Posts by — spy_vondega

Sold my Life, Bought an Island
by SPY_VONDEGA on JULY 22, 2011 - 3 Comments in LAND

Whatever next?

He sold his life on eBay and travelled the world – now Ian Usher has bought his own Caribbean island.

Situated just off the coast of Bocas del Toro, in north-west Panama, Mr Usher’s private tropical getaway has no name and is undeveloped.

The 47-year-old, who hit the headlines in 2008 when he sold his Australian home, car, job and friends as a package on internet auction site eBay after splitting from his wife, bought the 2.2-acre island from an anonymous British ex-pat for an undisclosed sum.

It was purchased by Darlington- born Mr Usher for less than $50,000 (£30,000). (more…)

Top Gear presenter says living off-grid can make you happy
by SPY_VONDEGA on MAY 17, 2011 - 8 Comments in PEOPLE

Multi-millionaire TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson has said that anyone living off the grid is likely to have a better life than his own.

In a recent newspaper column he describes his move to an unfurnished flat in Central London and says that someone living in a barn and feeding off “what you could find in a hedge” would be better off than him.

In his column, Top Gear presenter Clarkson, 50, reveals  he has been thinking of doing without the modern conveniences of living.  “In recent times, I have become so fed up with everything I own that I started to think seriously about what life would be like without any of it,” he said. (more…)

Photo library
by SPY_VONDEGA on APRIL 7, 2011 - 2 Comments in SPIRIT

You won't find this on facebook

A gem-like collection of off-grid photos here. There’s Earthships, Monolithic Domes, cute country cottages and Airstereams in the middle of the desert.

There’s close-ups of fireplaces, flowers and flooring. There’s design ideas, tech ideas, interior color co-ordination and bottle-reinforced walls. Oh, and did I say, there’s Earthships…galore? (more…)

Mark Boyle at Ted
by SPY_VONDEGA on APRIL 3, 2011 - 5 Comments in PEOPLE, WORK

The prestigious TED lectures invited Mark Boyle, The Moneyless Man, to their Oporto summit last week. His lifestyle practices the teachings of the Gift Economy – the idea that if each of us gave unconditionally – without expecting anything back in return, then the world could function just as it does at the moment, but without banks, mortgages or exploitation. (more…)

Ted Nugent declares himself off-grid…
by SPY_VONDEGA on APRIL 2, 2011 - 2 Comments in COMMUNITY

…but he isn’t.  He actually lives in an extremely on the grid ranch in McLennan County. But the crazed quote machine has now declared himself the “Czar of Off-Grid.”

He loves to go hunting (nothing wrong with that) and apparently he is quite a sweet guy when you get to know him. Nugent has trained one-on-one, through the years, with assorted troops, law-enforcement personnel, Navy Seals, U.S. Marshals and more. His eye for the controversial statement appeals to us. Like this one to Fox: (more…)

Jackson Browne next song about plastic bottles
by SPY_VONDEGA on MARCH 25, 2011 - 3 Comments in PEOPLE

Singer Jackson Browne doesn’t just talk the talk. Not only does he have a ranch in rural California that is off the grid in terms of its energy use and environmental impact, he also operates with a plasticfree backstage while on tour, and travels in buses that run on bio-diesel.

Even his stage lighting is outfitted with energy-reduced bulbs. “I wanted to try it myself and see how hard it is,” he said. “It turned out to be not hard at all.”

His next song, If I Could Be Anywhere, has yet to be released, is about the environmental impact of plastic. (more…)

“This land is your land…” if your name is Malone or Turner
by SPY_VONDEGA on JANUARY 29, 2011 - 1 Comment in LAND

Malone - in need of landbuddies

Media Titan John C. Malone, is completing on nearly one million acres of timberland in Maine, and could soon overtake Ted Turner to become the largest private landowner in the United States. Will he register on landbuddy.com in the category “Off-grid and wants others to join”? We hope so.

Chorus:

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

Mr. Malone, who lives in Colorado, has a controlling interest in QVC cable channel; Expedia.com, travel Web site; and Sirius XM satellite radio.
But what will he do with the land – enough to house hundreds of thousands of Americans? (more…)

Joan Baez recovers from tree-house fall
by SPY_VONDEGA on NOVEMBER 20, 2010 - 4 Comments in EVENTS

Baez in different tree during 2009 protest

Sixties singer Joan Baez was taken to hospital after she slipped and fell while climbing down from an oak tree she sometimes sleeps in, behind her California home.

Songbird Baez had her treehouse built — without walls — 20 feet high in the oak tree because she wanted to sleep with actual birds. She does not sleep outdoors out of solidarity with the eco-protesters. She simply likes to sleep in the backyard tree house at the California home that she shares with her elderly mother. The bird feeder is right by her head. “My contact with nature and the moon and the birds and the trees, they mean so much to me,” Baez says. (more…)
Please welcome….Brody Macmillan
by SPY_VONDEGA on OCTOBER 14, 2010 - 4 Comments in COMMUNITY

Brody - off-grid role model

Brody Macmillan is a 15-year-old who “worships Chris McCandless” and fled his family in B.C. to live off the grid.
Musician Brody, constantly talked about his longing to shed the material trappings of society and go off –grid, his mother told a local TV station. To her delight she nopw knows he is safe and has resurfaced on Canada’s East Coast

This web site has invited Brody to write a diary of his travels and post some of his music up on our YouTube channel. (more…)

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