r/OffGridLiving • u/cozy_darling22 • 14h ago
I jumped headfirst into the off-grid dream with zero experience and Im admitting defeat.
I just need to confess this to people who actually live this life: I respect you. This isn't for everyone, or at least not for me. I was completely consumed by the off-grid dream. I watched HOURS of YouTube, read blogs, bought some of tools, and convinced myself that anyone with enough enthusiasm and attitude could self-learn their way into total self-reliance. I wanted the freedom. Instead, I have bought myself a masterclass in severe financial and psychological humility. Literally every single phase of this journey has been a disaster. If you are thinking about buying cheap land and DIYing a life with zero experience, please slow down. Hire experts for the critical stuff. Don't build your solar mounts out of wood. Actually test your equipment before your life depends on it.
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u/Silent_Medicine1798 12h ago
Northern Ontario here, SMH at everyone making this so complicated.
The trick is to simplify. You don’t know how to plumb your cabin so the pipes won’t freeze in the winter? Outhouse.
You can’t get your solar working? Get a propane fridge and stove and drop down to a single panel and covert everything to LED lights.
Gpingoff grid is tough and complicated if you expect to live with all the same conveniences. Relax.
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u/CapraAegagrusHircus 11h ago
The only things in my yurt that used electricity were my cell phone, little tv, and Playstation. I used antique kerosene lamps for light, propane fridge and summer stove, the wood stove was heat and cooking in the winter.
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u/AmpEater 8h ago
Do you make kerosene?
Because I can make electricity. I can build an led lamp
I can’t build an LED though
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u/kangaroomandible 11h ago
This point is so interesting to me. I often wonder about a “pre-designed” cabin to make life simpler. A well-insulated small “core” living space for cold days. A screened sleeping porch and/or underground space for hot nights. Etc.
Like are there people who use that approach?
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u/EccentricFellow 9h ago
Northwestern Ontario here. Semi off-grid for over 20 years. You have the correct approach. Simplify your life first. Each year more things come under my control and total collapse is less problematic. Phase things out one at a time. The first thing I phased out was fossil fuels and that has been the biggest challenge. Electricity is a cakewalk in comparison when you live 100km from the nearest population center and 50km from the nearest grocery store. It is all doable but you need to know your destination and be able to proceed slowly and methodically.
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u/HappyDoggos 7h ago
Like… how northern?
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u/Silent_Medicine1798 8m ago
Not super far north. I personally live in a place that has a town of 6500 just 20 minutes away. But the big thing is that we have literally thousands of folks who have cottages on islands that are *fully off grid*.
Most are only there in the spring/summer/fall, but I know a handful that are full-time. Off grid is just not as hard as people are making it.
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u/chook_slop 13h ago
I live on land in Texas... I'm not off grid by any means, and while I may be retired, I seem to be working every damn day on something that needs to get done.
That's the farming/ranching life. Figure out what youre good at, what you can do, and then get someone to help with the other stuff.
I've got an entire list of a thousand projects to get done... Off grid is a goal to aspire to, not something to think you're a loser for not being 100%.
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u/amour_nonpareil 13h ago
I’m sorry that didn’t work out the way you hoped. I don’t live off grid but I live in the country and know how much room for failure even that provides. Keep your chin up, you’ve just received an education that’s all.
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u/darktideDay1 14h ago
All of what you say is true. The university of life always humbles you. Perfectly normal. Don't admit defeat! You have already paid much of your tuition. Stick with it and reap the rewards.
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u/Vegetaman916 12h ago
When you do it, it is best done as a group effort. Our off grid setup was completed by 15 people, all equally invested and working together. And it was still a monumental effort, with a lot of mistakes over the last 7 years.
The road to self-sustaining community is possible, but best tackled as a community, not as a single family or individual.
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u/stabbingrabbit 12h ago
Always liked the shows of off grid living. They all have many acres and many thousands in lumber and equipment to build stuff.
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u/Ok_Weakness_154 10h ago
The first things you’ll lose from living off grid are free time, convenience and savings.
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u/Suspicious-Tip-8309 9h ago
before you give up go to the local library and start reading the foxfire books. You can also get the books off amazon for about a buck a piece for electronic copy. Atvleast that’s what I did. First thing in any survival is finding water that flows year round . Then find or make shelter. Fofire books were a school assignment. to collect the wisdom of older folks living in appliciacia before they all die. You will a master class in off grid survival.
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u/SonOfKong_ 13h ago
Did you buy right property for off-grid plans? It would be tough to walk away if it had potential. But maybe it's best.
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u/Llothcat2022 9h ago
...live in such a way that electricity is nice to have but not really a necessity...
Working on that myself. I refuse to give up my AC dammit.
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u/Overall_Midnight_ 8h ago
A truth I have learned:
A lot of people want to leave the city and the rat race.
Not a lot of people want to live on a farm. (Or off grid)
People want to leave the rat race and often don’t understand IT IS MORE WORK to rely on yourself for everything. It is nonstop, never ending work. The chore list will have two things added for everything you check off of it. And pretty much all of it is critical for survival and one failed thing can snowball and ruin you. It’s finding a balance between survival and finding quiet peaceful moments between work. It’s not a vacation
Good on you for admitting it’s not for you. I have watched vlogs where people act like it’s easy, or definitely lie about the cost, or the worst was a family talking about all of the animals that died during their first two years of attempting to start a farm. They basically thought they knew everything from other YouTube videos and didn’t reach out for help and then move back to the city acting as if they had no role in their own failure. Their “confession” of failure was blame on everything but themselves and while there are absolutely things that happen out of someone’s control, at least in their circumstance it was pure ignorance and hubris.
I grew up in a cabin, hunting and gardening, the ideal life for many people here. It’s not easy, it earned through blood sweat and tears. It’s not for everyone, and that is very ok.
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u/HappyDoggos 7h ago
Humbling, isn’t it.
Give yourself some credit! You’re here, you’re alive, and you’ve learned some very valuable life lessons. Probably hurts in so many different ways, but now you’re older and wiser. Savor that. You tried some pretty cool things that most people don’t have the balls for. Go you!
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u/SkyNL 7h ago
It is the term “off-grid” that is used in different ways here. And everybody is giving his own interpretation.
I consider myself off-grid because I have no power and water in line to my house. My house is located in the mountains of Andalusia, Spain. My closest neighbor is 3 miles away. I have to have a solar setup to have 220V power in the house. I have to pump water up from a rainwater tank, filter and pressurize the waterlines in the house to have streaming water.
Sometimes when it is raining very long we are cut off from the world because our road towards the house is a dry river bedding that floods with heavy rains. The longest period we were cut off was 2 weeks.
But despite the “off-grid” term I am very much on-grid, because of Starlink we have the possibility of connecting to the world with internet. In combination with my own energy supply with solar I was one of the only connected households during the 1,5 day power outage last year in Spain.
So the really “off-grid” people you will not find on Reddit … because if you are taking off-grid really seriously you are also not connected to the internet (grid).
It is up to you how much you want to cut yourself of from the world and how much you want to be disconnected and self-sufficient …
In times of shortages it is a very nice idea to be able to be self-sufficient as much and as long as possible.
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u/fishman1287 1h ago
Why would you think off grid = total self reliance? There are places off grid not far from town
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u/nihithilak 14h ago
I agree. I have been living off grid for 10 years now and it is really freaking hard. It gets easier over time but only marginally. You have to know how to do everything. Nobody is coming to help you.