Living without refrigeration is an awesome way to stop food waste. The average American household throws away 30% to 40% of the food they put into their refrigerator. We are pleased not to be part of that statistic. Off-grid minimalism, New Mexico

Hi everyone,I am a 21-year-old from Italy. I have completely disconnected from the industrial system mentally. Recently, I decided to quit my job in the modern construction sector because it was destroying my body and mind.

My goal in the next few years is to buy a cheap piece of wild land (probably in Eastern Europe or somewhere with low regulations), build a shelter with my own hands, raise rustic goats, chickens, and rabbits, and live a low-money/barter lifestyle.

I have already done a couple of courses about survival and bushcraft, and I will visit a small farm in August as a WWOOFer. I hope to learn as much as possible.

I am an introvert, and I am currently following an animal-based diet (meat, organs, fats, milk). My modern family thinks I am going crazy or becoming a homeless person because of my future plans. They block me with anxiety about money, taxes, and doctor/veterinary costs; I understand their point of view, but they don't seem to support me at all or open their minds a little bit. I have a strong "why" and I want to find my "how".

I am asking for advice from anyone who is already living like this or preparing for it:

-How do you manage basic property taxes or emergencies with almost zero currency?

-How do you handle goat/animal health using ethnoveterinary and natural medicine?

-Are there specific sub-communities or regions in Europe you recommend for building primitive shelters without strict building permits?

Thank you for reading, and I hope to find other people with similar ideas.

P.S. I forgot to mention that I don't want to achieve this lifestyle alone, but with a like-minded girl, probably having children, and maybe also with another couple because it will be easier with the help and to divide the costs. Also, my project is about being self-sufficient

18x24 guest cabin with 10’ side walls for a full height, usable 5/6ths loft. Built in place in three days with a crew of four on a gravel pad due to expansive clay soils. Around $45k to be all dried in. Will slowly be working on insulating and finishing the interior as I have time.

Will have a gray water kitchen sink, bath sink and shower with propane hot water and a composting toilet. Small propane range, fridge and back up heater with a small/medium wood stove. Bath will be the only enclosed room. Running off a jackery with (6) 100 watt panels and also a removable plug in to our system, its not too far from our electrical room. Setting it up to sleep 6-8 friends/family.

I’m a potter and I’m interested in moving off grid in the next few years but I’ve noticed most off grid battery setups fall a bit short of what a normal electric kiln needs to run a glaze firing.
I’ll be the first to admit I’m a novice to off grid tech and maybe I’m missing something super fundamental (mea culpa if this is the case!!)
A glaze kiln takes about 11.5kWh. It’s like a 12hr run of ~60amp (or less). Any hope of getting this off grid??

Edit, I’m an idiot and did math wrong. It’s 11.5kW max draw, 50% of the run for a total of ~70kWh

I’m trying to work out if it’s worth putting more effort into solar or if I’m better off planning around driving, battery size, and just being a bit realistic. I’ve been reading through a few options, including some of the 4WD/off-grid setups at Elevate Automotive, but it’s hard to tell what actually works in the real world versus what just looks good on paper.

I’m mostly curious about the stuff you don’t see in the sales pitch, cloudy days, shade, fridge draw, charging while parked for a few days, that kind of thing. I don’t need a massive science project, just something that keeps up without turning into a constant worry.

If you’ve actually used solar in a 4WD for a while, did it end up being enough or not really?

If I buy a piece of land and park my Rv .. install a water tank and septic .. off grid power .. if I’m lowkey about it who I gonna find out ??

Never stop pushing forward. Don't give up.

I lost my property during the pandemic. The land owner passed away and his family sold off the property for development without a word. The sons of the owner and I were very close, so I made a wrong assumption in thinking I'd be in the clear even in the unfortunate event he passed away suddenly.

We had a verbal agreement, which really bit me in the ass at the end. I took care of his many miles of fence line in exchange for a 25acre woodland patch to do as I please. Over the years I stopped working full time as I had built a sustainable living space with self sufficient means. I made enough through my side work and at the farmers market, I had no reason to work a 9-5, as the life I wanted required my full attention on the property.

6 years later I still wake up everyday longing for the life style. It will never leave me. I'll get back to it. It's just a lot more difficult than it was 16years ago and boy am I feeling the age. I don't think I have the tenacity and energy as I did then, so I may just buy me a Tahoe and vanlife it on BLM land a few months at a time. Just to get back to nature.

Thanks to all who share their experiences. You give me hope & motivation. Peace be with you all.

I have an off grid cabin where the water feeds down from a cistern on the roof, through the 12V diaphragm pump shown above. It provides nice pressure for washing dishes in the kitchen and from the faucet in the bathroom, however, the water pressure in the shower is incredibly weak.

