Tag Archives: off grid

Never Moving Fast Enough

I’m in a hurry to get things done
I rush and rush until life’s no fun
All I really gotta do is live and die, but
I’m in a hurry and don’t know why
-Alabama, I’m In a Hurry (and Don’t Know Why)

It’s been almost a year since we moved out of our last home, and the renovation process for our new home is at 7+ months. (Technically 9+ if you count the time trying to get permits. And I count that time.) I’ve been crazy busy for much of that time, but some of it, I just feel busy. Not having a TV back in our house helps not waste time, but I still feel like time is just slipping away.

Unfortunately, I feel like our current culture is all about busy-ness and “progress.” If someone isn’t running in a tizzy – if they’re relaxed – then we assume they have no aspirations, and they’re probably lazy.

Or maybe I’m just speaking from my own perspective, and no one else feels that way.

I’m trying to constantly step back and look at what is absolutely necessary and what is optional. It’s absolutely necessary to eat. If you don’t, the result is death. It’s optional, however, to respond to texts and emails within 5 minutes. If you don’t, the result is… Well – nothing. Someone might email you again.

My hope is that I’ll be able to live off grid in order to not be constantly trying to keep up with the Jonses. If I have no required expenses (besides property taxes, grrrr) because I generate my own power, pull water from my own well, and grow all of my own food, then I don’t need a huge salary or bank account. If you have a paid off mortgage, you can live on way less.

In trying to slow down, I’m stressed because the process is taking too long! A year after moving out of our last house, I assumed that we’d be settled, and we’d be ready for our garden and already be grabbing eggs from our chickens. Those things are not even close at this point (Though I do have bee hives! But no bees yet…). But – in light of the intention for getting off grid, I’m trying to be comfortable in the process instead of wishing for some tomorrow where all my stuff is done. Because all my stuff will never be done.

I’m definitely not saying that I want to be at a place where I have no ambition, and that I’m going to sit on my front porch in my underwear drinking piña coladas all day – not that I won’t ever do that. But rather than I’d like to be at a point where I can be still. Especially because it’s in those moments that I realize that God is holding the entire world together, not me. And that’s a good feeling.

How to Live Without TV

Leave a reply

I won’t lie. I like television.

When I was young, my mom had a fairly strict “only one tv show a night” policy, and I’d seriously just watch the first thing that was on when I’d get home from school. Then, my brothers would watch something else, and I’d realize that THAT was the show that I really wanted to watch. But, I’d usually circumvent the rule by sitting by my dad when he watched TV later that evening. (But mom… I’m just hanging out with Daddy!)

I also played a lot of nintendo. There was another rule: we could only play nintendo on Saturdays before noon. UGH! Such a difficult, broken childhood.

As I grew up, both rules were loosened, and I could watch more than one show, and play nintendo when my parents weren’t home (the perfect babysitter!). Incidentally, I got in trouble once when my mom went out the door, and I immediately went to the basement to play nintendo, only to find my mom yelling at me 3 minutes later. (She only went out to get the mail)

When I got to college, I was surprised at how little I cared about watching TV. There was too much to DO!

Then after college, eventually the old routine came back… You get home from a hard day’s work, and all you want to do is plop down on the couch and turn on the ol’ boob tube and zone out. Problem is, we’d start with just watching the news over dinner, and then we’d look up and we’re watching the news again at 10:30. And the evening is completely gone.

Three months ago, when we moved into our new house, we decided to move very little inside, knowing that as soon as renovations started we’d have to move it all back out. We didn’t think it would take long to get started (we’re still waiting on permits), so my wife agreed that it’d be ok to sleep on a mattress on the floor and have only a card table and chairs as the furniture. We also didn’t sign up for internet, since we’d probably be living somewhere else temporarily.

The internet thing is a little hard, mind you… I’m a web developer, so I happen to need that. Luckily I have my phone as a hot spot – but unluckily AT&T throttles me after 5GB even though my plan is unlimited. But that’s an unrelated rant.

So – no tv, no internet (besides coffeeshops, etc). You know what we’ve found?

We talk a lot more.

We sit outside with our three cats (that she convinced me we needed for purposes of getting rid of mice I don’t think we actually had). We make a camp fire a couple of times a week. We grab coffee with people.

Time actually slows down. There have been very few days where I’ve felt like I’ve got a bazillion things to do and no time to do it… Not because I usually waste time in front of the TV when I have a bunch of stuff to do, but because without TV I get a lot of those things done early. We feel like it’s midnight when it’s 8:37pm.

