Off-Grid Life & Homesteading

What does it mean to “homestead”? What does it really mean to be “off-grid”?

These are somewhat complex subjects that I’ve wanted to write about for a while.

In the past few years, we’ve seen an insane flood of influencers in these spaces (and related ones) so I think it’s important to clarify what the terms really mean, explore what the underlying philosophies are, and what some good strategies are worth considering. Let’s take a look:

What does “Off Grid” mean?

In the simplest of terms, “Off-Grid” means to live a life independent of the power and utility grids. This means you get your own water, power, and waste management all separate from the established grids.

This sounds pretty simple right? Well, this is a lot more challenging than it sounds.

Most people would be inclined to think “well I’ll just get some solar panels, and rain barrels and I’ll be good to go” but unfortunately there are many factors at play that can make this very difficult.

For example, in my climate (Michigan, USA) it gets quite cold in the winter, and we go several weeks at a time without seeing the sun. During normal winters we also get a lot of snow on and off.

This means that water harvesting is very hard, solar panels are only reliable in most of the spring and summer, and biogas digesters don’t work unless you can keep them warm enough to function. It also means passive greenhouses are extremely tricky to keep warm enough because we go so long with only cloudy days.

And just to be knit-picky I have to address something that bugs me personally: using backup generators and fuel tanks are NOT OFF-GRID SYSTEMS! You aren’t directly connected to the grid but you are dependent on it still. If you need to go into town to get fuel then you are unfortunately just as dependent on the municipal grids as if you were connected, you might just last a little longer than the average person.

(The exception to this of course is if you are creating your own fuel which is difficult)

So essentially the best way to be completely off-grid is to learn to live without electricity and be primitive. I’ll talk a bit more about that below.

What is “homesteading”?

This is a hot topic these days.

There are so many homesteading influencers on social media these days and I’m comfortable saying many of them are not actually homesteaders.

Homesteading is a lifestyle dependent on subsistence agriculture and on life in the home (cooking, farming, homeschooling, home medicine etc).

Traditionally in history homesteads were fairly isolated and ran by a single family. It’s a common misconception today that practically everyone was a homesteader before the 1930s and that’s just simply not the case (not in the traditional sense anyway).

That said, I have no issue with homesteaders posting online about all the cool stuff they do or with people bending the definition a little bit however I do take issue with the popular “You can be a homesteader if you just grow potted plants in your apartment”. That is watering down the meaning to a point where it just isn’t helpful anymore in my opinion.

Obviously, I think it’s very healthy to be working toward homesteading. There are so many great small steps you can take to get to that point, but it takes a lot more than making sourdough and growing some herbs to be an actual homesteader. (For the record, I don’t even consider myself a homesteader!)

Joel Salatin’s new book Homestead Tsunami talks about how really what’s happened is that people are adopting a homestead mentality which is an important distinction, I think.

What is “self-sufficiency”?

Related to the two above terms, “self-sufficiency” means what it sounds like.

This is a way of becoming free from any grid or institution but is again much more difficult than what most people think.

When you want to become self-sufficient, you have to consider just how many things in our lives are dependent on institutions, corporations, grids, or other people. It’s hard to provide all of your own textiles, medicine, food, power, water, fuel, heat, waste management, tools, and any other non-renewable resource and get enough income to keep up with that lifestyle.

Now it’s important to note that while most people tend to assume “self” means a single individual (or a couple who lives together). This is not necessarily the case as I’ll mention later on!

Considerations

Animals on a small scale

One thing people fail to consider is that animals on a small scale (when trying to be self-sufficient or off-grid) is extremely impractical.

As much as that sucks to say (and I love animals, and I love meat) the reality is that if your goal is to be completely off-grid or self-sufficient in the normal sense, it is very hard to justify livestock. The exceptions to this are:

• You have a crazy amount of acreage to grow enough food for all of your animals through the whole year (including winter months).

• You have the time to spend on growing said feed.

• You raise only small livestock with minimal needs (like rabbits) AND you breed them yourself (hatching your own poultry).

