offthegridnews.com.offthegridnews

off-grid home in California desert to rent
Community

3 Taster Locations To Try Unplugging

Curious about what living off-grid would be like but not quite ready to give up the mortgage? Thinking where to live out the rest of your days in idyllic peace but not quite sure?

Not to worry, if you’re considering the big leap into the unknown, you can try a short break disconnecting from the big brother system — renting an off-grid home from Airbnb.

In Chelan, Washington State, for example, there lies a hobbit hole which any Lord of the Rings fan would die for a night in. Upon a mountain hill, surrounded by rabbits and deer is the perfect place for someone on a quest for off-gird living to start their journey.

Kirstie Wolfe built the 288-square-foot rental into a hillside on a five-acre tract of land she bought in Orondo, a small town between Chelan and Wenatchee along the Columbia River in central Washington. After burying the structure, she went all out decorating the space with an obsessive attention to detail. “I try to make it as authentic as possible,” builder Kristie Wolfe explained. She succeeded with flying colours, visitors walk past a small outdoor garden through a big circular door — just like in the books and movies. The rustic interior uses reclaimed wood, hanging lanterns, and circular arches and windows to evoke a fantastical feeling, a point underlined with small charms like a cobbler’s workbench and several subtle “Lord of the Rings” touches inside.

As well as being the perfect place to let your imagination run free, it is also a fully functioning off-grid home with its own septic tank and solar panels, you can unplug in style and comfort. To see the photos and more details on the hobbit home, click here!

 

For those in Europe – nestled into the mountains on the quiet North-West side of Mallorca it is the perfect place to turn off from the outside world and relish nature as it is.

It is a 30-minute drive down the mountain to a beach or an exhilarating hike away, which in turn, gives you the most breath-taking views of the blue Mediterranean. It’s located inside a national park which means you will live side by side with exotic birds and wild flowers. The house comes complete with a water tank which collects 40,00 litres of rain water which you can then filter into drinking water and use to flush the toilet and wash with . Also, it is furnished with two flushing toilets, solar panels a shower, a gas fridge and hob and a fireplace and wood burner for the winter months. There is an outside kitchen with a BBQ so you can cook cooley in the breeze whilst taking in the glorious views.

If you’re not so keen with the cooking, you can hire a cook who will show you how to use the outdoor facilities and make …

Read More »
Energy

Gridlock on the Grid

People wonder why the power grid goes down, causing massive outages with tens of millions of homes cut off.

Is it the antiquated generating systems, or the inadequate transmission systems? No to both of those.

Its the trading in energy that is causing gridlock on the grid. Huge amounts of futures contracts cause energy to be switched this way and that, not because it is needed by consumers, but because it is being bought and sold many times over.

As I explain in my book Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America like any gridlock, the problem is too much traffic. The power industry lobbyists have been contemptuous of my arguments ever since the book was published, refusing to debate the accusations in public, and warning that if they withdraw from the market, the consumer will suffer. Ever since Enron, the US Grid has been hijacked by the banks and big money. Now their lobbyists are fighting hard for the Smart Grid which will cement into place this conspiracy against the interests of ordinary consumers.Also, by the way, against the interests of many corporate customers, although not the biggest users who cut their own sweetheart deals.

Read More »

off-grid.net

Join the global off-grid community

Register for a better experiencE on this site!