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Any off grid people in here?

gunracer1 said:
i'm putting together a drilling rig. .
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Building your own rig, if so please do a build thread. How deep do you have to go, where I live a shallow well is around 300 feet some folks have gone to 950 or deeper and had a dry hole
 
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Buddy of mine has lived off-grid on 40 ac. ~20+ min. outside Ukiah for most of 20 years (not a pot farmer).

7kW diesel generator, battery bank, inverter; adding solar as funds allow - will always need the gennie.
Not too rugged: good well, landline phone, decent cell service, decent neighbors, somewhat of a community.

A few cons:
  • a "quick" trip to the store is 1+ hour round-trip (plan ahead)
  • storing, hauling, & disposing your garbage is an added task
  • propane & diesel prices fluctuate - sometimes you :mad3: (then pay)
  • wildfires definitely get your attention - maintain defensible space
  • you're on your own if shitbags appear - guns & dogs are handy
  • emergency services are 1+ hour out - don't have emergencies
Pros: elbow room, pee anywhere, shoot guns conveniently, can't hear neighbors (unless they're shooting), no light pollution, some genuinely peaceful moments you can't have with a smaller piece of land.

Shit, I'm rambling - hope some of that^ helps - gotta' get back to work :laughing:
 
That's the second time fires have come up.


If it happens the fire danger in my life would be reduced dramatically.


There have already been 3 fires this month within a mile of my current place.


If can only get better from my perspective.



Im always very careful this time of year and tend not to do much fabrication so that it's not me starting the fire.

If I do get the welder and the grinder out its in the garage with the door down to keep all the sparks inside.
 
I'm in lake county.



it seems to be a magnet for the fire bugs.



I wish they would start lighting people on fire that start fires! If they're so interested in fire then we should help them check it out:shaking:
 
I have an off grid cabin. It is surrounded by USFS so there is absolutely no way to ever have power. I have 58psi gravity feed spring water, Bosch 520lp on demand hot water, gas stove, Propane lights. I have been collecting everything to run basic solar lighting and have been looking into the ability to run a medium sized electric fridge/freezer. It is a weekend getaway. I get 30-40 nights a year there. I would like to spend more time but that is hard working 6 days a week.

It would not be hard for me to live there 24/7. There is great cell service, and truth be told I have more interaction with people in the middle of the woods at the cabin than at my house. It depends on what you are used to though. In my adult life I have always lived in the country. I have never lived anywhere that you could get pizza delivery, prior to pay at the pump I was 10 miles or more from 24hr gas, 5 miles from any gas station. Grocery store or a Walmart has always been 20-30min away. I get upset when anything is built closer.

If I ever sell everything and move it would be back out west. I don’t mind being 45-60min from Lowes/Home Depot/Walmart.
living off grid doesn’t always mean middle of nowhere. I would rather not be near a population center of any kind. The dream would be to not see another soul for weeks at a time. At home I do that by having 12.5acres fenced, gated and locked. It is a compromise since I still have a business to run in the city. Isolation and off grid are not the same thing though.

To be off grid you need to handle water, waste, cooking and heating. It can all be done, some places make one or more of those things more difficult. If you have ample sun, water is usually difficult. 0.4psi per foot of drop for gravity fed water. If it is flat, and has lots of sun you are looking at solar to pump water. Water is the first thing you have to deal with after shelter, everything else happens after that.
 
A big item to consider for off-gridding..... how mechanically capable are you? When you get further from town, there are fewer and fewer service providers willing to cover your area and the more self sufficient you need to be. I am talking plumber, HVAC service, electrician, etc. I am not all that far from town and have a high degree of difficulty finding contractors willing to come out to do stuff. There are a few critical things, like propane delivery and trash, that cover my area pretty well, but it is sole source, no other propane delivery companies cover my area and the only trash service only does dumpsters. No options. When we moved in, I needed all the windows in the house replaced, didnt have the time to do it myself, and it took a while to find an installer willing to come out this far. You will need to either be handy and able to fix things or very patient with something broken until you can find someone to help you out.
 
clodhopper said:
A big item to consider for off-gridding..... how mechanically capable are you? When you get further from town, there are fewer and fewer service providers willing to cover your area and the more self sufficient you need to be. I am talking plumber, HVAC service, electrician, etc. I am not all that far from town and have a high degree of difficulty finding contractors willing to come out to do stuff. There are a few critical things, like propane delivery and trash, that cover my area pretty well, but it is sole source, no other propane delivery companies cover my area and the only trash service only does dumpsters. No options. When we moved in, I needed all the windows in the house replaced, didnt have the time to do it myself, and it took a while to find an installer willing to come out this far. You will need to either be handy and able to fix things or very patient with something broken until you can find someone to help you out.
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that is a good point.

