Wretha's Adventures Living 100% Off Grid

I bet he has one meep of a grip.

Hello, first I want to thank regulator for posting my blog here, yes I am the owner of that site, yes I do live 100% off grid, that doesn't mean I live in a cave, wear skins and eat worms. I am not hooked up to any utilities, I generate my own electricity (solar), haul my water, use propane for cooking... we live in a cabin that we built. Yes, I have an internet connection, ever hear of WIRELESS? And yes, I have a PayPal account, how else do you think I buy things on line? Oh, and I'm not a guy, though my hubby is. :)

The great thing is that we did this very much on the cheap, we spent very little money to do this. Thanks for looking and voting. Thanks LinkSwarm!

Hey, you're Wrethra! Let's give a warm welcome to the most famous hermit on LinkSwarm everybody!

i live in a commune off the grid and now my wretha burns

Wrethra-Do you wear panties made of fabric or leaves?

hey, that's nice and all, but it's not like you're amish.

:) Ya'll are cute. Nope not Amish, don't wear panties, now put THAT in your compost pile and burn it don't live in a commune, if it burns, there is medicine for that, not a hermit, though I know one, not a 'he', but I do have a good grip. LOL

Cute, cute you say, meepin kittens are cute, sheep are cute, and tasty.We would be anything but cute I hope.

Not exactly roughin' it then are ya 'retha? Good to know it can be done.

Questions- Do you make your own liquor or stock up when you go to town? How's that workin' out for ya? What do you do when one of y'all gets sick or injured? You got a doctor or shaman nearby?

Dagwood, you are cute too... roughing it is in the eye of the beholder. Most people I know would call the way I live fairly primitive, no fridge, no thermostat, no flush toilets, no TV, 3 hours from the nearest WalMart, we didn't have running water at first, now we do. But naw, I don't call it roughing it.

No, I don't make my own liquor, I do stock up on things, including Everclear, strictly for medicinal purposes, I have a killer cough syrup I make with horehound, honey and Everclear, it works great! Don't generally get sick, at least not sick enough to go to the doctor. All injuries, so far, have been taken care of at home. We are pretty independent, like to do as much for ourselves as possible. If we did get sick enough or injured enough to have to go to the doctor, there is one in the next town over, or I'll just call my friend on the next valley over, he knows how to pull teeth, sew you up and such.

wow. Not real often there's a comment from the link involved. I envy you the off the grid thing, but not so much the isolation. Been the isolation route (at least isolation enough).It got tedious,and ya can't play in a blues band if you're a zillion miles from everywhere. Currently, I happily live in an RV, which it's my intent to convert to solar when I get enough money. It's good I use little enough power to get the alotted power for nothing,with the pad rental,but I don't expect that to last. Greed is any rental property owners sworn duty to eventually enact.

Oh yeah... propane is my lifeline for cooking too...and currently extra heat. It's amazing how well one lit burner heats this place up.

Hi wretha, I love you are doing. I did a similar thing about 15 years ago, I packed up all my belongings and moved out to the bush with no plan, no goal, no nothing and on the dole. 3 years later I ended up buying my own piece of dirt ( 50 acres ) and I love it. The best advice I can give you ( which I think you already know ) is to grow all your own veggies, plant heaps of different fruit trees, brew your own booze and just live the good life. Anyone can do it but many people are afraid to leave the comforts that the city life has to offer. I used to love maccas too but it doesn't take long before maccas and kentucky fried duck lose their appeal. Keep up the good work!

Where do you go to the bathroom?

Ahhh, finally some real comments and questions. Pete56, thanks for your comment, we aren't all that isolated, though there are few people out here compared to most towns. We are pretty far off the beaten path. There are between 150 and 200 full time residents living out here. I can see 4 houses from my property, only one is occupied full time. There are other people around though, it's not isolated, there are generally 4-5 cars a day that go by on the road. I also work at the country store in the middle of the community so I pretty much know everyone out here. We are the only ones living off grid out here, well I do know one other person who is doing it, but not by choice, his electricity got cut off and he hasn't turned it back on, probably won't either.

If you want to go cheap on solar, go to Harbor Freight, they have cheap solar panel systems, all you need after that is a couple of good deep cycle batteries, you can get good ones from Sam's Club, that's where we got our last few batteries.

Thanks spod, I agree with everything you said, wow 50 acres is great! We have just under 6, but it's good land in a good location, I'm happy with it. You are right, too many people want to do this but are afraid, I was too, and this was something I wanted to do all of my life! Any major change can be scary, but it's often worth it, especially if it makes you more independent.

