The Off Grid living thread (Dropping out the rat race)

[misteraven]

Some of the flock... We bought our birds locally as the local breeds are better acclimated to the weather. Chickens do best at temperatures between 40 and 75 degrees F. They actually deal with cold far better than heat and have no trouble at temps down to about -20 below so long as they can stay completely dry and out of the wind. On the other hand, temps up to 95+ get pretty dangerous. Ducks are even better suited and if I break the ice up on the kiddie pool, they're happy to jump in even when its 10 degrees outside. No idea how they do that, but they in fact complain if they don't have water to play in. Ducks are far smarter than chickens and have a personality similar to dogs. Chickens are just blank all the time and though they can be very friendly if handled regularly are literally dumb as rocks. The chickens lay very regularly and we get about 12 eggs a day when the whether is decent and there's plenty of sun. The ducks lay maybe 2 - 3 eggs a day and only when the weather is nice and the days are long. (Birds lay according to light so in the short days of winter, they lay far less).

 

Duck eggs are super amazing and I suggest you guys go seek out a whole foods or whatever and try it. Like a better tasting, richer chicken egg thats also a bit bigger. Also, farm fresh eggs from organic free range birds are next level.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[misteraven]

Some general shots from summer... My daughter helping handle my friends working dog pups and some other stuff...

 

 

 

 

[misteraven]

Here's what homestead type meals look like, including the aforementioned duck eggs. According to Paleo (and my doctor, health issues relating cholesterol have to do with LDL and the mechanism (size) of the vehicle that encapsulates cholesterol and not with how much of it you consume). As such, we eat eggs almost every day and so far blood tests have proven out that there's been zero negative impact (contradicting the shit they teach you in school about not eating eggs more than twice a week). Eggs are actually a very nutrient dense food. The dutch baby shown below.... Not so much, but very tasty.

 

 

 

 

[misteraven]

Here's what winter out here is like... Negative temps, 300"+ of snow. Our home has a AAA energy rating due to triple planed glass, double thick insulation and the way it was designed. Our energy bill is a quarter of what it used to be, despite our being 4x the size of our old place. Mostly we heat with a single wood stove and if you take the time top process your own wood, just takes time and sweat. Its actually pretty fun, since the last few times I go out with my K9 trainer friend and we just hang out and talk shit while culling standing dead trees. We've come to see that it takes about 5 cords to make it through winter (it snows about 5 months out of the year) and a cord (for those that don't know) is a split, tightly organized stack about 4 x 4 x 8 ft. Because my wife likes to keep our home Haiti hot despite arctic temps outside, we probably need more like 7 cords to get through the winter. Got my chainsaw late in the season, but plan is to try and stack up 15+ cords come summer.

 

 

 

[misteraven]

What Winter out here looks like...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lord_casek]

Fantastic pics!

 

Have you eaten Moose yet?

[misteraven]

Fantastic pics!

 

Have you eaten Moose yet?

 

Thanks man. Just shit I took with my iPhone. Have a bunch of nice studio cameras but they're either too expensive or too big to lug around and havent gotten around to getting a nice EDC point and shoot yet.

 

Nope, but I've had elk, which is really great. I was too busy during hunting season to participate and dont have enough experience to not go with someone anyways so will need to wait until next season. Moose is a hard tag to get, but deer is just handed out and elk tags aren't too hard. Its not unusual to see a herd almost a 100 deep of deer in our yard at certain times a year. Also been seeing mink around, but beyond that we have coyote, wolves, brown and black bears, elk, moose, otter and all kinds of other stuff.

[misteraven]

@lord_casek Just noticed your avatar... That a legit MP5 or a clone? Nice either way. Fun gun to shoot for sure, especially if it still has a giggle switch on it.

[lord_casek]

I've never had Moose or Elk, but I hear that both make an excellent stew. If you haven't had battered and fried deer steaks yet I seriously suggest you try some.

Legit MP5. That's not me in the pic, btw. I look similar to that guy, though.

[misteraven]

I've never had Moose or Elk, but I hear that both make an excellent stew. If you haven't had battered and fried deer steaks yet I seriously suggest you try some.

Legit MP5. That's not me in the pic, btw. I look similar to that guy, though.

 

Elk and moose tenderloin is supposed to be better than filet mignon. I've had elk medallions and those are freakin awesome. Definitely on par with the best steaks I've had. Yeah, have a chest freezer and planning an optic for my 308, so its definitely on next season as far as deer goes.

