Systems Overview

I have been dreaming of an off-grid life since the mid-90s. Prior to that, I went through a phase of being the traditional American Consumer(tm) – owning a home, driving a car, working a well-paying union job with a second job to help support my upscale shopping habits. I don't recall a particular epiphany, but at some point I realized I didn't feel satisfied by the consumer lifestyle.

I already had a long-standing interest in what I dubbed “pre-industrial revolution lifestyles” aka “how did they do that before electricity?!”. I had candles throughout the house (for Midwest storm-induced power outages) and was a member of a blacksmithing guild where I tortured the old-timers by wanting to bypass the trip hammer in favor of making my own arm fall off! Ah, the idealism of youth.

As I was developing my ideas of what I now call “a satisfying and sustainable off-grid life”, I met a fellow with similar aspirations. The next several years we played with both solar and wind power, rented a rural earth-bermed home with a clothesline out front, searched for our own property to purchase, and lived on his parent's hobby farm for a year.

In the end, he decided he preferred the city with its proximity to friends and burger joints, while I still pined for a more independent rural existence, and we parted ways. I learned a lot in those years though. Experiments were conducted, books and newsgroup read, knowledge accumulated.

In the spring of 2009 I was given the opportunity to move to Maine, and for many reasons I jumped. A few months later I was able to take on on-line class that helped coalesce much of what I had read and pondered for so long.

The end result is what I term the Systems Overview. What systems do you depend on, and what are some potential alternatives? The answers are likely to vary for each individual, due to our own personal tastes and how each of us define “satisfying”. The fellow I mentioned earlier was a big fan of British comedy television, and life without Red Dwarf or Monty Python held little appeal to him – thus the wind turbine to power his viewing choices. Myself, I require books to read and paper to write upon. But what follows I believe is a fairly generic overview.

In my notes from that class, I've copied some unknown person's (I think Maslow's list was more limited than this) Basic Hierarchy of Needs:

-Air
-Water
-Food
-Light
-Shelter
-Heat/cooling
-Safety
-Hygiene
-Physical health
-Mental health
-Support

Air - I don't have a lot to say about air. No air, no problems – you're dead. Although there are places where the Air Index suggests there are problems, those are places I have no interest in being anyway! Although I have to admit, I am fond of cities being places to keep too many people out of the country. Those who live there might want to add a HEPA filter to their necessities, however.

Water – sources; filtration/purification; storage; heating; garden irrigation; animal needs

Food – Acquisition: growing, trading; Storage: drying, canning, smoking, freezing, winter harvesting; Preparation: recipes, cooking, tools

Light – Petroleum products: oil lamps, paraffin candles; plant/animal products: fats, beeswax, pitch, bayberries; Electricity and batteries

Shelter – roof and walls; clothing; bugs and other pests; sleeping needs

Heat/Cooling – Staying warm, keeping cool

Safety – Awareness and common sense; Defenses and weapons

Hygiene – Washing bodies, dishes, clothing; removing excrement; trash and recycling

Physical health – Fitness; First aid, medical and dental care; common ailments and treatments; herbal medicines

Mental health – Community; Identifying and filling personal needs (see above re comedy and books)

Support – Community; communications

With the exception of Air, about which I've already said all I have to say, each of these topics has many subtopics with a myriad of details. As such, I will address each of them individually (although not necessarily in this order).