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January 2013

Energy

Smart meter resisters cuffed at home

Do these people look like criminals?

The two ladies on the left were arrested in their own homes yesterday, for refusing to accept the installation of a new “smart meter” – a device which remotely reads your meter, and also tells the Utility company what appliances you are running and how often you switch them on. Its tantamount to a spy-in-the-home and we at www.off-grid.net forecast this scenario almost a year ago https://off-grid.net/2012/05/09/smart-meter-backlash/

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How to save money on food

Saving money, everyone talks about it, everyone wants to do it, but it’s hard to do. With most of us on tight budgets, it’s more important than ever to save every penny you can.

The main reason saving money seems hard to do is it usually means having to give up something that you would normally want to buy or do. My hubby and I live off-grid, we budget ourselves tightly, that includes food, but we still eat very well, the trick is to find ways of saving that doesn’t hurt so much. Here are some of the ways I save money. Let’s focus on food, something we all have to have to survive.

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People

Hemingway’s grand-daughter living off the grid

PARK CITY, Utah – She’s the granddaughter of the legendary author, Ernest Hemingway, but Mariel Hemingway gained fame in her own right as actress and activist. In a new film at the Sundance Film Festival, she explores her family’s history of depression, mental illness and suicide. “I’ve always felt that I might be crazy, and I’ve been really scared of that,” Marie told the Post. “There’s been a lot of dysfunction in our home.”

Hemingway, 51, is understating the case. Her grandfather Ernest and sister Margaux are among the seven family members who have committed suicide. To stay grounded, she feels it’s important to spend a lot of time outdoors. She and her partner Bobby Williams live in the Santa Monica Mountains. “We have a little farm with almost two acres,” she says. “We have 18 chickens and goats. We live a lifestyle that’s off the grid.”

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People

How to Lose Your Job in 60 Days

“I want to go full nomad and be free, but I need to figure out how to get rid of my job first.”  When I say this to people (friends and strangers alike) an almost hysterical look washes over their face, followed by a humorous smirk with a suggestion to just pick up the phone and quit.  I wish it could be that simple… or could it be?  I have a job with a large car dealership as a Web Administrator/Graphic Designer.  I appreciate it, as it’s the best-paying job I’ve ever had (which still isn’t much).  Instead of answering phones all day and watching the clock, I get to use my creativity.  My days and weeks usually sail by.

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Community

Cooking freeze dried style

Lots of things are going on today, the one getting the most news coverage is the president of the US being sworn in today, I read recently that the inauguration ball was going to be scaled down in respect of the bad economy and unemployment numbers being high, then today I read that it’s going to cost over 300 million… THAT’S CUTTING BACK? So, in light of this, today I’ll write about something really important, cooking and eating! A few weeks ago, we were snowed in, fortunately we had enough provisions to get us through.

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Mobile

Apple products are wrong choice for energy-savers

Thinking of buying a new Apple laptop? Treat yourself to a ThinkPad instead. And save hundreds on energy as well as up to $1500 on the cost of the computer.

Ever since Apple Computers (APPL) pulled its laptops out of a voluntary eco-rating scheme (EPEAT) last year, its been pretty obvious that the company has lost touch with its West Coast roots and become just another greedy hardware supplier – albeit with a booming software catalog to pull in the punters.

Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics is into its 18th edition and benchmarks the best practices

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Eating healthier foods-making healthier choices

Staying healthy (to me) means eating more foods that are healthy than the unhealthy ones. Staying healthier means I can live a longer more fulfilling life and can stay independent, living off-grid for a longer period of time. I for one try to eat a larger balance of healthy foods vs unhealthy ones, I try to tip the scales toward the healthy ones and away from the unhealthy ones. We literally are what we eat, your body has to get everything it needs from what you consume, if you are consuming a great deal of incomplete nutrition, then your body will eventually begin to fail, you will notice more aches and pains, and you will not bounce back as quickly from colds and viruses.

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Mobile

Gridless Gizmos at CES

Solar chargers, speakers, weather radios, wireless accessories, medical devices, toys and other trinkets were on display at the Consumer Electronics Show 2013 at the Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas.

The annual CES fair is always a hit with gadget fans, and, increasingly, it contains a string of products for those living off-grid.

There is rarely anything groundbreaking, just the slow game of catch-up between the ease and comfort of off-grid life compared to grid–connected homes

Star gadgets this year included a

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Energy

India shivers as grid crashes

Lucknow, India: The State of Uttar Pradesh is shivering and in darkness with six power plants tripping in succession hours after a sharp rise in electricity demand due to the unusually harsh winter.

Power demand rose to a level not seen since May 2011 level when the problems was peak heat in the summer. The overall power outages were more than 2,500MW.

This spells trouble for the ruling Samajwadi Party saddled with an election promise of providing free power to the rural areas and initiating measures to improve the power distribution network. Perhaps they should have considered wind and hydro for the winter months.

Electricity bosses said said the availability of coal has been one of the limiting factors behind the recent power shortage. They said the state government is in the process of initiating a project of purchasing power under a scheme called as Case-1 bidding.
The scheme would see power utility purchasing of around 6000MW from different sources for 25 years beginning 2016. But the process is in the evaluation stage.

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Energy

Death by Grid

It should be called the Dumb Grid.

Remember the General Electric TV advertisement from the 2009 SuperBowl? It showed a scarecrow dancing from line to line on Power Towers without getting scorched? Don’t try it at home. This guy did.

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Keeping healthy in winter

Staying healthy, especially during the winter is one of the things I actively work on. I believe one of the reasons so many more get sick during the cold months is because we tend to stay indoors more and have less fresh air coming in because it’s too cold to raise windows. We cram ourselves inside the house, inside stores and are around more people. The more people you are around, the more likely you are to be exposed to someone who is sick. I am not exposed to very many people as a rule, just because of the way I live in a low population area. The main exposure I have is going to church and being a caretaker for a friend, it means I sometimes have to take her to doctor appointments, I do my best not to go into the doctor offices, clinics or hospitals, but sometimes I have to. So I work hard to keep my exposure to a minimum and to keep my immune system in tip top shape.

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