[SpyD]

Nice pics Raven. Looks awesome out there.

[misteraven]

Nice pics Raven. Looks awesome out there.

 

Yeah man, best place on earth as far as I'm concerned. These photos really do it no justice.

[Fist 666]

Elk is hands down my favorite meat (nh). Ostrich is up there, too, surprisingly.

 

I'll try to add a bit to this thread this weekend. The core of this is absolutely where my heart and head are at and last fall I moved away from a suburban Denver cookie-cutter house to 13.5 acres in Western North Carolina. By no means are we off-grid, but we definitely feel out of the rat race.

 

I'm super anxious/ready for spring for the gardening aspect of my place.

 

My brother has recently gotten into milling logs and has been talking to me about it as well. I've got a ton of killer hardwoods (nh again) on my land that are potentially $20k+ trees that could help pay for a lot of upgrades and projects.

[misteraven]

@Fist 666 Nice, looking forward to your photos.

 

Spring is definitely cool, but I actually really enjoy winters out here. There's definitely some challenges, but its so beautiful and also cozy. Plus I have a season pass at the local resort so have been snowboarding a ton. That said, I definitely wasn't as prepared as I should have been. Granted I wasn't raising birds last winter, so definitely learning a lot about what I should be doing to make maintenance a lot easier come spring when I can do it. Definitely need to finish off my coop, get some lights and electricity out there, as well as get the auto feeders and a method to keep water out there without freezing and without having to refill every day, let alone several times a day.

 

Also, got my chainsaw and started cutting wood way too late, so for sure going to put real effort into it when the weather is good. In fact, thinking of buying a dump trailer down in Florida where my parents are and bringing it up here where they seem to cost 3x as much. This winter a cord of wood is going for about $220 delivered and that's no more than an hour or two if you have two guys and and an easy way to haul it.

 

Will likely increase my flock in the spring and if I have the time and extra cash, wanted to put in another 4 - 6 raised beds (surprisingly expensive since its all redwood and has organic dirt filled. Costs me about $800 each to put in). Also need to redo part of the orchard I put in since the deer decimated it last fall while I was still working on the game fence. (Deer can dump an 8 - 10 foot fence if they can see whats on the other side and feel safe about clearing it, especially if they're being pursued).

 

Would love to mill some logs myself. Was thinking of setting up an Alaskan Mill just to see if I could rough out some planks for some of what I'm doing out with the animals. Though about a quarter of my property is heavily forested, its all super mature trees and also tough to pull out since a lot of it at a much lower grade. Tradeoff was I managed to score a bunch of river frontage and also have about 15 acres of pasture (currently planted with alfalfa).

[Hua Guofang]

Dang.

 

Inspirational.

 

I’m literally begging the wife.

[theprotester]

I've moved in the opposite direction.

 

Will think about maybe putting some thoughts in here.

 

Great thread so far though.

[Fist 666]

@misteraven re: the cost of a dumptruck, imo just own a good pick up (kind of assume you already do) and get a splitter if you're looking to get a serious volume of wood. fuck paying by the cord if you own a saw. In every state I've lived in (CO and west) you can harvest fallen trees in national parks, of which your state has a shit ton of land to choose from. You can easily harvest a couple cords in a day if you're motivated (and utilizing child labor wouldn't hurt the productivity either).

 

The Alaskan saw mill is what I'm looking at as well. My only concern is that with a 3/8 kerf from a chainsaw I'd end up potentially losing a full plank per log, which with hardwoods can be thousands of dollars. I also need to buy a bigger saw as my 20" bar isn't enough for most of the trees I'm eyeballing. My property is 95% wooded, so I have to really prioritize my areas that get a good amount of direct sun, but it sounds like you've got enough space that you could build a solar kiln really easily. I have a 30x40 steel building (basically a barn) that I'd like to build a full scale milling set up inside and build custom tables and such.

 

Does anyone have contact with Cool Hand Luke (I think that was his SN), dude had toyotas and lived in BC, I bet he'd have a lot to add to this conversation.

 

I am not a winter person, part of the reason we moved south instead of north was for that reason. Ironically, my first winter in NC has been harsher than most of my Colorado winters ever were.

