One of the most common traits of people who want to move off the grid, is lack of action.
At least once a week, I receive e-mail from a reader complimenting me on my move off grid and my setting up a travel trailer homestead. Most go on to say that they dream of doing it themselves someday, but can never find the right time or way to go about it, after all what if they fail – then what?
They suffer from procrastination and indecision, a debilitating disease. Thankfully the cure is simple and without pain.
The Symptoms
You know how you would like to live, every time you close your eyes you imagine it – you can almost taste the freedom. You think it has a chance of becoming a reality for you. You’re excited, but you’re not quite sure how to go about it or fear holds you in place.
So, you start reading magazines
Yet you do nothing. You don’t want to screw up. What if you fail? Fear holds you in place, you’re afraid that if you move forward you could flunk the test, it is easier and safer to do nothing so that is what you do.
So, you keep absorbing information while gathering tools and emergency preparedness supplies . You tell yourself that you’ll make the move “when the time is right”. You fall into an endless cycle of self-doubt. You keep waiting for the perfect time and circumstances, when success can be assured, but the guarantee never comes – you wait.
The result? Exactly nothing. You remain trapped in a life you no longer enjoy, your only hope of salvation is the mental imagery of the life you really want and hope to achieve someday. You continue to dream, never taking that leap of faith in yourself or your ability.
I’ve been there before, the planning and dreaming without action – I don’t think I would have ever made the move off grid if it had not been for a failed marriage and subsequent divorce. Sometimes blessings are hidden in what would seem on the surface to be tragedy 
…
The Care
Fortunately, you don’t need a doctor or magic pill – the cure is simple really, you need to stop over thinking. It’s just a decision – you either decide to continue doing nothing or you take a leap of faith. You make a decision and follow through. It’s that simple.
What’s the worst thing that could happen? You make the move and it doesn’t go the way you had imagined, then you look over it and find an answer or you approach the problem from a different angle or perspective. Either way you learn and adapt.
Suppose, you decide this living off the grid thing isn’t for you, you miss the life you had – secretly crying yourself to sleep every night with memories of plasma screen TVs and Monday night football ripping through your brain. You can pack it up and head back to town, I won’t laugh – I promise 
.
How about you? Do you want to move off grid, but haven’t made it? Why?
{ 43 comments }
If you need football that badly, that is what they invented sports bars for… go to town, stock-up on supplies, have dinner and a beer (please don’t have more than then one with your meal if you are going to drive), watch the game and go home. Homesteading doesn’t have to mean cutting yourself off from the world…
This is also great advice just to establish your relationship a little better with some of your neighbors. They may be suspicious of that guy living in the desert, but you always give the benefit of the doubt to a fellow Cardinals fan.
One other worry is that not having electricity in the home can be construed by CPS as child abuse – I’m not kidding. Somehow, not being connected to grid is harmful to the child health. So check your laws on this.
Any home life which is outside the norm can be seen by some ‘authority types’ as harmful (or at least, that is their excuse.).
j.r. guerra in s. tx,
America home of the free – what happened?
Yeah, but ITS FOR THE CHILDREN (sarcasm on) – I totally agree, silly argument if you ask me.
My Mom grew up with very little electricity when she was a little girl (early mid 40′s). Her family were migrant farmworkers, living down here some of the year, and in the Spring traveling Up North to pick seasonal crops, coming back in the Fall.
The only electricity in the entire house were one or two single electrical sockets for incandescent bulbs in the whole house, one in living room, the other in kitchen. No reefer – ice box was it, butter and small quantities of milk being the contents. Stove was gas, a cooktop at that. Kerosene lanterns for the trips to the outhouse in back. Yep, a lot more simpler back then, but she doesn’t strike me as affected by ‘her afflictions’.
What afflictions? :-)
We Americans have lost our edge with the too many conveniences.
As far as CPS, stay under the radar & it is really a matter of proof that they are safe and being connected to the grid is not the only answer.
