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

[misteraven]

Damn, really cool. Going to look into those.

[aimer]

Damn those are cool. We kept bees when I was growing up, loved smoking those fuckers out and getting some fresh honey

[Schnitzel]

On 8/6/2019 at 11:02 AM, aimer said:

Damn those are cool. We kept bees when I was growing up, loved smoking those fuckers out and getting some fresh honey

I used to be mad into it.made hundreds of dollars one year selling honey.

 

 I had 14 hives each two levels and i  thought it was the fucking best until one day I tried to clear a swarm from the shed where I'd left some stuff.

 

 I used a clean vacuum bag and sucked them all up  they were right in swarm like beard of bees density.

 

Wandered across the field, released them by the hives they seemed fine.

 

Walked back across the field and stupidly took off my hood without thinking that possibly a cloud of 2000 angry bees might be coming for me.

 

Heard a high pitched buzz and started to to put hood back on but by then the first few hundred were on me

 

Got stung about 9 times on the face plus a few more times across various other points . That's how we discovered I was allergic to bee stings.

 

Put an end to it but the next year I discovered graff so it wasn't a total loss.

 

 

[One Man Banned]

Traveled a bit North until the scenery was mainly woods, mountains, and farmland.  Most farms have honor system farm stands.  Stopped in on a cheese maker, did quite a bit of sampling before getting a smoked sheeps cheese.  

 

 

 

 

[One Man Banned]

Did some river swimming.  Raven you go in those waters you post or too cold?

 

 

 

 

[misteraven]

47 minutes ago, One Man Banned said:

Did some river swimming.  Raven you go in those waters you post or too cold?

 

 

 

 

Not often. It’s all Glacier run off so barely above freezing even in summer. 

[One Man Banned]

What I figured from pics but still, hot and/or humid day those waters look good for at least a polar bear plunge.  

[misteraven]

1 hour ago, One Man Banned said:

What I figured from pics but still, hot and/or humid day those waters look good for at least a polar bear plunge.  

Yeah man, I've swam a few times in the river that cuts along my property. On all but the hottest days where you've been working in the sun, its honestly tough to swim across a 30ft gap. Basically numbingly cold.

 

In some of the photos I've posted above, those waters are even colder. Even in summer, they're frigid and only don't have ice in them because they move so fast. The number one killer at Glacier is people falling into the water. Hypothermia sets in nearly immediately and the heavy currents make it extremely challenging to crawl out since you quickly loose motor skills and sensation in your hands / arms.

[One Man Banned]

Coldest I've swam is ocean water where if you didn't keep moving you go numb.

 

Had chance to return to the bees so grabbed a few more flix to bump this thread.

 

 

[One Man Banned]

Separate box

 

 

 

 

[misteraven]

So @One Man Banned, bring this thread back on topic... How is you ended up living rural? You always from out in the country or was it a conscious decision? Mind if I ask how you make a living out there or do you live close to a town where you can earn a decent salary?

[Guest]

Costa Rican surf shack 2040 *reggaeton airhorn x3*

[One Man Banned]

On 8/9/2019 at 4:45 PM, misteraven said:

So @One Man Banned, bring this thread back on topic... How is you ended up living rural? You always from out in the country or was it a conscious decision? Mind if I ask how you make a living out there or do you live close to a town where you can earn a decent salary?

Right now I'm edge of grid, or maybe a slight island in the grid.  I'm equidistant from major cities as well as woods/mountains.  I travel a lot for Oontzish activities and much of that brings me over and through off grid locations.  If I'm away, like a vacation, it's probably off grid.  

 

It's really nature and nurture.  I was taught to appreciate this shit in different ways.  But then I also lived in NYC for a number of years, which only helped me to appreciate it all the more.  I'm sure you've been delighted by the differential of what you have in MT vs what you had for the same $$ in NYC.

 

Shit tons of other factors.  Educating myself on my food, where it comes from, that certain foods should not be in the market during certain seasons and such.  Slowly crawling my way up from living places where I saw people killed , beat up, pissing, everyone jammed in with no privacy/escape...........

[One Man Banned]

Went to a great little farmers market.  Everything looked like it was picked day before or day of, washed, cleaned, on ice.  Different cheeses.  Some great fresh breads made form local grains, had an amazing chocolate/cherry/rye scone.  Some other shit:

 

 

 

 

Had to swim again, fuck yes fresh water (sorry Flint, MI)

 

[misteraven]

I feel you on that. Reached a point where living in a city stopped making sense and seemed like a ludicrous choice for myself. Being honest, I still havent had the opportunity to fully embrace it since I'm still getting over the hump of moving and starting a business, but slipped out yesterday and got a good reminder as to why I did it.

 

Pictures attached.

