The sequence in which we built is not quite the sequence I would recommend for anyone else. Of course, a series of carved-in-stone building procedures can’t be derived at without considering the site, it’s location and the cabin owner’s personal situation. It is a judgment call more than a recipe. But, generally speaking, gaining easy access to is likely to be step one.

For instance, our site is on a slope. A fairly severe one. The very first thing to do would be to build a deck (preferably level) from which to operate. That would give us access to balance and order. So, for us, a deck was priority one. It shouldn’t have been. Step one, perhaps, should have been ‘getting-up-the-rock-strewn-beach’. Hard to say. But we definitely erred next and went for a small boat shed for step two. It seemed like the right thing to do. Beach access should have been 1st or at least second.

The boat shed would provide tools and materials storage and a rough and ready temporary cabin. And we wanted that. We built it the same size as the deck it was attached to – 12 x 20. All of this was done with lumber ‘boated’ in and our power source was a ‘gifted’ Coleman genset.

In retrospect, the deck should have been larger by twice, the wood sourced locally and the concrete foundations ‘contracted out’ before we even arrived because locals have their infrastructure, tools and expertise more than at-the-ready. We really did not need the experience of mixing Reddi-mix in wheelbarrows with totes of water brought from a mile away. So a little beforehand research might have saved us a great deal more than it cost us in energy and hardship.

The boat shed was good but a tent would have sufficed a bit longer or, perhaps, the next bit of infrastructure should have come before – like the beach steps, more deck, piped water or just a better beach landing.

If I had road access and any kind of level gradient, I would have a shipping container delivered. Two of them, if the property was large enough. Shipping containers are cheap – even compared to building the same square footage yourself – and they are ‘instant’. Tools, camping supplies, materials can all be stored readily and one of the units can be a temporary ‘live-in’ or workshop or both. Quite frankly, I think shipping containers are the single biggest boon to remote cabin builders going.

Once the shed and deck was ‘operable’, I built the better-late-than-never sea-stairs and then the funicular. The sea-stairs are just ‘level’ steps leading into the sea so as to make beach access possible. That was difficult and necessary and no one could do it but an obsessed owner. Not something to contract out.

Same for the funicular. It is an 80 foot ‘tram’ that carries heavy crap up the hill. This was a good idea. But I should have made it a 120 foot length since materials have to go up past the building site so that one has the room to build. I took it just to the building site and then had to move it all forty feet further to make room for myself. Stupid.

One might think that building steps to the building site should come ahead of the funicular. Nope. The funicular was hard enough to erect on that slope. Stairs would only have gotten in the way. Instead, one (me) should have built a winch pad at the 130 foot mark and used a temporary 12 volt recovery/truck winch to pull up the funicular bits and pieces because even tho the funicular is, in effect, a glorified winch, one really needs a funicular to build a funicular.

It was around that time that the need for piped water began making itself felt. We didn’t do it right then but we should have. In fact, we didn’t pipe in water until our neighbour initiated the project a year later. Stupid us #2.

I guess I am just repeating myself but it is clear to me that the cabin is the last item on the list of things to be built. By setting yourself up properly (which we half-did) you have a much better chance of doing a good job on the cabin of your dreams.

Encouraged by the positive comment, he soldiered on……

If I were to undertake a cabin project again, I would start again exactly as I had the first time. Of all the dumb luck, my first few steps in this venture were, even in retrospect, astonishingly correct. It was an accident of character and circumstance, not rational planning but, however I got there, we lucked out and began properly. Step one was ‘right on’.

Step one, of course, was to buy the property 30 years before I was intending to use it. It was cheap then. Affordable. ‘Course, we couldn’t afford it even then so we had to buy it with a down payment of dumb luck and then struggle to make chicken-feed payments but, no matter, it worked. We ended up with 14 acres of waterfront just a smidge North of heaven.