It's tough to get folks up here to do that kind of work. Why would they drive so far and end up making less money just to come up here?

I had a heckuva time getting a crane to come up to lift my walls/ridgebeam/center log.
 
clodhopper said:
A big item to consider for off-gridding..... how mechanically capable are you? When you get further from town, there are fewer and fewer service providers willing to cover your area and the more self sufficient you need to be. I am talking plumber, HVAC service, electrician, etc. I am not all that far from town and have a high degree of difficulty finding contractors willing to come out to do stuff. There are a few critical things, like propane delivery and trash, that cover my area pretty well, but it is sole source, no other propane delivery companies cover my area and the only trash service only does dumpsters. No options. When we moved in, I needed all the windows in the house replaced, didnt have the time to do it myself, and it took a while to find an installer willing to come out this far. You will need to either be handy and able to fix things or very patient with something broken until you can find someone to help you out.
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i swear i could make a fortune up around my place doing plumbing, electrical and hvac work. hell my neighbor shit in a bucket for 9 months trying to get the plumbing in his cabin. a grunt and i could have done the whole thing in a couple of hours drinking beer.
 
gunracer1 said:
i swear i could make a fortune up around my place doing plumbing, electrical and hvac work. hell my neighbor shit in a bucket for 9 months trying to get the plumbing in his cabin. a grunt and i could have done the whole thing in a couple of hours drinking beer.
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9 months? sheesh. Do some youtube research and give the fix a try. It is already broke, ya gonna make it broke-er? I hate plumbing but it aint real tough.
 
blakes said:
that is a good point.

It's tough to get folks up here to do that kind of work. Why would they drive so far and end up making less money just to come up here?

I had a heckuva time getting a crane to come up to lift my walls/ridgebeam/center log.
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A buddy drives for a local crane outfit, one of their other guys had a job for an off grid community. Had to move a seacan with a water treatment plant in it. The delivery driver wouldn't come up the shitty road to deliver it where it needed to go. They ended up craning it 40' at a time up the road, until the road collapsed and dumped the crane truck and the treatment plant off the side.

Now they don't have clean water, and no crane company will come deliver a new new plant until the road is fixed by an actual road building outfit, not just some yokels with a bulldozer and an excavator.
 
I feel like if you want to live off grid, you should be able to move a sea can yourself.

And I don't mean own a crane or semi, but at least be able to come up with a way to get it done. Like rent a couple machines to lift it onto a borrowed trailer then drag it off. Fuck I don't know, they aren't that hard to move.

Or weld some axles and a tongue to it.

​​​​​​
 
YotaAtieToo said:
I feel like if you want to live off grid, you should be able to move a sea can yourself.

And I don't mean own a crane or semi, but at least be able to come up with a way to get it done. Like rent a couple machines to lift it onto a borrowed trailer then drag it off. Fuck I don't know, they aren't that hard to move.

Or weld some axles and a tongue to it.

​​​​​​
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That was my thought too. grab some old house trailer axles off craigslist, weld them up into a little trailer kind of deal or weld them right to the seacan, borrow a tractor and drag that bitch to where you need it. Although it sounds like it had a water treatment system already installed, so it may be significantly heavier than an empty seacan like I am thinking.



I still would have figured out a way to do it myself. :flipoff2:
 
YotaAtieToo said:
I feel like if you want to live off grid, you should be able to move a sea can yourself.

And I don't mean own a crane or semi, but at least be able to come up with a way to get it done. Like rent a couple machines to lift it onto a borrowed trailer then drag it off. Fuck I don't know, they aren't that hard to move.

