OFG-HowToFreeYourself.svg

May 2014

America Unplugged – new series

Sportsman Channel is getting unplugged in a new TV series about people living off-grid.

Premiering June 5 at 8 p.m. (ET) America Unplugged, hosted by former U.S. Navy SEAL Cade Courtley, author of SEAL Survival Guide: A Navy SEAL’s Secrets to Surviving Any Disaster
will look at the stories of eight Americans who have chosen to live off the land, including generating their own electricity.

Read More »
Community

Keeping it clean…

shower

Hygiene while living off-grid, especially if you are living rough and/or just starting out, keeping clean can be one of the challenges. When PB and I first moved to our off-grid home, it was little more than a box on stilts, one room. We had a double sink on the “kitchen wall”, but it wasn’t hooked up to running water or even to a drain.

Read More »
Barton St David, Plotgate farm aims to persuade locals
Community

New rural community to launch

As the nation’s housing crisis (also known as the nation’s house price bubble) intensifies, part of the solution is hiding in plain sight – cheap rural housing, on agricultural land, for people who are working that land. I wrote a story in The Guardian to bring them to public attention.

Tucked away down a farm track in Somerset is a project that could act as a catalyst for an era of low-cost, off-grid rural living across Britain.

A small group is aiming to join the population of Barton St David, a village of approximately 500 residents, 5 miles south-east of Glastonbury, with a pub, and a 12th Century church. Local residents are keen to make sure their new neighbours stick to the letter of the planning laws.

Read More »
British Gas owned by Centrica gives staff bonuses for ripping off old people
Energy

British Gas customer ripoffs – more info

British Gas workers who doubled bills ‘were treated like celebrities and given free helicopter rides for ripping off customers’ say Whistleblowers.

Those producing high profits went to Monaco and Rome. Other rewards included 3D TVs, laptops, theatre tickets and Playstations

Energy regulator Ofgem has said it will investigate after Daily Mail exposé. Last month it emerged staff have monthly targets to bring in £120k profits.

The rewards included luxury all-expenses paid trips including limousine and helicopter rides, whistleblowers claimed.
Employees who made the highest profits by ensuring customers were sold the most expensive deals possible were sent on holidays to places such as Monaco, Rome and Iceland.

Read More »
Community

Illegal to be off-grid?

og

Apparently it is illegal in some places, Florida makes off-grid living illegal – mandates all homes must be connected to an electricity grid.

It’s no secret that an opposition to sustainable living exists. Earlier this year, Texas state brought several SWAT teams to a sustainable community and threatened to shut it down. Each one of the community members were initially handcuffed at gunpoint. It was called “The Garden of Eden Community,” and was totally self sustainable.

Read More »

Smart Grid – Dumb Idea – latest from Off-Grid News

Had it with the mainstream news agenda? Let’s make our own news.

“Smart Grid. Dumb Idea” is only the second episode from Off-Grid News. Its about the lobbying campaign by corporations like GE and IBM to persuade the nation to spend $2 TRILLION to boost the existing grid, instead of investing it in locally produced energy.

Read More »

Tiny home UK – £2500

Apaulafallowshome quiet corner of a farm near Birmingham has become a workplace for a busy mum-of-two.

Just 20 yards from her house is Paula Fallows’ office, inside what looks like a beach hut.

It took about three days for her and her husband to build it.

“It’s really good because it’s totally separate from the house,” she says. “You can go in there, work away and shut the door at the end of it. You don’t cross that line of having your work in your house.

“But you don’t have very far to go, it’s just across from the house, literally a 20 yard walk. For people who do work from home, the cost savings are enormous and the commuting time as well.”

Paula put the hut on wheels to avoid planning permission problems – and to make the most of the sun.

She designed the chassis and recycled other parts, including the wheels to cut expenses, with the finished hut costing £2,600.

Read More »

Satellite Panic Buttons – Boon or Bane?

Spot satellite emergency signalling devices have saved 3000 lives to date – but are they an essential piece of kit for the outward bound, or a darned nuisance that is unleashing a bunch of idiots into the most unspoiled and peaceful places on the planet, especially in Canada.

The company that makes them proudly announces that SPOT products have been used to initiate 3,000 rescues around the world since the technology’s launch in 2007. “With over 200,000 units in service, SPOT is now averaging a rescue a day; approximately one-third (829) of all worldwide rescues to date have taken place in Canada,” the company announced.

SPOT says it delivers affordable and reliable satellite-based connectivity and real-time GPS tracking, completely independent of cellular coverage. But its prices are absurdly high.

Read More »
Community

Choices, we all have them….

goal

For those of you who have followed my writing for a while, you will notice I am frequently trying to get people to go beyond just dreaming about their dreams and actually DOING something about it. Dreams are nice to have, but take the steps to turn that dream into a goal and start working toward that goal.

I saw this article today, at first I thought, oh brother, another post about “10 things”, but once I began reading these 10 things, it really made sense, for everyone’s life, including those who want to go off-grid or live more independently.

Personally I think numbers 2, 5, 9 and 10 are very important, all of them are good… read them over and begin applying them to your life, whether you wish to live off-grid or not, these are great ‘ism’s.

Read More »

Fox Schlock Seeks to Shock

My goodness, are those people at Fox Network total scumbags or what?

Their latest big idea is a show called Utopia where a bunch of “ordinary people” live in an off-grid community for a year and make up the rules as they go along.

So they can design their own Utopia for a year. Is that because Fox thinks we are too shallow to understand building a Utopia might take a little longer than that?

Or will it be like the new Bear Grylls show “Island,” where Channel 4 TV in the UK have put actors and professional soldiers in with the “ordinary” guys? And said they have to get their own food and water, but then surreptitiously fed them.

Fox contacted me the other day asking for my help with Utopia.

Read More »

Mom knew best – cooking from scratch

Mother’s Day passed last weekend, for me it’s a bittersweet day, I’m happy because I’m a mother, but it’s sad because my mother is gone. Be that as it may, my mother taught me many things, one of the more important things was how to cook from scratch, I can follow a recipe but I’m quite capable to straying from the recipe to improve it, or to substitute for something I don’t have. I can even cook by the seat of my pants, meaning I can take a few kitchen staples and make a dish, it’s not difficult if you learn some basics.

Knowing how to cook (and bake) from scratch has so many benefits, first off it’s going to taste better, it’s going to be cheaper, and it’s going to be healthier for you. Buying food basics rather than food products, you KNOW what is going into your dish and consequently what is going into your body.

Read More »
Willand Devin couple win court battle - go off the grid
Events

Devon smallholders win right to build home

A young family has won the right to live off the grid on their smallholding after a battle to get planning permission.

Dinah and Stig Mason were refused permission to build a house on the four-acre site in Willand, classified as open countryside.

Changes to planning laws mean the Masons can now convert an old barn on the site.

Mrs Mason said: “We’re ecstatic. We can finally live the life that we choose.”

We are going to have to spend a lot more money, but we have got our dream”

Read More »

off-grid.net

Join the global off-grid community

Register for a better experiencE on this site!