So, suggestion: you can’t start too soon finding the property. And starting does not begin with a realtor. It begins by driving around areas that you are attracted to. Again, I won’t bore you with my values (otherwise you’d end up next door!) but think about your capabilities, think about your age, think about how you want to use it. Don’t just assume that some subdivision called Angel’s Resort lots are what you want.

Once you’ve picked your area, I’d recommend going there and asking locals about ‘pretty spots’ and local problems, politics, community plans and prices and such. Half the properties we have out here for sale will never get listed. And they each have stories attached that a perspective owner should know about. They will mostly sell by word of mouth.

I remember asking our local realtor (on behalf of a friend looking in the area) to let me know if he came across a piece of south-facing, waterfront with plenty of fresh water and not too far out in the boonies. At least ten acres, well-treed and affordable. “Hell, Dave, that is what everyone wants and there are only about 15% of the properties with all of that and I only get a small portion of them going through me. Count yourself lucky where you are. It won’t happen twice!”

Put more bluntly: if you want something out here, let me know. If you want something more than twenty miles from here, go make some new friends in the area of your choice. It is the local guy who knows the good properties.

I have a lot to say about buying recreational property and some of it has a bias to it and all of it would take up pages so I’ll leave it there. Bottom line: realtors and recreational property developments are not the best way to buy property. It can work, of course. But it is not the best way.

Suggestion #2. Start collecting junk. I asked Sal last night what advice she’d give and her first words were, “Tell ’em to fill up their garage with junk. It seemed like the stupidest thing in the world to me at the time but I now see it as a great way to save money, help design the cabin and build up your stores of materials at a low cost. I never thought I’d say this but you and your stupid junk came in really handy!”

“Unh, Dave, what does she mean by ‘junk’?”

For at least two years before we came out here I was cruising junkyards and salvage yards, garage sales and second hand stores and even spring clean-up piles just to see if I would find something obviously useful. And I did. Lots of good stuff.

But, to be fair, my most useful source of good junk was BC Hydro’s salvage department which is no longer functioning. Never mind. There are still other ‘recovery’ departments of the government, BC Ferries, large construction firms, movie sets, marine and demolition companies that have things whose useful lives at the commercial level are over but which would still be more than adequate at the cabin. I got a bit carried with winches but, generally speaking, I can control the urge to collect junk. Usually.

Well chosen junk is virtually free. Always cheap. Typically, you pay just a smidge over scrap metal values. I got hundreds of heavy galvanized fasteners for ‘scrap’ value that would have been dozens of times more expensive if bought retail. For example: instead of a cheap thinly galvanized lag bolt that would cost $8.00 each at Home Depot, I would get a dozen surplus double hot-dipped lag bolts for less than $5.00. The risk, of course, is that you don’t come to need the ‘surplus’ purchases but, after seven years out here, my stock of junk is down to a couple of wheelbarrows full and I can still envision a use for everything.

OK, I may have an extra winch or two.

I guess the point of this entry is to say: start early. If you think you will be retiring in five years, you are already five years late. Start now!

I am going to repeat myself a bit. Sorry. But it is necessary it seems. People build backwards and then run into trouble. Trust me, I know. I am still trying to move forwards after taking so many steps backward. And I was reminded of that the other day when we met another couple whose story was a litany of doing step five before steps one, two, three and four were even considered.

The tendency when planning and building a cabin is to spend all your time designing and dreaming of the exterior shape of the cabin and the interior decor. The fact that one is building a cabin as a place from which to enjoy the outdoors seems to be, temporarily at least, forgotten and, instead, much time is spent choosing flooring, kitchen cabinets and floorplans as if the cabin was just another tract home in the city. As if being inside was the focus.

The idea is to be ‘outside’!

That wrong perspective would be the most common mistake and tho, goofy in retrospect, not fatal in the long run, just goofy and a waste of energy and sometimes money. But, just to be clear: you likely do not need extra floorspace, you probably do need extra covered and open deck space. You likely do not need extra rooms but you might need outbuildings for all the ‘systems’ you will employ and maintain.

But even that is putting the cart before the horse.

