Questions from a reader

One of the very nice ladies who reads my blog, asked me several very good questions, I thought I would copy the message here and answer them, I think they are the sorts of questions that other people might ask, they are certainly the kind of questions I would ask if I didn't live like this and had the opportunity to ask...

Hi Wretha, this is Marty.

I enjoy reading your b-log but I don't know where the guestbook is to sign it. You had asked if we would sign it so that you would know others are reading.

I wanted to ask you some questions about going off grid.

1. How do you get water? We have a well and though there's an electric pump on it I heard that we could get a solar well but the whole well has to be redone. I would also like to add a hand pump.

We do not have a well, it's way too expensive for us to even consider right now, so I get my water from my neighbor, he has a well and is extremely generous to us, we do things for him as well. We have a 300 gallon container, it used to hold fruit punch concentrate so it is food/water safe. We also have a 55 gallon drum inside the cabin, next to the sink, we have a 12 volt pump attached to it and the water faucet, when I turn on the faucet the pump comes on and I have running water, it lasts me about a week, maybe a week and a half if I'm careful. I use that water (inside the cabin) for washing dishes, hands and such, not for drinking. I go to my neighbor's house pretty much every day for drinking water, I carry it back in one gallon containers.

If we have to, we can get water from the community well, it's free to the residence out here, we can get as much as we want, but we have to get it back to our property, that was the original plan to get water from there, but since our neighbor turned out to be such a great guy, we get it from him for now.

2. How do you keep cool in the heat? I think I could go without a lot of things but not being able to keep cool I just can't. (also going through menopause!)

That's easy, it does get hot here, but the humidity is low, it's high desert on a mountain range, it is hot during the day, especially in the sun, but if you have any shade, it's comfortable, there is almost always a breeze too. The nights are cool year round, even in the hottest part of summer, as soon as the sun goes down, you start looking for something to cover your arms with.

3. Do you solar cook all the time or use a gas grill or bbq'r?

I do some solar cooking, but not as much as I'd like, making a better solar oven and other solar cookers is on the list of things we will do this summer. When it was cold enough to use the wood stove, I cooked on it, I made a makeshift oven on top and got pretty good at making biscuits, tortillas and such. Now we mainly use a 2 burner propane stove top. We got a stove and oven (propane) oven from a friend, it came out of an old travel trailer, we have to clean it up and make sure it works ok before I can use it though. No BBQ though, there is a burn ban on open fires until we get some rain, it is very dry out here and not worth the risk just to grill a few burgers.

4. How do you keep your food cold?

During the winter, we didn't have to worry about it much, we kept our cold foods in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid. Now we use a small cube refrigerator (dorm size), it doesn't hold much, but we can keep milk, cheese, and a few other things cold in it. It doesn't take much juice so it works with our little power system just fine.

5. How do you light your home?

We have regular compact florescent lights, we have some extra low voltage ones that we use most of the time, and the regular ones the rest of the time. Since we are in a small space, we don't require much lighting. We have 3 lights in the main area where we stay, one extra low wattage and one regular that is over the sink. We have another regular one over the mirror in the bathroom area, we have 2 lights outside, but only use them as necessary. These are all hooked up to the batteries through the inverter.

6. I see that you got internet connection. Congratulations. How did you plug your computer in?

I have a device that hooks up through a network cable, it's like super wifi, it works off an antenna that is across the valley from me on the other mountain top, it's a radio signal that is picked up on a small box attached to my cabin, there is a network cable that runs from that to a small box inside the cabin, then it goes into my computer, I have internet access as long as I have the box powered up (plugged in), I turn it off when I'm not using it to save power even though it doesn't use much power.

7. If you'd like you can post my questions in your b-log and then others who are wanting to know can read your replies also.

Thanks!

8. What do you do about washing clothes?

Again, I use my neighbor's facilities, but if I didn't have that available to me, I can use the RV park's facilities that is not too far from me, they have showers too, but again, I have been very lucky to have such a good neighbor. We originally planned on (and still may do this in the future) hooking up our washer to use and hanging the clothes to dry.

9. How do you feel now about being off grid? Is it harder than you thought?
Is it a good feeling?

I love it, I wouldn't want to go back. It is hard, but not harder than I though it would be, in many ways it's easy, I have electricity just like you, the only difference is I generate it right here, I do have to be conscious of using power, I can't go off and leave things running, I can't run everything at once, if we use power tools during the day, then we have to be aware that we probably will not be able to watch videos on the internet all night, if the night is cold and we don't have wood cut for the wood stove, we can use our small electric blanket, but if that happens, I know that I can't use the computer all night, we have learned from trial and error what we can and can't do, and so far, we have done very well and are very happy with the setup.

