Category — PEOPLE

I have received a lot of requests for extracts from Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America

Here is the first, chosen from near the middle of the book. More will follow at regular intervals.

MY NEGOTIATION TO MEET EUSTACE CONWAY, THE LAST AMERICAN MAN

To meet Eustace I first had to go through Desiree, a curvaceous, dark-haired Coloradan with pouty lips and smoldering eyes. She had spent a few years “traveling and camping” before arriving to live at Turtle Island Preserve. “That was when I learned the delights of a cold shower,” she told me. I was very curious about their arrangement. Was she Eustace’s personal assistant and gatekeeper, or his girlfriend as well? And if she had a sexual relationship with the Last American Man, was she his only girlfriend or just his main girlfriend, merely one of many? These were questions to be left until I got to know her better.
We were sitting facing each other in the café of the Earth Fare grocery store in Boone, the big town closest to Turtle Island Preserve. It is easily the best grocery store I’ve found in all my time in the United States, a smaller version of Whole Foods, run by kinder people. The food is exemplary, and the prices are reasonable, especially on the bargain shelf, which is restocked hourly. The prices in the café are the same as in the store, and it has free Wi-Fi and excellent bathrooms. No wonder the entire off-the-grid population around Boone uses the place as a clubroom. (more…)

Gyanesh Pandey, 33, CEO and Co-founder, Husk Power System

Pandey established Husk Power System (HPS), which uses rice husk to generate electricity, with Manoj Sinha and Ratnesh Yadav who were looking for a technology to fit their model for six years. Sinha is an electronics engineer, who is now based in the US while Yadav is involved at the ground level with Pandey. Today, HPS supplies eight to 10 hours of power to 18,500 households in some of the off-grid villages, where the state-run electricity board doesn’t reach. (more…)

One of the biggest dangers to the grid is bothering the British Secretary of Defense Liam Fox. Today he warns that the electricity grid, financial networks and transport infrastructure could be paralyzed by a solar flare.

Fox is no fringe lunatic. He used to be a medical practioner.

There is a growing threat of electromagnetic disruption to the underpinnings of modern life, the Defense Secretary told a meeting of scientists and security advisers today.

Dr. Fox said he wants to address the “vulnerabilities” in the nation’s hi-tech infrastructure.

“As the nature of our technology becomes more complex, the threat becomes more widespread as well,” he says. (more…)

The recent declaration by former US President Bill Clinton that he is slowly turning  vegetarian awed the crowd.

In an interview, the former president admits that he is now on a  vegan diet, although sometimes, he still eats fish. (more…)

‘Sexyback’ singer Justin Timberlake this week re-opened his luxury ‘eco-friendly’ golf course in Memphis Tennessee  after investing millions of dollars on an environmental upgrade.

Note that’s ‘eco-friendly’ not ‘zero-impact’ or even ‘low-impact. (more…)

After the rain-a rare colored sunset in the high desert mountains

Living in the high desert means having to deal with long periods of dry weather punctuated by periods of mega-rains. We got one of those yesterday. I was not at the skycastle when this occurred, I was at a friend’s house. My drive home was a bit tricky, our roads are dirt, some gravel, some boulders and several places are clay. The clay is the problem, when it gets wet, soaked, it becomes a car eating muck pit. There are several places I have to cross that have lots of clay, one place in particular is a S-curve just before my place, I avoid it when it’s wet. That means going over an even steeper,  higher, rougher road, but it’s worth it to miss the mucky S-curve. As I was going over the alternate path, I noticed a couple of cars that were abandoned on the road, not a pleasant thing to see where I live. That usually means a long, rough walk for the occupants, unless they are lucky enough to find someone else driving though or are close enough to walk to a friend’s house, that usually means at least a half mile or more walking either up or down steep hills. Did I mention that cell phones don’t work out here? (more…)

The Colony: The Right to Bare Arms

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Couple

In a post TEOTWAWKI or SHTF world, having a loving partner will make live much more enjoyable as well as safer. You know the old saying, many hands make light work, it’s very true, and having someone that you can completely trust with your life just may be what saves your life. Having someone at the homestead most of the time makes the homestead a more secure place, while one of you is out hunting or doing what needs to be done, the other can be at home, taking care of things there and being security. You can also take care of the other if one of you gets sick or hurt. (more…)

Boris - don't believe a word this man says

London’s chatterbox Mayor, Boris Johnson has announced he will run for a second term, but he will have a disappointed electorate to deal with.  Boris has failed to make an impact on London life in anything except PR coverage.  His most lasting memorial will be the stone ping-pong tables erected in many of London’s parks.

Others will comment on his failures in housing, transport and business. This web site was excited by his promise, when he was running for office, that he would “take London off grid.”

Indeed there were plans already afoot to do just that, (more…)