That’s why you call your WTSHTF place a “vacation cabin”. We have two places. One is a regular on-grid home where we live/work/etc, the other is an off-grid backwoods acreage property that we are secretly improving pay-as-you-go. It might take awhile since we’re not rich, but we own it and at least we’ll have a safe self-sufficient place that we can leave to our kids. Nothing like peace of mind to help you sleep at night.
J.R. is right, my sister-in-law had DHS called on her because her and her 3 kids were in a house with no power for a week or so. Her mother was the one that made the call.
My problem is my student loans would track me down.
If financial meltdown ever happens, I’m out like a fox, but until then I have to keep my corporate leash on and shovel 700 bones a month at the student loans.
Usually, as long as you are “hooked up” to the standard electrical grid, they will leave you alone. There’s no law saying that you have to *use* their electricity, it just has to be “available”. They don’t need to know about you actually powering your house with your own solar array.
If you want to go totally non-electric, keep your electric account open, and just leave a breaker or two on so that if some idiot DOES call DHS/CPS (her MOTHER called!!?? there’s family loyalty for you!), you can demonstrate that you are being a good drone…and once the DHS/CPS morons drive away, you can go back to doing what you have a right to do as an American: live your life the way you see fit.
You did borrow the money and promise to pay it back. Dead beat borrowers caused a lot of current problems.
What kind of nut would want to live without electricity only a bum, Unabomber or a racist. That’s it creekmore is a racist.
Chuck,
I have electricty the only difference is mine is produced on site while yours comes from the utility company. As for the rest of your comment I won’t even bother.
I’m actively working towards being as electricity-free as possible. I guess that makes me a racist Unibomber bum, also. Cool!
I’m rolling on the floor! What kind of sloth actually tries to twist not using electricity to being Racist??? this guy’s not even bright enough to come up with a real insult. Why bother? Nothing else to do?
Maybe it was a lame attempt at humor – he’s probably British!
What kind of nut would jump on a blog he proclaims is crap and start flinging liable all over the place?
It’ll never cease to amaze me how some people can draw their conclusions …
being off the grid makes one a racist?? Wow.
I used to suffer from this until my grown kids told me last Christmas – “the time will never be perfect to move … you either want to do it or you don’t”. Well that got me off my butt!!!!! I’m a little behind schedule but my house should be on the market before summers end … I have a leed on some land and am hoping I can still move before the year is out and get settled before the first snow … the 1st year will be the hardest as no garden but I do have good food stores I will take with me … just hope I survive the cabin feaver ;-}
To one and all – the time will never be perfect, you just have to DO IT !!!!!!
As usual another great post. That’s the reason I love this blog creekmore you do a lot to motivate your readers. I think you care about readers, unlike the some other survivalblog publishers who can’t even write any of their own content. Anything they write you have to buy. All you get to read for free is a bunch of articles sent in by readers in hopes of winning a donated prize. I don’t want to call any names here but…
im searching for the property now but not for a survival retreat. the simple math says i cant afford to retire in my present location.so for me and my wife im looking for a retirement homestead. im 50 now wife is 58 want to put in about 5 years getting the place shaped up and set so it can be managable when we are older {raised beds ,chicken coops and fruit trees,row crop} we dont think S.S. will be there for us so we want to know we will have a place that is lower cost and produces food .we know life on a homestead isnt easy but it beats what the goverment has in store for us. survivalist is about how we choose to live and think . a homestead is a way of not depending on someone else GIVING us back what they took in SSI taxes.
PS – I have long time friends that have been living the self-reliant life for 2+ decades now, scattered around the US of A and they all produce their own electrical power. Two discovered that they could purchase the parts and pay someone to assemble and install for 1/2 to 2/3rds less the cost of going to one of the “alternative energy” companies. Seems the companies are into “Mega Profits” and then the government tacks on it’s “fees” … as to why, my guess is that they do not want self-reliant people because then they can’t control them.