[Mercer]

@Fist 666 I hear that about leaving Colorado, I lived in the front range (Downtown Denver) for 5 years and we'd consistently get 70 degree weather in winter, sometimes even in January. This year has been especially harsh in NY, my cousins up by lake placid were at 50 below fahrenheit for quite some time in December. They all swear by pellet stoves up there, as opposed to wood burning tu supplement the furnace.

 

@misteraven Dope flicks, please keep them coming. If you come across seed money get a bunch of horses, or a fleet of ATV's & Snowmobiles. You could have a nice tourist destination especially being that close to a ski resort. That's kind of me projecting my own dream.

 

I see Otis up there chilling, he's got to be loving it out there compared to the pissing on trash bags lifestyle in Soho. I was wondering if any of those dutch shepherds are yours? That breed is normally very expensive if you want to buy one, and super smart. I honestly think they're smarter in many ways than most of the humans I know, especially in a tactical, or situational awareness sense.

 

We've got an all black dutch shepherd my soon to be wife found wild. They found him starving, severely traumatised, and roaming the woods along the westside highway up in the heights. Took a week or two to finally catch him he was so wary of humans. Best dog I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. He's actually no longer scared of men anymore, doesn't flinch if anyone raises their hand, and turning into a bit of a cream puff. By nature, I don't think they're a very obedient breed. They're driven to dominate as the default and requires more of a partnership from humans they work with. That's actually helped work on my own patients, and other weaknesses more than he'll ever know. Cliche the dog rescued me type situation.

[Dirty_habiT]

I wonder who here has a HAM radio license. I was working on mine for a little while. You reminded me of that when you said mountains block signals. With a few extra lunch monies you could probably find someone that would let you put a radio tower on one of their mountains. It's all line of site for communication and doesn't rely on any network outside of the people that are licensed with handsets using them.

[misteraven]

@misteraven re: the cost of a dumptruck, imo just own a good pick up (kind of assume you already do) and get a splitter if you're looking to get a serious volume of wood. fuck paying by the cord if you own a saw. In every state I've lived in (CO and west) you can harvest fallen trees in national parks, of which your state has a shit ton of land to choose from. You can easily harvest a couple cords in a day if you're motivated (and utilizing child labor wouldn't hurt the productivity either).

 

The Alaskan saw mill is what I'm looking at as well. My only concern is that with a 3/8 kerf from a chainsaw I'd end up potentially losing a full plank per log, which with hardwoods can be thousands of dollars. I also need to buy a bigger saw as my 20" bar isn't enough for most of the trees I'm eyeballing. My property is 95% wooded, so I have to really prioritize my areas that get a good amount of direct sun, but it sounds like you've got enough space that you could build a solar kiln really easily. I have a 30x40 steel building (basically a barn) that I'd like to build a full scale milling set up inside and build custom tables and such.

 

Does anyone have contact with Cool Hand Luke (I think that was his SN), dude had toyotas and lived in BC, I bet he'd have a lot to add to this conversation.

 

I am not a winter person, part of the reason we moved south instead of north was for that reason. Ironically, my first winter in NC has been harsher than most of my Colorado winters ever were.

 

Yeah, you can harvest here on state lands with a permit, which is $20 for 4 cords and nobody ever signs off on them so they last a while. I was referring to a dumb trailer, not dump truck. Yes, I have a fairly new F150 which piled above the bed can haul just shy of a cord to a cord. I'd like to try and haul more than that... Ideally 2 - 3 cords so I think a 8 x 14 ft dump trailer with 3 foot sides that can be expanded to 6 ft would do nicely. I dont mind splitting the rounds... In fact, its my favorite part so I doubt I'd bother with a splitter. That said, the least favorite part is emptying the wood and stacking it so thats why I'm interested in the dump trailer. Also, if I start thinking of selling cords, I'd rather just pull up and dump then spend 30 minutes manhandling it out of a trailer or truck bed.

 

As far as the mill, sounds like you're in a different situation. If you really plan to turn it into a gig, then yeah I'd be looking at an old time belt driven mill setup. Something that you can look at and understand, even if some of the parts might be hard to come by. Figure it could cost that much for something like that.

[misteraven]

@misteraven Dope flicks, please keep them coming. If you come across seed money get a bunch of horses, or a fleet of ATV's & Snowmobiles. You could have a nice tourist destination especially being that close to a ski resort. That's kind of me projecting my own dream.

 

I see Otis up there chilling, he's got to be loving it out there compared to the pissing on trash bags lifestyle in Soho. I was wondering if any of those dutch shepherds are yours? That breed is normally very expensive if you want to buy one, and super smart. I honestly think they're smarter in many ways than most of the humans I know, especially in a tactical, or situational awareness sense.

