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Where we live, our grid power normally goes down between once and three times every month.
Our grid is technically 'up' most of the time. However we have not seen a straight month without power-loss, this is normal here.
Some of our neighbors live off-grid, supplying their own power as a method of having every day power.
I am going off-grid because I want to have power everyday.
Many townships in this area do not have grid power strung into their townships.
Reliable grid power is an urban concept.
A power line going through dense forest, and through a township, and continues to feed 20 townships after us. One tree blowing down anywhere along a line, drops power to all townships downstream.
I used to live in a developing country when I was young. I remember power restrictions to conserve electricity. They would section the city in sections and tell people "section 1 will be out of power on these days, section 2 on these days", so on and so on. Then they would cut off power to the whole section for 8 hours. Sometimes it was morning time so I would be in school and my parents at work and nobody would notice. Sometimes your section would lose power in the afternoon. We lived at the time in a 30 story skyscraper on the 8th floor. I remember walking up the stairs for 8 stories to get home since the elevators were off! To be honest, I remember these times fondly as I remember sitting in the dark, reading a book by candle light. It felt surreal to look outside of your window and the whole section of town is pitch dark.
Great googledy leftwinghillbilly, I read that all, it gave me chills.
When my husband and I were talking about places to retire to, he kept bringing up the desert southwest, New Mexico specifically as he had lived in NM after college with some buddies, I think that it was a wild time for them and he looked back on it fondly. After visiting the area with him back in the late 80s, we realized then that there were some economic realities that would keep up from living there (as in, we had little money, and little prospect of getting decent enough jobs to keep ourselves from being poor). One of the things that struck me was just how dry it was, as a midwestern gal, I wasn't familiar with the cycle of a few weeks of monsoon rain (too much in too short a period of time) then month upon month of dry. His friends had 15 acres (that included a stucco chapel from the 1700s), on an irrigation ditch with water rights*. They also, unfortunately, had a deeded shared driveway access* with a neighbor, who did everything that he could to try to get them to move or build their own driveway, including planting trees that made getting out of their driveway hard to do, especially when they were trailering. The next year the area was struck with drought so severe that there was no water in the ditch, their hay field yielded no harvest and the cost of feed for the livestock was so high that they slaughtered all of their animals. It was at this time that they decided to move to Portland.
3 years ago, neighbors decided to move to Colorado, out to the Durango area. They rented a home on 3 acres, this home also had irrigation rights from a ditch, and they were growing and preserving a huge amount of food on 1/4 acre. Their landlord saw what they were doing, and worked out a deal with them to grow food for him for reduced rent. He tilled up almost a full acre, and things were working out well, except that neither of them was able to get jobs to help sustain their other needs, then drought last summer cut irrigation water. Things fell apart when he started drinking hard because they were broke, and she moved back to the midwest.
Having visited a few western states, I think that the natural cycle of fire would take a lot of getting used to for me. Not that the midwest is immune, there have been plenty of droughts in the last couple of decades, but there is a green-ness that I missed.
As far as off grid living, I look at all the Amish folks, they live off grid all over the place. It's a lifestyle that one has to commit to. Being self sufficient I think takes having some means to start with. Right now, one still has to pay taxes, one still has to keep in mind possible medical expenses, other living expenses for things that one can't grow or hunt or fashion. Like, clothing. I have no idea how to make cloth, I sewed (badly) through a few home ec classes. Shoes- I don't know how to make shoes. I can't see without glasses. Gas/propane/diesel. Etc. How handy a person is, how much food one is willing or able to grow, hunt, gather, what one's requirments for comfort, for access to medical, for access to technology, these would all go into consideration. As mentioned upthread, most of us can't afford a second home waiting for us to bug out to, so any property that we have has to be a compromise between living in the realities of the world today, and keeping an eye out for future possibilities. We looked for a house in a semi rural area, with enough land to grow a garden, with water. We are close enough to somewhat urban areas to have job opportunities, but far enough away to have seclusion and a pace of life that isn't offered in the Chicago metro suburban/urban area.