“Give fools their gold, and knaves their power; let fortune’s bubbles rise and fall; who sows a field, or trains a flower, or plants a tree, is more than all.” John Greenleaf Whittier
From a 50 Something, soon to be rural homesteading, Prepper ;-}
It seems like most things people always want a black or white answer instead of a nice gray reality. I have 4 golf cart batteries and 150 watts of solar. A converter with a battery maintenance feature and a 6500 watt generator. I’m plugged in to a 50 amp plug at a RV park! When I need to unplug ,the electric will still be there. I don’t have to wait for a asteroid to hit the earth to prepare for a uncertain future.
there is more to prepping than guns and wheat, learn to fish, if you already fish learn to fish better.Same with small game hunting. Ever take a rabbit with a pellet gun? If not why wait till you are hungry? Can you weld or use a cutting torch?
Can you reload everything you shoot? If you do manage to kill something can you clean it and cook it up good? Ever grown a garden? I suspect most preppers are just gathering stuff. they aren’t learning the skills they need for when the stuff is gone.
You don’t buy military surplus rifles to go deer hunting. You buy them to kill your neighbor when he comes for your supplies. You prepared mentality to do that? Once you deal with it mentally, killing is easier than you think. Can you deal with the reality, the loneliness, the depression?
I’m all for picking up some extra cans of tuna and what have you when you go for supplies but keep it in perspective. At some point the wheat is gone and the peanut butter. What then?
Good one MD and it is that simple – make the commitment then, just do it. The hardest part is all of the analysis on the way to the decision.
By the way, contextually, commitment is THE cornerstone in the mind of a survivalist.
Americans are the descendants of many brave souls, pioneers, colonists, revolutionaries, explorers, settlers and gold rushers. Over the centuries a lot of people have taken the plunge to leave comfort and familiarity behind and take a risk. Many, many more stayed at home and wished they had. This did not make them cowards, or weak. We cannot answer to their thoughts and conditions.
Everybody has to answer to themselves. When you are old, what will you regret the most? Doing, or not doing? Going, or staying? Analyze it for yourself and dig into your inherited American gritt. Just decide, one way or another.
100% correct Midge. Lots of Americans have become lazy due to the many conveniences available, which makes us weaker in my opinion. Once off the government tit, so to speak, opens a whole new & exciting door to life. It was only a couple of generations ago that we lived like that and managed quite well.
Removing ones self from the grid is the ultimate expression of freedom & personally would love nothing more.
Now if I could only talk my wife into it …
Why people don’t move:
1. Medical reasons – need to be close to emergency and other medical care
2. Family responsibilities – need to care for elderly family members who cannot move because of #1.
3. Your profession requires you to live near a large city. For example, if you’re a brain surgeon, I doubt you’re going to find the number of patients that you need to stay on top of your profession living in a small town in Tennessee.
4. Student loan debt requires that you have a high paying job that you can get only near a large city. It is immoral to walk away from debt that you willingly incurred, that you can afford to pay back, just because you would now prefer a lifestyle change.
5. You have to pay child support. Not only is it immoral not to provide for your children, the law does NOT indulge the fantasies of parents who want to take lower paying jobs out of choice, not out of necessity. So, for example, if you get laid off and all you can find is a job at McDonald’s, a court will amend your child support obligations. If, instead, you willingly leave your $90,000 a year job to “live off the grid” and be “free,” and you tell the judge that you will only be able to make $20,000 a year so you want your support obligations amended, they’ll laugh at you.
These are just some of the many reasons that people who would like to move and make a big change cannot or will not do so.
I think the biggest reason we haven’t gone “off the grid” is a simple fear of the unknown. Sounds like a lame reason right? Not true.
We are willing to prep, store food, invest in alternative energy production and water reclamation. But walking away from “the world.” It’s scary.
How will affect our children? Our relationships with family and friends? Most already think we’ve gone nuts because we live the way we do now.
Sometimes the “what-if’s” in life simply out number the items listed on the “Pros” side of the paper.
We have come a long, long way in a relatively short amount of time. I think sometimes you just need to pause and adjust to the prepper way of life, before you can convince your brain to make such a leap of faith.
I hope that we don’t wait too long, however, I do find comfort in the fact that we have come this far and we are already ahead of so many. I am sure that as we found the path to “prepping” when we were ready, financially, emotionally, spiritually, so will we find the right path at the right time to go off the grid.
I hope by then some of our friends and family will have opened their eyes and come along with us.
Go with baby steps. Leave the electric wires in. Put in a couple of solar panels. Put up a windmill. If you have enough drop in a water source, put in a turbine. Use the grid electricity while you experiment and test out the other ways. When you feel comfortable that you can live on what you produce, just turn the other off. Leave it there, just don’t use it.
Don’t stress what everyone else thinks of you. They are friends and family and either they love you or they don’t. If an electric meter is what they love you for, they’re the ones who are nuts.
As to the kids, don’t make them live a disaster before one even happens. There’s no reason not to go to the movie with friends. There’s no reason to wear camo at all times. No disaster has happened, there’s no reason not to have a soda now and then. Do not make them resent your way of life.
Midge:
Thanks for the encouragement. We are moving toward making our house in town as self-suficient as possible. I guess I should have specified that we are not ready to do the cabin in the woods thing yet. It’s a long term goal for us, but we aren’t ready to make that change.
We are still very much in the world, we just get crap because we finished off our attic and basement for the purposes of prepping – not that anyone but our closest family knows that, and we have a larger that average garden. We try to stay very low-key from the outside.
As for the kids, our daughter thinks two things 1) we have gone insane & 2) that with what she sees on the news and all her friends parents losing their jobs, maybe, just maybe, we’re not that insane. She’s a teenager!
Our boys think it’s cool that they have a “grocery store” in their basement. We have talked to them about not talking about our supplies and other than the fact that they both are now learning gun safety and hunting skills – we introduce subjects from a point of view as to not raise apprehension for them.
Example: we are learning about the pioneer settlers in our area this summer (they go to public school, but I teach them all summer as well.) we have experiments on making candles, gathering firewood, fishing, etc. this way I can teach them valuable skills today from a historical context. That way if they do tell friends, teachers, etc about our activities it goes hand in hand with the history lesson. I thought it was a good way to make sure they learn these skills without raising eyebrows. then when we are ready for the “cabin in the woods” transition, they all ready have basic skills that they know and have practiced.
Great job. Teaching your children preparedness can be hidden under several guises.
Hunting/Fishing = Recreation/Safety/Responsibility/Zoology
Alt Energy/Water treatment = Science projects, Learning to live eco-friendly.
Traditional skills = History lessons/Arts & Crafts/Home Economics
99% of all prepping can be explained by this one liner: “I may lose my job, we’re trying to save as much money as possible”.
wonderful words of wisdom. all excellent. I think having kids keeps me tethered to reality but also is the major push towards self-sufficiency. I started prepping 4 months after my husband lost his job. As soon as he has 3 months of employment history, we’re buying an acre and a little house and getting out of the race. Keeping the grid tie, but getting rainwater storage and buying solar panels with the money we save. Our rent now is so high, and then we have water, electric, etc. We hope to downsize the house, increase the land space, and get more self-sufficient with the $ difference. The second we get that 3 month history we’re going!!
Going off-grid poses it’s own problems that most of us aren’t technically proficient enough to solve. Solar panels are great, but you need a ton of them to produce some real power. Has anyone tried implementing coils to increase the output of these things? Don’t know if it would work, but it’s worth a shot, especially if you already have it set up as some do.
Air turbines are a bit tricky, without wind they’re a nice fixture. In areas like Las Vegas, you aren’t allowed to have a turbine less than 300 meters away from your house. For those of us in apartments or rented houses, you can’t add on a surrogate for fossil fool power, or build a bunker/fall out shelter, etc.
In the end, you have to own your own home, have the freedom to operate on it (that means no HOA Stalinist housing), have some technical know how, combine your resources (solar and wind turbine hooked to battery banks), and maintain it all. Once it’s set up hopefully it’ll work because of time and money invested, otherwise your wife will never let you hear the end of it.
