties for sale, ranging from the 2.5-hectare Half Island in Nova Scotia, …

In times of crisis wealthy buyers look for luxury bunkers, isolated compounds, hotel takeovers and other high-end features for doomsday scenarios.

Survivalist prepping is not a new for many high-net-worth individuals. Wealthy homeowners have long been outfitting their apartments and houses with panic rooms, complete with bars, TVs, and upscale furnishings to have an opulent retreat in the event of a break-in or other crisis.

But now there is a new urgency, and upscale hotels which were thinking to shutter for the crisis, are being approached with offers they cannot refuse.

The buyout

Loungueville House, set in picturesque countryside a three-hour drive from Dublin, Ireland, will be occupied by a single party in May. Francis Lynch, his wife and their two young adult sons will have the nine-bedroom house to themselves, reports CNN.

The Times newspaper has run a feature about a group of women herding cattle and wielding chainsaws in their thongs.

When you first visit the King’s Hill ranch in northern California, there are a couple of things you notice right away. You notice the animals: the sheep and the goats, the alpacas, horses and flocks of poultry.

But more than anything, you notice the girls. It’s hard not to. Because everyone working at King’s Hill is a young woman. Also – and this is important – they really enjoy wearing bikinis. Not all the time. Of course not. That would be impractical. “If we’re working with the animals then we’re not going to be in our thongs,” says Doris Molakides, a slim 39-year-old with long black hair who owns and oversees the 400-acre operation. But, she continues, yes, if it’s hot and they are just doing harvesting work or other farmyard chores then she and her troupe of young seasonal workers will strip down to their beachwear. “I mean, we’re in the sun every single day and we don’t want tan lines. If there are no guys around, we will take our tops off.”

You notice the remoteness, the acre after acre of sun-drenched farmland spread across rugged green hills, miles from the nearest town. You also notice an intense sense of industry, from the rumble of coming and going pick-up trucks to the distant buzz of chainsaws felling trees.

Now and then, some of them will strip down to nothing and go about their busy day of commercial agriculture. “We’ll get naked,” she says brightly. “We oil ourselves up and get pruning.”

What is this place? Why is it worked exclusively by cheerful, body-confident women? Why is one of the girls, Lexie, feeding chickens while wearing what I can only really describe as a G-string? Why is Molakides practising her marksmanship with an automatic rifle – she has completed several tactical shooting courses – in a tight, white miniskirt? What’s going on? I am, for better or worse, not actually at the King’s Hill ranch. Instead, like many thousands of other people, I have been following events here on Instagram. Molakides runs an account called @GirlsGoneOffGrid in which she documents daily life on her selfsufficient, off-grid ranch. It shows Molakides and her fellow workers helping their goats to give birth, harvesting walnuts, slaughtering turkeys and, until a recent change in the law prohibited them from doing so, cultivating industrial quantities of marijuana. Often while wearing bikinis.

For some reason, Molakides says, many people look at these images and videos and assume they are contrived. “There are so many people commenting like, ‘Oh, this can’t be real! This is fake!'” she says. But it really, really is real. “I guess I just wanted to document what we were doing. It wasn’t for show. It wasn’t for anything,” she …

Here is a recent Reuters Foundation report on off-grid real estate:

Often called survivalists or “preppers”, many escapees twin an expectation of impending doom – or outright social collapse – with a deep disbelief in the government’s ability to cope.

Buying land — or “bugout” property, derived from military slang for a retreat — is a priority, with real estate networks compiling national lists of “prepper lands”.

Most survivalist land purchases are in the mountains of the U.S. northwest, primarily Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

In 2011, a blogger and former U.S. Army intelligence officer named James Wesley, Rawles – he includes the comma in his name – wrote a widely circulated post urging “freedom-loving Christians” to move to the region as a safe haven.

He dubbed the area the American Redoubt and urged followers to “buy land that will maximise your self-sufficiency.”

It is unclear how many heeded his call, but the Economist magazine estimated they numbered in the “thousands of families”.

Idaho in particular recorded a big influx, says Reuters Foundation.

The state had one of the top U.S. growth rates in 2015-16, driven in part by escapees from California and neighbouring Washington state, according to Boise State assistant professor Jeffrey Lyons.

Disaffected Californians make up a substantial number of clients for Black Rifle Real Estate, which says online that it helps people “Flee the City to the freedom and safety of Rural America and the famed American Redoubt.”

Broker Todd Savage said his business is at an all-time high, driven by frustration with how many U.S. cities are governed.

“Most of our clients are now looking to sell their postage-stamp size properties … and make what we call a ‘Strategic Relocation’ to a free state,” Savage said in an email.

Driven by new demand, the company is expanding outside of the so-called Redoubt — to Arizona, which Savage said enjoys lower taxes and far looser gun controls than liberal California.

“Arizona is the new Idaho for many seeking relief from the tyranny in California,” he said.

EMBRACE LAND

Conservatives are not alone in the new land rush.

Haynes said his clients in North Carolina are evenly split between survivalists and “homesteaders” — young, liberal, less affluent families seeking peace, quiet and a sustainable life.

“When I started out in 1973, the big thing then was the ‘back to the land’ movement,” said Neil Shelton with the Ozark Land Company, a developer active in Missouri and Arkansas.

What he is seeing now is a “new iteration” of that movement, he said, and one driven by innovation: the pre-built ‘tiny home’, typically 400-600 square feet.

Small structures have made home ownership more affordable, he said, for some accelerating the new mood of escapism.

“This tiny-house movement is the biggest thing I’ve seen since” the 1970s, Shelton said.

Kim Moore, 63, said she and her husband had bought nearly 60 acres …