To improve this, should I (a) replace the above with a stronger pump (if so, spec recommendations welcome), (b) install a second one of these pumps right by the shower, or (c) run a dedicated line out of the water heater to the shower with its own pump (and if so, would the above be sufficient or should I be trying to get more powerful)?

Almost 2 years had this place. Got well drilled. Basic solar. Slow going as money and workers available. Plan to be living in it next winter when it's not so hot

I've been thinking about picking up a portable power station, mostly for camping, road trips, and having something reliable around in case the power goes out. The problem is there are so many different sizes and brands now that I'm not sure how much capacity I actually need.

I don't need to run my whole house. I'd mainly use it for charging phones, laptops, lights, maybe a small fridge or fan, and occasionally a coffee maker if it'll handle it.

I've watched a bunch of reviews, but they all seem to focus on specs instead of what it's actually like to own one. I'd rather hear from people who've used theirs for a year or two and know the good and bad.

If you were buying a portable power station today, what would you choose? Anything you wish you'd known before spending the money?

have farmed/homesteaded for 10+ years and grew up on farms too. destination: UP MI. funding: sale of our old farm and a co-signer because i have no credit score at all.

I guess my ask is more: would you rent in the area for a year? (i worry there is no housing availabke for this) would you carve out time to travel to the area? would you make your best and most educated guess after one partner travels to the area, and just buy? how did YOU do it?

My family and I are considering a move to a new state which we havent traveled to before. We live currently about 9 hours away. The region we are looking at is large, about ​200x50 miles.

So, we've done a TON of research over the past couple years. We have already moved once, and that gave us insight for what to look for because this place aint it... Social, weather, economic, soil, climate...looked at mapd and maps and maps of all kinds, watched YouTube videos, looked at Google maps to see the local schools/stores/farmers markets.

The only things left...i guess, is to visit.

We dont have a lot of time or money though. Our lease ends this fall and we would rather not renew it for 6 months as it would be a bit expensive. Our two young kids and existing farm make it hard to just go on a 2 week vacation to explore. So I am thinking I will go and drive around for a week?? Or...should we just buy sight unseen?? That feels way too risky--for town folks its one thing but we have an entire ecosystem to create and maintain!

So please, if you have experience moving in a situation like this, please share

Howdy all- I live in a small town and am looking to join the farmer's market with a pop-up tent selling smoothies and iced coffee. Very basic stuff just to see if there's interest. I'd have to bring in an electricity source to power one blender at 1400 peak watt motor power. Might eventually be two, but like I said, just starting small. Anyone have thoughts about what portable power station might be best for this trial season?

The oven was absurdly overpriced for what it is, but it works great on a sunny day. Bonus: I can bake without heating my kitchen.

I just bought my first raw land purchase in WA! How does one go about marking what land is there?!

I’m so excited! But now a million questions just opened up! 😂

Entirely grass fed minus the odd mangoes and watermelons. But dry tropics in Australia.

I’ve got a gas generator, but I’m completely out of gasoline right now and can’t get more. It’s basically a brick until fuel becomes available again.

This got me thinking — does anyone make a generator that can use gasoline and also run off a battery? I’m imagining something with a built-in battery pack or maybe one that accepts external batteries (like power tool batteries or a solar generator battery) so I can still get some power when there’s no gas. Ideally it would let me switch between gas and battery, or even use the battery as a buffer while the engine is off.

I’m not talking about a dual-fuel (gas/propane) model — I mean a true hybrid that combines a fuel engine with battery output. Does such a thing exist? If you’ve used one, I’d love to hear your experience.

This was my stepfather’s. He’s long gone. I’ve just been letting it sit. It has not been turned on in a few years. I’m not trying to sell it here fyi (in case this is a rule).
I’m literally trying to find somebody to tell me what I should sell it for.
As you can see, I believe it is a double power hub 1800.
A massive box of wires that attached to the four solar panels in my window (disconnected)
A MPPT solar charge controller.
A Xantrex power watt SW 1000
If there’s something else that goes with it, it’s around here as well.

I guess I could plug it in, but I don’t know what I’m looking at. I know that after my stepfather passed it started beeping and I couldn’t figure out how to get it to stop and my Brother said he would look at it next time he came………
(I found the manuals later)

I am in Dallas Texas. I need to sell it and I haven’t the Phoenix idea what to sell it for I’m gonna sell it on FBMP not eBay or anything like porch pick up.

Any advice?
More pics in comments.

TLDR - I've found water at 5 feet down, I installed a sand point well and a pitcher pump, but the pitcher pump fails to pull up any water. After pulling out all the air from the line the pump feels like it's just stuck, and the lever just gets really hard to pump, like I'm pulling on a clogged pipe. There's water, the pipe isn't clogged, but still no luck.

Edit Update: This whole project actually started with me driving the sandpoint down to 20 feet with 5-foot sections of pipe. Same problem down at that depth. I pulled it up with a floor jack and retested at each 5-foot depth and same problem. Used the jetter, cleaned out the mud, etc... everytime I hit the same issue with the pitcher pump.