SDmountaingoat, you have some good points. To live in a household with your same power needs as now, you’ll need one heckuva system. If you are rich – no problem. If poor, you’ll need to take turns in workload in using your power, or use a power generator to power up for a few hours each week to do the heavy work (if any).
Exactly. Someone like Larry Hagman, former Dallas star, has the money to live like that. Heck, we live in a small house with modest power needs, and it would cost a small fortune just to keep my freezers running with alternative energy. Although, since the current administration’s goal is to bankrupt the energy industry, it is an option that I’m exploring again!
I saw a solar deep freezer for $1300. No conversion or anything, came with the solar panel etc, straight DC. For us, our biggest electric use is the A/C. So to me that translates as a well insulated house, serious window efficiency, and reflective barrier in the attic. Industrial shop ceiling fans etc use electricity, but a lot less than an air handler etc.
I suffer from this disease. Thanks for the kick in the pants MD :)
I used to dream of being off-grid in some cabin on a lake but after thinking about it for a while I realized that I actually just want the lifestyle that comes with being off-grid.
So I focus on keeping life simple: I try to do things for myself as much as possible without relying on services, I stay out of debt, and I try to produce the items I use. This keeps the bills and income requirements low so I don’t have to spend all my time chasing dollars.
I’m not completely gung-ho, I do enjoy having grid water and power and using technology – I just don’t let myself become to a slave to it and I use it in moderation like any other good thing in life. If the grid goes down or I can no longer afford to be on the grid, I’ll just switch to my smaller off-grid system.
I see no use in having every light in the house on, or running a 52″ LCD TV during TEOTWAWKI, so a small solar array with generator backup is all I’ll ever need to charge tools and use appliances on occasion.
Well, this is a great post… Unfortunately, I am in the suburbs of NYC, and I probably fit this post, as well. I think there are a LOT of “armchair survivalists” out there. I have friends that are more armchair than me. I come from a very rural town, so I am ahead of them, but live here for work and because I have to be near an airport. In fact, many people call prepping in the suburbs of a major city “futile.” I both agree and disagree, but won’t get into the reasons why here. Do I dream of being off grid. Sure, but I dream of being off grid with Satellite Internet and Satellite TV, which may be an oxymoron of sorts, but I am in the Internet/Technology business. I suppose I could drive 2 1/2 hours one way to the airport for work every time I have to take a business trip, but they are so frequent that that would soon become torturous.
In addition here in the northeast, even if you go 150 miles from NYC north west or southwest, you are still going to pay close to $10K per acre of land, and you might tack $2000.00 more per acre on there if it is perked and there is water, a spring, river, or stream running through it. The statement begs, how far is too far to build a BOL/homestead, or do you bite the bullet and hope you can hide it until the helo’s come overhead. Situation dependent for sure…
Anyway, must my two cents… And, trust me, that’s all it’s worth…
From my document on “Tips on Selecting Members for a Successful Preparedness/Survival Group” from my directory on Scribd.com @ http://www.scribd.com/TNTCrazyLady. More information and downloads can be found @ http://nmurbanhomesteader.blogspot.com/
“In my search to relocate I looked for what I call rural “pocket communities”. These are communities made up of several towns in a small area where close to half meet my self-reliant needs. One town in this area may have a dairy, the next a pig farm; one could have a blacksmith, the next a cabinet maker; one could have a lumber mill, the next a super crafts store; one could raise sheep and process wool, the next would have a fishery and the like.
Or if you are urban recruit to create a “community within a community”. Gently inquire and promote “preparedness” among your neighbors. Discuss how to protect your street should the SHTF. I know of one such urban block that has 7 households on the street that belong to this inner community. They are not exactly right next to each other, but if they all walked to the ends of their driveways they could wave to each other. These households share purchasing and storage duties. The wives often get together with other wives on the street that are “craft wise” so this core group can learn a new skill. All the while promoting block unity even when those outside the core group have no idea that these core households are “Preppers”. ”
Today is the Tomorrow that you worried about Yesterday
We have a myriad of reasons, but we’re also not whining that we want to do it and can’t.