Firstly, you should look to the property and see what it has to offer other than just as a building site. Cabin property is not usually just another niche in a subdivision of niches. It is usually larger, unique and more natural. If it isn’t, get out of there!

I tend to think of recreational property now as having say, 6 zones. The outside zone may not even be in your property but it includes the blackberries, the creek, the lake and the wildness of nature that drew you there in the first place. You don’t necessarily interact with it all the time but it is close and creates the character of your neighbourhood.

Zone five is that area closer to home that is still wild but is useable. It hosts your walking trail and is what you psychologically consider ‘your territory’. Your dog wanders there. Zone four is your yard. It may have a bench or a gazebo, a dock or some outbuildings or it may be left wild but it is definitely within your property line. This is yours.

Zone three is your outside-in-the-summer living space and zone two is your semi sheltered space that allows you to be outside but under cover and out of the wind. Zone two should be huge. Verandas, covered decks, BBQ stations, patios, seating, lounges, benches, potted plants.

Zone one is the cabin and is increasingly functional as the weather deteriorates and virtually unused (except for sleeping) when the temperature and conditions are considered perfect. Think: December and January I am in zone one, the cabin. July and August I am everywhere but. And the rest of the time is distributed proportionately coming and going through the zones.

I won’t bore you with all the things to look for (some are obvious like access and slope and how far from the building supply store) but view, wind direction, sun exposure, trees, rock outcroppings, rain run-off and soil conditions are just a few of dozens of influences that will have an impact on your life should you ever get to build and live there. But when you think about it, they will impact the zones in different ways. Even more than they will the actual cabin.

By the way, there is an interesting but odd syndrome that seems fairly common in cabin situating: “Let’s tuck the cabin out of sight. Nestle it in a crack or something”. I have no idea who these ‘tuckers’ think they are fooling but a B&E artist will find it regardless and usually tucking a building away in the shadows just makes for dark living, extra maintenance and more mosquitoes. I say (and it is just my opinion) keep your cabin open, airy and sun-filled.

The real consideration people get wrong is in the timing of the infrastructure. They build cabins and then build the stairways and pathways needed to get to it afterwards. Just think how much easier it would make building the cabin if the workshop, decks, driveway, pathways and stairs are erected first?

But an even more primary step is a good power source and system. It seems we all start by dragging stupid Coleman or other junk gensets around when we are building and then, later, build a nice genset shed and put in a spankin’ new Yanmar diesel that would have made the jobsite a better worksite from the start. Then we add solar panels and wind turbines and extra batteries. Then we add a larger gas tank that we can get filled by a delivery truck. Then we add a larger propane tank similarly supplied. All those ‘temporary’ measures suck building energy from you when you need it the most. They cost more in the long run and they rob you of the fun of building. I say, get whatever you can get established properly, delivered and get it in the largest quantity reasonable. Water, power, propane, etc. And do it before you build the cabin.

And water? Ohmygawd! We did with packing blue totes for a year. How stupid is that? Piping water from the creek should have been ‘work-reduction’ effort number 1. Believe me, after the first day of work you have used gallons of water and then there is the absolutely essential ‘shower’ and washing up necessary. And each gallon of water weighs ten pounds! Job #1: water supply and storage.

I decided to write this again because my son asked for more ‘basics’ on construction and getting started. If this is a tangent, tell me and I’ll limit it.

It is Wednesday. I haven’t posted for a few days. We had things to do, guests to entertain, jobs to work at and I had hurt my back to the level of not being able to function for most of that time. You’d think that was the beginning of a complaint, but it isn’t. I have enjoyed everything but the pain for the last four days.

Firstly, we had Sally’s sister, Mary, and a friend and they were exceptionally good guests. Many people are good company (especially our friends and family) but not everyone is a good guest. Being a guest is hard work. Being a great guest is a talent. I won’t bore you with what constitutes greatness over good but suffice to say, I have a bottle of Glenlivet here as a reminder of their time with us. And all the dishes are very, very clean to boot!

