Living Off The Grid.

[Le Loup]

We have been living off the grid for over 30 years now, for over 20 of those years we lived without electricity or any modern conveniences. I supplied meat for the table using my muzzle-loader flintlock fusil, & we grew our own vegies. The cottage we lived in we called Elm Cottage, which I re-built after pulling it down & transporting all the bits on a small trailer. It was a very old cottage with no inside bathroom or toilet. We raised our three sons here.

Elm Cottage.

Em Cottage is still here in Wychwood Forest which is our property, but now we live in Linstock House, a more modern solar powered house which is totally self-sufficient & like Elm Cottage it is completely off grid & all services. We still grow all our own food & have quite large gardens. We also keep chooks. We have a separate paddock for keeping stock in but have none at present.

Linstock House.
Cooking & heating water is supplied by a wood burning stove, which for us living in a forest is the most practicle & economical method. Water is supplied via rain water collection from the roof into two 5000 gallon cement tanks for the house, plus a 1000 gallon tank for the garden. We can also use water from Cattail Pond for the gardens if we need to.
We have two composting toilets & a urine absorption trench, plus two more grey water absorption trenches which run under the gardens.

Wood burning stove & heater.

Showing upper & lower cement tanks. The top tank gives us enough water pressure for the bathroom shower.

Raised garden beds using logs & wooden stakes.

We use wood all year round, so we need a good supply to carry us through, especially in winter. There are plenty of dead trees scattered through the forest to keep us supplied.

This is our power shed with solar panels. It is much easier to clear snow off the panels having them down low instead of on the house roof.

Keith.

 

[Toddy]

Very interesting to read Keith

I have queries though…..off grid, but how do you earn a living ? Land isn't cheap, neither are the accoutrements of modern life…even cement costs money, let alone solar panels and plastic tarps.
How do you arrange transport for things ? how do you get to and from dentists? doctors? or simply to socialise with family and friends ?

My Grandmother's cottage had no bathroom either, (when I was very little a tiny little plumbed in loo was built into an old pantry though), and such things as 'outside toilets' and 'wells' (usually tapped) were very common within living memory. All heating in the house was from the fire place, and that had replaced 'The Range' only a few years before I was born.

The old folks commented that modern life was a lot less effort, and a lot more comfortable

You said that you reared three sons in the Elm Cottage; how do they live now ?

Thank you for the photographs; it's fun seeing how others live

M

 

[StuMsg]

Thanks for sharing Le Loup, very interesting.

 

[richardhomer]

Thanks' for sharing.
It looks a lovely place. But I'm sure its been hard work at times for you are your family. You have chose a way of life that's not easy. But I bet its very enjoyable at times.
Its something that I aspire to. But I don't think I will ever get there.
It was very enjoyable to read and great to see the photos of your place and land. I hope you will share more or your way of life with us.

 

[Le Loup]

Hi Toddy. I am on a pension, I worked hard for all my life & saved to get what I most wanted. When my parents died our 18th century family home in England was sold, & the proceeds from that sale enabled us to purchase a new house.
My Grandparent's house in South Wales was exactly as you describe, but no upstairs bathroom or plumbing, & an outside toilet.
One of my boys & his family have moved back & are living in Elm Cottage. Another son & his family are living in town not too far away, & my youngest son & family are living temporarily (for work reasons) in Lightening Ridge.
I rarely leave my forest home Todd, I do not socialise. My four closest friends died some years ago. Basically I have all I need & want, I am easily pleased. I do not spend money on myself, so if something comes along, like my antique pistol for instance, then I can afford to buy it without feeling guilty.
Regards, Keith.

 

[Le Loup]

Thanks for sharing Le Loup, very interesting.

My pleasure Stu, I appreciate you taking the time to comment.
Regards, Keith.

 

[Le Loup]

Hi Richard. I have never thought of this way of life being hard, hard for me would be living in the city. Yes there has been hard work, but it has been very satisfying. There is always work when you live out of town. Don't give up trying for your dream, you never know what the future holds. We has several disappointments when looking for land, but as it turned out, it was the best thing in the long run.
We started by paying off a piece of land in the Territory, we survived cyclone Tracey in 1974 in Darwin, we lost everything I owned except my 4WD, a couple of guns, & the clothing I was wearing. So we moved out bush & payed off 20 acres of land. When the work started to run out & I got tired of the heat, then we sold up & moved to New England in NSW. Like I said, you never know in which direction life will take you.
Regards, Keith.

 

[JohnC]

Thanks for the pictures! ( on the other recent threads too) I like the woodpile...Puts mine to shame!
Although we're in the town,theres a fair amount of trees coming down over the year to keep it stocked, but i need to keep restocking.

 

[Le Loup]

Thanks for the pictures! ( on the other recent threads too) I like the woodpile...Puts mine to shame!
Although we're in the town,theres a fair amount of trees coming down over the year to keep it stocked, but i need to keep restocking.