First, we have to pay $900 a month in child support.
Second, we have a hard enough time getting visitation with the kids without being those weirdos trying to live off the grid. And ex wife would just LOVE to turn us into DSS.
Third, we currently have unearthed a huge issue withour house that makes our home worth $100k less than we paid for it a year ago. (Pending litigation for that.)
Fourth, we live in a TINY town and have found several like-minded people within a block or two of us. Many of these people are in military and law enforcement careers and are respected members of the community. We live in the midwest where most everyone has guns, gardens, hunting and fishing skills, and isn’t afraid to get dirty. The town is surrounded by farms, rivers, and lakes. Watching Jericho was like seeing our own town. We’re pretty confident that if something disasterous should happen, our town would pull together.
Instead, we’re prepping. Gathering supplies, honing skills, creating backup plans should we lose power, heat, etc., establishing a large garden, learning more about our neighbors, etc. We’d eventually like to move to a small homestead, but doubt we’ll ever be totally off-grid. What we want is the ABILITY to be as self-sufficient as possible….even if we choose not to be unless it’s necessary.
Dad is 84 his vision is not what it used to be, so I remain close to run him to the store, VA, etc. I am gathering things still; 32′ travel trailer, 40′ conex shipping container, 3/4 ton PU. My house in the valley is paid for so while I look for a mountain, or at least cooler retreat, I plan, build and shop, most of my stuff was bought on sale for less than 1/2 price. If land prices continue to come down I’ll get much more when my duties here are less pressing, but in the mean time I google and bing and plan.
We dicided to make the FULL FORCE move this Fall to Homestead on our own Land, the reason we decided to do that is I have 3 Bills in Debt 2 will be paid off next week & my only Vehical Payment will be paid off 3 months early at the end of July, I decided to get those 3 paid off before I make that transaction so I can use that money for my Homestead. I don’t care if I don’t have the Electricity because I am well prepared for all of that, I just want to make sure I had plenty of Water. As for my kids they run in the ages of 22 , 19 & 18 & they are all ready to be on their own so that makes the Homestead a little easier for me & Hubby because I really don’t care what I live in as long as I have something over my head. We are well stock on food, candel, lanterns, cast iron cookware, guns & Hubby loads his own Amo, we hunt, have chickens for meat & eggs, I garden & canned, sew, crochett, quilting so basicallt we are ready and prpared to make it anywhere.
Last year, I went with a friend to Eastern Washington because we were going to by a parcel of land and live off-grid. To make a long story short, we decided not to get the land because we found that the land, the area we were going to move to, was filled with rattlers. I have lived in Arizona and worked on cars at all hours of the day and night, outside, and washed clothing in a shed which, as my landlady told me, housed rattlers from time to time and black widow and I didn’t mind that there was the annual tarantula run nor scorpion and vinegaroon infestations once in a while so, as you can see, I am pretty much okay with the critters. We turned the property down because my friend has not lived around rattlers and at their age a bite with injection of venom could prove potentially fatal to them and they are used to areas in which things like that don’t exist, they don’t have to use much if any caution at all and they do not want to live with such things. They are aware that should they receive a bad bite that they could lose the use of their arm or leg or the limb itself and they do not want to take the risk. It is totally understandable as they like to garden and they do not want to have to worry that today could be their last day due to something like that. Today, we are searching for the right parcel without the critters and we are well prepared mentally and physically to handle all of the challenges that life without the grid comes with. Everything from cutting/felling trees and splitting, chopping and stacking the wood, to feeding the chickens and harvesting eggs, to raising goats and rotating them, to making krauts of various kind, to canning and all the rest. Both of us know how to salt and churn our own butter, milk cows and goats, and many other things that we have learned over the years and all that is preventing us is finding the right parcel. We failed but we are still working toward the goal. At this time, there are two land owners who are willing to finance their land and we are checking into both pieces and with the economy the way it is and the housing market stalemate, things should be about to turn around and make it easier for most of us to purchase land in many parts of the nation at less than what they are running for right now.
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