Maybe I’m just getting really old, but I often get to bed around 10pm these days. There’s no “one more episode of…” that I can watch, or another billion random links I need to follow. (I do spend a lot of time playing games on my phone when I can’t sleep at 10, but I convince myself that that’s different)

We have no idea what’s going on in the entertainment world right now. We rented a movie last night to watch on my laptop, and we didn’t know what hardly any of the Redbox titles were. We ended up getting one that was seriously an utter waste of $1.20, and it kind of shows us that we don’t need more of it. I don’t know who’s getting off the island, or dancing with celebrities, or getting roses, or whatever else is going on on tv.

And it’s wonderful.

We’ve decided that instead of putting the TV in the living room when we’re done with renovations, we’re going to to put it in an upstairs room. That way, we can still watch it when we want to, but we’ll have to decide to watch it rather than let it be the default.

I think the funny thing about technology is that its original intent (whether it be a phone, tv, microwave, washing machine, etc) was to save our time. If it takes 2 hours to prepare a good meal, and now we can do it 6 minutes, then the thought is that we have an extra 1 hour 54 minutes freed up to do something more meaningful. But the problem is, we usually just fill that extra 1 hour 54 minutes with something that isn’t meaningful. We keep finding ourselves new ways to be busy. We say things like “There aren’t enough hours in the day,” but the truth is – there are!

I’m not swearing off technology – nor do I feel like we should. But I do want to use things for their original intent: to free up time for meaningful things.

So, maybe the title suggests a 12 step program for not watching tv (step 1: don’t watch tv. step 2: uh….), but I guess it’s really more about how to spend your life rather than just wasting it.

But I need to get back to work… I’m only at the coffee shop for another 20 minutes…

Preparation

The House

Beautiful on the outside, the inside of the house is what we describe as wonky.

won·ky (wäNGkē) – adjective, informal
weird, whacked out, messed up, not working for no definable reason
(Urban Dictionary)

It was originally built without any bedrooms. Years after it was built, the previous owners’ health prevented them from going up the stairs to their loft where they slept, so they converted a garage into a bedroom. And it feels like a garage converted into a bedroom.

We obviously knew this going in, so we were totally prepared to renovate by adding bedrooms and fixing bathrooms, etc. What we were not prepared for is the process of getting the county government to approve permits for adding bedrooms.

We’ve been in the house for close to three months, and we’re still waiting on getting permits for changing our septic system to handle more bedrooms. Mind you – not the actual work, but permission from them to possibly do work. We have to have our soil tested, have duplicated soil sites the same size as the proposed septic system.

We had soil testing done well over a month ago, and the results were sent to the county, but their response was basically “meh.” They said the duplicate sites weren’t big enough. So – even though we have enough room for the septic system itself, the duplicated areas didn’t seem big enough. Then the guy said “you have seven acres, I’m sure you’ve got it.”

Then just give me the freaking permits.

I don’t get the requirements here… If I were to have an inadequate septic system, it would not affect them in any way. You and I both know that if there was an issue with my tank overflowing, I’d just dig a hole in the backyard while we fixed the problem. But I guess they’re just trying to save absolutely everyone from themselves, because it’s not fair to me to let me make my own decisions. But I digress.

After a month, the soil guys are back out today, and hopefully we’ll get that part squared away soon.

The Property

The house is nice (or – will be nice), and that’s what excited my wife when we first found it. But what gets me pumped up is the Land. (Yes – land is different than Land) I envision animals, gardens, orchards, etc, all over the place, and that means I’m happy to put up with a stressful time of renovating the house.

One unfortunate thing about our land is that it’s incredibly rocky. I don’t mean when you dig a hole, you find a handful of gravel; rather, there is a rock quarry about a mile away, and we have a natural rock patio behind the house. (As such, I realize that the soil guys have their work cut out for them)

Another unfortunate thing about our land is that the previous owners (or whoever “maintained” it for them) dumped garbage literally everywhere. There are a number of rock openings that someone deemed as landfill areas, I guess to avoid the two mile drive to the local dump. It amazes me that someone would live in such a beautiful area and treat it so poorly. I’ve got a truckload of junk that I need to haul off, and I’ve barely scratched the surface.

My dad let me borrow Big Bertha – his name for a mower/bushhog/beast that will tear through underbrush like it’s cotton candy. I’ve been on it for probably at least an hour a day for the past month, and the overgrown forest now looks like a state park. (Disregarding the landfills, of course)

You might say to yourself “Hey – I thought this guy wanted to go off grid! Why is he using machinery and gasoline to devour wonderful trees?” This is Geek Off Grid, mind you.

I love technology.

My plan for getting off the grid includes solar panels (which I already have – more on that later), Arduino projects, homemade generators and general nerdiness. More than survivalism, I want to be self-sufficient and self-sustaining. My homestead will be similar to one that you could have seen 200 years ago, but upgraded.

Homesteading 2.0

We’ve got a long way to go on both the house and property, but I’m enjoying the process. (Well – the process outside; not so much the process of getting permits)

Geek Off Grid

A nerd's adventures in self-sufficiency