It was good. Very good.

I also had a friend come to visit in his new boat. He anchored in our bay. Paul has Canadian Shores. Google it! 85 feet of high seas aluminum commercial fish boat complete with all the doo-dahs and toys of a charter boat. Makes a guy drool just looking at it! CS is for charter but the boat is a real work boat as well. It can and does ply the high seas and, when they catch tuna and halibut, it is a real working vessel.

This ain’t no panty-waist, bright-work, fancy yacht we’re talking about! This is really macho!! People who ‘sign on’ for a ride, get a real adventure if the season is on. And, if a thrill is not what you wanted, there is plenty of boat and activity in the summer on the inside passages for anybody. At around $500 a day – all in – it is a bargain.

Speaking of bargains: my community work is done. We finished today. Bunkhouse project, phase one, is done. And I am glad. I have to get on with my own chores and right now I have to do it slowly and carefully for awhile until the back feels good enough to abuse again.

There is something slightly obnoxious about promoting one’s own lifestyle. Especially at the expense of others. And Dispatches From Off The Grid (DOG?) is guilty of that in spades. Apologies. Honest.

It is not, of course, the intention of this journal to be offensive (I can achieve that in any number of other social interactions without breaking a sweat) but such a result is inevitable it seems when discussing life, lifestyle, people and other personal matters – especially the interesting ones.

Say something nice about something as benign as living differently and the implication is that the other, more normal and ordinary life sucks. It is a relative/comparitive thing and it can sound faintly like a competition or something. Or, rather, it might sound that way.

Keeping up with the Jones’s can morph into keeping up with the Hatfields and the McCoys and dissing the Jones’s in the process.

So, let me apologize again and now for past and future references to a lifestyle I like better than the one I came from. I do not think that ordinary life sucks (which is not quite true – I kinda think that it does but I am trying not to say so too often). I am just saying that it really sucks for me and that, for me and Sally, this lifestyle currently feels much better.

Disclaimer: the above does not preclude future rants against the MAN, the system, the cul-de-sac, the rat-race, the madding crowd, politicians, authorities, institutions and/or similar elements of society, conformity, control and political correctness just to name a few. It just means that I apologize in advance.

That point of view might be a hard sell at this very moment, however. I can barely stand up and my back is excrutiatingly painful. Backpain happens for me now and again with an annoying frequency. The Alternative Lifestyle is limited by mobility and finances and, this time it is mobility (mind you, it is hard to spend if you can’t move!).

A physically healthy lifestyle is physically more taxing and sometimes we break. Well, I do. Sal is an Amazon-of-steel! I hate it when backpain happens. It always feels as if I won’t ever heal.

But I do.

Then I hurt myself again a month or so later.

Thank God there is an answer: Kim. Kim is my neighbour’s daughter and, when she comes up to visit, she brings her massage stuff and somehow, magically, consistently, blessedly, she heals me. She is literally the angel of pain relief. And, thankfully, she is here this weekend. I am glad. I have a schedule this summer and I have plans to hurt myself again soon.

But just to put a ‘spin’ on this blog: it is amazing how frequently an answer or solution presents itself just when you need it most. I hurt my back a few days ago twisting and lifting at an odd angle and have been whining and complaining ever since. Voila! Kim comes for an unscheduled surprise visit. Like an angel.

Honest – so often have we been confronted with an insurmountable obstacle just to discover the solution in the form of a surprise visitor or a talented neighbour that I confess we are now almost expecting miracles. That they come whenever I need them does not disuade me in the least in having this weird kind of faith.

In fact, I may chastise Kim for taking so long!

It is the middle of July and it has felt like late Fall for the last few weeks. Especially for the last few days. Wet, rain-forest misery. It has just poured. Thursday was so bad it felt biblical.

It is unseasonably cool and rainy most of the time these days and it seems that has had an affect on our mood. We are both a bit frustrated in our daily to-do plans and Sal, in particular, feels the deprivation of light. Like the flower she is. You don’t get rosy cheeks from being indoors, you know!

