Search Results for "nick rosen book"

Post your details on Landbuddy and win a free copy of Nick Rosen’s new book OFF THE GRID.

Landbuddy is a free service from Off-Grid.net which helps people who plan to go off-grid to form a group to share skills, costs and responsibilities.

The best three posts published by August 31st will win the book, and be featured on off-grid.net thus increasing the visibility of their own entry. [Read more →]

Penny: doing her democratic duty

Here is Penny’s story of how she is trying to get the British government to pay attention to those of its citizens who wish to, or need to live off the grid. She already has strong grassroots support – but she needs more support. She needs your support:
[Read more →]

Books for the new decade

Here are some of the top-sellers amongst people who use this web site:

How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times

TEOTWAKI literature is the largest sector – [Read more →]

Buy the book here

OFF THE GRID

by Nick Rosen

Buy the book here:

Buy it from Amazon

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Buy it from Indiebound

The grid is everywhere, sending power to the light switch on the wall and water to the faucet in the kitchen. But is it essential? Should we depend on it and the giant corporate structure behind it? With energy prices soaring, the housing market in shambles, financial institutions collapsing, and unemployment hovering at devastating highs, up to a million Americans have already freed themselves from dependence on the utility companies. More are joining the movement every day.

In OFF THE GRID: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America (Penguin Original; On-Sale: August 2010; ISBN 978-0-14-311738-4; $15.00) award-winning documentary filmmaker and part-time off-gridder, Nick Rosen, takes readers on a fascinating and complex journey through a seemingly simple lifestyle. Nick traverses the US, encountering both luxury hideaways and harsh environs, to investigate the growing trend for off-the-grid living. His adventures take him from one overlooked part of the country to another, in rented cars that often double as hotels and on public transit when his subjects demand it. He spends time with all sorts of individuals and families striving to live the lives they want— bathing in hot springs, forgoing municipal power and amenities—in the ultimate search for freedom from government and its far-reaching grasp.

In the book, Nick is always asking why the individuals he meets have chosen this life, and comes up with a wide range of surprising and often comical answers.

The people featured in OFF THE GRID, as within the movement at-large, are not always the into-to-the-wild recluses that one might expect, although a few such are profiled, including the rustic character made popular through Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Last American Man and gun-toting novelist Carolyn Chute as well as cult author Alan Weisbecker. To the contrary, many of those living off-the-grid have built communities of like-minded people, often families with young children who are committed to helping one another. There are groups of devoted environmentalists who see this lifestyle as the only responsible way to counteract the massive energy consumption prevalent in ordinary American life. Others live this way rather unexpectedly, after finding urban and suburban lifestyles in conflict with their personal ethics, and still others were forced into their situations by economic factors beyond their control.

The colorful characters that populate OFF THE GRID are incredibly diverse. But what they do have in common is their understanding of how tenuous their unique situation is and the effort and determination required to maintain it. In the modern era, when Americans and the world in general are pushing towards greater connectivity and development, they are struggling to hold onto what they have—and often fighting back against the authority they wish to escape. Although the stories of these alternative lives are varied, all are truly incredible.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nick Rosen is an award winning documentary maker, journalist, and broadcaster. Born and based in London, he has often lived and worked in the US. Over the past two decades he has been a Teaching Assistant at the Georgetown University Philosophy Department, a journalist in San Francisco and a documentary filmmaker in New York. Nick is an off-grid expert, editing the website www.off-grid.net, and since 1994 has been off the grid part-time.

OFF THE GRID

By Nick Rosen

Penguin Paperback Original / August 2010

$15.00 / ISBN 978-0-143-11738-4

Not a How-to. More a Why-to

Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America

The grid is everywhere, sending power to the light switch on the wall and water to the faucet in the kitchen. But is it essential? Should we depend on it and the giant corporate structure behind it? With energy prices soaring, the housing market in shambles, financial institutions collapsing, and unemployment hovering at devastating highs, up to a million Americans have already freed themselves from dependence on the Utility companies. More are joining the movement every day.

In Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America, award-winning documentary filmmaker and part-time off-gridder, Nick Rosen, takes readers on a fascinating and complex journey through a seemingly simple lifestyle. Nick, who is Editor of this web site, traverses the US, encountering both luxury hideaways and harsh environs, to investigate the growing trend for off-the-grid living. His adventures take him from one overlooked part of the country to another, in rented cars that often double as hotels and on public transit when his subjects demand it. He spends time with all sorts of individuals and families striving to live the lives they want— bathing in hot springs, forgoing municipal power and amenities—in the ultimate search for freedom from government and its far-reaching grasp. [Read more →]

The Off-grid channel on YouTube has a growing collection of clips showing real people living and working off the grid.  Please send us your clips for inclusion, or send links or embed codes.

When Nick Rosen travelled the UK, interviewing off-gridders for his book How to Live Off-grid (UK edition – click the cover image to buy in US), he filmed them as he went, and a selection are now available on the channel. Here is one example, from Hillholt Wood in Lincolnshire. Nigel Lowthrop is one of the leaders of the UK off-grid movement. He succeeded in turning his 30 acre wood into a vital local resource,and won planning approval after a long battle. (Click “keep reading” to see the video) [Read more →]

Jenny takes a trip

Oki doki folks! Jenny here. Hello out there once more!

Continuing on from my previous article, which can be found here, I shall now home in on some finer details beginning with choice of van, and energy sources, both for powering the van and for power in the van.

Van:  I already discussed in the pre-mentioned article my reasons for choosing a van/minibus to live off-grid in…..but now how do I go about deciding, which van (from this point forward meaning minibus as well as van) to use? Does it matter? Well, from my research I have learnt that yes, indeed it does matter! Especially if, like me, one hopes to use USVO (Used Straight Vegetable Oil) as the fuel – more on USVO specifically in a moment.

[Read more →]

Treetop Jen has returned home to the UK, and now she is wondering how to reshape her life.

"I want to be free"

Aim: to live off-grid in the back of  a minibus, simply parked in a  ’normal’ town, with a job in the charity sector, still part of  ’normal’ society.

WHY? Hmmm…where to begin?

Well – like most people, I have spent some of my time in life pondering on the future; imagining how my life may turn out & how I might feel in each of the imagined outcomes.

I also spent (& still spend) time observing my others’ lives around me as they currently are. These two activities left me less & less inclined to live in an ‘ordinary’ house with a mortgage & equally less willing to rent accommodation; [Read more →]

Nick: the age of the micro-grid Off-Grid expert Nick Rosen is giving a talk in Denver October 21st.

Is nuclear power a “Green” energy solution? What is the UK view? Is it a viable option for mitigating climate change? Can small nuclear energy modules provide the energy for off-grid communities – and in particular the baseload power required to make solar and wind power plants continuously productive? [Read more →]