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Living Off Grid.
21 July 2017, 00:17,
#1
Photo  Living Off Grid.
I fully realise that the country lifestyle in the UK is different to what it is here in Australia, I was born in West Sussex in an 18th century farm house. My parents had a large garden & we grew all our own vegetables & fruit. In later life this lifestyle lesson was to be of enormous benefit to me. I thought I would share my lifestyle here in the hope that it may be of some interest, perhaps help someone, & at least prompt some discussion.
https://s19.postimg.org/nwdnivzc3/DSCF0035.jpg
My wife & I have been living off grid & off all services for roughly 40 years. I was in the Territory for 10 years & we survived cyclone Tracey in 1974. After that we moved out bush. We grew our own food & I hunted to put meat on the table. Mostly Buffalo, wild cattle & Kangaroos, with the occasional wild boar. It was a rough & sometimes dangerous life living there, & we had our three guard dogs shot & some of our horses.

Eventually we moved to New England in NSW & we are now living in a forest. We have two houses, Elm Cottage which we built when we first moved here & Linstock House which we had built about 10 years ago. When we first arrived we lived the same as we did in the Territory, no electricity & no running water on tap. We started a garden & I hunted for meat. We lived that way in the cottage for 20 years. Our eldest son was born in the Territory, our two other sons were born here.

The cottage now has water on tap & a 12 volt solar power system with just one light in the living room. The toilet is an ash can in an outhouse as it always has been. The shower is in an old galvo water tank, again, outside. The showers were quick when it was snowing, though I did add an old wood heater later on.

The main house has a 240 volt solar power system. The solar panels are on a power shed outside low enough to be able to clear the snow off the panels in winter. Toilets are composting, grey water system runs into deep trenches under two of the garden beds. Water is collected from the roof in a 5000 gallon cement water tank, & is then pumped up to another 5000 gallon cement water tank which gravity feeds the main house.
We have an inside laundry with a very small washing machine, & an outside laundry with a large washing machine. This outside laundry is fed by a 5000 gallon poly water tank which collects water from the roof on the cottage. It also provides water to the cottage. The cottage also has two 1000 gallon galvo water tanks. Both the cottage & the main house have their own garden & we grow our own food.
https://s19.postimg.org/9cuj05xcz/New_po...nk_001.jpg
Heating & cooking in both the cottage & the main house is supplied by wood burning heaters & stoves. The main house wood stove also heats out water system for washing & showering.
We have two petrol driven fire pumps, one on the lower cement water tank next to the main house, & the other pumps water from Cattail Pond below the main house at the bottom of the valley. Cattail Pond is fed by a header steam. We can pump water from the pond to both house sites for watering the gardens or in case of fire. We realise that if the SHTF one day we will not be able to use these pumps, but we are widening the fire breaks around both houses this winter to lessen the fire risk, & the main house is fireproof.
Keith.
Do not try to understand them, and do not try to make them understand you; for they are a breed apart and make no sense. Natty Bumpo, Last Of The Mohicans.
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22 September 2017, 19:05,
#2
RE: Living Off Grid.
(21 July 2017, 00:17)Keith Wrote: I fully realise that the country lifestyle in the UK is different to what it is here in Australia, I was born in West Sussex in an 18th century farm house. My parents had a large garden & we grew all our own vegetables & fruit. In later life this lifestyle lesson was to be of enormous benefit to me. I thought I would share my lifestyle here in the hope that it may be of some interest, perhaps help someone, & at least prompt some discussion.
https://s19.postimg.org/nwdnivzc3/DSCF0035.jpg
My wife & I have been living off grid & off all services for roughly 40 years. I was in the Territory for 10 years & we survived cyclone Tracey in 1974. After that we moved out bush. We grew our own food & I hunted to put meat on the table. Mostly Buffalo, wild cattle & Kangaroos, with the occasional wild boar. It was a rough & sometimes dangerous life living there, & we had our three guard dogs shot & some of our horses.

Eventually we moved to New England in NSW & we are now living in a forest. We have two houses, Elm Cottage which we built when we first moved here & Linstock House which we had built about 10 years ago. When we first arrived we lived the same as we did in the Territory, no electricity & no running water on tap. We started a garden & I hunted for meat. We lived that way in the cottage for 20 years. Our eldest son was born in the Territory, our two other sons were born here.