I confess that I am somewhat less bothered by the damp. In fact, really bright sunshine (especially when it is also hot) is usually unpleasant for me. I actually prefer a few clouds and a cool wind as a rule. I am exceptionally well insulated and do not require any extra BTUs in my life until the temperature drops into the 40’s (F) or into single digits (C). But even I expect the sun to shine now and then and it has been remarkably absent so far this summer. Not good.

Writing about the weather is also pathetic. I generally refuse to engage in even common conversations about the weather for the same reason. My life is generally full and, to me anyway, interesting. ‘Surely we have something better to talk about than the weather?!’

Not so much today. Today, it is just rain. And more rain. Then some more………

On a brighter note, I have had more than enough time on the computer. Usually I have to limit myself (you know how hypnotic it can be, right?) but today I have had my fill. I have looked up everything I wanted to and even sent off for some mail-in rebates. You know how desperate you are when you do that! The upside? RIGID tools is sending me two new lithium-ion batteries.

It really does get much better than that. Honest! Just not today.

There are more bachelors living feral than spinsters. It is natural, I guess. Women tend to value relationship more than do men, I think, and so they are not so much alone as a rule. The older men get, the lonelier they are and if they are rural and single, they are often isolated.

And isolation makes you quirky. Many men seem to get soooooo bloody quirky as they age that independence/loneliness becomes the default position for them. That or the sanitarium!

It is just the way it is. There is a long history of the lone wolf male (although I admit that there are more than just a few crazy cat ladies out there as well). Their only live-in is a pet. And some pets are just as independent and quirky.

Nevertheless, however it happens, we have our ‘lone’ characters out here. Len is one of them. I saw him on the dock the other day and inquired as to his health. He has a bad back.

“Not bad, considering I just moved the old fridge out of my bedroom all by myself and I’m no worse for it.”

“Well, I got the old gal down on the front porch, eh? And now that I sees what’s wrong, I am figuring to clean off the nests and crap with a leaf blower and attach another propane line. Once I got the old door on, I’ll fire it up. Just might work fine for keeping prawns, ya know?”

Sometimes when you are driving in the country or maybe watching an old re-run of Deliverance, you’ll notice a country house with an appliance or two on the front porch. If you are like me, you wonder, ‘How the hell does an appliance end up on the front porch?’

Now you know.

Seems I dropped the topic of batteries into the blog (Sacrificial Anode) out of the blue. I was told by my son to ‘go back and give it some context. Then tell us what happened’. So, here:

Living off the grid means generating or harnessing your own power at the simplest definition of the term and we have done so. Our system consists of 8 solar panels on a 20 foot pole next to an even higher tower with a small wind turbine. We can, on a blustery, sunny day, generate 180 watts at 48 volts, enough to keep us ‘juiced up’ and with some to spare for charging the batteries.

That natural electricity (48 Volts DC) is channeled into a charge controller and then delivered to the house electrical closet or the batteries by way of a 100 foot cable as thick as child’s wrist. I have 12, 8-D industrial fork-lift-type batteries which together store about 600 amp hours. That power (still DC) is then ‘inverted’ to 120 volts by way of the Outback inverter (situated in the closet) and fed to the house circuits. I can also feed the house circuits by way of the genset.

The gensets (we have 3 but use only two and only then, one at a time.) not only power the house directly but also power battery chargers so that the batteries remain full. That means that we can turn on the genset only when we need to (when using a heavy load)or when the batteries need charging. Most of the time we run off the stored battery power.

We make more natural power in the summer and less in the winter.

Batteries, however, are the weak link in the system. The technology is old whereas the inverter/charger solar/turbine array is relatively modern and the gensets are technology somewhere in between.

A diesel genset kept up and maintained well would last the rest of my life for the amount we use it. So would the solar panels and the sophisticated side of the system (inverter, etc.) probably. But batteries have a very limited lifespan. Especially the cheaper and more common lead & acid types which are what we have. They die young.