Or weld some axles and a tongue to it.

​​​​​​
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It's a 20,000lb unit according to the builders...more like 25,000 according to the scale on the crane.
 
Squamch said:
It's a 20,000lb unit according to the builders...more like 25,000 according to the scale on the crane.
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So not completely out of the question to haul on a tandem dual gooseneck with a dually pick up. Both of which the op has.
 
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Did somebody say Water Plant in a container

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I want this more than anything


less than 30 minutes from town

well- in an area where any well can be dug with $30 post hole diggers

sun- YES

fertile ground literally everywhere


This is my lottery dream. Monstrous off the grid shop house with equally monstrous shop, all solar and well driven. Property taxes and insurance only.
 
45acp said:
I want this more than anything


less than 30 minutes from town

well- in an area where any well can be dug with $30 post hole diggers

sun- YES

fertile ground literally everywhere


This is my lottery dream. Monstrous off the grid shop house with equally monstrous shop, all solar and well driven. Property taxes and insurance only.
Click to expand...


I think we all can come up with a list of great things that don't exist anywhere for a price we could afford. I know I had to compromise on some things when I settled on my property. I am over 30 from town, a well that is less than 150 feet with consistent water supply at 80 feet, lots of sun, but dry not very fertile ground all around. I mean dryyyy, too much sun and ranging breezy to fuck windy all the time. Sokay, I have a big patch that I am slowly improving for a massive garden and have accepted anything I plant I need to incorporate an irrigation system of some sort. I had to change my growing style substantially, but I am figuring it out. I have lots of room and privacy, which is really the main reason I bought the place. Better than many, not as good as others. Gimme time and I will make it a dream. Already come a loooong way since i bought it.

I will say, when looking for property, if you are thinking any kind of agriculture, livestock or gardening, look carefully at the water supply. Cmon, with the exception of wanting a weekend hermitage, one the big reasons to be off-grid is to do more for yourself, and that likely includes some sort of water requirement. Hauling water works for some, but it isn't going to work for more than supplying a house for few people and nothing else. You can work to improve most everything else, including soil fertility. But if you cant install a well to produce sufficient water, or have some other water source of reasonable supply, you should probably go looking elsewhere for a place to live. Don't get caught in the "I can make it work" loop on water. Your ambitions will grow, but the water supply wont. I know people not far from me that settled for property over dry geology or have such poor performing wells that even with a big cistern they have trouble making it work. Every one of them have lamented how bad a mistake it was to not put a higher importance on the water.
 
clodhopper said:
I will say, when looking for property, if you are thinking any kind of agriculture, livestock or gardening, look carefully at the water supply. Cmon, with the exception of wanting a weekend hermitage, one the big reasons to be off-grid is to do more for yourself, and that likely includes some sort of water requirement. Hauling water works for some, but it isn't going to work for more than supplying a house for few people and nothing else. You can work to improve most everything else, including soil fertility. But if you cant install a well to produce sufficient water, or have some other water source of reasonable supply, you should probably go looking elsewhere for a place to live. Don't get caught in the "I can make it work" loop on water. Your ambitions will grow, but the water supply wont. I know people not far from me that settled for property over dry geology or have such poor performing wells that even with a big cistern they have trouble making it work. Every one of them have lamented how bad a mistake it was to not put a higher importance on the water.
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I realize this is a big deal out west... i don't think you understand the deep south. Water is just... here. There's no such thing as no water. Well/ getting water is no big deal at all east of Dallas area. A 100ft well around here is considered "full retard".

I want this, in an area where water is zero problem.
 
45acp said:
I realize this is a big deal out west... i don't think you understand the deep south. Water is just... here. There's no such thing as no water. Well/ getting water is no big deal at all east of Dallas area. A 100ft well around here is considered "full retard".

I want this, in an area where water is zero problem.
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I used to live in Florida. Rained every fukkin day and you can just about find the water table anywhere with a shovel and about 10 minutes. Then moved to the other extreme on the high plains.