 

We've got an all black dutch shepherd my soon to be wife found wild. They found him starving, severely traumatised, and roaming the woods along the westside highway up in the heights. Took a week or two to finally catch him he was so wary of humans. Best dog I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. He's actually no longer scared of men anymore, doesn't flinch if anyone raises their hand, and turning into a bit of a cream puff. By nature, I don't think they're a very obedient breed. They're driven to dominate as the default and requires more of a partnership from humans they work with. That's actually helped work on my own patients, and other weaknesses more than he'll ever know. Cliche the dog rescued me type situation.

 

Yeah, I might Air B&B the guest house we have. There's actually a true B&B up my private road thats for sale. For my daughters birthday we went to a really cool guest ranch to ride horses that sort of had me thinking in the direction you describe, but not sure thats for me.

 

Otis was looking super trim for the first 6 months. He'd never seen a deer so he spent a good while chasing them before realizing he'd never in a million years actually catch one. Now he's back to his usual schedule of sleeping 18 hours a day. Those pups belong to a K9 breeder / trailer friend. He's a top tier protection / work dog trainer and a lot of his dogs end up with special operations teams. Rest go to law enforcement or high end private security. None of those are mine, but I'm hoping to talk him into one sometime. They moved pretty close by and do a lot of their training out here. Supposed to do bunch of man tracking with them but this litter is a bit young still. I'll share some picture in another post of his dogs at work. Pretty insane how smart and well trained those dogs can be. He breeds for genetics and traits so his are actually a mix of dutch shepherd and belgian malinois.

 

In regards to training those breeds... Its definitely not easy as they're extremely intelligent and capable. They require very large amounts of mental and physical stimulation and yes, they are smart enough that you don't just teach them parlor tricks. They need to have a capable handler and indeed, its more of a mutual respect than ownership. You can't dominate a dog like that and if forced, you're break the dog. On the flip side, the dog understands that humans are smarter but less capable in most demanding physical situations and the ones I've seen work as a team with their handlers looking for them for cognitive ability and command and recognizing their own role in physical capability. Its an interesting dynamic when its a good good and good handler as the dog is super loyal and loves to work. They love challenges so its really about managing all that drive the dog has.

 

I saw a training exercise where they deployed multiple dogs against multiple armed gun men and it was amazing to see how these dogs are smart enough to actually have strategy and tactics. For example, they're smart enough to recognize the differences in lethality between a stick, knife, pistol and long gun. They'll actually flank an assailant with a firearm by putting the assailant with a stick or knife between then and the firearm. These aren't like typical police dogs that bite and hold, but rather dogs that once deployed are expecting to kill their target. They go for the hands first, starting with the hand holding the weapon and ravage it over and over with deep bites. Unless pulled out, it'll continue until the threat is dead. I'd been told that the more capable among the breed have the cognitive ability of an 8 - 10 year old human. They can string together a dozen commands and are capable of understanding a couple hundred words once they've been properly trained.

 

Super nuts.

[misteraven]

@Mercer Here's a few of the K9's I was mentioning in the previous post.

 

 

 

 

[misteraven]

I wonder who here has a HAM radio license. I was working on mine for a little while. You reminded me of that when you said mountains block signals. With a few extra lunch monies you could probably find someone that would let you put a radio tower on one of their mountains. It's all line of site for communication and doesn't rely on any network outside of the people that are licensed with handsets using them.

 

 

Don't have one yet, but planning on it. Its a very interesting subculture but also a great way of communication.

[misteraven]

Two iPhone shots from this weekend...

 

 

[Mercer]

Holy shit it would be amazing to see those dogs at work, and in training. If I were an operator myself, I'd hard time dealing with losing one in combat, almost as much as losing one of my brothers in arms. I've worked with secret service at NBC and had to remind myself not to try and pet their dog, that looks so much like my own cream puff at home. After becoming familiar with the dutch shepherd breed, I recognize their intellectual advantages, and intense work ethic compared to most other dogs.

 

Mine is almost 11 years old now, and if I'd let him he'd harness up and pull me on my skateboard all the way to downtown brooklyn and back like he used to. The best thing I found to help ease his anxiety and make hime a little more tolerant of humans was giving him training for work tasks he could accomplish on his own with minimal encouragement. Kind of like a human, they just want to be an important member of a team somehow.

