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IMHO if you want to grow your own food, fuel, fiber, you need to avoid drought. Much of this nation is drought-prone and/or water-stressed.
We migrated to Maine to avoid drought.
A few homes in our township are not connected to grid [of that is your idea of 'off-grid']. My home has grid connection, though we also have solar-power, so we can select from one power source to the other at will.
Where is it easier? I assume that you mean in terms of red-tape. In this area there is no difference in permits if you are on-grid or off-grid.
Building a house has certain inherent 'difficulties' included regardless of what style of house you build. I built our house, it was a joy for me to do it.
Land is cheap. Taxes are low. Water access is not an issue.
Ive learned two things so far. Off the grid living has many definitions for one thing. Secondly that water is important not just sun for power. I wonder why more don't consider SE Oklahoma where it rains and still gets a lot of sun. Low cost resources with good soil for ones own use?
My Maternal grandparents had a farm in Oklahoma. My Paternal Grandparents had a farm in Missouri. When my parents were 6 and 8 years old the droughts got so bad in the Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Texas area that farming stopped. Most farmers could no longer make mortgages payments, so banks foreclosed on the farms. The people had to leave. There was a huge mass migration away from that drought striken area.
A few books were written about it.
A movie was filmed called 'The Grapes of Wrath'
My parents were tweens when they migrated West to become migratory farm workers, because of that drought.
My Maternal grandparents had a farm in Oklahoma. My Paternal Grandparents had a farm in Missouri. When my parents were 6 and 8 years old the droughts got so bad in the Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Texas area that farming stopped. Most farmers could no longer make mortgages payments, so banks foreclosed on the farms. The people had to leave. There was a huge mass migration away from that drought striken area.
A few books were written about it.
A movie was filmed called 'The Grapes of Wrath'
My parents were tweens when they migrated West to become migratory farm workers, because of that drought.
Far SE Oklahoma gets around 40 to 50 inches of rain a year. It is less prone to drought than many places. The drought impacts during the grapes of wrath period were more severe due to failed soil and crop management techniques and strategies no longer in place. Look it up,
Lake Hugo in SE Oklahoma has surplus water sufficient to supply NYC water needs several times each year. It is a solution DFW area is looking to for longer term water needs. Oklahoma State does not want to share water with Texas and has a law in place to avoid doing so but the Indian tribes whose water rights were granted before Oklahoma was a state and not denied when it did become a state. The Indians with these water rights are not opposed in some instances depending upon the deal. They like a deal proposed by Irving but do not like a deal proposed by Dallas water authority, two of the three major ones serving the DFW area now.
I don't really have a definition of off the grid that would exclude anything you said, your approach matches my loose idea of what off the grid is about.. self sufficiency to a great extent.
Far SE Oklahoma gets around 40 to 50 inches of rain a year. It is less prone to drought than many places. The drought impacts during the grapes of wrath period were more severe due to failed soil and crop management techniques and strategies no longer in place. Look it up,
I agree with Sub that central and northern Maine are great places to go off-grid. My definition of "off-grid" means not connected to the power grid, although connections to anything - water mains, gas lines, sewer pipes - would also qualify.
We live off-grid in northern Maine. We have a well and septic, but no grid electric as the power poles are too far away to make it economical. We have a small amount of rain catchment in addition to the well, because we have livestock which needs to be watered even if the well runs dry. We have 1,000 gallon cisterns with pumps that run on 12V or generator.
It is definitely not cheap to go this route. Everybody romanticizes about being "off-grid", often not even sure about what it means. We bought a 1,000 gallon propane tank that we fill once a year, in summer, to supply cooking and hot water. We heat with wood. Our lighting and refrigeration comes from solar panels. Add up the cost of solar panels, a battery bank, a generator or two, large cisterns, a big propane tank - and that will cost you many thousands$$$.
Also, you'll be hard-pressed to do this in any city. It's rural or nothing.
It is not that hard to do. We were living off-grid in a small community in SE Utah for 30 years. Half an hour to a bustling tourist city with all the amenities.
We have a battery bank and several solar panels. Husband is not here right now to give you the technical details but we have all the usual conveniences and lack for nothing. We have a swamp cooler for a/c and Energy-Star appliances. No dryer but don't need one with how dry the air is.
We have a well and experience no hardship. Woodstove for heat. Propane for cooking/water heater. We lived simply but had everything most people had. Plus I had a horse. We were low-income and did just fine. The views in this area are unbelievable. Like Monument Valley. And the CO river 3 miles away.
There is power at the driveway now, but there wasn't back then.
That sounds very nice. Why give it up for overseas?
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