Off-Grid Homes
Information about off-grid home, green building, sustainable architecture and anything you might need to know about having a house that resides off the power grid.
Blue Ridge Mountains Call Me Home
The geography and Blue Ridge Mountain culture had a visceral effect on me that I can’t quite explain, except to say that it just felt like… home.
The Pros and Cons of Tiny Homes
When you’re ready to begin living off the grid, the smaller your home is, the easier it is to make it energy self-sufficient. Some people have taken this to an extreme, spawning the tiny home movement. And when they say tiny, they mean it – most tiny homes are somewhere between 65 and 800 square feet, with varying levels of comfort.
Green Prefabs: Stylish and Easy but Still Too Expensive
There are definitely some easy, stylish options available but they just cost too much right now. Like anything new they will drop in price in the coming years as the process of making them becomes more efficient and the competition more fierce. But just a taste of what we may be able to do in the future…
Instant Cheap Easy Root Cellar: Roll in Place and Cover with Dirt
We can take this could-be-but-probably-won’t green living idea and adjust it to suit an off-grid, self-sustaining life style by turning it into an instance, cheap, easy root cellar.
Wood Burning Stoves VS Pellet Burning Stoves
Which is better? A modern wood burning stove or the new pellet burning stoves? Proponents of pellet burning stoves cite lower moisture content, more heat, less smoke and particulate emissions, and an efficiency of somewhere between 75% and 90%.
A Good Way to Market Off Grid Cabins and Cottages
If you own rural accommodation, such as cabin rentals, head over to Back to The Earth, an online directory of farm vacations, Bed and Breakfasts, Ranches, Cabins and other rural accommodation rental businesses throughout the United States.
Looking for Rural Land in Oregon?
In search of our perfect off-grid homestead parcel, our short list was North Carolina, Northern California (Shashta county) and Southern Oregon (anywhere below Portland and central or West of the Cascades). Northern California has pretty much been taken off the list unless we find a killer deal. We can’t seem to find a good agent in North Carolina, although we love the looks of the Boone and Asheville areas if we can get something cheap enough outside of town.
I Picked The Wrong Domain Name
OK I’ll admit it. When I first saw that www.livingoffgrid.org was available it seemed like a sign. Here I was making websites for a living and wanting nothing more than to have a little piece of land to call my own when I came across a domain that seemed to bring it all together. While [...]
Books For City Folk Moving to a Farm: Sustainable Living Guides
All-in-all, I set out to get one book and ended up spending about $180 USD on a miniature library for a city-slicker who wants to give up the rat race and head out to the country. I spent hours pouring over user ratings and reviews, and here are the books I ended up buying.
Native American Folklore Meets Green Building in The Hopland Sunhawk
In addition to the house itself (which is an off-grid, passive and active solar design made from rastra-block and other green building materials), there is a barn, two ponds, a vineyard, two lucky dogs, an olive grove and a labyrinth of lavender plants. Check out the video below, in which John explains some of the background in the design of this green home:
