OFG-HowToFreeYourself.svg

video

Community

Prosnowboarder’s golden ratio

It took a little over 5 years for pro snowboarder Mike Basich to build his 225 square foot off-grid cabin, the work during the winter was the hardest because of the cold. Basich designed the cabin himself based on the Golden Ratio, everything grew from that.

The rock work by itself is impressive, along with the native and natural materials incorporated in the build, this is a blend of engineering and beauty.

The cabin is wired 12 volt, mainly for the most efficient use of the battery power he uses. Basich says being attuned to nature means that he is able to keep his solar system smaller, going to sleep at dark, waking at dawn meant that his solar setup cost him around $500 instead of the amount he would have spent to be able to keep the lights on into the night.

I hope you enjoy this video of Basich’s cabin as much as I did.
https://youtu.be/J73GTfj0x-E



web
analytics


Read More »
Community

Cooking with the sun

There are several different ways to use the sun in cooking, aka solar cooking or solar ovens. If you live in a sunny place, the desert, anyplace with unobstructed sunshine, you can use a solar oven to cook most meals.

There are parabolic cookers, these are like using a hot grill, you pretty much have to be right on top of it all the time to cook with these.

There are panel cookers, these use a silver (usually mylar) foil covered cardboard, the DIY ones are often made from a window shade made for vehicles. The nice thing about these are they are very portable, light and easy to set up. The bad thing about them is they don’t reach and maintain a very high temperature, and being light weight, they can blow away in wind.

The third major kind are box cookers, these work just like a small oven, they can be made of a cardboard box, or for a more permanent solution, made of wood or plastic. It is essentially an insulated box with a glass top and to make them work even better, reflectors are added to the top. This is the kind I like best.

I have scoured YouTube in search of the best build, I see many mistakes being made, mainly in the materials used in building them, you don’t want to use anything that will off gas or become toxic when it becomes hot, using styrofoam, some types of glue, some kinds of wood even will out gas toxic fumes when heated, I cringe when I see these being used.

I found one video that really jumped out at me, though I’m sure there are many more, I liked this one. The first video shows how it’s built, I will admit that my ADD struck and I had to move the video along a bit, but the build is solid. The second video shows a whole chicken being cooked in this solar oven. Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/yPRkwnpv-C8

https://youtu.be/uMh3N8lq1Ik



web
analytics


Read More »
Community

Huge tiny home!

This has to be the biggest tiny home I’ve seen to date, it’s 37 feet long and 8.5 feet wide, 13.5 feet tall, it weighs in at 19,000 pounds. This is built on a goose-neck trailer base, with a triple axle setup (3000 pound each). It would take a larger truck to pull this.

This thing is a monster! A beautiful monster though, it doesn’t look for feel like a tiny home, I suspect this would be one that you would place somewhere and leave it instead of traveling around with it.

The bathroom is huge, it contains a full size tub & shower and even has a washer/dryer unit built in. I love the stairs, mainly because of the drawers built into each step, and the bottom step can accommodate a full length broom.

One area that is small is the closet, it is very small, there are built in shoe racks, but that’s the best you can say about that. I suppose if you live in a tiny home, even one this grand, you will still need to be a bit of a minimalist. :)

Watch the video and let me know what you think about this tiny home.
https://youtu.be/9FqHINIs4Rc



web
analytics


Read More »
troubleshooting
Community

It’s solar, what could possibly go wrong?

troubleshooting

When you are doing your own solar system, the key words here are “doing your own”, you will have to be in charge of troubleshooting if things go wrong.

Sometimes, often you can recognize there is a problem but can’t quite figure out what or where the problem is. You test each separate component and each of them seems to be working, but altogether there is a problem somewhere and it’s frustrating.

I am the unofficial “Geek Squad” tech person in my neighborhood, I can’t tell you how many times I have been working on a computer, taking everything apart, putting it back together and have it work, and I have no idea what I did to make it work, the same thing happens with solar systems. Perhaps it was just a loose connection, or who knows what, call it a happy accident.

I recommend building your system yourself rather than paying someone to do it, mainly because you will have a better understanding of how things go together, the hows and whys. The only exception I can think of is if you have the money to pay someone to come out and fix things each and every time things go wrong, of course then you are at the mercy of someone elses time schedule. There is nothing better than being able to do it yourself.

Watch this video about troubleshooting a solar system.
https://youtu.be/7zOodG3F_Ds



web
analytics


Read More »
Community

Meet Gladys

She’s burgundy, discrete, low cost and can take you wherever you want to go in comfort, well as long as you are named Dylan Magaster :)

The nice thing about living in a converted van is they are discrete, you don’t necessarily LOOK like you are camping out or living in your van, you can drive it nearly anywhere, you can park it without drawing unnecessary attention.