Main household needs

People often forget that off-grid life means also providing for household goods. This means soaps, cleaners (easy enough) toilet paper, tools (not so easy) and anything that needs regular replacement or repairs! Stockpiling parts is not always a long-term solution.

Learning to do without

The best strategy for resilience in all honesty is to just learn to do without. This might mean you learn to live without electricity, or you have to do a lot of work by hand. You may have to do without certain foods and medicines (I think most of us would appreciate you not learning to do without your clothes though, best to keep those).

The “Village” Mentality

Within the self-sufficiency movement are a lot of folk who want to do everything themselves. I hate to be the bubble-burster but that’s how people die. Historically people who survived hardships and wilderness were people who had some form of community to help them (even if only a vague one). This is a highly underrated strategy!

The Case for Co-Ops & Networks

As noble as the pursuits of individual self-sufficiency and homesteading are, I think personally that a more realistic and resilient approach is to build community in some sense.

I don’t mean you need to go live in an eco-village or create an intentional cohousing community from scratch, I simply mean you need to have relationships with people that can and will help you when times get hard so that your needs are mutually met.

This is a risk of course, but it’s also the best chance we have of survival and a free life. Here are some options and contexts I think are noteworthy:

Multi-generational Homes

Another concept that has been lost from modern America is the idea of multi-generational homes. The idea behind this is that you have multiple generations of people (kids, their parents, grandparents, cousins, great-grandparents, etc.) living under one roof or in the same general vicinity.

This works better if you already have family (or found family) with close bonds.

This is commonplace in much of the rest of the world and used to be common throughout the early 1900s in the US, but in recent decades has weirdly become almost unheard of.

The main benefits to this are that people have help with a resilient lifestyle as they age, and each generation can learn from each other.

Trade Networks

An obvious choice for people who want more privacy, trade networks are another way to get the extra things you can’t provide on your own while still maintaining as much autonomy as possible.

Even if that isn’t you, having a trade network that operates independently of major supply chains is extremely valuable!

Find people who do dairy, people who sew, people who make soap etc until all of your needs are met and you can all swap and trade for different items. This is an extremely good way to relieve the pressure of producing everything yourself.

Urban Preparation

The reality is that not everyone has the means to live on 20 acres 5 hours from anywhere. That might be the ideal scenario, but quite frankly very few people can make that work feasibly (especially if they are older, or younger and can’t afford it).

That said, making friends with your neighbors is crucial if something catastrophic happens.

You’d be surprised how much you can do in a small urban yard and with many people around, it’s easier to develop a trade network even if you’re in a more dangerous setting.

Tribes

Related to the above options, you must find your tribe.

Your tribe is the group of people you’d trust with your life and who you can depend on to stick together in hard times. This can be family, friends, neighbors, church members, anyone who you can be on good terms with and who will always be there to help.

This is another thing we’ve left behind in the last 50 years. Moms for example used to have so much help raising kids that they just don’t have anymore. Family would regularly be there to help; friends and neighbors would constantly offer support. (It’s ok moms, you’re NOT crazy for struggling to do it all yourself! That’s not normal!)

I recommend finding people who have at least some of the same principles when it comes to clean food and home-centric living, and people you would feel comfortable preparing for the worst with.

I may not have any land of my own right now, but the one asset I do have is a very big tribe. We have a special private group chat where the majority of us talk regularly and plan, we go camping regularly (sometimes pretty rough camping trips) we go on vacations together, we celebrate birthdays and holidays together, we have traditions, we have a ton of skills collectively between all of us (gardening, hunting, fishing, crafting, trapping, weaving, tools, woodworking, building, animal husbandry, food preservation, herbalism, and many others) and I would trust any of them with my life. There are well over 14 of us.

Conclusion

The lesson I want you to take from all of this is that not only should you not attempt to do everything yourself, but you can’t do it all yourself. It’s effectively impossible to be completely independent from major supply chains, grids, and large systems all by yourself without help.

The goal should be to create autonomous communities that are resilient and thrive due to interdependence rather than self-sufficiency.

I hope these guidelines help you think through what systems you’ll want to put into place and how you want to create a resilient life.

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