Ever wanted to live “off the grid”?

@Ashiitaka
There are several cable shows about that, Mountain Men, the Browns, showing families who have done just that.
It is a hard life because you have to get prepared for winter, shoot enough elk or whatever for meat and fish a lot and you need animals like horses and chickens and the like for transport and food and you have to keep fences repaired, vehicles running, and now snowmobiles are becoming less able to be used as transport because of lack of winter snow, they die if they are run on say grassy lands.

Then you have to chop a LOT of wood for your wood burning stove to keep from freezing in winter and you need lots of oil for oil lamps unless you have plastered the roof of your house with solar panels.

Then you have to secure a good source of water that is beyond being frozen in winter.

You also have to be adept at welding, one family I saw using car batteries to do arc welding to repair broken metal stuff or building new things. You have to be able to do it all with maybe some help from neighbors but you have to be mechanically adept and creative.

All in all, it is a very tough life but very free for those hardy souls who do it.

I've done it a couple of times...OK well "technically" I guess...sort of. Backpack canoeing for a couple of weeks in Northern Ontario but it's not something I could do on a permanent basis.

@great-big-stees said
I've done it a couple of times...OK well "technically" I guess...sort of. Backpack canoeing for a couple of weeks in Northern Ontario but it's not something I could do on a permanent basis.

Todays, men and women for that matter aren't as tough as they were a century ago.

-VR

@very-rusty said
Todays, men and women for that matter aren't as tough as they were a century ago.

-VR

Well, a century ago you were only 7.

@Ghost-of-a-Duke

Ah, that explains why he is so rusty.......

@ghost-of-a-duke said
Well, a century ago you were only 7.

And you were 10, your point?

-VR

@sonhouse said
@Ghost-of-a-Duke

Ah, that explains why he is so rusty.......

and accounts for the cobwebs.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
and accounts for the cobwebs.

And think of your cobwebs being 3 years older.... 😛 😉

-VR

@torunn said
@divegeester
I would love to, for a while.

Been there done that. Florida. Big generator, well for water. Lake 100 foot from the house. Still need propane and stuff. A small boat. Or go totally solar. Living on ducks and alligator and fish. It's a big challenge. Next one is retiring on a motosail boat. Same problems. Will be eating a lot of fish again I guess. Grow your own pot and build a still. Still need supplies

@Torunn

yes you can..if you hit the Lotto..you'll need money to fulfill your dreams..money can solve ALL your problems !

@ogb said
@Torunn

yes you can..if you hit the Lotto..you'll need money to fulfill your dreams..money can solve ALL your problems !

🙂 I would soon run out of supplies that were brought there, together with myself in a helicopter. Once alone, it would only be a matter of a very short time until that adventure came to a stop.

@chaney3 said
A real person who did this was Dick Proenneke. He gave up a successful material life at age 50 and moved to Alaska, off the grid, for many years.

The documentary "Alone in the Wilderness" is about his life. He built his own cabin, hunted, fished, and lived primarily off the land by himself.

Fascinating.

I will re-post this for those interested in viewing an awesome documentary.

@fmf said
The nearest I have come to it was for several years the British Embassy in Japan didn't know I was in Japan (and would not have known to contact me if there has been some reason to) and I think, more or less, the UK Government has not known whether or not I was in the UK at any given point for most of the last 28 years, unless they have some kind of database that tells them what passport numbers have exited and not reentered.

They know. They always know.

@divegeester said
We’ve probably all thought about it at one time or another, that secret life somewhere, randomly travelling, no social media, no bills, working for cash, paying your way.

Ever done it?

Want to?

It would be fun letting your hair grow out really long and make people think you were Big Foot.

@very-rusty said
And you were 10, your point?

-VR

I have already established GoaD's true age.
He will be 167 on 14th September.

Happy Birthday GoaD if I forget.
Anything planned?