Bikini farmers of California

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…

7 Best US Colleges for Cleantech

Clean technology (like renewable energy, or low carbon production processes) are in demand across advanced economies in US and Europe. From folks interested in involving…

Zac Efron illness irony

Zac Efron was filming a new off-gid adventure series entitled “Killing Zac” when he was taken ill and nearly died, in a story that will…

Never Again! Lets Close PG&E

Two major wildfires that raged in California for the past ten days are finally contained. But the debate and aftermath will rage for months. California’s…
Huge motorhome wth side door and steel shitters

Brexit made me go off-grid

Dave Goodwill told fellow-members on Quora how he made the choice to go off-grid: Brexit will greatly improve my life. I’ve been struggling with seasonal…

Digital detox weekend

We’re on our way to West Virginia for a low-tech weekend at promisingly-named Lost River State Park – just across the Virginia border in Mathias,…

Should I live on a boat?

WHATis it really like living on a canal boat or on the river? So many of us have wondered if it would be a way…

Opting out of the Phone race

When you’re trying to keep things simple and low tech, you want a low impact, low maintenance phone. Something that you can use in case…

Thomasin McKenzie interview

Thomasin McKenzie, 19, came to fame as a Hollywood actress playing an off-grid character. Q: You broke out in last year’s Leave No Trace –…

10 Best Solar-Powered Colleges In The US

Solar energy is the fastest growing green energy source. It takes care of the environment, bestows energy independence, and os a cost-effective solution. Below is…

Extinction Rebellion protests continue

Climate activists Extinction Rebellion continued their global “summer rebellion” in London and Munich today. In London, the target was London Concrete, the British capital’s biggest…

Timber Festival UK – Review

Daisy Stella Baldwin reports from Leicestershire…. It was raining hard when we arrived at Timber Festival 2019; a three-day festival of music, arts and performance…

Off-road vehicle, off-grid home

Are you looking to exchange a comfortable middle class home for life sitting round a campfire? You might be in luck. Winnebago Industries has recently…

Steve Miller leaves his island haven

Rocker Steve Miller’s remarkable off-grid retreat in Washington’s San Juan Islands finally sold for $8.5 million. The property was originally listed for $20 million in…

Islandeering

A new book about islandeering guides you through visits to some of the UK’s tiniest islands where there is no power or fresh water, and…

20 Acres Off-Grid Ready

Beautiful Cascade Mountains and Valley view from this 19.81 acres. Located in NE Washington. Property boasts a permitted well and 2 bed septic, 10×16 shop/storage,…

Go Your Own Way

Many of us have bellowed ‘Go your own way!’ at the top of our lungs when listening to Fleetwood Mac, but it’s in that pause…
Artist impression of Mantis RV

Ultimate RV

The Taxa range of RVs are specificaly designed for off-gridders
HJeremie outside his horsebox

Living in a Box, a 4-wheeled Box

Jeremie.C.Lingenheim could have anything he wants within reason. He could drive around London in a Porsche, but he prefers a motorbike. He could eat in…

Talk is Cheep

[before_listing images= youtube=null] Could-a, should-a, would-a. What’s it gonna take to wake you up? Unless you get off your butts yesterday, you are toast. In…

Island mansion for sale

Engels and Volkers are featuring this amazing off-grid home on a private island near Vancouver, British Columbia.  If the US $15 million price tag is…
A Tyalgum resident poses with his electric bike

Australia Decentralises

When folks first hear about Tyalgum, in East Australia they picture Mad Max. Steampunk locals power this dieselpunk outpost with renewable, ethanol-based Guzzolene. Tyalgum has…
cod liver trimmings

Food, not supplements

Food comes after water in the hierarchy of the things you need to sustain life off-grid. First Water, then Food, then Fire, then Shelter, although…
Tara Westover - Portrait

Tara Westover – Off-grid abuse

The shocking story of Tara Westover which she tells in her recently published memoir ‘Educated’ casts an undeserved shadow on off-grid-families and their ways of…
Fonder of water vapor firm

Zero Mass Water

A regular supply of drinking water is the holy grail for off-grid living. If you can get a bare minimum of water and heating of…
PR Blurb from property company

The House with No Bills

An Australian housebuilder has launched a search for a family to live in its prototype Home with No Energy Bills. Mirvac is building the house…

Three Rivers

FIRST there were the propane lamps. Then came wind turbines, followed by solar panels that powered William Shay’s off-the-grid vacation home overlooking Lake Billy Chinook.…

River mobile battery

Backup batteries? Got ’em. Mobile charging stations? Check. But I need a mobile battery that will keep my beer cold and charge my phone and…

Vamos a Ecuador

Me estoy mudando a Ecuador y tengo dinero para comprar tierras, pero quiero dividirme con personas de ideas afines.Las personas que respetan a la Tierra…

Artist Within a World

This amazing 360 degree work (only a part shown) by van-dwelling artist Emily Lamb is the product of her time in jungles and mountains around…

Water glass eggs?

One of the things that some of my neighbors have done when moving out to the country is get chickens, some do it for the…

10 years later…

It was 10 years ago on December 22 when PB and I (and our little chihuahua Pekoe) pulled up on our property, it was 3:30…

El Cáñamo esta caliente

¡El cáñamo está caliente! Va a ser un ajetreado 2018 para exposiciones y conferencias de Cannabis a nivel nacional e internacional. A continuación se muestra…

East Jesus

I think most everyone is familiar with “Slab City”, an abandoned military base in the Sonoran desert in California. This desolate place is a favored…
Peru View

Alone in the Peruvian Desert

Although every place on this planet is unique in its own way, Peru manages to stand out above the crowd because of its many natural…
Van life in Vancouver

Van life in Vancouver

Wow, that is my first thought about Atli and how she lives! She is a part-time bus driver, she can afford to work part time…
Coral eggs meet sperm deep under water

Great Barrier Reef – Coral Spawning

The world’s biggest living organism, the Great Barrier Reef, has held its annual Coral Spawning event, with trillions of eggs and sperm simultaneously releasing into…
Woman growing strawberries in a covered net box

5 tips on growing strawberries

Are strawberries your favorite fruit? Want to grow them yourself at home? Here’s 5 tips on how to grow more strawberries than expected! Practice makes…
Picture of the Volkner Mobil Performance S

Luxury Volkner Motorhome

The Volkner mobil performance s is the future of road living. The 40ft luxury motorhome comes with all of the mod-cons you could possibly wish for.…
chicken eating pumpkin seeds

Low maintenance Chickens

It’s great to rear chickens – eggs, scratchy kind of companionship, and eventually a roast bird. But should every off-grid home have a few? They…
Vandweller at the wheel of her vehicle

Ducking and diving in a van

Izzy is a  vandweller somewhere in England.  She chose the life as it was a way of getting an affordable home as a low paid worker. …
Controlled CA blaze creates windbreak against wildfire

Adapt your home to survive a wildfire

Devastation caused by the recent wildfire outbreak in California reminds those living off-grid to maintain awareness of fire safety. Especially those who live in rural…

Essential Crafter

There was a time when if you wanted to learn how to do something, especially a trade, you found the person with the most knowledge…

Aircrete!

I’m certain that most everyone reading this is familiar with using concrete for building material, there are various ways to go about using concrete, from…

30 days and it’s ready

I had so much fun watching this couple condense a 30 day conversion into a short video, as I saw each part, I thought that’s…

Internet gone!

With all of the hurricanes and wildfires going on here in the USA, we haven’t been plagued by any of those tragedies, but we have…

Karen and her Casita

I spent some time today listening to Karen describe her life and how she ended up living in a small Casita travel trailer. I am…

Empty shelves

What is the first thing to disappear off the shelves in an emergency? Water, that is the main thing I heard people on the news…
Red and white C19th lighthouse on island in Maine

Maine Lighthouse for sale

If you want to truly be alone in style, check out this private island and historic lighthouse for sale in Maine. Blue Hill Bay Lighthouse…

Van living is road to freedom

“Living in a van, I can make money, be an artist, and travel three continents,” says Nathan Murphy, an accomplished amateur rock climber from Cornwall…

Eclipse Monday

I suspect that unless you are living under a really big rock, you know about the solar eclipse that will be happening on Monday. It’s…

