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An overview of the last 4 years living off-grid

This December will be 4 years for us living 100% off-grid, I can tell you it’s been quite the adventure, my only regret is that we didn’t do this earlier. Let me recap what we have been doing these 4 years…

 

Our pre-off-grid life was pretty much like most anyone else, we lived in a regular house, a mobile home actually, in a regular neighborhood in north central Texas. PB owned his own business, taking care of restaurant equipment for several big name companies and a smattering of smaller ones, he was a one-man-band, no employees. I worked 2 jobs, the first as a merchandiser and pricing coordinator for a big box electronics company and the other job was as a trainer in a semi-well known gym for women. We weren’t what you would call well off financially, but we were happy.

We were both empty nesters from previous marriages, in the beginning neither one of us knew the other had a secret desire to live off-grid, when we began to explore the idea of actually doing this, it didn’t take us long to find our perfect plot of land in far west Texas, it was just under 6 acres of unimproved, rough, almost inaccessible land on the side of a mountain in the high desert.

I cashed in my stock from my job and had enough to buy the land and had a little left over to buy some building material for the start of the cabin (soon to be renamed the sky castle). In less than 2 weeks, PB had a minimal structure built, it was enough for us to move in. We were able to get some solar panels, a charge controller, a few deep cycle batteries and a few other things we needed to get started. We began to disassemble our current city lives, PB shut down his business, I quit both of my jobs, and on December 22, 2007 we moved all of our remaining belongings to our new life in west Texas.

The first few months were pretty rough, we lived in a most primitive manner, some might even say our first few years were pretty primitive, I suspect some might even say we still live very primitively, that’s OK, it’s quite wonderful to me. We met a great neighbor who gave us some help, it made life a bit easier, things like access to his water well instead of having to go to the community well, access to his washer and dryer instead of washing by hand and hanging to dry, access to his shower instead of taking spit baths… all things we were prepared to do on our own, but having such a great neighbor we were able to do many things a little easier, in return we do most of the maintenance on his house, we do other things for him too, so it’s a fair trade.

We quickly learned about the barter system and before long we had enough connections with the community that when anyone had some used, scrap or excess building materials, they would contact us first to see if we could use it. Most of the rest of the sky castle was built using this scrap material that would have otherwise gone to the landfill. PB would go and tear down a building at a friend’s property and we would get to take the material home. Please understand, we aren’t tree huggers, we aren’t doing any of this because it’s “green”, for us it was cheap and expedient, the fact that we were in fact being green was merely a bonus.

Little by little we built up our little place into a home, with running water, eventually installing on demand propane powered water heaters, water tanks for more water storage, we built another room, the first one was 16×16, the addition was 12×12, we built on decks and eventually, my favorite addition, the shower. We also began to work on other things, like the garden, putting up out buildings, sheds and such.

All of this has taken time and lots of sweat, we have spent very little money, mainly because we do everything ourselves, and a lot of experimentation, some of which worked great, some which failed miserably. We have been blessed by good health and only minor accidents, mostly scrapes and splinters. We have grown to really love our little community, I’d say that has been as important as anything we have done. No matter how perfect your place might be, if you aren’t happy with or welcome into your community, that will not end up in a good way.

Now we are living like kings, at least that is my opinion, of course by most people’s standards including the government, we live well under the poverty level, but I wouldn’t have it any other way, I love my life, I love living with the freedom I have, I love working hard for what we have, it really does make me appreciate each and every little thing we have. When we first started out, I was hauling 3 one gallon containers of water up the hill from my neighbor’s house every day, sometimes twice a day, I guarantee you that makes me appreciate my 1550 gallon poly plastic water container with all the plumbing involved, doing dishes and laundry by hand inside my sky castle, getting to shower with hot running water…

I look forward to many more years with PB, improving our lives and the sky castle. The last couple of days has been quite fun for PB, one of our friends and neighbors came by, he had been eyeballing the gravel in our creek bed, he offered a trade for a few trailer loads of gravel, he let us use his Bobcat tractor to do some dirt work, PB achieved in a few hours of work what would have taken him weeks if not months of hard manual work, it cost zero dollars, but was priceless for us. I have to say that life is good.