 

 

[One Man Banned]

I don't want to knock the city too much, I tried to take full advantage while I was there, I still go to major cities and get down and dirty, but I never wanted to live in that either.  People don't realize simple shit like the amount of pollution there is, or how noise/light/tight space affects your mental well being.  When I step out now, I see stars, comets even (meteor shower tonight BTW!).  In NY, I might see a police copter and perhaps the moon.  A window we left open by a white sill soon revealed all the soot and odd shit floating through the air and filtering into the apartment.  If we took the dog out, just in front of the place, his feet would be black on the bottom when he came back in.  You have windows but can't really open them, have to obscure them with blinds and shit.  IDK, I had friends doing similar work to you, they got that nice Manhattan apartment with the rooftop view of the skyline and shit.  I had to feign happiness as they showed off their new place but even as a place considered nice for NYC I couldn't help but think to myself that they had just purchased their coffin.

[misteraven]

Yikes... Morbid thought to have.

 

Not entirely different than the way I reached my tipping point though. Like I said, was hard to reconcile dudes living in my building making millions of dollars a year (in some cases, tens of millions) and I'm sitting there, like... This is it?! That's all you get even after orders of magnitude more success than even those considered "successful"?

 

I just felt there had to be more to it than that. Not to mention that I work up to realize that the city life I was working towards, all but died off after 9/11. 

[One Man Banned]

Yeah paying rent was another thing.  There were some small but nice houses around in some decent areas commanding a mil or more whereas just about anywhere else a house that size would cost a tenth or so of that.  So if I wanted some space for self in the city I would never be able to afford it.  No one enjoys paying rent.  Again, I had to look at the differential between what I could have paying a NYC rent to what I could have renting or owning elsewhere.  I did the city hustle long enough, even trying to relax there is a grind.

[misteraven]

19 minutes ago, One Man Banned said:

Yeah paying rent was another thing.  There were some small but nice houses around in some decent areas commanding a mil or more whereas just about anywhere else a house that size would cost a tenth or so of that.  So if I wanted some space for self in the city I would never be able to afford it.  No one enjoys paying rent.  Again, I had to look at the differential between what I could have paying a NYC rent to what I could have renting or owning elsewhere.  I did the city hustle long enough, even trying to relax there is a grind.

Not trying to brag because its more stupidity than accomplishment, but spent the better part of a million dollars in rent across all the years I was out there. Much of it to one person. Never even got a handshake from the person I cut checks to.

 

Couldn't have made that much money had I not been there, but sure does suck looking at it that way after.

[Deine Mudder]

3 hours ago, One Man Banned said:

even trying to relax there is a grind

ha

[Deine Mudder]

By the way thanks for sharing both of you, this was again an inspiring read.

 

Would not have expected a thread like this here on 12o to be fair.

 

I don't know either of you personally but you guys seem to do a few things quite right.

Keep it up, and enjoy, and again thanks for sharing!

 

[misteraven]

I honestly believe its far closer to the way humans have evolved to live. If you think about it, cities aren't more than a couple hundred years old and cities like NYC and Tokyo are probably closer to a 100 years. In fact, many didn't resemble what they did now until the invention of the elevator and modern engineering / construction methods that really came into their own in the last couple decades. Versus hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution. Sort of my theory on diet as well, when you compare how diet has radically changed with the advent of commercial agriculture. Has to have a major effect on physiology when you compare it against hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years of adaptation.

 

I can say from my experiences that many people seem to dismiss it or even fight the idea of living rural. Have had similar conversation with guys like @Kultsthat seem to be set in the idea that cities is where life is. Haven't had a ton of people come visit, but each one that has leaves wishing they could just stay. Certainly don't believe my way is the best way for everyone, but do think there's so much upside that its hard to compare the two and once you get into it and settled, you start wondering why you took so long to come around to it.

[Deine Mudder]

Sure, totally agree.

 

It's just that I couldn't do what I do living out in the boonies / it would involve commuting for hours every day and I'm not willing to do this.

 

Hoping I will be able to arrange things in a way that allows for living not in the city at least 6 month a year in the future though.

 

Photos like the one you posted above definitely remind me of this plan.

[misteraven]

Yeah, what to do for a living is likely the largest hurdle beyond mustering up the courage to do something entirely different. It's strange, but I've come to learn that most people will remain in a shitty place indefinitely because it's familiar, rather than jump with both feet into an unknown situation.

 

That being said, you certainly need a plan and would benefit from making solid inroads before setting off. There's a ton of opportunity available through the internet and you'd be surprised how quickly it stacks up into a decent living once you aren't paying huge city rents. I wouldn't advise people to move out rural and expect to find a job. You might find the right combination and luck to have a home based business, which likely would have to do with agriculture or farming. Likewise, there's probably a decent living to be had if you have a skilled trade like auto mechanics or woodworking. But you'd probably be best served by finding a smart plan to make money off the internet. Seems to me among the most common I've seen are people that have paid content type sites organized around farming or homesteading so that they basically just document their day to day and then sell membership access to the content, as well as occasional workshops. Seen similar stuff in regards to product and food photography, but again, goes back to knowing how to do something really well and then assembling an online business from it.

 

Being honest, had I just stuck to 12oz and now spent a decade and a half putting an agency together and growing it, I'd likely have been far better off, though it would have taken me longer to get there. Guess hindsight is 20/20 and sometimes you have to explore and make mistakes. Wish I'd have realized how much smarter it would be to just do my own thing than to get hyped on working with bug brands and helping them with cool stuff when I could have just stuck with what I was doing and steady releasing cooler stuff, even if it would have been at much smaller scale.