We did give things up to live like we live, things like microwaves, big appliances, these are all energy wasters. We gave up convenience stores, gave up close by stores, we can't go to Walmart in the middle of the night, we can't eat fast food any time we want. Just going to the mailbox is a 12+ mile round trip, on up and down, in and out, dirt roads. But the things we gained far outweighs the things we gave up, we gave up the noise, pollution, stress and danger of living in the city. We gained safety, security, quiet, clean air, healthy living... we don't hear cars honking, car alarms, slamming doors, our neighbors, our neighbor's kids... we gained some really good friends, though we did leave some really good friends (and family) behind, we hope to get some or them (all of them!) to move out here where we live, I know that is not realistic, but the invitation is open, if nothing else, we have a great place for them to come vacation. :)

Thanks for any help/tips you can give.

My biggest tip is to not wait too long, often times we want to do something, but we put it off, we wait until we have more money, time, energy, whatever it is, or we are afraid to take the big step, whatever the problem is, don't wait, start NOW, you aren't getting any younger, and you probably aren't getting any richer living where you are now, just DO IT, live your dream, you will not regret it, when you are on your death bed, are you going to regret not taking the plunge or are you going to be happy with your life as you lived it? No one ever wishes they have worked more hours (at a regular job) or wishes they had made more money. Go for it, do it, don't wait, it's OK to be scared, it's not OK to let that fear stop you, in baseball, you will miss 100% of the balls if you never take a swing.

God bless,
Marty

Thanks Marty for your great questions, if you have any more, or want more clarification of what I posted above, please don't hesitate to contact me again and ask, ask all you want, I am more than happy to answer your questions.

Wretha
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

2 Comments

lindy said...

Wretha! I cannot agree MORE with not waiting! There will NEVER be a perfect time to live off-grid.

I spent a cold winter in the bus, but I do not regret it at all. I am even more convinced that this is the life for me :) I love being responsible for myself .. if I do not make a fire there is no heat, if I do not charge the dvd player or the batteries, there is no entertainment. Everything in life comes with a price, but in the standard American culture we become so removed from that. I'll take independence and looking out my windows any day. I get to live where I want to live and how I want to live and it is a slice of heaven. Take care. I'm glad I know ya .

Lindy

April 27, 2008 10:46 PM

Wretha said...

Thanks Lindy, I love your statement that there will never be a perfect time to live off grid! I think I'll incorporate that into a title of one of my future posts. I think it's so sad that people wait for this, that, whatever to be or happen, there will never be enough time, money or you fill in the blank, I am so glad I did this, my ONLY regret is that I didn't do this earlier in my life.

I am glad I know you as well, thanks for your group, it is a wellspring of knowledge, humor and probably lots of other stuff I can't think of right now. :) You are the best!

Wretha

April 27, 2008 11:41 PM

02-21-08

It's been several days since I wrote anything, that is because not much has been happening, Bob has been gone during the daytime, I do get some things done, dishes, cleaning, taking care of the humanure toilet. Day to day life is becoming normal here, at least normal for me :) I get up in the morning, I look outside to see how the day looks, I take the dog out, I change out of my pj's, I take a sponge bath using the water from the stock pot that is still warm from last night's fire. I put on my clothes, I do any dishes that were left from the night before, if I am hungry, I eat something, usually I make a bowl of oatmeal, if the water in the pot isn't hot enough, I have a 2 burner propane stove, it doesn't take long for the water to get hot enough to cook the oatmeal. Sometimes I listen to the radio, we get one station, it's a NPR radio station out of Marfa, they play a variety of music, I have heard everything from rock, classic rock, country, old country, ancient country (grin!), pop, jazz, classical, Cajun, folk, blues, and some I can't put a name to, and that's all in an hour or two! It seems that they don't want to offend anyone or leave anyone out, so they play this crazy variety of music one after another, you might hear Pink Floyd then right after that they might play Hank Williams Sr, then something classical... it's like a crazy quilt for music. Anyhoo, at some point during the day (or evening) I go to my neighbor's house for water and company, once Bob gets home and gets cleaned up (as much as possible), I make dinner, we eat dinner while watching the most beautiful mountains and sunset. Our mule deer show up just before sunset on most days, they have gotten quite used to us, for better or worse, they hang around for an hour or so, depends on how many crackers I toss their way. After dinner, if I haven't gotten water yet, I will go then, otherwise, we have movie night a few nights a week, IF the weather cooperates. If the wind is gusting, we can't hear anything but the wind, many movie nights have been canceled because of the wind. But that is OK because we do like to talk to each other, actually we are opposites from most couples, in most other couples, the female talks more and the male talks less, often to the point where the female wished her mate would talk more and the male wishes his mate would hush up! :) In our situation, Bob is the talker, I like to say that he narrates the world, this is a good thing, I appreciate his gift for gab, I on the other hand, tend to be a bit on the quiet side, at least as compared to most of the other women I know (though I can chat up a storm when I need to), so for us, it works out quite nicely.

I just heard the Bug pull up, it will take Bob about 5 minutes (+/-) to walk up to the cabin, once he gets here, we are supposed to go to our neighbor's house for dinner, our neighbor is cooking a pork roast, Bob just walked in, I stopped typing and started heating water for coffee, Bob is a coffee drinker, he likes it semi-hot and very sweet.

