Page 11 - LandBroker MLS Magazine Fall 2020

TO grid OR

Recently Kim Kardashian

and Kanye West made headlines when they moved to Cody,
Wyoming. Whether or not this will be good for the neighborhood For my father and his wife it means, about mid-June, they begin
will be for Cody, Wyoming to decide. The Kardashians moving to cutting firewood for the winter. Sure, you can go buy firewood,
Wyoming is equivalent to a normal American family moving off grid. but are you off grid if you are buying your firewood from that guy
in the big box hardware store? It raises a question to the off grid
My father lives off grid in the heart of Western Montana. When lifestyle and determines how off-grid of the off-grid you want to
he began building his house 15 years ago, he decided to install be. Answering this question will determine many choices from a
solar, because it was going to cost $45,000 to run electric back composting toilet or a grey water system and a toilet that flushes
from the county road. Today, when someone new arrives to and how you heat your home.
“town,” (often from the city or suburb), eventually he will get a
phone call from “the cousin of the friend of a neighbor down the Solar panels for electrical needs are not an instant solution and
road whom he helped repair a tractor for last summer.” can be incredibly finicky. How will you clean the panels when
they get dirty? How many batteries do you run in your bank? by Martha Cargill
Invariably, the newcomer is looking for answers. The questions Did you note (or even know?) that a key component to a healthy
are never easy, but only because the solution relies on being solar system is the water level in the batteries? What kind and Although this dynamic is not exclusive to off grid living, with fewer
self-sufficient and hard working. It is not that this quality is hard quality of controller did you install on the system? Do you have amenities and services nearby, reliance on your neighbor (even if
to come by, but the truth is, off grid living looks so much more a back-up generator, and did you let the batteries run too low that neighbor is 10 plus miles away) may become a determining
simple and straightforward on episodes about tiny houses parked before you switched to generator power? If any one of these factor in “location, location, location.” (Harold Samuel, 1944
in open spaces, and time lapse footage on an Instagram feed of aspects is out of sync, the new solar user quickly runs the risk founder of Land Securities).
building a log cabin in the woods. of burning up the whole system, and you find out too late, there
is a big difference between flipping a switch on the wall and Even the Kardashians had their reasons for moving to Cody,
My father is not judgmental and believes knowledge is free. He is managing a solar system. Wyoming instead of Butte, Montana. That is their business, but as
the original “you can give a man a fish or teach him how to fish,” my father once said, “The area might be good for the way one
philosophy and he freely shares what he has learned through And of course, without sounding deeply cynical, but trying to put believes, or it might not. A person may have to think about things
trial and tribulation and experiment and failure over the years in common in common sense, just because a piece of property feels a little differently if they move into the area they like, to enjoy the
essentially living off grid. idyllic on a picnic, or you had a good time at the lake in that pretty new perspective of the community. The place they are looking
mountain town north of nothing, is it a location where you can to live may not agree with their personal philosophies of life. Do
One of the first things most people do not realize, is that living off peaceably live, content to be alone in the wilderness? Or possibly they become an activist and try to change it, or find a place that
grid is a lot of work. And I mean: it’s a lot of work. Having been more importantly, is it somewhere you can find community? agrees with their thinking? It pretty much boils down to: what does a
raised on a farm, I know firsthand, that when I tell people I grew person want out of life? Find that place and live there. Don’t change
up on a farm, unless I am speaking to a person who also grew up Ironically, one of the secret truths of living off grid, is that it is less it. Take care of it for the person that follows.” (Herb Cargill)
on a farm, bar none the initial response is, “oh that sounds so fun!” about living like Richard Proenneke (tinyurl.com/Proenneke) in
While there are certain happy and “fun” memories from growing the wilds of Alaska, and more like a wagon train of air streams This is not written with intent to scare enterprising humans off from
up on a farm, the fact remains, what it was, was a great deal circled in the high desert of Tucson, AZ. living an authentic life, moving off grid, or going deeply rural.
of work. In fact, the work is never done. This might mean for It is a short list of several factors and dynamics to consider in a
example, in the wintertime, your entire life can be reduced to a My father has shared many stories wherein he helped a neighbor, successful off grid transition, because it may not be as easy as
single occupation: keeping the ice broken up on drinking troughs or a neighbor helped him, even though he lives far from town that full-fledged carpenter and journeyman electrician building
for the animals. I know this, having spent winters, from the age of without a reliable cell phone signal. Just as much as living in his vacation home in the wood makes it seem on YouTube. But, as
5 years to 18 years, every morning, afternoon home from school, accord with nature comes and goes with the weather and the the old cattleman said to his son, when his son said he was going
and evenings before dinner, making sure ice was broken up on seasons, a person learns that give and take in human community to drive the cattle a different route to the round-up, “It won’t be
troughs and drinking surfaces for the animals. comes and goes as well. easy, but it’s possible.”

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