Off grid communities

[tja6435]

I've always thought the local Amish up here to be all decent people. They do what they say, a hand shake deal is as good as a written contract and they don't b.s. We sold 4 hogs to an Amish guy last week, decided on a price, hand shake, got it done no problems.

[waksupi]

Havre 'skeeters laugh at a 410. To kill them you need at least a 20 gauge 1 oz shot.

A friend was working the flight line at Maelstrom AFB at Great Falls. He said one night they pumped 250 gallons of avgas into a mosquito before they realized what it was. He is a very honest man, and I have no reason to doubt his word.

[starmac]

I see Markapolo AKA alaskaguy has offered to fill you in on his take in pm's. I would take him up on it as what you are talking about is exactly what he has done. He is not in what I call a community, but may be exactly what you are talking about, as everybody anywhere near him is also off grid. He has been making it work a few years now, but doesn't get online as much since he moved there and built his place.

[Lloyd Smale]

yup we have a hunting camp that's about the same. About a week there and I'm ready to go home and sit in the recliner with the ac or gas heat on and watch tv. I could go for off grid with one exception. Id never have a house that didn't have electricity available. Then again I was a lineman all my life.

I don't think you want true off grid life, I have a cabin in the hills w/o power and it gets old real quick! I now have solar cells and a battery bank so I can flip a switch and have light and pump water from the tank easily not to mention the fan in the window on those hot days or behind the woodstove on the cold ones.
I'm a bit of a prepper, that's one of the reasons I bought the place, but I DO NOT want to live there! I have a small deisal tractor with fuel stored all sorts of supplies and hope to never use them. It would be a tremendous hardship going from my daily life to the early 1900s or before.
Perhaps your looking more along the lines of a small farm with some live stock and a garden, selling a lamb/goat/calf once in a while and some veggies, but keep in mind you will need cash for taxes and stuff you can't make or raise. For tons of info check out the survivalist boards, good stuff buried amongst the real fruitcakes

[Elkins45]

My experience has been that off-grid and community are opposites.

[owejia]

Had this same discussion with some of my nieces and nephews at our last family get together in Sulfur Springs, Tx last fall. Living in the really rural country is quite different than living off grid. All depends on how primitive you want to live. Can live rural and raise and preserve most of your food but still have electric and phone service etc, but getting up every morning, wintertime breaking ice in water pitcher, building a fire to heat and cook with and going out to the outhouse ain't for the faint of heart, especially as you get older.

[Thundarstick]

I have electricity as a sole power source, all other services I utilize are totally by choice. I love rural living, but it has is own challenges. In this part of the country, one is farm equipment and grain trucks everywhere, always leave early if you have an appointment! Next is the smells of the rural land scape (In farm country) hog, cattle, and chicken operations. I'm going to pitch this out. What really ticks me off is the city folks that want to move out to the country on an acre or two, THEN gripe and complain about it! Like one of my co-workers complaining because they built a chicken house across the road from him! My God! Do you want to live in a HMO, or out in the country? Do be sure what you really want, and are prepared to live with before you do it! BTW there are lots of places one can live a rural life!

[Nines&Twos]

For the record I ain’t 100% city folk.
I lived the first 20 years of my life on 60 acres of woods and apple orchards.

Since my incarceration in this suburbian supermax prison I’ve grown increasingly restless and filled with malcontent.

[Thundarstick]

Head West, half way between where you are and Jackson and some where between Mississippi and Kentucky is where you want to be!

[merlin101]

Iwas just thinking, Years ago when my 40 yr old son was a teen and in Boy Scouts he went to a BSA camp that was waaay out in the sticks and had a year round care taker/maintance guy that lived on the property in a very nice looking cabin. This place was about a mile or so from the main camp and had it's own diesel powered generator for power. The private road was about 12 miles to the gate/mailbox and another 15 or so to the main road. This camp is in the middle of the Adirondack Mts. in NY, gotta be others out there in other states. What better way to live "off grid" and be paid for it?

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Electricity is really nice to have. There is living off the grid, and then there is being able to survive should the grid fail. Nothing wrong with solar panels, generators, woodstoves either. But why live completely off the grid before it becomes necessary? One can still live a long way away from anyone else and enjoy both the privacy and convenience of electricity. Works for me.

[starmac]

Well in Alaska, electricity is only available in a small portion of the state, unless you live in town or a village.

Lots of folks don't have electricity and are no more than 25 miles from Fairbanks, the 2cnd largest city.

[GRUMPA]

I could describe what I’d really like to find but as I’ve said, you immediately get the loony label.

Southern location. Northern Arizona or New Mexico. Oklahoma maybe. Not picky.
A group that lives in the world but not of the world.
It’s hard to find a group of people (real life, not this electronic world) that might help you find some peace with god without ramming some nauseating doctrine down your throat.
My wife wants a Judeo-Christian gated community of down to earth people.
If (big if) that exists, they don’t want to be found and I don’t blame them!

I live in the NE part of AZ, just read this...... http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...58-Please-read

That gives a person a good perspective of what life is like around here. You might have a hard time with the community, like minded folk. We've been here since 05 and did most of the work, within reason. We can do a lot of things, but I have never met anyone that wants to learn. Folks would rather just pay you to do it, and by that, means cheaper than anyone else. That part.....in my world, just doesn't happen.

Don't get me wrong, folks are pleasent and do the giggle talk a lot around here, but in reality it's a facade.

People that move here just want there own space, lots are generally 40+ acres and that's just the land. Not much as far as city services around here to even talk about so I wont. Although if your car dies on the roads around here I wouldn't expect a person to wait long before someone comes along making sure your ok. The thing is the more you can do ON YOUR OWN the better off your going to be.

After 13yrs of living here I've never had to lock my house, I can leave the keys to my car in the ignition. Folks do open carry here, and what local LEO we have around here they don't give it a second thought. Where I am (look at picture in that link) I have a shooting range of over 3mi if I want. And you'll never get anyone knocking on your door trying to sell you anything either.

I can go on and on....but there's things you just have to know. You must be determined, the I CAN DO IT ON MY OWN attitude. Don't succumb to fear, things startle folks like snakes and they panic easily.