I have figured out a glitch in our power system, not a bad one though, I dug out my alarm clock a few days ago, it runs on 110 and has a battery backup, it's just a standard, digital alarm clock. The first night I had it plugged up, it worked just fine, but the next morning, I noticed the time was wrong, it was a head about 20 minutes, I assumed that either Bob or I had hit the wrong button and made the time jump ahead, I reset the time and watched it for a bit and it ran just fine. A few hours later, I noticed the time had jumped ahead again, not much, between 5 and 10 minutes, again I reset the time and assumed that one of us must have bumped the button that resets the time, it's quite sensitive. So today, I was watching the clock to see if it was having a problem, the digital clock was a minute behind the clock on the weather station, I heard the power inverter's fan kick on for a few seconds (that happens when the refrigerator comes on or some other load occurs), right after that, the digital clock jumped a minute ahead of the weather station clock, that was the "aha" moment, I started making the inverter fan come on by turning on lights and other things that cause a power load to occur, each time I did this, the digital clock would jump ahead 30 seconds to a minute, so I am going to have to isolate it from other power loads in the future, Bob thinks he can do something to change the "flavor" of the power, we will see if it works, it would be great of it did, but it's not a big deal if it doesn't work, for the most part, we don't need an alarm clock. :)

Moon

Last night I watched the lunar eclipse, I saw it from the point where the moon was red, I got a late start and missed the first half. I went out about once every 10 minutes to see what was happening. I must say that I wasn't very impressed, it was kind of fun to see it, but not a huge thrill, I understand our next full lunar eclipse will happen in about 3 years... A strange thing that happened during the eclipse, I don't know if it was associated with the event or just a coincidence, my cell phone couldn't acquire a signal at all, this went on all night, it worked during the day just fine, but about sun down, it started "looking" for a signal and it did this all night. This morning, it finally started working again, I hope this doesn't happen often, I get a marginal signal at best, it's always a "roaming" signal, and for the most part, I have to stand in a certain place in the cabin, if I move around, my signal drops out and I may even lose the call alltogether.

Comments

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been leaving comments, I really REALLY appreciate each and every comment, keep them coming! :) Comments, questions, I read and respond to them, so if you ask a question, go back to that comment and look for my response, it may take a few days to get back to you, but I will respond.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

5 Comments

Oldman in th eBoonies said...

Perhaps I missed it in your posting but Unless you have a true sinewave converter you will always have problems with a power inverter and some elctronics. Variable speed motors and standard inverters do not get along well. I replaced the variable speed fan on our Wood burner with a equivilant CFM bathroom fan and some flexable ducting. The inverter is much happier now. This was a much cheaper solution than a Sine wave converter.

Thanks for the info on the water pump. I keep forgetting about RV and Marine stuff. I am building a rainwater catchment system and 12 componants are essential. Since we are in the frozen great north the project is on hold for a while.

February 22, 2008 7:17 PM

Wretha said...

Yeah, we have an inexpensive inverter, it was the biggest one I could get where I used to work, Best Buy is not known for selling inverters, computers yes, but not the bigger inverters, but it was a good deal for me so I got 2 of them, eventually we will get a bigger/better one, but for now, what we have is working just fine.

Where in the frozen north are you located?

Wretha

February 23, 2008 9:07 PM

oldman in the boonies said...

We are in Central Wisconsin. We got 14" of snow last sunday after it had been -20 for a couple of days in a row. we have had about 80 inches so far this year. It is in the high 20's yesterday and supposed to be 35 today.

We are in our late 50's. We have about 5 acres. We grow about 75% of our vegetables. We have 5 chickens.

We do have a nice 6" well that gives us all the water we could want. it runs on 220 and that scares me. I have put together a rather extensive rain water catchment system. while it is still evolving I am always looking for better ways to do things.

You and Bob are doing great. I look at your every day to see if you have posted.

February 24, 2008 8:11 AM

nanabird2000 said...

Hey Wretha, everyone sends their "Hello's" sounds like things are going well for you guys. Was nice to talk to you the other day. If you keep up all talking to the animals you may turn into Dr Dolittle and the animals talk back to you, :) Glad you guys are doing good your neighbor sounds like a heaven sent, you must be company for each other. Keep up the blogs look forward to reading them and enjoy the pictures too, explains alot of things, thanks. Until next time......Nancy

February 25, 2008 9:53 PM

Wretha said...

Oldman, wow, that is too much snow for me, and too much cold! I really love living in the desert AND on a mountain, I get the best of both worlds. We are going to get chickens sometime this spring (I hope!), I can't wait to have fresh eggs and the occasional chicken in the pot... we are also going to grow lots of fruits & veggies. How do you store (long term) what you grow?

Nancy, thanks so much for keeping up with me, I miss each and every one of you! I will keep up the blog, it's great fun and honestly, it allows me to remember things that I might forget, especially about the early periods, and helps me to appreciate each step.

I have more pix that I will be uploading soon, stay tuned! :)

Wretha

February 26, 2008 10:07 PM