Great question CaptainObvious, it's actually a very simple system, if you look up joseph jenkins humanure, you will learn all about how and where I use the potty. We have 2 five gallon buckets with toilet lids on them, we built a wooden frame around them to make them look nice, we line our buckets with newspaper, we do the deed in the bucket then cover it with a cover material, leaves, newspaper, whatever is available, it does not smell, it is quite sanitary. When the buckets get full enough, we take the bucket outside and pour the contents into our composting system, it's two 55 gallon black plastic barrels, one has a chopper inside that chops up the stuff, once that barrel gets about half full, we dump it into the barrel below to finish composting. It composts pretty fast. It's all very sanitary, no smell, easy to work system, and the best part is it uses almost zero water. The only water needed is to wash the buckets between uses. It's all on my blog. I have a detailed article about it on my other blog http://www.offgridonthecheap.com/

I can't wait for the world governments to collapse so that we all may live in this manner. Life will be much more wholesome and honest and when the Rapture finally comes there will be many more of us on Jesus' list of worthy souls.

Similar to my 'isolation'. An island in the San Juans (Wa. state),'cept we had power and running water. Boat or plane entry and exit. Currently near Vancouver. I don't think there's any Sam's clubs or Harbor Freights in Canucklia..at least in this part. I'll find someplace though. It's a pretty green freaky part of the universe here. I just want off the grid, mostly. I'm tired of the usurist pricks dictating my comfort/finance levels.

wotak, if you really can't wait for things to get bad enough that everyone will have to live this way, I suggest that you start living this way asap, you don't want to have to start from scratch after TSHTF. Believe me, if/when things go bad, the last place you will want to be is living in the city or urban area, that is when and where it will be meep on Earth.

Be ready now or as fast as you can be, be already set up, living off grid with all of your systems and backups in place. This way you are ready if the worst happens, and if things sail along smoothly, then you have lost nothing and gained your freedom and independence.

Pete56, yeah, I understand not having big stores nearby, the closest big store for me is at least 3 hours away, that's why I like the internet so much, log on and order, a week later it's at my house. I can appreciate you wanting your freedom too, it's very nice to not have utility bills, it's nice to know that when the power goes out in my neighborhood, and it does frequently, I still have power, no bills and consistent power, that's freedom. :)

lulz... we have lots of big stores,within a half hour drive, just not those two. I spent the afternoon searching for local solar panel deals. There's a few places , but none 'll be as cheap as anywhere in the US, and I'm not goin' there,even if I AM 15minutes from the border.

Chicken.

Pete56, good luck, I hope you can find some good priced solar panels, depending on how handy you are, it's possible to build your own too.

Wotak, I'm not sure I understand your brief statement, I don't understand if you are calling me chicken, considering the major changes I undertook to live the life I life now, the last thing I would consider myself is a chicken. If you are saying that you are chicken, that's your choice, everyone makes active and passive decisions, choices to live the way they want to live. Or perhaps you are discussing something good to eat... Either way, I wish you well in your life.

I was calling Pete a chicken because he's ascairt ta come ta USA.

I would never ever call a fellow Rapture ready Christian a name like that, even in jest.

Peace and Love in Jesus' name, Wretha.

-Wotak

Not scared. Zero desire. I lived in the US for enough years to know it's nothing like what it used to be, and I want no part of what it became, wotak. It went nuts, and you have to adapt to it. I don't. I have everything I need here,and for whatever I want , I don't need the US .

I lived off the grid for a year and a half on and off. Only I called it homeless and it sucked. I suppose if you could bankroll it from the start so you were set up with a generator and some kind of roof over your head on a piece of dirt that you couldn't get kicked off of it might be ok, but otherwise it's living in the mud by the side of a creek and trust me, it sucks.

godevillivedog, I have never been officially homeless so I can't even begin to imagine how that must have been for you. I tend to believe that everything happens for a reason, including the things we consider negatives. I suspect that time you were homeless taught you a few things about how to be more self sufficient, how to live on less, how to be more street wise and resourceful. Doesn't mean you liked it, but I suspect the experience made you a stronger and more resourceful person as well as appreciative for what you do have. Hopefully you are in a better situation now.

I thought the INTERNET was on the grid, I have heard of wireless before, I took a continuing education class on it once, sounds cool... Do you live in the back of a starbucks? is that how you get free interwebs? I guess that would be cool because you could get some free coffee too... and maybe a sandwich. But if you were getting free wi-fi from a mcdonalds, then that would be even better because they throw a lot of McFish away, because it's not really fish, but It still taste good.. Do you eat a lot of McFish?

^ has obviously never heard of a wireless modem.

