When the subject of off-grid living comes up, the average person pictures guys with scruffy beards living in makeshift shelters in the woods. But living off-grid is simply about liberty, independence, and shunning the corporate/government machine that wants to control every facet of your life. The less you have to rely on someone else for your daily human needs (food, water, shelter, defense), the more liberty and freedom you have. That’s because you’re no longer forced to wage-slave away at some job just to provide your family the basics for survival.
The off-grid transition does not have to be abrupt. There are small adjustments you can make right now that will get the process started and teach you new life skills at the same time.
Aquaponics
Anybody with a spare bedroom and the will to produce their own food can build a simple aquaponics system. Aquaponics is a home fish-farming system that uses the waste water to grow hydroponic plants. The initial investment can be as little as a few hundred dollars.
First you need to learn a little about aquaponics before delving into it. There are plenty of free online videos and resources to get you going in the right direction, or you could pay for an online course taught by those who with experience in aquaponics. Next, you need an aquarium for your fish, a clean water tank, and beds to grow your vegetables and fruits.
The most important decision you’ll make is the type of fish you farm. Tilapia are best for beginners. They are good eating fish and provide a lot of error margin for the aquaponics beginner. They can survive in water temperatures anywhere from 60-80 degrees Fahrenheit, can endure low oxygen water longer than many species, and are highly resistant to disease. Trout, catfish, and carp are also good aquaponics fish.
Vegans and vegetarians who are only interested in eating the plants can use goldfish. They are obviously not good eating fish, but they produce a lot of waste which means nutrient-rich water for your plants.
Solar Power
The average American home uses bout 11,000 kWh of electricity per year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. A photovoltaic solar system that produces that kind of power costs upward of $20,000, depending on where and when you buy it. The best way to start weening off utility company power is building a small solar system to power specific items in your home.
Two 6-volt deep cycle batteries, one 100-watt solar panel, an inverter and a charge controller easily provides enough power for all the lighting in a 1,500 square foot home if done strategically. Trojan T-105 RE batteries are specifically made for renewable energy systems. But any cheap 6-volt deep cycle batteries run in series will do. Use only low-power LED lights and even consider solar rechargeable lighting systems. The latter gives you the opportunity to use your small solar system to power other things like computers, DVD players and other low power appliances and devices.
A system like this can be had for as little as $500. A year later you can add two more batteries and another panel and power even more stuff.
Survival Gear
Now is the best time of year to either update your survival gear or begin building it up. Expensive, top-of-the-line hunting and fishing gear, along with ammunition, can be had at deep discounts from the large retailers during this time of year.
Food is obviously important for survival, but humans can only survive a few days without water. LifeStraws should be part of every survival pack. They are inexpensive, lightweight, last a long time, and turn just about any murky water into drinkable water. They could ultimately save your life in the event of complete societal breakdown.
It’s time to stop talking about going off-grid and start taking actions to get the process started. All the above will get you going in the right direction.
Regarding aquaponics, I live with a river on my boundary and have mooring rights. Instead of having tanks of fish, do you think it’d be possible/safe to make a floating greenhouse on the river itself and pump directly from the river to feed the plants? or in a SHFT situation when the roadway would be unused (the single track roadway go’s between our land and our river bank) pump directly into a garden aquaponic system?
A floating greenhouse is a pretty major undertaking, but it’s been done before. Google “floating greenhouse” for examples.
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” LifeStraws should be part of every survival pack.”. . .NO! NO! NO! DANGER! DANGER! No personal filter eliminates viruses and they can incapacitate or even kill. Do you know what is decaying in the water supply?
Carry a pot for boiling water/cooking, a couple double ziplock bags with straws and chemical purification tablets (Chlorine or Iodine) or check into SODIS. Plan to succeed.
Couldn’t agree more…once when serving in the military the whole unit went down with a BAD stomach bug after drinking water from a stream – rendered useless for the remainder of the exercise and a good week afterwards! we’d used chlorine tabs but hadn’t been told we needed to crush these particular ones first!
But…. viruses are rarely free floating. They attach themselves to bacteria and are therefore removed by high quality filters. Better than nothing and probably good enough.
” viruses are rarely free floating “. . .I suppose you can document that assertion? What
does ‘rarely’ mean?
No, drinking tainted water is not ‘better than nothing’. People could die. Chemicals are
smaller, lighter and more thorough. Boiling is a sure way and empty aluminum cans are
everywhere. You are selling a defective product.
If you must sell a filter type product, sell one that is silver impregnated and/or has a bio-
active filter medium. There are several out there that eliminate viral hazards.
Viruses: Parasitic infectious microbes, composed almost entirely of protein and nucleic acids, which can cause disease(s) in humans. Viruses can reproduce only within living cells. They are 0.004 to 0.1 microns in size, which is about 100 times smaller than bacteria. The key word, parasitic.
” Enteric viruses primarily infect the intestinal tract through ingestion of food and water contaminated with viruses of fecal origin.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_viruses_in_water
Find a product to sell that won’t sicken and possibly kill it’s users.
Lifestraws are nice, but I prefer the Renovo Trio. It filters particulates and such 4 times smaller than Lifestraw, and has replaceable charcoal filter layer to help get rid of that “pond water” or metallic taste.