A big part of my happiness is because of my faith, I found a little church in the neighborhood (we are blessed with 2 of them close by), I joined and quickly became active in the church, now I’m on the board of trustees, working to make things better and better. I have been a Christian for many years, most of my life, but living out here and being part of this church and community has helped me grow in my faith and get closer to God. I’m not saying that is necessary for you, (though for me it is), it’s a choice you have to make, I am saying that going to church is a good way to get closer to your community, and hopefully to God too, I am blessed everyday and in every way, even in the bad times, there is always a lesson to learn, a period of growth, a strengthening. Getting to live in and near nature allows me to personally witness Divinity on a daily basis.

I have many people contact me to ask for my advice on how they should go about moving off-grid, how to do it cheaply, how they should do it… it’s difficult to answer because everyone is different, everyone has different standards of how they want to live, everyone has different ideas and circumstances. My biggest advice is to have a dream and set goals, let nothing come between you and your goals, I have found that people will do what they really want to do, and unfortunately there are many who wish but don’t take the action necessary to make their wish a reality. I’m not judging, just stating the facts about what I see.

If you truly want to live off-grid, then do it, you don’t have to do it all at once, but start taking the steps necessary to get you to the place where you want to be. Each step you take is a step closer to your dream, don’t let life get in the way, don’t let family, friends, a job, or anything else get in the way, do what is necessary to make yourself happy and the rest of everything will fall into place. I’m not advocating doing anything illegal, I’m assuming that most of my readers are reasonable, law abiding people. I am advocating living your life to the fullest extent, and if that includes living off-grid, then do it.

If you want to learn more about our lives living off-grid, you can read more of my stories here

https://off-grid.net/section/wretha/

you can also read about us in the book Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America by Nick Rosen, we are chapter 9 in the book.

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98 Responses

  1. Hello all, I just came across this website and am having problems signing up and posting a Free Ad, any one that can help me would be very much appreciated, enjoy your day! Thank you very much and enjoy your day!

  2. I am 46 yrs old. Have 50k in the bank. Plan to save another 200,000 over the course of 8 years (plus a small IRA). QUestion is, if I quit my job at 54 yrs old, will I be able to sustain my entire life on just 200,000 (plus social security checks, and a 60k ira)????
    How much does it cost per year to sustain life? 6k/yr:, 10k/yr, 15k/yr, 22k/yr, etc… ???

    I will buy a log cabin for about 55k on several acres of land, and live there with propane as my fuel, and a fireplace. I am very new to all of this. But I’m scared that my money won’t sustain me for life there. Please give me a SPECIFIC monetary figure on yearly bills you all have.

    Thank you !

    1. Alexandra, I could live quite nicely on the money you are talking about… how much you need will all depend on how you wish to live, how frugal you are and how much debt you have (or don’t have). For us, we have no debt, everything is paid off, our main bills are internet, truck insurance, gas and maintenance on the truck, yearly taxes (which are pretty small for us), road fees (it’s all private property and that goes to maintain the roads), food and incidentals. We live very frugally, very very frugally, a couple of hundred a month takes care of us. I can’t give you a specific monetary figure because it would be different for you than it is for us. The biggest thing we do is we do everything ourselves, we don’t pay someone else to build or maintain our home and property, we barter for much of what we do and have.