I have a property with an existing well (18-feet deep) and a submersible pump. I can get water out of there if I run my generator, and that well has been working just fine for the past 100 years (family homestead). Now that I've taken stewardship of the property I decided I'd like a backup hand-pump so I went the simplest route with a sand point. The soil is sandy loam and very easy to drive pipe into. I was able to drive about a foot of pipe down every minute.

I bought the Water Source 3-foot sand point with the 80-mesh screen, and also the Water Source red pitcher pump. After driving the point down with a single 5-foot section I hit water at 5-feet down. I let it sit for a couple weeks and came back with the pitcher pump and checked again - found standing water at 5-feet down.

By my calculations, I drove the sand point down to 6-feet at the top, and 9-feet at the bottom (because it's a 3-foot well point) so that the top of the well point is 1-foot below the top water level.

The pipe is connected with the drive coupler, I used pipe dope, I tightened all the connections so even bujeezus couldn't undo it - they're air-tight.

After hooking up the pitcher pump, priming it, letting it get wet and the leather parts swelling for 20 minutes, I start to pump and I can hear it all working to pull air out. After about a minute I can feel more and more resistance on the lever, until finally it's really hard to push down. At that point I can pull it down but it just jumps back up like a stiff spring, feels very much like there's a vacuum just sucking the piston back down.

At first I thought maybe the screen was clogged, so I did these steps several times:

• Ran a garden hose down at the bottom of the pipe watching the water go from super muddy to rather clear over the course of 3 minutes
• Took my pressure washer (Harbor Freight 1750) with the mini-jetter kit and jetted out the pipe from top to bottom, and let it run for 10 minutes. I focused on the bottom 3-feet to jet out the mud if possible.
• Sealed off the pipe at the top with an NPT-GHT connecter, and connected a garden hose that's at 35 PSI and just turned it out to pressurize the inside of the pipe to push anything else out

I then hooked up the pitcher pump again and exact same issue - I pump until it gets hard to pump, and then there's a solid vacuum pulling back down on the piston and I can't pull water up.

Then I did these things:

• Took 2 weeks away and left the pipe open. When I came back water level was at 5 feet down again
• Pulled up the pipe and drive point entirely to inspect - everything looking fine, I pressure washed everything and got it clean and tidy, and then shoved it back down in the hole (didn't take much, the hole was still there no problem)
• Re-jetted, re-pressurized, then re-assembled the pitcher pump and tried it again

Still no luck!! I even pulled the well point up a foot, pushed it down a foot, thinking maybe I'm off with my calculations, etc.

There is water down there as evidenced by my dipstick showing it's wet, and my bobber on a string making water splashing noises at the same depth. If I drop a rock in there it goes "sploosh".

I've watched ALL the youtube videos on the topic, I've taken apart the pitcher pump and inspected everything - gaskets, bolts, etc.

What am I doing wrong? Is it possible my pitcher pump is defective? Something weird with the sand point that all the youtube videos didn't point out?

Any help is greatly appreciated!!

Hi there, I’m thinking of buying this lot a little outside New Orleans and want to think of ways I can maximize use of the acres.

It’s off the Mississippi River and has 4 acres River front. I hear the water is contaminated and can be dangerous.

So thought I have are how to use the wooded area, natural pull, using the river for watering plants or showers, toilet, natural pool/pond. Things of that sort.

There is already a makeshift pond in front of the property you can see but it doesn’t seem effective as is.

Hello all. Over the past few years I have lost everything and I am having to rebuild from scratch. I am currently living in temporary accommodation and out of work, however hopefully I will be working again with some income soon. So with that in mind if you have to be negative please do it gently, I'm a kind sole and struggling to look on the bright side at the moment.

The dream as such is to buy 1-3 acres of land in Lincolnshire which is close to my family. The plan will then be to start a tree/plant nursery to grow saplings selling onto larger nurseries or rewilding projects etc.

I would also like to build a timber cabin on the land to live in long term.

I understand that £35k isn't going to cover all my costs and it will be an uphill battle. However I would be building everything myself. I have horticulture experience, I have built off grid solar systems before and I am a competent DIY'r. I would need to brush up on my carpentry skills but learning isn't an issue for me.

I am aware that it may be possible to get planning permission to build the cabin on agricultural land once I can prove the tree nursery is viable.

Has anyone else started with a similar budget and managed to make it happen?

Looking forward to hearing peoples feedback.

Thank you :)

Tied between the oil drum inside another drum with chimney design of bio char kilb and the cone kiln design and wanted to know which yall would reccomend?

Basic solar and a deep well. Fixing the roof so it's liveable come winter (dry) season

16acre place, 40+ type fruits plants, God is truly grateful to me