The cottage now has water on tap & a 12 volt solar power system with just one light in the living room. The toilet is an ash can in an outhouse as it always has been. The shower is in an old galvo water tank, again, outside. The showers were quick when it was snowing, though I did add an old wood heater later on.

The main house has a 240 volt solar power system. The solar panels are on a power shed outside low enough to be able to clear the snow off the panels in winter. Toilets are composting, grey water system runs into deep trenches under two of the garden beds. Water is collected from the roof in a 5000 gallon cement water tank, & is then pumped up to another 5000 gallon cement water tank which gravity feeds the main house.
We have an inside laundry with a very small washing machine, & an outside laundry with a large washing machine. This outside laundry is fed by a 5000 gallon poly water tank which collects water from the roof on the cottage. It also provides water to the cottage. The cottage also has two 1000 gallon galvo water tanks. Both the cottage & the main house have their own garden & we grow our own food.
https://s19.postimg.org/9cuj05xcz/New_po...nk_001.jpg
Heating & cooking in both the cottage & the main house is supplied by wood burning heaters & stoves. The main house wood stove also heats out water system for washing & showering.
We have two petrol driven fire pumps, one on the lower cement water tank next to the main house, & the other pumps water from Cattail Pond below the main house at the bottom of the valley. Cattail Pond is fed by a header steam. We can pump water from the pond to both house sites for watering the gardens or in case of fire. We realise that if the SHTF one day we will not be able to use these pumps, but we are widening the fire breaks around both houses this winter to lessen the fire risk, & the main house is fireproof.
Keith.

Keith I for one find you lifestyle very interesting and I have to admit it draws me in.
Are all the skills you have learnt all self taught or did you have someone to pass on these skills to you as I'm sure you did your own children.
I have watched many of your videos with interest.
I live so differently and my own family I'm sure would not accept the lifestyle change or move abroad to search for a place it could be attained .
I am not even sure I posses the determination to succeed as you have.
I shall later on this evening watch a couple more of your videos and loose myself in the magic that living off grid in a almost more natural lifestyle how things should really be with my cidre .
Credit to you and yours Keith.

Some of us can only but dream .
Best regards
Easy , central uk
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22 September 2017, 19:53,
#3
RE: Living Off Grid.
Keith, Interesting post and good info!

I will be watching with interest the recovery operations in Puerto Rico, because from the varied news accounts the expectation is that the power grid will be down for months and complete restoration may take years. The Territory is bankrupt and while Trump has promised Federal aid, there will be lots of infighting in Congress in bailing out the island.

I for one find it ludicrous that on a Carribean island at risk for hurricanes that the AC mains would be above ground at all. This is simply stupid, but I suppose the legacy of more than a century of inept government and corruption.

Those who with to study what The End of The World As We Know it might be like, need only to watch the rebuilding of the various carribean islands after these storms. Some will recover and be stronger and more resilient afterwards, others who were formerly prosperous will descend on a slow decline towards becoming more like Haiti...

73 de KE4SKY
In
"Almost Heaven" West Virginia
USA
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22 September 2017, 21:36,
#4
RE: Living Off Grid.
This hit will be the salvation or Puerto Rico.

After 8 years of Obama socialism in the hands of Federal Governors hand picked by him their condition is no surprise.

What does every government on the verge of economic disaster wish for if not total destruction of all that is and a good excuse to rebuild everything in sight.

Thing is now the expense is not a "bail out" it is rebuilding the island after a disaster and our congress will gladly approve the expense.

And with Trump in office the rebuild will not be a government project. It will be farmed out to private industry with the creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs, investment in a whole new infrastructure and a completely new island when the job is finished.

Give them two years and Puerto Rico will be one of the top vacation destinations in the world. It will probably be one of the fastest recoveries ever seen.
__________
Every person should view freedom of speech as an essential right.
Without it you can not tell who the idiots are.
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23 September 2017, 20:27,
#5
RE: Living Off Grid.
MB, I certainly hope that you are correct.

73 de KE4SKY
In
"Almost Heaven" West Virginia
USA
Reply
23 October 2018, 08:20,
#6
RE: Living Off Grid.
Recommendations: I am pretty sure that I have a farming app which might be interesting for you. Actually, my relatives tried it as well and they were happy to use this app. Try it: bit.ly/2q68GIz it is FREE
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