GrapeApe, feel free to read over my blog, it explains everything. No I don't live behind or anywhere near any stores or retail location. I live on a mountainside in the high desert of far west Texas, we live in a very rural area, not many people around. We do have internet access even out here. I'm still off grid, I do not have any utilities, water, electric, gas, phone, not even a utility pole on my property. We generate all of our electricity with solar and use deep cycle batteries. We haul in water, we haul in propane (in tanks). I don't have 'free' internet, I do pay for it.

Hear that GrapeApe, west Texas. That changes everything.

If one were to imagine actually buying a spot of land somewhere that one could actually, sort of, disappear on, one would find the desert of west Texas to be one of a few very suitable places.

North Georgia, North Mississippi, North Alabama, Western North Carolina, West Virginia Eastern Tennessee are also great places to buy land and start this type of lifestyle. Northern Idaho is a good place to go as well but it's a little tougher to hack out a living during the hard winters there so it requires a much higher start-up expense. The land is also more expensive.

Wretha you will have to excuse these monkeys (insert 500 monkeys in a room joke here) this is just how they know how to treat each other (insert meep throwing joke here) they are easily confused when a higher order of person comes here as to how to act. just don't confuse it with hostility this is how they play nice, give them some time you might warm up to them.

regulator, yeah, it's been a while but I used to work in a warehouse with mostly 20 something year old males, I understand... I didn't respond with my original thoughts, I tempered my reaction figuring this was the case. :) I'm OK with it, but thanks just the same for responding. I appreciate you placing my blog here, how did you find my blog?

meep yeah godevillivedog, west Texas changes everything! LOLOLOLOL

wotak, there are lots of places in this vast and great USA where a person can still homestead, live free, at least more free than living in an urban or city area. Live cheap, live with freedom, live on your own terms. If you are willing to rough it a bit, especially at first, it's quite possible to carve out a life for yourself.

Hi BigJohn! Great show tonight, thanks for having me as a guest!

regulator, I'm pawing at your descended meep.

Wretha, I'm clawing at your inverted uterus.

dagwood. U R still cute... I love Christopher Walken, especially in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMZwZiU0kKs can you dance like that?

wZiU0kKs

Out in the West Texas middle of nowhere
I fell in love with an off-the-grid girl.
Night-time would find her without any panties;
Music was streaming and Wretha would whirl.

Blacker than night was the compost of Wretha,
Breaking down waste without casting a smell.
My love was deep for this off-the-grid maiden;
I was in love but in vain, I could tell.

One night a wild young website came in,
Breaking some West Texas wiiiiii iiind.
Swearing and storming,
A link it was swarming
About fridgeless Wretha,
The girl that I loved.

So with interest I

Clicked on the link to the blog of this maiden.
Read some and then the back meepon I clicked.
The comments were loaded in less than a heart-beat;
That's when I saw dagwood being a meep.

Just for a moment I sat there in silence,
Shocked by the foul evil language he used.
Many thoughts raced through my mind as I sat there;
I couldn't sit and see Wretha abused.

Out to the shoutbox of linkswarm I ran,
Where beachgoat was hitting the piiiiii iiipe.
I thought of a good one.
It looked like a good pun.
Clicked on the input
And away I did type,

Just as fast as I

Could from the West-coastal middle of nowhere
Out to the bad-lands of the internet.

Back in the shoutbox my pun would be pointless.
Everyone's dull there; no wit is left.
It's been so long since I've seen a good joke there
My boredom is stronger than meeproach's breath.

I straightened up and away I did go,
Typing alone in the daaaaaa aaark.
Maybe tomorrow
A flame-war may find me.
Tonight nothing's worse than this
watery shart.

And at last here I

Am on the internet browsing this website;
I can see Wretha's read-count below.
It's over one thousand as it pushes upward.
Down to the comments of Wretha I go.

Off to my right I see five content modules;
Off to my left is a column of bores.
Pete56 is described as a chicken,
Wotak is trying to tap some back doors.

Something is dreadfully wrong for I feel
A deep burning pain in my buuuuuu uuutt.
Though I am trying
To say something clever,
I need to type something,
but I don't know what.

But my love for

Wretha is strong and I get to composing,
Though I am weary I can't stop to rest.
I see the white puffs of smoke from the keyboard,
As I feel the song surging out of my breast.

From out of nowhere my Wretha has found me,
Reading my post as it's beamed from the sky
Transmitted by satellite, she gets my message
One little song and now Wretha, good-bye.


<small>(Sung to the tune of El Paso, of course.)</small>

^ Appropriate, as Marty Robbins moved WAY off grid quite a few years ago.

Gentlemen, I have commented on this conversation.

MstrLance, thank you so very much for that wonderful song, I love it! You are very talented!

LORDKAHUNA, I am honored. :)

AN BAN

Sorry. It won't happen again.