Please accept that we have never overly promoted OTG-ing to our family and friends as a TEOTWAWKI response, a SHTF emergency plan. But we have promoted the lifestyle. We have emphasized nature, health, physical work, skill-building, personal growth and the like. Of course, The Zombie Apocalypse gets thrown around and even discussed a bit but fear is not the OTG message, health and happiness is.
Anyway…my son and my daughter have recently visited. Again. Not a surprise – they come a few times every year. But it is not easy for them. One comes from another province, the other has a family a few hundred miles away. They both work full-time jobs altho my daughter works for herself and is a digital nomad-of-sorts. Still, time is tight for them – but they came again a week ago. “Hey, Dad! We’re coming up in a week or so. Both of us. Together!!”
My daughter’s new-found agenda, it seems, is to ‘learn’ how to live off-the-grid. “Like, what do you do, really? Other than chop wood? And, like, can I do it? Could you write up a manual?” My son’s even newer agenda is to suss out the the general area, the topography, the supplies, the tools. “Hey, dad, just how much water do you need to gather and how does that work? And what do you do when it all freezes up? Oh, yeah, just how much food do you keep on hand…you know, like, for emergencies?”
What they are really saying is: “When we inherit the empire, what needs doing and, if we have to come here in an emergency, what should we bring?”
They are now WOKE OTG-style. Something about our OTG-ness has clicked with them and, coincidentally, it seems to have occurred to them both at much the time. Seems they have been talking.
Now, do not get me wrong….my kids are hugely proud of what we have done and still do and they have been parent-proud since we started. (‘But it was a bit weird…..‘). They even kinda brag about their parents…not me so much as Sal but still, both of us. And it is not so much a pride-in-the-parent thing as it is a pride of lifestyle choice and a bit about the skills we have developed. Septuagenarian Sal continues to impress with her skills, stamina, strength and cooking. The simple fact that I am not yet doddering and can still move a few heavy things around is now a star on my page. “Hey, dad is not quite as stupid and misguided as we thought….maybe…”
But something clicked in the last year….something ‘woke them up’. Twasn’t us. Now they see OTG as a worthy goal, not an eccentricity. Now they are embracing it. They are anticipating it. They are – in a way – EXPECTING it! And they got there on their own.
“So, guys. I am pleased that you are both embracing this way of life and I am just as pleased that you are planning on your inheriting it all. That’s good. I am even more pleased that you are aware that you will need to expand your skill set and, eventually, will need to improve and expand the empire. It kinda looks like you are planning and getting into the ‘prepping mindset’. Is that right? Are you guys planning your summer cabin or are you beginning ‘OTG preppers’? And, if going OTG is true, what prompted this enlightenment? Are you seeing something more threatening than I am seeing? Do you know something I do not? Are you sensing something? What is prompting this renewed interest?”
The answer might surprise you in it’s nothingness……“Nothing, really, dad. I mean, the world is clearly going completely bonkers but there is no one thing that has spurred this. It’s more of a growing preference for this lifestyle over the city. I like ‘Gotham’ but I find myself liking being out here more. I hate the traffic and the rat race too. But no real specific influence, no real series of events, nothing really prompting it….maybe a bit of climate change threat, I guess, but climate will impact us all. I dunno…..we’re both around 40….maybe we are getting old?”
Getting old? I don’t think so. Getting smart, maybe.
Our Off the Grid Home 
Total agreement with the kids..
I loathe driving in this city and my job requires daily excursions all over Hells half acre.
What are the ages of the kids? Mid 30’s?
Hopefully they follow through with a cottage or OTG home.
Get some pointers from your two and….
Nice to have the extra hands and the company before you become a diaper filling , porridge drooler……. or if we’re doing acronyms a DFPD.
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Well, thanks for that, Noncon. Great vision. Diapers and porridge…pooing and drooling….great!
We just spent five days in Victoria. Hell hath no equal to that of the traffic in Victoria. To get a loaf of bread, a box of screws, a bottle of wine and something really good from a restaurant is impossible to do in under four hours now. Worse, the restaurants are no good*. “No restaurant is worth going to, dad. Covid and aging boomers not going out, street druggies and traffic…..no one goes out to eat anymore. Better to stay home and cook.”
*Saba Thai is still good. And My Chosen pizza is still good. But expensive. Sal and bought two burgers as we went up island – cost $40.00! JUST two normal burgers!
Anyway, I am just an old guy getting grouchier. So…never mind. Mind you, I read an article in Victoria that calculated that, to buy the average free-standing home was so high that, to qualify for a mortgage (5% down) the applicants had to make $240K a year. ApplicantSSS…..husband and wife HAVE to work and each has to make $10K a month. Sorry….two gender non specific partners have to make…..
I am gonna tell ya about the rock concert we attended……
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Hah! I was in Nanaimo last week for a day.
Probably in Victoria next week for a few days.
After summer its “crazy time” for us work wise..
I have a guy driving up to Comox tomorrow to look at a job.
I bought 2 medium sized pizzas for the guys last week…$60.00 plus tip!
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I’m thinking more and more people are going to stay home to eat.
This recession is just getting started.
Trudeau has asked his Ministers to find $18,000,000,000( Billion) to cut from the 2024 budget.
I’m thinking govt bailouts are over.
Time for these fiscal midgets in Parliament to pay the piper.
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Ummmmm….the fiscal BASTARDS just pass their blunders on to us. It’s called taxes. We pick ’em, they cheat us, we pay the bill and then we pick ’em again. Fool me once, ok, fool me for forty years….but I am now no longer fooled. They are crooks. NOT public servants. We are just serfs, slaves, sheep and stupid. Y’all can vote or not…. makes no difference….
Please…for your own sake….get out. GET OUT NOW!
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Don’tcha like a&w burgers,? Maybe 25 for 2 meal deals
So what about this rock concert?.
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West Coast Chicago is a CHICAGO tribute band from the lower mainland. A friend of mine is in the band. So, when they came to a theatre near us on Vancouver Island, we went. CHICAGO (TRANSIT AUTHORITY) started in the 70’s. Their fans are old peeps….like us. Big band sound, horns, ‘love’ lyrics…you know,,,old school? West Coast Chicago does an evening of C(TA) hits. Pretty good. But the best part was the audience. EVERYONE was over 60. Most were over 70! I was ‘in the middle’ at 75.
Old folks a’rockin’! MY friend was surrounded by groupies. Honest! Old gals all smiling and touching him…..it was hilarious.
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Good to hear that there are some smart young people around that understand what is important. And I see this slowly in more and more young people. They are looking for a better work/life balance and are more critical towards the rat race
So there might be some hope yet for the world as we know it
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