[Dirty_habiT]

The muscles on the dogs while they're in kill mode make them look pretty scary. Very impressive story about how smart those dogs are.

[misteraven]

The muscles on the dogs while they're in kill mode make them look pretty scary. Very impressive story about how smart those dogs are.

 

Definitely have to see them in action. Hopefully not a receiving end of it.

[Dirty_habiT]

Where do you draw the line between "off the grid living" and being a full on "prepper"? Nuke bunkers? Solar panels? Storage full of Soylent?

[abrasivesaint]

Cue up Merle Haggard's - "Big City."

 

First time checking the forum in quite some time, was instantly attracted to this thread. Recently made the solo move from a small city in the northeast, to a major city in the west, and i'm reaffirming old notions that I hate cities. The most at peace I've felt since I've been here was when i took the train as far out of the city as possible and walked along this river for a couple hours. It was great. For years i wanted to move more off the grid, or into the country i suppose. Not as far as to not have running water/electricity, but far enough that i can't see someone else's house from my yard. Being single, if i went that far into no mans land I'd for sure go looney tunes. Recently it's been popping back into my head to save as much as possible while i'm here, and start trying to make these old dreams a reality. I've never been one to care for shiny things, so giving up stuff like that wouldn't be an issue, and as long as i make money to acquire what i need to live, and maybe travel here and there, i'll be good. I've also recently been getting into archery. I've shot a few times in the past and recently decided to take a quick little lesson to learn "proper form," and plan on buying a compound bow in the future. The idea of hunting my own meat has been steadily growing on me for a while now. Hopefully I can make good on this within the next year or so.

 

Having your own chickens for eggs is incredible, and elk meat is some glorious stuff. I like to make bbq elk meatballs from time to time, y'all should give it a try if you can. (I've read that the more you handle elk meat the tougher it can get, fyi.)

 

The photos, stories, and information here is rad. I've wanted to get back to Montana ever since I drove straight through it from Sioux Falls to Seattle many years ago. I haven't gone through it but i saw KIR's thread is still kicking, that was also great material

 

Lastly, splitting the firewood is definitely the best part Raven, I agree. Growing up it was one of my favorite things to do while camping. I even used to like watching log chopping competitions and shit like that, haha. (fucking neeerd.)

[misteraven]

Where do you draw the line between "off the grid living" and being a full on "prepper"? Nuke bunkers? Solar panels? Storage full of Soylent?

 

Not sure that matters. I have a chest freezer and racks in my basement. I can probably not food shop for 6 months and still eat okay. I don't do this because I'm expecting the zombie apocalypse but because I live in a place where my front yard has 4 - 9ft of snow. I food shop minimally to buy fresh ingredients for an upcoming meal, but have enough inventory on hand that I buy most my food at super sale prices, often saving 1/3 - 1/2 on it. I can totally avoid the fluctuations in high prices because come Thanksgiving, for example, I don't have to fight through a crowd to buy a turkey because I already have 5 of them in deep freeze from when the last huge sale was. I'm not beginning to do the same with common products like soap, toothpaste and shampoo mainly because I'm very particular about the stuff I like and often can't find it locally, especially at a reasonable price. So I keep tabs on a few sources, wait until I see those black friday or whatever sales and then by a case of them. Then when I suddenly realize that someone used all my shampoo I dont get mad or spend more running out... I go to my basement (which is starting to look like a bodega) and grab a new bottle out of a case on the shelf.

 

Obviously its a lot to setup, but once its there you'd be amazed at how easy it ti maintain. Besides being a hedge on inflation and retail increases, it's saved my ass a couple times when times got lean for some unforeseen reason allowing me to continue living pretty well (or at least as I've been), even when income was stalled for a few weeks or longer.

 

All that doomsday shit is just TV drama crap like everything else. Featuring a rational person that can give a compelling reason on why it might benefit some to not live day to day doesnt produce big rating. Maybe there's even an agenda at play considering DHS issued a memorandum during the second Obama administration that profiled domestic terrorists as people that hoarded food. LOL! Not sure where that came from or how one thing relates to another, but often to hold power over another, you need leverage. The more self sufficient and independent a person is, the harder it is to exert that leverage. Maybe its a conspiracy or maybe I have my ballcap on too tight, but all's I know is that when I need a new bar of Lemon Bliss Soap, I got a grip of them on hand.