I like all the wood features inside this van, it is setup to cook, including a refrigerator – which is actually a converted freezer! Of course, being a female, I would want a toilet, Dylan speaks about not having issues using public toilets, I personally prefer using my own equipment, but that’s just me. It would be easy enough to have a small portable potty, either a commercial one or one I made.

https://youtu.be/voV-db9xgkE

Are you cut out for van life? It’s definitely not for everyone, nor is living off-grid for that matter, so it’s important to try it out first. See if you can rent or borrow a van for a vacation, or even just a weekend. These folk suggest just spending the night in a WalMart parking lot to see if you are OK with doing that. If you have been to a WalMart parking lot, you no doubt have seen all the campers and RVs sitting on the outskirts of the lot, those are people who are traveling through and just want a spot to spend the night. WalMart allows people to do this, mostly in hopes of the travelers spending some green inside their stores…

I would think you would need to be good with having limited stuff, my friend Beth who has cycled between living in a van, to pulling a small camper to now living in a larger RV is always talking about getting rid of “crapola”, her word for too much stuff. I also think you are required to be part gypsy, you must enjoy traveling, something I don’t wish to do quite honestly, I’m a major homebody and once I find a spot, I want to nest.

Watch this video to get an idea if this is the life for you.
https://youtu.be/4mMbIFyRpu4



web
analytics


Read More »
Community

Modern vs retro tiny home

From ultra modern to a retro 50s look, you can have just about any look and style you wish in a tiny house.

My first thought when I looked at this tiny house is it’s inside out, though it’s really not. The outside looks like you can attach many different things to it, very modular, not sure if in fact you could do that, I can see a planter box being held in a groove, one of many on the outside.

The inside of this tiny home has very clean lines, it has an uncluttered appearance, with most parts hidden behind walls & doors. I love the sideways Murphy bed, it gives me ideas as to what we can do with an extra full size mattress that is being stored behind the couch in the living room in the SkyCastle.

Watch and enjoy
https://youtu.be/UqxxFZ1JoVY

Then there is the 50s themed tiny home. With the shake shingles on the outside and the retro green color all the way through, this tiny house begs to have a housewife in pearls and a frilly apron baking cookies in the full size stove.

I LOVE the vintage refrigerator and the metal trim on the shelf & counter edges. The clever way the stairs are built into the tiny dining table. I do have to wonder how long the hydraulic pistons for the bed will last, how hard are they to replace and how hard are they to find? I’m guessing the builder has a line on those and as long as that builder is still in business, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Watch and enjoy
https://youtu.be/DX5LN5TV_ao

Which look do you prefer? The vintage retro look or the sleek, clean, ultra modern look?



web
analytics


Read More »
bonita domes
Community

Bonita domes

bonita domes

I think I have always been attracted to unconventional homes (I live in a small castle after all…), when perusing my YouTube page with all the suggestions of what I might like to watch, this definitely caught my eye. I’m not sure how much was the color of the building, I do love the warm yellows and oranges, and how much was the dome shapes. As a teen, my father and I went on a short trek to Italy Texas to visit the Monolithic Dome homes factory, I fell in love with domes right then and there.

I LOVE the organic shapes on the inside as well as the outside of these structures, I wondered if the counter tops were custom cut, then on a closeup, I could see they looked like concrete, so they could be poured into any shape they could create. I like the individual separate spaces for each use, the shower dome, the kitchen area, the kiva pit. Living in the desert myself, dealing with the winds that blow, I know the importance of having a protected space if you want to have an open fire.

The shower dome looks really interesting, I want to make a separate shower space for us to use, it would be a seasonal space, used when the weather was warm, it would be away from the SkyCastle, organic in shape and using solar to heat the water, but I digress from the home I’m talking about here.

The best way for you to experience this is to watch the videos for yourself.
https://youtu.be/5SFnUjeS-AY

https://youtu.be/evsu9NOo4hQ

A dome to make me jealous!



web
analytics


Read More »
desalination, potable, cheap drinking water
Water

DIY Desalination

Earth isn’t called the “Blue Planet” for nothing, but the majority is saltwater and therefore not immediately drinkable. Hence we need the desalination process which removes the salt from saline water so we can drink it.

One of the main hurdles living outside the system is having a reliable source of clean, fresh drinking water.  Dr Rahul Nair of Manchester University in the UK has just announced a breakthrough Graphene micromesh that will be on the market in 3 years time that will literally strain the salt out of water.  Meanwhile,  how about cheap DIY methods you can do at home?

Desalination can take advantage of evaporation. The dirty or saline water is heated and the water turns to steam, leaving the impurities (salt) behind. All that then needs to be done is capture the steam, condense it and voila clean drinkable water.

