off-grid in australia

[Anonymous]

Hi! I’m a widow, 55 years old. I live in Saskatchewan, Canada. I have a tiny cabin , build last summer. I lived there for a few months, after it was build. It was awesome! For winter I had to go back to my house in town, because I have to change my water storage system.  I got 2 horses, and their water would start to freeze up so much, that I lost a lot of water and had to use more to keep them happy. Can’t store that much in the cabin though, so have to find a solution for that for next winter. I have no power or running water there. I haul water in from a community well. (very cheap, only pay a one time membership fee, and it is great safe drinking water) My cabin has a good woodstove. Just have to keep that going, so it won’t get cold. Sometimes that means getting up in the middle of the night to put another log on the fire. Hope to get a sort of back up heater on propane, that goes on at night when it gets below a certain temperature. It’s nice to sleep through the night and not getting up and lit the stove when it’s only 8 C inside. LOL

I have build my own gardens, which was a lot of work. My soil is pure sand so I had to ad garden soil etc to make it fertile. Still my first harvest wasn’t that great. Needs more garden soil and fertilizer. I do compost too.  I also have build my own shed and wood shed.

It’s not easy to live off the grid by yourself. I do have a cell phone, for safety reasons. I have a generator to charge phone and laptop, but hope to change that into something solar powered. My lights are solar powered or battery operated. My toilet is a bucket that I empty daily into a hole in the ground to compost it. With the sandy soil that is not a problem.

I have to empty my water bucket from dishes and washing also regular, until my sewage system is done. Which is also very simple, pipes that drain the water into a big steel barrel with holes in it, and put 6 feet into the ground (because of our frost during winter). Sewage is only used for dish water and shower water.

I will sell my house in town in the summer and then move to my acreage and live off-grid totally. Even though it is really hard to do it by yourself, it is possible. But I do hope to find another person that would like to come and live on my property and share living costs and chores. But if I can’t find anyone, I will do it by myself anyway. I just love to be on my acreage. It’s so peaceful and quiet. Just wanted to share this with you all, so you know there are more single women living off the grid. Even in Saskatchewan. :-)

[gordo]

hi-  my name is gordo-  would like to talk to you about helping out in belize.

your link to web site and email didn’t work. or maybe i could not make them work.  sorry i don’t do IT or AV

gordorfood at ya__o dot com

[BzPAL]

Hey, gordo…. thanks for pointing that out… for the web site, the period at the end of the sentence is the problem, so if you click on the link and then delete that period after com, you will get through to the site.  I don’t know why the email link didn’t work, but if you type it in, it should get through.  I will try contacting you directly as well.  What is IT or AV?  I guess I don’t do them either. ;-)

[lisaA]

Sas,

I hope to someday be where you are. I am 44, currently married, my husband has some health issues and i am a realist in knowing he won’t be around forever. I currently spoke to him about this being something i wanted to do- i live in a small town but do not want to be here forever. i prefer the country! He does not think this is something that can be done at my age, you are an inspiration an hope, knowing that i may someday be able to get out and be free! His main concerns are medical issues as we get older( i don’t currently have any but i guess he has a point) I have decided to start saving in hopes to achieve this dream some day!

I am curious do you hunt for your meat? ( this is something i need to learn how to do- well i know how, just haven’t ever pulled the trigger yet. ( or fish? i love to fish)

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Lisa,

I really hope your husband and you can still enjoy each other for a long long time. I still miss mine. It was our plan, to live off-grid, together. Until he got cancer and lost his battle. I continue our plans though. To honor him. I’m sure he would have wanted me to do that.

Of course it is important to keep a good health insurance when go and live off-grid. I hope to stay healthy so I can enjoy living off the grid for a long time. But if serious problems occur and I can’t live in my cabin anymore, then I suppose I have to make a choice to go back into town, into a caring home or something like that.

 

No I don’t hunt for meat. I buy my meat from an organic farmer who has free range and grass fed beef and chicken. His animals don’t go through the slaughter routine like normal beef does. He kills in his pasture right there, so no stress for the animals.

I do love to fish, but to be honest, I never cleaned a fish. My husband used to do that. Something I suppose I should learn. :-)

And I maybe have to learn how to hunt, but I never ever shoot anything and I’m not sure if I could be good enough to make a good clean kill. And to do that, I need to get a gun. I don’t even have that. :-)

Lisa, I really hope that one day you can achieve your dream.  And I think you can live off-grid any way you want, with whatever you need to be happy. Any idea where you would like to live off-grid?