If you are looking to buy a bit of bare land somewhere, I strongly suggest that you investigate access/egress- how will you get there, is there a road which affords you the ability to get there. You also want to be sure that you have legal access if there is no road. No use having land that you can't get to. Also, water rights, this is especially important out west. Mineral rights. You do not want to buy land somewhere and find out that you don't have rights to any minerals that lay below, or that someone can come onto your land at any time to exploit what lays below, or do so from adjoining lands.
Apart frrom areas prone to hurricanes (easy to avoid) and tornadoes (relatively easy) the greatest danger of violent death and property destruction is the urban riot. So far these riots have not spilled over to adjacent areas much, but they have never lasted long. One of the any things we learned from Katrina is that government forces can take the side of the rioters. The New Orleans gun confiscation was an absolute proof of this. We saw a quick and easy alliance between local politicians and out of state military. In rural Louisiana the military didn't attempt a gun confiscation. Like most thugs and bullies they're cowards. But we now know that they're our enemies.
I believe that most people who regularly participate in this forum do so primarily to avoid trouble in their lives. Avoiding trouble requires that we avoid places that are prone to weather disasters and social breakdown. It also requires that we live in areas where people are independent in thought and action. There are many states where the rural areas are full of staunch individualists, but the population centers are reliably Democratic and control the laws of the state. The destruction of Colorado is a perfect example. Just twenty years ago that state, apart from urban areas, was the best place in the country to live. Those days are gone. I left Colorado with a heavy heart, but I knew that there was no choice. If anyone wishes a list of states to avoid for political reasons, just look at the last presidential election results. It doesn't matter how great some rural areas may seem; those rural areas don't control their own destiny. Nevada is likely to soon be another sickening example of this.
Picking the right place to live requires many hard choices. It may be necessary to locate in areas that are oppressively hot or cold. It may require giving up certain goods and services forever. If we need reliable communications (as important for many self-employed as is fertile soil for a farmer) we'll very likely need to give up other things. For example, I'm at least forty-five minutes to an hour from a hospital if I have a medical emergency and need an ambulance, but I have DSL which is more important for business. That's the choice I made. There must always be compromise. This forum and all of the others on c-d are continually plagued by people looking for the perfect place. That perfect place does not exist.
Off grid living can be done virtually anywhere in the united states if know the loopholes. There is a couple on youtube search fixedbydoc they are doing it in Pennsylvania one of the strictest states with building codes etc.
I didn't have time to read this entire thread but do know there are people living off the grid in the Ocala National Forest in FL. It's such a large Forest they can't police it all. They have a long growing season there with fairly mild winters. The river provides water. I was told some live in tents, in shacks, others in small trailers and vans. Some people claim they're mostly criminals and assorted miscreants, the mentally ill, druggies, others are said to be people who just want to live off the grid and live on the cheap. It might be worth looking into. But be warned, there are bears in the forest so you may want to go armed.
I didn't have time to read this entire thread but do know there are people living off the grid in the Ocala National Forest in FL. It's such a large Forest they can't police it all. They have a long growing season there with fairly mild winters. The river provides water. I was told some live in tents, in shacks, others in small trailers and vans. Some people claim they're mostly criminals and assorted miscreants, the mentally ill, druggies, others are said to be people who just want to live off the grid and live on the cheap. It might be worth looking into. But be warned, there are bears in the forest so you may want to go armed.
The Ocala Natl Forest is not very big and is in one of the most popular counties to live in in Florida (Ocala bills itself as the "horse capital of the world"). The town of Ocala is a popular winter destination for a lot of rich folks who own horses and ride the forest ALL the time. There are a few black bears in the forest but they hardly require you to go around armed (while not small, they are much smaller than what you see out west in Montana and WY, for example). Finally, I doubt you could walk around the forest armed. I think you can conceal-carry but you would need the FL permit.
Besides, who wants to squat and live in constant fear of being evicted?
Yeah, nice place but with all the coal extraction and water pollution, not sure if it would be suitable. But then again, what place would be today? Everywhere you turn around fracking rigs are popping up like mushrooms after the rain...
... But then again, what place would be today? Everywhere you turn around fracking rigs are popping up like mushrooms after the rain...
None around here.
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