 

Below are some videos of easy and cheap methods of making your own DIY desalination devices!

The first is based on a whistling kettle, some pipe, a coolant around said piping and a collection tin – easy peasy!

 

Here is another version of a similar system using a pressure cooker instead – who said they are only good for canning!?

 

If you want to invest in some specific desalination kit, then check out this video which uses the non-electric distiller by Water Wise.

 

No camp fire or stove to hand? No problem! Check out these solar distillers – not exactly top tech, but proves you can capture the power of evaporation really easily. (Ignore the soil eating cat!)

 

And one using a plastic bottle!

Let’s face it we have all wanted to live by a golden beach in a sunny spot at some time in our lives. But with water at a dollar a pop for a 100cl plastic bottle, desalination has a definite cash benefit.

What do you think? Have you tried any of these methods? Let us know in the comments below!

Read More »
Community

Not getting sick

sick

With winter in full blast mode, people are sniffling, sneezing and coughing all around me, I work in the public, not necessarily with the public, but I’m still exposed to all sorts of nasties during the week. I haven’t been really sick in quite some time, I have those down bla days from time to time, but haven’t had a full blown case of anything since last year, and I intend to keep it that way.

Last week, I thought I might be coming down with something, I had a sore spot in my throat, it lasted a full day but fortunately never turned into anything worse. I have a few tricks up my sleeve to help keep me in tip top shape, it’s not 100%, but I believe it helps. When I very first noticed the sore spot in my throat, I immediately grabbed an Emergen c fizzy packet, it’s packed full of nutrients, specifically the vitamin C and zinc were what I was wanting.

A few weeks ago, in one of the stores that I service (as a merchandiser), I saw an employee that I hadn’t seen in a while, I went over and shook his hand in greeting, it was after that handshake that he informed me that he was at the tail end of a cold… oh great I thought, I stayed out of his air stream and air bubble, that area in which viri accumulate en masse. I noticed him coughing a lot.

After washing my hands, I decided to purchase a hand sanitizer, now this is something I don’t typically use, but thought it prudent for now. Another thing I do is I try my utmost to not touch my face, especially my nose or eyes with my hands, especially if I have been handling the shopping cart handles, those have got to be the germiest place to touch.

If I hear someone cough or sneeze, I will stay away from their air space, if I am already walking past them, I’ll hold my breath until I am well beyond them. I know that might sound silly, but I’m not interested in breathing in whatever made them cough or sneeze, you should see the videos created that show sneezes and coughs in slo-mo, here is one

Now do you still think I’m being overcautious? I didn’t think so :)

If I have to cough or sneeze, I will often pull my shirt up as I duck my mouth down and sneeze or cough into my shirt, I don’t want to use my hands to cover my mouth, especially when I’m working because I’m handling items that the public will be buying, I’m also shaking hands with people. I don’t typically wear long sleeve shirts so I’m not going to cough or sneeze into my inner elbow. So into my shirt it goes, it might …

Read More »

WrethaOffGrid vlog 02

This is a semi-quick video where I’m chatting about what’s been going on this week. The main things are that my daughter and my 2 grandchildren came for a visit, they only stayed overnight but it was nice to have them out. Tomorrow my son is flying in for a longer visit.

It’s easy to forget that we don’t live like “normal” folk, our setup is unconventional at best, not just the off-grid parts, but things like the hot water. If the water gets too hot, you would turn it down, but at our place, you would turn it up to get more water flowing through the propane fire, that cools it off. Our toilet is very unconventional, being a composting potty, and the such.

There are also privacy concerns, basically living in 2 rooms, cleaning up and dressing is something that will have to be coordinated so we don’t embarrass anyone (or ourselves).

It’s been a while since we have had any real visits from far away family & friends. My dad used to come out and stay for a month every summer, I’d say it’s been a good 5 years since the last visit like that.

If you have any questions about how we live, or anything else, please write them below and I’ll do my best to answer them in the next vlog. Enjoy!



web
analytics


Read More »
Community

Art in the desert

Amazing see-thru cabin built in California

You can see many things in the desert, some see desolation, others see stark beauty, yet others take what they see and transform it into an even more interesting and ethereal vision. Light is one of the driving forces in the desert, by adding mirrors to this run down shack, this artist took what would be ignored and passed by into a reflection of the surrounding beauty. The wood appears to float, seemingly supported by air. At night it transforms yet again into an ever changing palette of color. Have you been there or seen this?

0101

 

https://youtu.be/5rB5K_SS67w



web
analytics


Read More »

off-grid.net

Join the global off-grid community

Register for a better experiencE on this site!