      Wretha

  3. Well I love reading all this I am about to go off the grid I now grow my own food and get my water from a hand pump and use the sun for hot water and cook on a wood stove my lights is lamp oil I love it so far I have been doing this just for one year I still have a job but plans are not to use if I eat it I made I have 50 chick that I eat and get eggs from 5 pig I eat and get lard from 2 milk cows I get milk from and butter and a lot of deer’s that I eat I plant and jar all my food

  4. Really enjoyed your post as well as all the great comments. We also were approached by 2 different producers of documentaries, and respectfully declined. However, we do post our journey on our videos. We want to encourage every single person who is thinking about this lifestyle off-grid, to go for it. If I can offer advice, it would be start simple, start slow. You can build on what is really important to you as to cooking, water, heat, light and power methods. There are so many choices and can be overwhelming. If you want to see some of our journey, feel free to stop by our videos channel. North Trapping and Bush Life in Canada https://www.youtube.com/user/campfirepoetry

  5. My missus and I will be retiring in about 2 years and have been considering living off the grid for some time..to us living off the grid would mean not being reliant on utilities, but rather finding our own ways. Being part of a community is an advantage as you can help one another when help is needed.

  6. Hi Wretha and fellow off-grid enthusiasts,
    I’ve just scanned and read almost every entry since 2011 and there hasn’t been much discussion about how one continues to earn money while living off-grid. Wretha has mentioned that it’s possible to make some money writing articles for websites such as this one, but what if you’re living in such a remote area that there is no internet service or what if you don’t even have the funds to pay for the internet service in the first place? Yes, one could go to an internet café I suppose, but how does one afford to continue putting gasoline in the car to get to the nearest town (which could be 50 miles away)? How does one pay for ongoing supplies, replacement parts for their solar system, etc. My family and I are DESPERATE to go off-grid, but since we have a family with 3 kids, we are worried that we may not be able to provide them with certain necessities if we no longer have the ability to work for an income. This is the biggest obstacle that we’re currently facing. Does anyone have any advice on how we can continue to earn an income while living off-grid?

  7. Hi Wretha

    Just read your article and the comments that followed. We live “off=grid” here in Bancroft, Ontario, Canada. We love it and the community that has made us so welcome. You can read about our journey on our blog page.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Art

  8. Wow. I love this story! I am a producer for an upcoming documentary series on people living off the grid. I’m looking to speak with homesteaders and survivalists who might be interested in sharing their expertise and lifestyle. Your name and location do not need to be revealed. If interested, please send an email to DRelkin51@gmail.com and I will answer any questions you may have. Hope to hear from you!

  9. I loved reading your story! Matt first thought I was crazy for wanting to live off-grid. The funny thing is, when I started gardening and canning he just looked at me and said, “you know babe, we just save almost $300!” Now he is up for talking about it more, and making more off-grid decisions. We are in the very early stages, but in my opinion its never to late. Congrats to you and PB!

  10. Hi All,

    I have 20 acres now, and was wondering if there are others who need a place to go, in the Alpine/Big Bend Parks/Terlingua TX area

    I am also looking to get another 20+ ac location, to raise catfish to offer the residents on the ranch, and even open a restaurant with the fresh catfish and other fish from the aquatics farming endeavor i wish to set up

    could use a few good hands at the setting up a new adventure in fish farming

    Let me know what’s up

    Regards

    JOHN “SIDEWINDER JACK”

    the skype is

    PRG.SOLUTIONS

    I hope to see you all on skype very soon

  11. Hi Wretha,
    We are still going strong living 100 percent off-grid now since feb 2012, we love our new life and the kids have adjusted very well, were still building and adding on as we can afford to, 100 percent debt free is great :)

  12. Wretha – I’m loving it. Kids just enterred teen years. I was born and raised city, but moved to semi-country (sort of township/market areas) as young adult. We move to city @ 6 yrs ago. I regretted it within the first 3 mos – but trying to be closer to aging parents. Now that I’m wanting to branch out and get my “me back” the kids have enterred teen years and will flat rebel if I try to leave our church family. They say they already had to leave their home church when we moved here, and they dont wanna keep changing churches. In that respect…I say enjoy it as much as you can. Maybe things will hold out and I can join ya’ll in 3 yrs at the last HS graduation!

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