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The Self-Sufficiency Challenge
We are setting ourselves a challenge to be self-sufficient by Thanksgiving 2010 and we are going to chronicle our progress here on this blog. There is nothing like going public to add incentive to a goal.
Hunt camp junk yard 
This room resembled a torture chamber
We are here to prove to ourselves and others that two sixty-somethings can go off the grid and establish a self-sufficient and sustainable lifestyle and, if we can do it, anybody can. We are here to demonstrate that the real promise of our advanced technologies is to allow any of us to become independent of the corporate megalopolies that rule our lives. This is our personal declaration of independence.
Self-Sufficient Solar eBook
Due to the response to our Do-It-Myself Solar video and blog, asking for more detailed descriptions of solar components and wiring, we are now offering for sale a Self-Sufficient Solar eBook. In the eBook, we include detailed information about how we installed a complete and fully functioning solar system ourselves and became self-sufficient in electrical power...and all for less than $5000.
Raising the Garden
If anyone remembers the video I made last summer of our garden will remember that it resembled a wasteland. I have removed the video because I was afraid I might be charged with cruelty to garden plants. It was sad to see the poor little things starve to death in the thin excuse for soil we have around here.
Timberrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Top of the self-sufficiency challenge list is replacing the caved in roof. My plan is to rebuild using the timberframe construction technique. This is basically done using large squared off timbers, usually six to eight inches square, connected together by some form of mortise and tenon joinery and wooden pegs. Not satisfied with the attempt to wrestle large timbers into place to form a solid frame for the building, I have also decided to mill my own timbers from logs I harvested from the property. Call me crazy on any given day and you won't get any argument from me. Milling logs into the timbers the way I'm doing it is one of the crazier projects I have attempted since we got here.
Fallen off the Wagon
I blew a big hole in the budget today. I guess I will have to take responsibility for my flagrant act. I spent $100. on red geraniums.
Self-Sufficient Solar Chest Fridge
One of the biggest challenges of the self-sufficient , off-grid life is refrigeration. Standard refrigerators are out of the question since even the most efficient models consume far too much energy. Our small solar power system just would not support one. An alternative many opt for is the propane fridge but, of course, propane is a non-renewable resource and, where we are, no propane truck in its right mind will venture so we would have to haul the tanks ourselves. So, back to solar.
Voluntary Adversity
Voluntary adversity is a denial of the comfortable life. It is practised by forcing oneself out of a life of comfort and convenience and into a life of challenge and voluntary hardship. In pursuing our green lifestyle we became aware that we were going about it somewhat differently than most. Articles in popular 'green' publications tout the stories of people building large homes complete with massive solar arrays, wind turbines, solar thermal and generator backup systems all in an effort to live a green life without sacrificing any of the creature comforts they have become accustomed to when living on the grid. Although I applaud anyone pursuing a more sustainable lifestyle it seems there is a missed opportunity here.
Get Rid of the Grid
Mostly people think of 'the grid' as the grid-like mass of wires typical of the electric power providers and going off-grid is a process of disconnecting from the power grid in lieu of solar or wind power. The grid is much more pervasive in our lives than just the power grid, however. If you think about it the grid is a kind of metaphor for big, centralized control of essential services in our lives. Energy is one but communications is another, as is banking, insurance, and of course, government is the big one.
It's Easy Being Green
In spite of what kermit says, it is easy being green...with the help of google, that is. Diane and I were discussing just this morning what it would be like living a green lifestyle without the internet and, whereas of course it is possible and has been done for centuries BI (Before Internet), it certainly wouldn't have been as easy. Back in those days everybody lived a green life out of necessity. They simply didn't have the water, food or power to squander but that was before we all got addicted to oil and started living the soft life. Going back to a more sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle today, as we have, has been made so much easier by the availability of the internet.
Literature of Nature
As an English Lit. student at U of T I have noticed this theme of self-sustainability in nature is an obsession of writers in the past couple of centuries and particularly in North America. Some of the most inspiring and relevant to the quest for self sustainability are of course, the trancendentalists: Henry David Thoreau's 'Walden,' and Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay's and lectures, especially 'Self-Reliance.' Here is an example of what Emerson has to say: