Could You Live Off Grid?
Self Reliance Is a Fashionable Idea Again
Today was a good day.
The weather has finally settled down after three weeks of heat, humidity and brutal storms. I feel energized once again. The combination of coffee and writing always starts my day. After I completed the ritual, I turned my attention to other pleasures.
I hooked up my battery power station to my chest freezer.
Right before the storms hit, I charged it to 96% just in case we lost power. We didn’t. We always laugh and say that if I can remember to charge my battery, we won’t lose power. If that’s what it takes, I’m in. I’ll run it all day and into the evening hours most likely. I need to discharge it to around 30% and recharge it to 80% before I put it back in storage. That’s what the manual recommends.
Then I turned my attention to the garden.
I transplanted loads of Mexican torch flowers in pots that I will place at the base of our cedar privacy fence. These flowering plants are on my top-ten list. They grow tall and have the most brilliant red/orange flowers. They attract butterflies, too. Hardy and easy to grow makes them an all-time favorite.
There’s nothing like working in the garden to bring peace to my heart unless it’s walking in the woods.
They’re both a tonic for stress and anxiety. I’ve been told that I have a green thumb. It may be. However, the last few years, I have not raised food. Other than basil which we use to make our own pesto sauce, I no longer raise tomatoes or other veggies. Instead, I developed a 90-day food plan, bought a chest freezer, and stock my kitchen with the ingredients needed to make 12 of our favorite dishes. But if I ever needed to raise food, I know I have the well-developed skills to do so.
We have a huge rain barrel in our backyard that collects watershed from our roof when it rains. I use the rainwater to water my garden before I use city water.
This afternoon, I’m making a huge pot of chicken noodle soup. We bought a rotisserie chicken recently, and after a few meals I decided to make soup stock from the bones.
We love single pot meals that can feed us for days.
There’s something very comforting about achieving a sense of self-reliance. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not living off grid, but I think I could. I came close to living off grid when I was much younger. Not long after we were married, my husband and I rented a cabin in the countryside of rural Indiana.
This was fifty years ago, mind you.
We were influenced by the hippie movement which also produced a band of back-to-earthers. Many were living in communes, growing organic gardens, and starting the first local health food stores. They were often living together, but not married, and breastfed their babies in public.
Ye gads!
The older generation in these rural communities were stunned. They had all kinds of uncomplimentary nicknames for the members of these experimental subcultures.
We weren’t affiliated with any hippie communes, but we did rent a house in the country with a wood stove as our only means of heat and a hand pump at the kitchen sink to access water from the well. We had an outside toilet and were accustomed to bathing our son in a washtub. For us, it was fun.
We didn’t live without electric power, however.
Oh, the stereo music that emanated from our little cabin. Bach, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, the Beatles, the Mamas and the Papas, Cream and more. I even wrote ballads, and my husband played the guitar.
We had a beautiful fireplace.
The word cozy meant building a fire and enjoying books and music. I have to say, we were very happy during that short adventure.
Later, we moved to rural Maine where the average Mainer knew how to bait a hook, hunt for an annual deer, and heat with wood.
We spent the next 15 years building a house. We bought a rustic camp on five acres of land for $10,500 and lived in it while we were building it. It was an exercise in patience. We did much of the work ourselves. We loved living at the end of a gravel road that turned into a logging trail running three miles through the woods behind our house.
So, yes, I certainly could live off grid if need be. The only thing that might hamper me is I’m in my seventies now. Dang it!
I guess you’d say, I’m a suburban survivalist if there is such a thing. I’m always reading and thinking about different ways that I could beat the modern system. With climate change here to stay and a crumbling infrastructure, I think it pays to have practical skills to draw from when times get wonky.
And boy are they wonky these days.
At any rate, my soup stock is ready. I guess it’s time to add some celery, carrots, chicken bits, and noodles. It’s a hard life, but someone’s got to do it.
Do you have skills that would come in handy if the grid went down? Tell me about them. Let’s learn from one another.
Shall we?
Teresa is a retired educator, author, world traveler, and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.