 

Anyhow, still just trying to figure out a lot of it myself and will be the first to admit, its not easy. Especially if you wait until a bit further along in life to suddenly recalibrate and take off in another direction. But at the end of the day, its just about living a decent life and doing good stuff and hoping eventually people come to see and respect it enough to chose what you have to offer over the next guy.

[One Man Banned]

I try to put thought into the conversation in some of these threads.  Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of nice shit about the city and I try to appreciate the aspects that are attractive to me when I'm there.  But having been in the big city and having been in the sticks, I'll take the sticks.  

 

A lot of the places I like to get out to are at or near things like National Parks so I've always just assumed I would go to work for something like that or volunteer if I'm at a place in life where I don't need to work.

 

I didn't grow up in an especially wealthy manner so there was a lot more respect for things like nature that are beautiful/interesting/educational, but also mostly free.  I have no care for bling, video games, fancy cars, just doesn't excite me.  I think this breeds more of an excitement for simply living and understanding the processes involved in that.  

 

I also have to say there's a certain interaction with the environment that you don't quite get otherwise.  Like you get to see animals acting naturally across a range of situations.  You start to pass each other and it really becomes one animal to another.  I've especially had this with deer where you start to see some of the same ones and recognize a certain degree of safety to where I'll just sit down on the ground and the deer will choose to pass by me at about 10'.  Also seeing a mother bear lead 3 almost grown cubs who were wrestling and tree climbing was amazing, can't get that in a zoo!

 

Related aside, Raven you keep posting those eggs.  I've had farm fresh before but had to grab a dozen at that farmers market, so good, really don't want to buy eggs at a store again!

 

Raven curious how much knowledge and/or background did you have before you moved out there?  Had you raised any type of livestock before or had family that did?  Do'nt want to assume too far but from prior posts it look slike you enjoy camping/backpacking/roughing it so maybe you did some stuff already before moving.

[misteraven]

5 hours ago, One Man Banned said:

Related aside, Raven you keep posting those eggs.  I've had farm fresh before but had to grab a dozen at that farmers market, so good, really don't want to buy eggs at a store again!

 

Raven curious how much knowledge and/or background did you have before you moved out there?  Had you raised any type of livestock before or had family that did?  Do'nt want to assume too far but from prior posts it look slike you enjoy camping/backpacking/roughing it so maybe you did some stuff already before moving.

Yeah, never heard anyone say anything else after trying farm eggs. They taste even better when you're collecting them from your own chickens.

 

Not sure I really knew much to be honest. I'd been listening to podcasts on homesteading and permaculture and knew some *facts*, but not sure you really learn something until you out it into action. Most of the cool stuff I've picked up has been from either doing it or learning from old timers that will often pass along information if its clear you're genuinely interested. Some of it just becomes intuitive when you're out living in and start to fall into a sort of rhythm with your surroundings.

 

No, I never had any livestock before coming out here. Never even camped more than a handful of times. Tried raising tomato plants on my fire escape in NYC and failed miserably at it. In fact, I've made mistakes out here that led to some of my chickens / ducks dying. Some of it might have been prevented if you really through it through or came up on the suggestion before hand, but a lot of it is simply the way things are. Obviously I can take precautions to avoid losing livestock to bears, but reality is that's just nature doing what nature does. Sucks and you try and shore things up to avoid it happening the same way again, but likewise, I chose to live out in a place where there's a lot of other stuff that'll gladly eat your livestock and if you're a dumb ass, might even go for you if you get caught slipping too hard.

[One Man Banned]

Did a great Chinese style eggs/corn omelet and then last night put poached eggs over a veggie hash of stuff I grabbed at that farmers market, damn good!

 

Was curious what the deal is about livestock and bears/wolves/predators?  Had done some research on bears and learned that in some states before you can shoot a bear for attacking your livestock you first must have anti-predator measures installed, mainly electric fencing I believe.  You obviously have multiple large predators around so surprised you haven't had anything sniffing around.

 

You've posted horses, chickens, ducks... I assume someone in your household is on shovel duty lol.

[One Man Banned]

[One Man Banned]

[Dirty_habiT]

I'm still trying to position myself to where I can either work from home 100% of the time or make money doing whatever I want and maintain the lifestyle I have now.  If I can get a 100% remote position, i'm definitely going out into the wilderness to be a redneck.  As long as I have an internet connection that's all I need.  It's hard to find land in places where it's cheap AND there is also a local tech hub that I can work in...... so for me to get land like I want, I must move away from the tech hub, pay a bunch of money to live close to the tech hub, or figure out another way to make money.  That's the challenge right now that keeps me living in Austin, TX.

 

I have a friend that's been working on his business for years now w/ other mutual friends.  They said when they can pay me the required 150k/yr to make me jump ship then I will do so..... and then I can probably start doing whatever redneck shit I really want to do.  This city stuff is for the birds.