I will deal with the dry to not have the bugs that come with humidity and water. I get miller moths for a month in the spring and some flies in the late summer. But I never see a mosquito and I don't have to spray my house every few weeks to keep out the carpenter ants, roaches, termites, and all the others. I got real tired of dealing with bug problems, and I had to deal with all of them during my time down there. Dry climate agrees with me much better, for more than just the lack of bugs too.
 
clodhopper said:
I will deal with the dry to not have the bugs that come with humidity and water. I get miller moths for a month in the spring and some flies in the late summer. But I never see a mosquito and I don't have to spray my house every few weeks to keep out the carpenter ants, roaches, termites, and all the others. I got real tired of dealing with bug problems, and I had to deal with all of them during my time down there. Dry climate agrees with me much better, for more than just the lack of bugs too.
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Agree 110%, id be in northern AZ/ Lance area UT if i could... kinda stuck in humidity bug central due to work, and reluctantly admit this is probably where ill spend the rest of my life.

On the bright side- an off grid 40x60 3/2 shop house with 30x60 shop is feasible. :grinpimp:
 
I spent the last few years setting up RV’s to do off grid stuff. You can spend a pile of money and do some cool shit with some solar panels and lithium batteries. Once you get over the sticker shock, lithium is the only way to go. Check out Will Prowse on YouTube. If you can stand to listen to the guy for any length or time, he can teach you a lot about the electrical side of things.
 
45acp said:
I want this more than anything


less than 30 minutes from town

well- in an area where any well can be dug with $30 post hole diggers

sun- YES

fertile ground literally everywhere


This is my lottery dream. Monstrous off the grid shop house with equally monstrous shop, all solar and well driven. Property taxes and insurance only.
Click to expand...

If you ever make your way to western North Carolina/ upstate South Carolina pm me. No lottery winners here but I have spent the last 20 years working toward what you describe. It took getting sober to get to only property tax and insurance. Now I am just working on retirement or death:eek:
 
heavytlc said:
If you ever make your way to western North Carolina/ upstate South Carolina pm me. No lottery winners here but I have spent the last 20 years working toward what you describe. It took getting sober to get to only property tax and insurance. Now I am just working on retirement or death:eek:
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Wait, another upstate Irate :flipoff2:
I just wished that i lived in the mountains.
 
Clemson13 said:
Wait, another upstate Irate :flipoff2:
I just wished that i lived in the mountains.
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I don’t know of any of my crew that are here but there are a bunch of us old rock crawlers around the upstate. It will be 30 years this year since the first time I wheeled tellico. I dearly miss it.

I wish Less people lived near me. The south East is very populated. If not dense there are people in every square mile. As you go west most of the population is concentrated in major metropolitan areas, and there is generally lots (and lots and lots) of public land that has good access. Far less people per square mile in every square mile outside of metro areas.

If you have never spent time out west enjoying public land you are missing out. Hell I go to Wisconsin to hunt Grouse on public land. I hunt all public land, it’s mostly county land and they want the public to use it. 4 wheeler trails, snow mobile trails, all open to hunting and use. That pales in comparison to the western states, just using it as an example and they have roughed grouse.
 
I'm currently looking at land in the Roanoke, VA area. If you get out of town and pick up land without utilities it's half price of what land near town is. I had not considered hauling in water. Worst case would be having to drill a well if I ever had to sell it. I just want something out in the stick and to be left alone. And, I want internet. :laughing:
 
i have to permit a well in Colorado, i can drill a well on my places here in Texas without any permits. Colorado has weird laws on water also so educate yourself before you go punching holes. hell i can be fined if i dig a bucket or two out of the ground and it fills with water. but it is my understanding i can do ''erosion control".
 
rugger said:
I'm currently looking at land in the Roanoke, VA area. If you get out of town and pick up land without utilities it's half price of what land near town is. I had not considered hauling in water. Worst case would be having to drill a well if I ever had to sell it. I just want something out in the stick and to be left alone. And, I want internet. :laughing:
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internet is pretty easy to come by. will it be as good as fibre in town? fuck no, but the tradeoff is worthwhile.

hell, Obama made rural high speed internet a campaign priority and biden wants to expand that :rasta: screw them both, but also tesla is working on their drag net high speed internet and 5g will continue to expand to make traditional sat. internet providers near worthless.
 
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