 

 

 

 

 

[retired profile of WrethaOffGrid]

Thank you Betsy, I couldn’t have said it better myself :) You are so right about people dreaming about living in a cashless society, unfortunately that can only be a dream. In my case, we have lived here (off-grid) for 8 years, I work part time in a regular job to support our life, we do nearly everything ourselves (building, maintenance….) rather than paying someone else, we barter a lot.

No one can be an island themselves, they do need neighbors and friends, if not family, to survive, I’m not really big on “intentional” communities, communes and such, but being part of your community is important.

 

I would love to read more about you and your life, please keep in touch and share your vast experience.

 

 

Wretha

[chowan]

Hi Betsy its not often i log in but your post just made too much sense and contained too much wisdom for me to resist

Welcome and i hope to see you post more

[Anonymous]

Betsy:

Great post, and your advice is appreciated!

My sister and I have definitely strayed to the “<span style=”color: #000000; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; background-color: #fbfbfb;”>dream of leaving the money-centered society behind” scenario, but are coming around to the realization that we will need to have some cash income when we get settled into the off-the-grid life in West Texas.</span>

Currently, the property has been purchased and is completely undeveloped, so our short term goal is to get a well drilled on the property. We still reside in Washington State, so we have a decent “jumping off”  point but must ensure we have a good landing set up in Texas. Part of that will be a modest income stream, even $200-300 a month would be nice if we live frugally and smartly but all that is contingent on successful gardening and basic farming, of course.

[betsy]

Hi, Kuldebar –

I don’t have any personal knowledge of West Texas, but I have studied a bit about how important water and water rights have been in the development of the western states  in general. When I read your post, I got interested in what kinds of challenges you’ll face as you head into a drought zone. Part of my interest stems from having just helped arrange for a well to be drilled on a parcel of land that our Community Land Trust owns.

This looks like a resource you probably already have, but if not it’s definitely one that you’ll want:

https://twon.tamu.edu/media/358238/lowres.pdf

That pdf includes a link to the list of certified well-drillers, as well as maps and links to help you find whatever Ground Water Conservation district makes the rules for your land. Even working with a good well-driller, you will want to do your own measuring of distances from your land boundaries, neighbors’ wells, septic systems, right of ways, and so on. Because water is so vital in Texas and other dry places, it looks like there’s a ferocious network of regulations you have to be aware of. Eesh. It’s way simpler here in the northwest, because we have water everywhere.

This might also be helpful to you, in learning about wells that currently exist in your neighborhood:

https://www.tgpc.state.tx.us/subcommittees/POE/FAQs/StatewideWaterWellDatabases_FAQ.pdf

Here’s what I know about wells  in general, from my personal experience:

As you probably know, you pay by the foot. When I had my well drilled, it was fairly terrifying because at something like $20 a foot I could just picture handfuls of $20 bills being thrown into a hole in the ground. You have no guarantee of how deep they have to go, or even if they’ll hit water at all, so it’s hard to gauge prices ahead of time. Your best bet for estimating depth and flow rate is to check the well-logs for the neighboring properties. That’s what that second pdf may help you do.

Also, drillers sometimes have to use more expensive equipment depending on what type of rock or clay they run into and then suddenly your per-foot price goes up. That happened to us recently. I think our final price is around $30 a foot for the Land Trust well. Your price may be lower, because ours includes the barge fee to get the well drilling rig to the island.

As far as pumps, they depend on how deep your well is and how many gallons per minute it can produce. Deeper wells need stronger pumps. Slower wells need pumps that sip water gradually.  I don’t have any personal experience with hand pumps in deep wells (I’ve used one at a rented house with a shallow well.) Hand pumps for anything deeper than about 25 feet would have to be awfully carefully engineered in order to lift water that far, and I’m betting they’d end up as expensive as a DC submersible pump. It sounds exhausting to even think about pumping water by hand if you had any garden to irrigate.

I have a $650 DC submersible pump, but it draws about 14 amps, which means I only run it in bright sunlight or when my generator is directly charging my batteries. It pumps about a gallon a minute, which is fine; it keeps my tank full if I remember to pump pretty often, and I only use about 10 gallons a day for household purposes. Irrigation takes more in summer, of course.

My well’s flow rate is only about 1 1/2 gallons a minute. Once I lived on property with a 40 gal per minute well; it was incredible. Gushing out of the pipe. My well is 245 feet deep, and just lifting the waterpipe and wires out of it to get the pump out requires two people and a mechanical winch. And you end up with sore arms, not to mention 245 feet of pipe curling through the woods.

I have a gravity-fed system, but I didn’t have to build a water tower because my land goes downhill a little bit. It’s not a big elevation drop, so my water pressure is kind of sucky: not enough for a flash hot-water heater unless I want to stick another pump in the system, which I don’t. My water tank is about 1000 gallons and I think it cost around $700, but I don’t quite remember. If your area gets any below-freezing temps, then insulating your above-ground pipes is a whole nother thing to consider.

Also… about well-drillers: you’re right to seek local recommendations, because flaky ones are a headache. The good ones often have long wait lists.

Let us know how you fare, and how your well-drilling prospects are affected by drought conditions in West Texas. I definitely wish you and your sister the very best!

 

 

 

 

 

[anthonyfee]

Hi i am anthony and i m going to tell about the home builder company

Evenwedge Homes is a company based out of Australia.They are categorized under Building Supplies and can be contacted at factory 6, 11 malcolm court kealba , , melbourne in Australia
https://www.evenwedgehomes.com.au/luxury-home-builders

[Anonymous]

Betsy,

 

Thank you for the information and I find the details of your own water setup fascinating and also reassuring.

 

I have looked into the red tape associated with getting a water well on the property; and, fortunately, for my sanity, it’s fairly low key in Texas. The city of El Paso is about 100 miles away from the property and the city has been trying to secure water from the rural areas throughout the river basin. The property is in the plains/scrub-land area but is good for agriculture when you add irrigation:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="899"] 10 acres of hope, dreams and helluva lotta work![/caption]

We will be gradually building up hugelkulturs as we acquire suitable organic materials, perhaps bales of straw/hay initially and old logs and stumps as we can haul them in. The idea being that water can be conserved by relying on the hugelkultur characteristics. I envision a gentle terraforming of sorts. {with metal roofing/simple gutters over rammed earth structures, we plan to store up rain water to bolster our water supply)

Again, thank you for your post. I am trying not to be overly giddy, but I feel like I am on the brink of a great adventure, for better or worse, it will be interesting, no doubt.

Peace,

Ray aka Kuldebar

[Anonymous]

I have the very same idea  I’m trying my best to work at this goal. Finding land is really hard.  But I would love to build a bunker/shelter and my own personal grid..

[Anonymous]

Hello you said you would give your self 1-2 years so I’ll try and see if this is still a active post

I too am very interested in liveing off-grid with my own created power grid and I am searching for locations.. Witch seems to be the hardest part.. Anyways have you considered stepping it up little more than that? I feel like your thinking too small.. Or at lest i figure if I’d do it I would try for “commercial sized” equipment  like if you can get a natural gas  well (free gas) then you can run a natural gas generator upping your power output. haveing enough power to do whatever you want. Have a indoor small garden all year around? How amazing is that…if you don’t like natural gas idea theres always the old school water turbine… Witch I will have both when I fine a location. Hit me up  if you want to talk sometime or  anyone else that has the same ideals dave_iii_101@yahoo.com I’m also from pa

[lisaA]

I do hope he is around for a long time, but also need to be prepared.

I would goggle on how to clean fish.( that is where i learned to skin a squirrel.)

( i have yet to actually shoot one, but i will know what to do when i do shoot one.)

In thinking where would i like to live, that’s a toss up- i have always thought Alaska would be the place for me, but

pretty much anywhere away from people would be good!

 

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Lisa, I will google it. I also learned a lot from the internet in how to do stuff. So nice to have this media huh?

Where I have my cabin, it’s very secluded but like a few minute drive to a neighbour. Especially when living alone off-grid, it is good to have some good neighbours near, just in case. I can’t see them or hear them when I’m in my yard. There is no go through road alongside my acreage, just the neighbours that use it. And there is where the road ends. At the neighbours. LOL But still it’s only a half hour drive to a town where I can get groceries, my mail, see a doctor if needed. So when choose for a place to live, those are things to think about I guess. Alaska seems like a beautiful choice. :-)

[Author]

Posts