Living Off the Grid

Wow, it wasn't that long ago that we were just dreaming what it would be like to own some land, some animals, build our own home, and generate our own electricity. It all seemed so complicated in the beginning.
A wise man once told me, “ Randy, starting something is the best way to finish something”. Well, we got started. We started by looking for the perfect piece of property to build our dream on. We cut out pictures of what we wanted it to look like, sat in our oversized reading chair for two every morning and talked about what we would do when we were there. And we looked at a lot of property for sale. Then one day there it was. The ad read—40 acres, timber and pasture, lots of water, need to sell for health reasons. We jumped in the car and drove the 50 miles to see the property. When we drove over the edge of the hill to see Eden for the first time we both looked at each other and silently yelled, THIS IS IT! The asking price was way out of our price range and banks wouldn’t loan on a piece of bare land, so we just wrote on a piece of paper what we could do and handed it to the owner. We offered to pay $1000.00 per month till it was paid for. She needed the income till she could get back on her feet after surgery so it was a win win. I don’t know how we did it but we never missed a payment and now Eden is ours. Boy have we learned a lot. The first couple of years were spent building a road into Eden as it is about 1.5 miles from the County road. On our website we will discuss how to build a road, dig a cistern, grow and preserve food, build your own home, and make your own electricity. We will also showcase some products that we have found very useful in our quest to life off the grid. Currently we are preparing to start building our cordwood home. We will document the process for all to see and learn from. We believe it’s going to be important for families to learn how to provide for themselves and their neighbors. It doesn’t matter if you live in the country or in the middle of the city you can still grow most of your fresh vegetables and harvest the energy bounty from the sun.
So stop by, for a visit. Opt in to the e-mail update list, and learn along with the rest of us.
Cheerfully
Randy Cox (AKA Ratman)
http://www.SunWaterandWind.com