I put on 8 of the 8-Ds last year and added 4 more just recently. Until last year, I was relying on 8 older 6 volt batteries that made up my second bank historically speaking. The first bank we had was 48 x two-volt batteries that were salvaged from BC Hydro after reaching the ripe old age of 15 or so years. They gave me three more years before I had to scrap them.

Some batteries will last five years of light use (car battery) and others will last twenty years of heavy use (large 2 volt batteries that each weigh over 150 pounds and cost over $500 each). I’d need 24 of those.

So the last battery blog was basically about me doing maintenance by way of upgrading the battery system. I’ll have to do it again in about seven years if I do a good job caring for them, ten years if I do a great job and as short as five years if I screw up. Screwing up is easy, especially in cold weather.

Batteries need to be cared for more in cold weather and, of course, that is when we try to go some place warm. We never take our batteries with us in the winter (together the 12 weigh 18-1900 pounds) so I have to rely on something else to keep them happy. That is why we have the relatively poor performing wind turbine. Even tho it does not make much juice, it makes enough to keep the batteries happy in the winter – whether we are here or not. So it is a critical part of the system.

The other day I was taking my eight older 6 volt batteries off-line and putting on the four new 8Ds (12 volt). Connecting batteries so that they add up to 48 volts is critical. That is what the system is designed for. So, I did. So far, nothing too scary although it is all too easy to touch battery terminal ends with a wrench when you are on your back and working under a low counter in a small space. But it went well.

The scary part for me is when I wire in the #3 bank of batteries (the 4 new ones) to banks #1 and #2 that have already been in service for the last year. When I do that, I am basically adding 200 amps to 400 amps and making a potential ‘arc-of-death’ if I do something wrong. I hate that.

So, I checked and checked and then I checked some more. Then I quit and went back at it the next day repeating the checking until I was ready to attach the final battery cable to the inverter and marry up the whole system. And I checked again. When it was time to drop the cable on the battery terminal, I was pretty confident. So, I checked again.

As I was finally getting close to the terminal with the potentially lethal connection in hand, Sal walked by and yelled ZAPP!!

It is always a funny joke. We love that one. Whenever one of us is doing electrical work and concentrating hard on NOT dying, the other waits until the moment of truth and yells ZAP!. Good fun. Hahahaha.

In a few more years she’ll be yelling ‘contact!’ instead as she applies the paddles to my stopped-still heart.

I really shouldn’t be tired but I am. Usually, I try to ignore the fatigue and carry on because Sal is such an Energizer Bunny-type, I feel I have to. She’s a slave driver by example. But lately even she has gotten a bit tired and, for one of the few times in her life, she slept in for an extra hour! Thank God! And so we stopped. And called it a day of rest. And it was good.

I am hoping this catches on.

Quite frankly, I could go for six days of rest and one day of work but I know that won’t fly. “That’s fine, honey. You can rest all you want to but I have to clean and paint the house and do the shopping and the logging and get it all done before my sister comes to visit on Sunday. So, I’ll just carry on!”

And not an ounce of sarcasm or tone when she says that. She means it. I am free to sit and watch her work. Except for one thing: I can’t just sit and watch her work!

She is a slave driver by example!

Mind you, my friend, John, who works harder than anyone I know (or ever want to know) said in passing the other day, “You guys have done a lot already this summer. You’ve accomplished quite a bit!” So, maybe we have been good. It is hard to tell. I am too delirious to know much about anything right now.

And all this brings me to my point – work is relative. I don’t quite know what it is relative to but I know that work is relative in the sense that context, circumstance and age and schedule and how many tasks are involved at any given time makes it relative.

It used to be that we both worked at a full-time job and then came home to raise a family and live our lives and do activities and watch TV and have a social life and we thought we were just normally busy. Now, we haul some logs and take a few breaks and think we are overly taxed. We wonder how in hell we did all that we used to do and now we can only just keep house and home together. It’s an age thing, I guess.