Manual counterparts

You decide you are hungry, you get up from the couch, you pause your TV show on the way to the kitchen, you get a…

Aussies shocked by energy price rises

Rising electricity prices in Queensland are forcing a soon-to-be retired single woman to become 100% energy self-sufficient, storing renewable energy onsite. Homeowner Liza Jackson is…

Living here vs there

When we left the big city, well more like the outskirts of the big city, we lived in a trailer park on the edge of…

Hitting the wall

PB and I have lived off-grid for nearly 10 years now, by Christmas this year it will be 10 years. Have you ever done something…

Healing update

On July 10, I posted about getting bit by something, probably a spider, not likely of the recluse variety based on how quickly it blew…

Going old school batteries

The Achilles’ heel of every off-gridder has got to be the battery bank. It is generally the most expensive part of the system, especially if…

What bit me?

Being sick or injured is one of the things that you still have to deal with when living off-grid. This summer we had a lot…
Woman with large battery

Never leave full batteries

I planned to install batteries to backup to the rooftop PV system and for years have had misleading advice from many sources. I always thought…

Cooking with the sun

There are several different ways to use the sun in cooking, aka solar cooking or solar ovens. If you live in a sunny place, the…

Huge tiny home!

This has to be the biggest tiny home I’ve seen to date, it’s 37 feet long and 8.5 feet wide, 13.5 feet tall, it weighs…
Woman growing strawberries in a covered net box

5 tips para crecer fresas

¿Las fresas son tu fruta favorita? ¿Quieres cultivarlos tú mismo en casa? ¡Aquí hay 5 consejos sobre cómo cultivar más fresas de lo esperado! No…

La Crisis de Energía en Sudáfrica

Las autoridades locales en Ciudad del Cabo, Sudáfrica, enfrentan una crisis energética debido a que el robo de electricidad, las facturas impagas y el cambio…
Bloomerg New Energy Finance chart showing the falling battery costs as a per cent of Electric vehicle costs

Battery costs plummet

Huge advances aimed at the Electric vehicle market are slashing battery costs, changing the way the power grid works and bringing benefits to off-grid communities…
Surrounded by jungles and adventures.

Farm stay, Central Vietnam

The couple behind Phong Nha Farm stay in Vietnam shows how you can live off-grid and make good money at the same time. Australian Ben and…

Meet Gladys

She’s burgundy, discrete, low cost and can take you wherever you want to go in comfort, well as long as you are named Dylan Magaster…
South Africa goes off-grid

South Africa Power Crisis

The local authorities in Cape Town, South Africa face a power crisis as electricity theft, unpaid bills and switching to renewable energy puts pressure on…

Agua y lo que viene

¿Qué es lo primero que desaparecerá de los estantes en una emergencia? El agua, eso es lo principal que escuché decir a las personas en…

What is? What if?

I watched a man die at one of the stores where I work doing merchandising. He just fell over and died right there about 15…

SkyCastle wall and updates

The last few weeks has been quiet around the SkyCastle, spring is here, flowers are blooming, the days are warm and the nights are generally…

Truck garden

Growing up I had heard of truck farms, usually small family farms, when the produce is ready, the farmer takes the produce to a farmer’s…
rattlesnake

When snakes attack

Earlier this evening, the sun had gone down just far enough to be called dark, but we could still see. PB and I (and the…

Bug season!

Duck season! Wabbit season! Does that bring back memories of the old Bugs Bunny and Daffy (along with Elmer Fudd)? I grew up watching that,…
frugal

Frugal noodle

Let’s use our frugal noodle to come up with some frugal ideas. For me personally, I’ve grown up frugally, I didn’t know or even understand…
millie bobbie brown wide smile

Comic Con star yearns for Bora Bora

“Stranger Things” fans gave Millie Bobby Brown — the 13-year-old breakout star of Netflix‘s sci-fi series — pure and unmitigated rock-star treatment on closing day…
Solar Water inventor Omar Yaghi in Berkeley, and his metal-organic models

Water from thin air

Scientists have created a device that can literally extract water from the air using solar power.  Solar Water could revolutionise off-grid living which currently requires…
solar shed

Solar sheds for sale

UNITY, Maine – 11 April –  For Joas Hochstetler, manager of the Amish-owned Backyard Buildings, the idea of manufacturing a solar shed equipped with solar…
no go shopping

