Living outdoors - off the grid

[PaleoRob]

So in the heated uranium mining thread, the question was brought up about being prepared to live "off the grid", either by choice or during an emergency. Do you think about such things? Are you prepared for such a thing?
In Page, I feel like I'm fairly well prepared for any sort of short to medium term "off the grid" experience. We've got water (from the lake), fresh meat (from the lake and wildlife in the surrounding area). There are some edible plants up here, plus we've got some saved away to last for a little while. My truck can run off of ethanol - with a still I can brew my own fuel from the abundant juniper berries around here. I feel pretty good - not 100%, but pretty good.
What about you? Do you have experience with such things? Do you prepare for such things?

[VVebb]

Hey when it gets really bad lets eat grandma!
grammar intentionally bad

Great job combining the themes of cannibalism and grammar.

"Let's eat, Grandma!" vs. "Let's eat Grandma!" Punctuation saves lives!

[azbackpackr]

Hey when it gets really bad lets eat grandma!

Hey, watch it there, young man! ;)














grammar intentionally bad

[CannondaleKid]

As more than a few have already mentioned, living 'off-the-grid' is likely doable for most of the population whereas 'living off-the-land' is something vastly different... and most would starve to death or be shot while trying to steal from those who have the food. (A great book posing just that scenario from the standpoint of living in a small town is "Alas, Babylon!" written in the late 50's I believe. Hmmm, let's see, I think I read it about 30 years ago)

Speaking of food... I just finished a book called Enough with the subtitle "Why the worlds poorest starve in an age of plenty?"
A great read. I daresay you may even shed a tear, that is if you have more than an ounce of compassion for those less fortunate. The less fortunate in this case being individual farmers in Africa, while the more fortunate are the US farmers getting subsidies to grow or not grow crops... who cares whether the small African farmers can survive, just so ours can earn $200,000 a year while driving in air-conditioned, GPS-tracked, DVD-playing, 8-wheel behemoths pulling state-of-the-art equipment. :STP:
Whoops!! :sorrry:
Didn't mean to get off and into the political ___. But every once in a while it's time to say ENOUGH! (If not actually doing something about it instead of just jawin' about it.)

[Al_HikesAZ]

I think I would have trouble just "Living off the griddle" for a week.

[azbackpackr]

I dunno, I liked that life, at least for awhile. I would do it again, but not permanently. I am talking outhouse, water catchment system, kerosene lamps, etc. All that high tech stuff, solar power, etc., is expensive. I think of living off the grid, I am thinking of a big woodstove, an outhouse, a well or water catchment system with a big water tank, a big garden, etc.

There are still a lot of hipsters out there doing that primitive lifestyle. Up in Boulder, Utah, for example, where I went this past fall.

[PLC92084]

@azbackpackr

Nevada City (NE of Sacramento) was Hippy-Heaven... many have been displaced by the yuppies now. Some friends were pretty "organic" during the 80's when we used to visit frequently... I helped out with canning, chopping wood (cooking, heating, hot water...) and gardening. Never had to hunt but with all the forests around, that would have been easy!

[VVebb]

I think I would have trouble just "Living off the griddle" for a week.

Does "living off the griddle" mean eating everything from the griddle (like "living off the land") or nothing from the griddle (like "living off the grid")?

[PaleoRob]

You know, the Anasazi used thin flat stones as griddles. Hopis make piki bread on stone griddles today too. You never have to live without a griddle!

[chumley]

My parents grew up on farms in rural Norway, one of which I have spent extensive time at.

Things have progressed in the last 30 years or so, but suffice it to say that people around the world have lived this way quite successfully for a long, long time. We are amazingly spoiled to be able to go to the store and buy kiwifruit any day of the year.

Both of my parents vividly recall receiving an orange in their Christmas stocking each year. (Those things that I throw out by the wheel-barrow-full every February). Oranges in Norway were a very expensive luxury back then. Typically shipped in from Israel!

The farm my mom grew up on was in the mountains, and the house was built about 50 yards from a spring, which was their source of water. The outhouse was in the barn, and I still remember hating that early morning walk from the house to the barn to pee. Boy was that a cold walk. In the summer! In winter, trudging through a few feet of snow made you actually ENJOY being in the "warm" outhouse!