Hi John. Yes we have been guilty of letting the stock of wood get down. We really need to make it an at least once a month chore to go cut & cart more in. The weather is so uncertain, what with global warming. It is supposed to be getting colder where you are & warmer here, but nature has a habit of doing the unexpected!!! One bad winter where we can't get out to cut & we could have a hard time of it, so it pays to keep the wood pile topped up at all times.
Regards, Keith.

 

[Dave]

The idea of living off grid is very attractive to me.

I was talking to someone who tried to do it in Sweden, and he painted a picture of a string of pretty awful sounding jobs, for instance using a 7 iron and a shovel to constantly pick up pieces of frozen husky poop all day long, etc. Apparently every englishman who goes out there, wants the same thing, to be living somewhere remote. I think he was around Karesuando. You spend all winter long getting the snow off your roof, and mending broken gutters, and using the snowblower to clear your drive. Its too much time and effort, to gather your own wood, so he would buy a lorry load for £200 to see him through the winter. You cant grow anything, and there are only so many licenses given to hunt moose. Plus you need permission to go onto sami land etc etc. Basically you cannot live off the land.

Then you watch these programs, where it still does seem possible to live off the land in Alaska. They shoot one moose and have half a years meat. The thought of all those spiders, and snakes, in Oz does freak me out a bit.

 

[Le Loup]

The idea of living off grid is very attractive to me.

I was talking to someone who tried to do it in Sweden, and he painted a picture of a string of pretty awful sounding jobs, for instance using a 7 iron and a shovel to constantly pick up pieces of frozen husky poop all day long, etc. Apparently every englishman who goes out there, wants the same thing, to be living somewhere remote. I think he was around Karesuando. You spend all winter long getting the snow off your roof, and mending broken gutters, and using the snowblower to clear your drive. Its too much time and effort, to gather your own wood, so he would buy a lorry load for £200 to see him through the winter. You cant grow anything, and there are only so many licenses given to hunt moose. Plus you need permission to go onto sami land etc etc. Basically you cannot live off the land.

Then you watch these programs, where it still does seem possible to live off the land in Alaska. They shoot one moose and have half a years meat. The thought of all those spiders, and snakes, in Oz does freak me out a bit.

Hi Dave. Having been born in England the snakes & spiders do take some getting used to. The snakes are not such a problem, but I still hate the spiders. I guess I traded a safer environment for one where I have more freedom, & that makes it all worthwhile.
Keith.

 

[Tengu]

But there is a distinct lack of culture in Australia.

And archaeology.

(Tengu is so sad she is in Cornwall now they have found this nice new Roman villa near Devizes...)

 

[Man of Tanith]

But there is a distinct lack of culture in Australia.

And archaeology.

(Tengu is so sad she is in Cornwall now they have found this nice new Roman villa near Devizes...)

Ever been?
Plenty of archeology.
Just not what you may consider interesting

As for culture plenty of culture too. Just not what you may consider interesting.

 

[Tengu]

Well, I know for sure the Romans didnt get that far, -and the Chinese gave up and went home.

Also I like to stay sober.

 

[Man of Tanith]

Well, I know for sure the Romans didnt get that far, -and the Chinese gave up and went home.

Also I like to stay sober.

So on the assumption that Rome and China didnt get there you will dismiss a whole continent?
As for soberity that has nothing to do with culture

 

[Le Loup]

But there is a distinct lack of culture in Australia.

And archaeology.

(Tengu is so sad she is in Cornwall now they have found this nice new Roman villa near Devizes...)

I don't think I can totally agree with that Tengu. Perhaps with Australian born Aussies from English families, but the European families tend to hang on to their culture & traditions. Life is really what you make it.
Archaeology dates back way before the settlement period in Australia. But yes, I do miss the English history.
Keith.

 

[wingstoo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjwsDvQ4gwI

No other comment needed.

 

[Tengu]

Im not so sure about archaeology but there certainly is a lot of good geology.

And philology, -the natives have impressive lingiustic skills.

(I dont buy that stuff about all the poisonous animals either, -as a child I was constantly warned about adders in my woods, -probably by people who never went there. I saw no adders. Is Australia dangerous? India is the place you hear about for snakebite fatalities, though I suspect if more folk wore heavy boots instead of sandals there would be less of those.)

 

[santaman2000]

But there is a distinct lack of culture in Australia.

And archaeology.

(Tengu is so sad she is in Cornwall now they have found this nice new Roman villa near Devizes...)

Ever been?
Plenty of archeology.
Just not what you may consider interesting

As for culture plenty of culture too. Just not what you may consider interesting.

Well, I know for sure the Romans didnt get that far, -and the Chinese gave up and went home.

Also I like to stay sober.

They never got to the Western Hemisphere either but I'd say archeologists have a hand full with the ruins and digs on Mayan, Aztec, Incan, and other empires.

 

[Tengu]

Yes, certainly. My Cousin did a lot of work in Peru, married a Peruvian girl.