Category — LAND

The ultra-conventional Zillow web site has given the thumbs up to off the grid living, featuring a dome home in its pages.

The home, from Monolithic domes is just 320 square feet – cheap to heat cool and maintain, but amply priced at $74,000, given the cost of similar homes in the area.

Monolothic dome homes are made by inflating a balloon and then smearing a PVC coating on top of that.

The dome is in the Taos area of New Mexico, feature in my book OFF THE GRID – Inside the Movement for More Space Less Government and True Independence in Modern America. (more…)

I have been writing about it, and now I want to do it.

As I traveled the US writing my recent book OFF THE GRID, I was also looking for an off-grid place of my own – at first in Northern California or North Carolina, or Kentucky, but latterly I have homed in on West Virginia as a place to suit my needs.

I want somewhere that I can use to get away from the relentless 24/7 media cycle, ads, facebook, twitter feeds, traffic, fast food and slow food – the grinding pace of modern life. (more…)

One of our readers sent the story that follows. There are hundreds of other messages like this on our free service, LandBuddy.

Hi everyone at off-grid – I was wondering if you’ve ever considered relocating to another country? I’ve recently moved to Ecuador and have a goal to be off-grid and living self-sufficient in the very near future. I used to own horses in the U.S. and would love to find equestrian minded people to live in our community. (more…)

Local authorities have forced a Vietnam Vet to quite his off-grid home although he is harming no-one and owns the land he lives on.

County officials in the town of Dehesa, East of San Diego,call Joseph Diliberti a scofflaw. But who can respect a law that tries to tell a harmless old man how to live his own life? At the moment, Diliberti can still call his wooded hollow home after officials tried Friday to auction off his rural land because of the back fees and penalties he owes, largely stemming from an unpaid weed-clearing bill. It was a task that Diliberti actively opposed.

The thing was, no one wanted to buy it. (more…)

OK folks, I got this from the survival preparedness blog  and thought it was relevant as to my reasons for going off the grid…. and something to consider when looking for land to survive on in case of national emergency.

Away from the shadow of a major city is the top priority.

Here is the list in reverse order – Number one at the end.

10. Pikeville, Tennessee.  A small town of about 2000 people with moderate land prices with great natural resources for living off the grid with an added bonus of being in the picturesque Sequatchie Valley.

9. Cedar City, Utah. With a population of 25 to 30.000 people and one of the largest cities to make this list. Utah has an independent attitude as far as other states go. Cedar City has some reasonable priced land with some having beautiful mountain views wich also helped it make the list. (more…)

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…)

Just getting started on my project.  We have twenty acres down on the Salt Fork of the Oklahoma Red River.  The view is worth all the trouble.  To your left is the river front, 300 hundred yards of river sand bar for the kids to play on.  Just to the right is a creek that is about twenty feet deep.  It is easy to catch a mess of fish for supper.  We have two four wheelers to get around on the property and to run up and down the river. Nearest power utilities is about two miles away, you have to drive down an irrigation canal, through a cotton field, then a wheat field, and then another three quarters of a mile after you enter our property.    Needless to say getting utilities to our site is cost prohibitive.
(more…)

A landowner in Madison County, Ind. has been told to stop living on his own plot because in doing so he is breaking zoning ordinances.

The case of 72-year-old Dick Thompson is being taken up by net activists, angry that you cannot choose to live harmlessly on your own land in a  rural setting, at least not in Indiana.

Thomson bought 38 acres of farmland from his parents, and lived there in his white trailer — along with his dog, Ace, his horse, Fritz, ad his bird, Sunshine, which likes peppermints. (more…)

GRATON, Calif. (AP) — As Americans downsize in the aftermath of a colossal real estate bust, at least one tiny corner of the housing market appears to be thriving.
Americans have overhoused themselves for decades. Now at last, to save money or simplify their lives, a small but growing number of Americans are buying or building homes that could fit inside many people’s living rooms, according to entrepreneurs in the small house industry.
Some put these wheeled homes in their backyards to use as offices, studios or extra bedrooms. Others use them as mobile vacation homes they can park in the woods. But the most intrepid of the tiny house owners live in them full-time, paring down their possessions and often living off the grid.
“It’s very un-American in the sense that living small means consuming less,” said Jay Shafer, 46, author of The Small House Book, sitting on the porch of his wooden cabin in California wine country. (more…)