My grandmother spent hours and hours each day tending to her garden, while my grandfather and uncles worked in the fields and with the animals. Eggs were a commodity. Very rarely did they get to keep the eggs. They were bartered with the grocer in the city for other staples that the farm didn't provide such as flour and sugar.

The house was heated with three small wood stoves. Again, this is in Norway. I remember burning those stoves in the summer to keep warm. I've also been moose and reindeer hunting with my uncle. There were several kinds of preservation. Drying, smoking, salting, and canning were the most popular options.

It took me 15 years to learn to like fish again because fresh trout was a staple of my childhood diet. There's only so many ways you can prepare fish and potatoes and they get boring pretty fast. I've finally returned to a place where I think fresh trout is one of the best meals I can have! But fishing was plentiful and easy, and potatoes grow almost anywhere for a long season, so that's how it was.

It amazes me how difficult my parents had it, and yet their lives were relatively simple. Not easy. But simple.

I don't know how long it would take me to be able to live that way, (or if I could at all), but there's something quite attractive to me about the concept.

I do feel a little fortunate to have the first-hand experiences I've had as well as the stories and history that I've learned from my parents. It does make me reflect a little bit on how good we have it!

[Jim]

For all of our complaining about what ever we complain about, we live in a relative lap of luxury. Not all of us, but most of us. We could live like your description if we had to and we pretty much all did at one time. That shouldn't be a license for the wealthy to hoard everything and force the rest to live like peasants, but all of us could live like peasants if we needed to. However, we should expect a return to many nutritional diseases that have since been forgotten, and infectious diseases we control rather well with improved sanitation and hygiene would reemerge. In this state, winter and summer crops can be grown at various altitudes so we do have that going for us, but transporting produce from high to low and low to high might mean seasonal shortages.

The big issue for all of us is where we live. This state and the inter-mountain western USA region, for all of it's beauty and recreational activities, is a very lousy place to grown food. As I mention earlier, we have far too many people around Flag to have everyone go over to hunting. Farming is marginal in most locations, and Hopi style dry farming is only effective in certain areas with adequate precipitation. With Phoenix's modern water supply, it is possible that an agricultural based city could exist in the valley, but not to the tune of 5 million people. There was a reason the Hohokam disappeared, the Hopi went up on their mesa's and there really weren't that many of them in the first place.

[azbackpackr]

I'm glad I had something of that experience when I was young. I do appreciate a hot shower, and other amenities.

Hawaii style (or hippie style) bucket bath instructions:
1. heat water on your campfire in big kettle, and put enough of it and cold water in a 5 gallon bucket to the temp you like.
2. Set bucket, shampoo, soap, towel, etc. AND a scooper, such as a small saucepan, in a clean place, such as rocky ground. You can use a chair to set your towel on.
3. Strip down to nothing but flip flops.
4. Using the scooper, scoop water from the bucket onto yourself, wash, and rinse. There is plenty of water even to wash and rinse long hair.

[Alston_Neal]

Three words....Gilbert Riparian Preserve
Plenty of water and easily processed protein sources.
Of course if I join up with Tough Boots, we'll have plenty of books for cooking fires and toilet paper... ;)

[PLC92084]

Gilbert Riparian Preserve

Paper-wrapped, Organic, Thai-curry Kitty... :STP:

[Alston_Neal]

Ooooooh Thai curry griddle cats.......mmmmmm nom nom nom....

[Tough_Boots]

Ooooooh Thai curry griddle cats.......mmmmmm nom nom nom....

see everyone... this is why we should stop the preserve from killing all those cats. Checkmate!

[joebartels]

@Alston Neal @PLC92084 @Tough_Boots okay now I wanna know who those seven or so members are that voted against a post rating-system feel now. I'd one bang the pumpkin out of you dorks. The sad part is... you would each smile and enjoy it

[Tough_Boots]

@joe bartels

For the record, I voted against the post rating system. Though, if I had known it would create terms like "one banging," I surely would have voted yes! :GB:

[azbackpackr]

[maxpower]

@teva joe

I'm only gonna allow you to one bang me if you kiss me first. :whistle:

[PLC92084]

@Alston Neal @joe bartels

The worse part about crossing a line is not knowing when or how it happened... I'm sure we're being chastised; I'm just too obtuse to know how, exactly...

I'll just apologize for any and all transgressions, both imagined and real, and call it a day! :sorrry: