Denise: I’m never going back

We love it when readers write in with their own off-grid stories.

Check out her tats at chicksdigtattoos.com, and here�s how she�s arranged her off-grid life:

I live off grid in upstate New York, Southern Adirondacks. I get internet at work, or at hot spots. I have a good client base in New York City, and when I go there to work, I generally couch surf.

Currently at home I don’t even have solar – yet – and find that I really don’t need electricity for much. This year I got a well dug,
and now am able to hand pump my water. Previous to that, I was collecting rainwater and filtering it. In winter I heat with a
woodstove. I cook with a small propane stove. I need no refrigeration as I don’t eat meat or drink milk.

My bathtub is about a hundred years old, and was found cheap at a local antique shop. One of my favorite things to do is go to antique shops, trolling for functional (and hopefully cheap) antiques.

Bathroom replete with rustic charm

A friend drilled a hole in the floor and installed the drainage pipe, which goes out back and down a slope. No greywater tank. Not that I wouldn’t want one, but sometimes its all about how much money I have to throw at a project at any time. I don’t think that it’s harmful to have no greywater tank, because I’m only using natural cleaning products. Veg oil soap, vinegar, baking soda, borax, and washing soda are what I use.

To the right of the bathtub is a 57 year old washing machine, the “Handyhot” washer, without it’s lid. The lid of the “Handyhot ” contained an electric motor, and a nut which got attached to an agitator, and placed inside the tub. The lid is somewhere, the motor is burned out, and I don’t have electricity anyway but, the handyhot has this awesome wringer, which works really well to wring out anything small.

Underneath the washtub is a propane burner on a stand. It connects to a 20lb propane tank. I only hook up the propane tank when I intend to heat water in the washtub. The tub holds 5 gallons. There is another pot on the woodstove that also holds 5 gallons. So, when I want to take a bath, I’ll heat up water on the woodstove, which will take about three hours, since this woodstove is not made for cooking and heating water. The washtub and propane burner have water hot enough for a bath in about 20 minutes. So, between the two, I can take a ten gallon bath.

For washing clothes, I just heat up some water and wash clothes by hand. It doesn’t take any longer than doing clothes in a washing machine. There is a drying rack on the wall above the bathtub, and I also have another drying rack that sits in the bathtub so that wet clothes don’t drip on the floor.

Off-grid dream home

Allright, this isn’t the most efficient way to do things when living off grid. But for the time being it works for me and keeps me out of the gym. Not that I was planning on going to the gym. But, it seems that we are replacing functional activities that arms have been doing for thousands of years, such as drawing water from a well and hand washing clothes with profoundly boring repetitive activity (such as lifting weights) that we have to pay extra for!

I recently installed a well. The problem with using water that runs off from the roof in a rainstorm,(which is what I did before I had the well) is that, if you don’t use it right away, you will have mosquito larvae in it. Unless you are in the fish food industry, this could be a problem.

Last winter I melted snow for drinking and wash water. I’ll have to see if the well is useable or not when winter comes.

I’m not a saint. I drive 20 miles to get to work in Little Falls, and 225 miles each way to get to New York City, when I have to work there. My 1995 Toyota Tercel is the used car with the best gas mileage for the money that I could find at the time. If I had my way, I’d be driving a diesel vehicle with a straight veg oil conversion system in it.

The toilet is a primitive composting system that I got from a book about how to build composting toilet systems. (I would love to have a Clivus Multrum, but that will have to wait until sometime next year.) It is basically a 5 gallon bucket fitted with a toilet seat. Line the bucket with a paper or plastic bag, throw down some earth and wood ashes, do your doo, and cover it with wood ashes and more earth. It is odorless. When the bucket is full, take it outside to the compost heap. The compost heap must be at least 100 feet away from the well. Very clean. I never would have believed it until I tried it.

Tags: off-the-grid, offthegrid, Upstate-New-York, tattoo-artist