Off grid living

[Deleted User]

AG47 wrote: »

Fast growing poplar trees around the boarders of your land do indeed regrow very quickly.

If you start at one end coposing and leaving to regrow, if it takes you about three or four years to get back to where you started then you will find many new growth spurts.

These are perfect sizes for easy sawing off and chopping up into nice size logs to dry out.

The very larger branches take a bit more doing, but I just love chopping wood and reg rowing trees. It's an infinitely renewable fuel.

You get warm twice, once sawing and chopping then when you burn it

You coppice every 7 to 8 years not 3 to 4. We know as we coppice the hazel and willow in our large garden.

If you are serious about doing this then why not find out more correct information?

EachPenny

Spider_In_The_Bath wrote: »

You coppice every 7 to 8 years not 3 to 4. We know as we coppice the hazel and willow in our large garden.

If you are serious about doing this then why not find out more correct information?

The obvious advantage of coppicing every 3 to 4 years is it requires far less work to chop the cut wood into "nice sized logs"

John-K_3

Spider_In_The_Bath wrote: »

Not really too odd an idea. I would be happy with a patch of land and one of these Tiny House living off grid (my husband would not though :rotfl:)

Different people want to live in different ways. I would not want to buy a patch of land overseas, but I would love to buy a wood in the UK.

The issue is the OP is talking about doing this with no idea of how to do it (re heat, water, building).

I can see the appeal of having your own land, in a wood, or on a hilltop, or in the wilds of Scotland, it is the off-grid bit that seems strange.

Off-Grid in the U.K. has got to mean a very, very high probability of misery. As described by some on here t is a very different story to being 90% self-sufficient, but still having normal back-up.

[Deleted User]

John-K wrote: »

I can see the appeal of having your own land, in a wood, or on a hilltop, or in the wilds of Scotland, it is the off-grid bit that seems strange.

Off-Grid in the U.K. has got to mean a very, very high probability of misery. As described by some on here t is a very different story to being 90% self-sufficient, but still having normal back-up.

Why do you think my husband does not want to do it It would be really hard work.

We are rural and when the electricity goes off we usually have a few days before it is back on. That is fine we can manage, but everything takes ages (about 10 mins to boil enough water for cups of tea using the top of the wood / coal stove).

AnotherJoe

It comes down to what "living off grid" actually means.
If i cancelled my water electric and gas services does that count?
So is anyone who defaulted on payments and was cut off, "living off grid"?
Is a beggar on the street "living off grid"?

Perhaps someone who does it or wishes to do it, can define what living off grid means to them.

[Deleted User]

AnotherJoe wrote: »

It comes down to what "living off grid" actually means.
If i cancelled my water electric and gas services does that count?
So is anyone who defaulted on payments and was cut off, "living off grid"?
Is a beggar on the street "living off grid"?

Perhaps someone who does it or wishes to do it, can define what living off grid means to them.

There are two definitions that I know of:

One is a vague definition which encompasses living sustainably, perhaps growing your own crops and raising animals, then generating renewable energy through wind, water and solar and it may involve a composting toilet too.

I think that the idea is that you plan to do this rather than being cut off from not paying bills. So you are replacing services provided by 'the grid' with alternative services.

If I ever did have a Tiny House then I would go a with compost toilet, a cold water feed, water heated by stove, and solar and solar panels for power and light. Not easy though in un-sunny UK so you would be without lights and hot water at times.

The other definition is being off the radar for electronic tracing purposes. There is an author called John Twelve Hawks who lives off the grid (or used to - he now has a website and Facebook page). This type of off the grid would need to include no bank account, debit card, mobile etc where your life can be traced via electronic processes.

AnotherJoe

Spider_In_The_Bath wrote: »

There are two definitions that I know of:

One is a vague definition which encompasses living sustainably, perhaps growing your own crops and raising animals, then generating renewable energy through wind, water and solar and it may involve a composting toilet too.

Thanks and yes, vague indeed since that takes us down the rat hole of what "living sustainably" means. AFAICS its mixed up with the deluded notion of being "self sufficient"

AG47

The P.M just said we want to give planning permission to people who will actually build houses on the land,

We'll that's promising

spadoosh

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Thanks and yes, vague indeed since that takes us down the rat hole of what "living sustainably" means. AFAICS its mixed up with the deluded notion of being "self sufficient"

My understanding of 'off grid' is not being connected to the utilities grid. So fresh and waste water sorted on sight, electric, and heating sorted out on site etc.

'Living sustainably' is generally looked at from an ecological point of view. So buzz words like carbon neutral, locally produce food, energy efficient, reduced waste etc.

'Self sufficient' is a long rope. Theres two ends of the rope and that is those who are self sufficient in that they literally dont need to rely on others (i would imagine the lost tribes are in this category but then as individuals you could easily argue they wont be) and then theres the other end which is i earn enough money to pay for what i need, thus im self sufficient. In the middle of that rope youll have those who want to be self sufficient in fruit and veg production, a bit further self sufficient in all food (probably sketchier towards herbs and spices) self sufficient in clothing.


Basically it appears theres some ambiguity in how people use the english language.

As an example i say im wealthy or im poor what would you infer from them? You can only really speculate, context is required. Im self sufficient.... in lettuce.

To quote a self sufficiency guru...

Words are anchors for sense experience, but the experience is not the reality, and the word is not the experience. Language is thus two removes from reality. To argue about the real meaning of a word is rather like arguing that one menu tastes better than another because you prefer the food that is printed on it...To come to believe that the external world is patterned by the way we talk about it is even worse than eating the menu - it is eating the printing ink on the menu. Words can be combined and manipulated in ways that have nothing to do with sensory experience.

- John Seymour


I cant find who said the following one but i think its something that a lot of people who might google 'self sufficiency' are realistic about.

Self sufficiency isnt a goal, its a journey.

ProDave

AG47 wrote: »

The P.M just said we want to give planning permission to people who will actually build houses on the land,

We'll that's promising

That is aimed at stopping large builders "land banking" At the moment they keep on seeking PP for new developments when they have not started many that they already have PP for. The sceptics say by only building houses slowly they keep the price up and by sitting on land with PP stop other developers building on it.

What the PM is suggesting is one particular developer will not be allowed further PP if they are not even building the ones they have permission for already.

Of course all that will happen is a "different" developer will seek that PP instead so it may not speed anything up at all.