I remember asking my dad if he wanted to play golf in the coming week, “Hey, you wanna play golf sometime next week, dad?”

“Yeah! Great! Can’t Monday, tho. Getting my haircut. Tuesday is out. Picking up my dry cleaning. Wednesday I am seeing John for lunch and Thursday the cleaning lady comes in. ‘Course by Friday, I’ll be exhausted so how about the following Monday?”

I remember thinking that both Sally and I did the equivalent of all his weekly chores times five plus went to work and I could still squeeze in a round of golf. But I kept my mouth shut. Now I know what he was saying. He could only competently do a few things at a time now. And we are getting there ourselves.

Only wine and antiques get better with age.

The more I read back-to-the-land literature, the more I realize that living off-the-grid is an ill-defined term. It is way too general a term to be of much use. Off-the-grid (OTG) can mean almost anything.

Of course it means living off the grid; that one is not residing on the electrical, water supply, sewer, public transit, information, microwave and cable grids.

And just so you know; there is such a thing as a behavioural grid and some people live way off that, too. In it’s extreme form it can be criminal or psychotic.

But – more conventionally speaking – OTG also means many different and equally as defining things for the different authors I have encountered.

As you might expect, simplicity is a big theme. So is going natural (less artificial, fewer ‘chemicals’). Slow (one’s own pace). Local focus (community). Frugal (anti-materialistic). Independent (less reliant on others and others’ systems), peaceful (less ambitious, less aggressive), environmental, resourceful and freedom (from rules and regulations) are just some of the words that seem to come along with the stories and lessons of those writers describing living off the grid.

And, if they were being more truthful, they could add a few more that don’t seem to be as recognized or admitted by usual OTG descriptions.

Rebellion, rejection, suspicion and defiance come to mind. Active non-compliance with conventional mores, behaviours and even dress are common. Discomfort, fear, loathing, disgust and defeat also show up. Living off the grid is not done in a rose garden.

There is definitely a dark side to the OTG lifestyle but, I think, on a lesser scale than in the city. I think OTG living is potentially and more often healthier than the usual urban way. But not always. Of course, it depends on the person and it depends on just how far off the grid, they go.

Some would go off the sane grid regardless of whether they are in the city or the country.

OTGérs can get a bit too far ‘out there’ sometimes. Paranoia, isolation and elitism show up now and then as well. Isolation from the larger village can lead to depression, apathy and even madness. Living off the grid (OTG) is like anything else – there is a yin and a yang to it.

Don’t get me wrong. Living OTG is nowhere near the hellish state that the above paragraphs might imply. It is, rather, that living off the grid does not exempt any of us from the dark sides of life and, in some cases some dark parts might be a bit more pronounced on a per capita basis when you are off-the-grid.

If there is one common OTG feeling that manifests more than another, it is ‘rejection’ of the norm. Almost everyone out here has rejected some parts of life as they are normally lived by the madding crowd. Some more. Some less.

It is true for me. I have a list of things I reject or choose not to participate in that would be considered as normal, common or usual ways. I am, I think, on the cusp of functional normalcy and have one foot in some other place too indistinct to describe accurately. Whatever it is, my lifestyle attitude is not conventional. Nor do I want it to be.

But I do wonder sometimes why more people don’t want to do this………

It doesn’t follow that rejection of the norm is the answer, though. Sometimes rejection just leaves a void and that void can be filled by anything. Sometimes it is the dark side.

Something as simple as rejecting the cul de sac/apartment/condo can lead to loneliness, isolation and madness – not a constructive alternative – rather than a nice cabin with a view of the sea. So far, my rejection of the norm has worked out nicely. But the story is still being writ.

Bear in mind that for every OTG story that carries a happy theme (i.e. Dispatches from off-the-grid) there is a Mad Trapper or Cat Lady tale that may never be told. There are a lot of lonely stories out here and only some of them wanted it that way.

Living off the grid is not always good.

But it is an alternative. And, for the lucky ones, it is great.