No go shopping

Are you ready for no go shopping? What is no go shopping you ask? It’s when you live out in the boonies and there isn’t…
winery self sufficient

Tasmanian Winery

Increasing number of businesses are unplugging. Tasmanian Wine label Moores Hill recently installed a multi-million-dollar on-site processing facility powered by 108 solar panels, making it the state’s…
bonita domes

Bonita domes

I think I have always been attracted to unconventional homes (I live in a small castle after all…), when perusing my YouTube page with all…
desalination, potable, cheap drinking water

DIY Desalination

Earth isn’t called the “Blue Planet” for nothing, but the majority is saltwater and therefore not immediately drinkable. Hence we need the desalination process which…
Prepping, prepper, survivalist, survival, off-grid, expo,

A Survivalist’s Top Prepping Tips

Last month hordes of prepping enthusiasts and survivalists turned out for the Survival Expo in Richmond, Virginia. Vendors like Preparedness Essentials were present selling prepping  products…
Bureaucracy attacks Rancher

Dealing with Bureaucracy

Off-Grid living and Government Bureaucracy are totally opposed to each other. Many people go off the grid just to get away from the Bureaucrats. but…
Sun tax, Spain, Off-grid, solar panels, tax, grid

Spain’s Sun Tax to be axed

In October 2015, Spain’s Council of Ministers approved a controversial tax on those using electricity produced by their own solar installations. However, a new government says solar…
Hot Springs, off-grid, water, solar, geothermal, retreat, off the beaten track

6 Hot Springs you must visit

Hot springs offer much-needed peace, quiet and relaxation. The naturally occurring, geothermally heated bliss provided in beautiful surroundings is second to none. Plus, if you…
Bottled Gas is a gas

Calor Gas offers up to £5,000

Bottled Gas supplier Calor Gas is offering funding of up to £5,000 for schemes that will improve life in off-grid communities. Calor Gas spokesman Paul…

Not in my face!

No one thinks much about flashlight etiquette but there are unwritten rules about how to use a flashlight, where to point it, when to turn it on, how to turn it on... now I have written a list of rules to help people properly use flashlights, especially in group situations.

Love those Tesla-lovers

Jason Hughes is a happy hacker – but not of computers – he is known for leaking Tesla’s plans ahead of the company’s actual announcements,…
EcoSolarCool, Refrigerator, Solar, Off-grid,

EcoSolarCool new Solar Refrigeration

  EcoSolarCool have kick-started 2017 with the release of two new Solar Refrigeration models. The new additions to the upright product line aim to minimise…

The trash on trash

When we lived in the city and had city services, one of the things that was taken care of with no thought at all was…
Hawaii, Development, Off-grid, Solar, batteries, minigrid

Hawaii community begins development

https://www.off-grid 200W Portable Power Station, Powkey 120Wh/33,000mAh Power Bank with AC Outlet, 110V 6 Outputs Solar Generator External Battery Pack with LED Light for Home…
Post-apocalypse, survival, tips, billionaire, New Zealand, Boltholes, energy, food,

Apocalypse Survival Tips

https://www.off-grid 200W Portable Power Station, Powkey 120Wh/33,000mAh Power Bank with AC Outlet, 110V 6 Outputs Solar Generator External Battery Pack with LED Light for Home…
Energy, Tesla, South Australia, Energy, Battery Storage,

Musk offers Australian energy fix

https://www.off-grid 200W Portable Power Station, Powkey 120Wh/33,000mAh Power Bank with AC Outlet, 110V 6 Outputs Solar Generator External Battery Pack with LED Light for Home…
Battery storage, Battery, solar, Australia, energy, blackouts,

Australia Battery Storage Battle

https://www.off-grid 200W Portable Power Station, Powkey 120Wh/33,000mAh Power Bank with AC Outlet, 110V 6 Outputs Solar Generator External Battery Pack with LED Light for Home…

Working on it!

https://www.off-grid 200W Portable Power Station, Powkey 120Wh/33,000mAh Power Bank with AC Outlet, 110V 6 Outputs Solar Generator External Battery Pack with LED Light for Home…