Give yourself all of the comforts of home with modular off grid solar kits , a terrific option for living off the grid. Easy to get started, easy to install and completely expandable.

You can get them with a range of 2 to 30 powerful Schott, Kyocera, or Astroenergy 245-watt solar panels and an american made Mni Magnum Power Center.

With the AC output from the inverter you can run a small efficient refrigerator, stereo, computer, lights and a Television set quite easily.

This is a great place to start and will help your family with conscious conservation of energy. If you time your activities for daylight, you’ll be able to use a washing machine or even power tools, with even the smallest of off grid solar power kits.

True Sinewave
Clean sinewave power from the Magnum Energy inverter, or any other choice of inverter is the heart of this system.

An inverter converts the DC (Direct Current) electricity produced by your solar panels into a usable and very efficient form of AC (Alternating Current) electricity that is compatible with sensitive electronics such as TV’s and computers, just like power you have now.

You won’t get background buzz on your stereo or weird lines on the TV screen that you would if you were using a modified sinewave inverters.

Easy-to-Install
If you choose one of the easy to install and quite popular 4 star solar Mini Magnum MS4024 Power Center it will get your off-grid home up and running in no time flat, and very easy to maintain too!

These systems are wired and tested throughout for years of great service, and reliability.

This will definitely save you time and money and eliminates the risk of “burning up” your inverter by installing it wrong.

120 Volt AC Power
These off grid solar kits will deliver full power to a 120-volt load, and produce up to 2000 or more kilowatt hours of electricity each month, more than enough to run even the largest home.

Next week marks 18 years living off the grid for our family.

We are always asked why we made this decision and why we stick to it more tenaciously each and every year.

The answer is not easy to find, nor easy to express but those answers are usually found outdoors in our homestead garden or in the woods that surrounds us.

When I was younger I learned a very important fact that has been with me ever since, ‘never trust a thought arrived at while sitting down’.

It may seem strange but each and every time I have made an important decision about my life, that was made while sitting has been terribly wrong.

Put your body in motion, whether it’s walking or simply gardening then you can be sure your mind is working correctly.

Thus has been our journey to off the grid. We keep ourselves in motion and our ultimate destination is always made clearer.

No where is that more true than in the spring because we are always tugged in so many different directions at once. There is always so much to do, or so it seems every spring.

This morning we planted peas, radishes and multiplier onions and that was basically the start of our 2012 garden. It always starts small and builds from there.

It’s so much easier and more organized to do a little every day. It happens to be one of those jobs (not really work though…?) that allows your mind to wander, to think, to ponder, to plan.

One of those jobs where revelation occurs readily. In the back of our minds is always problems, perils and solutions trying to come out, somehow… Sitting and just thinking about them rarely yields any useable formulas for success. Instead, try getting your body in motion and watch as sudden inspiration hits.

It never fails to amaze me when I am suddenly struck with a solution to a serious problem when I am in the garden. I call this the ‘off the grid’ effect. Not only are we living off the grid, but it would seem that our minds do the same, somehow absorbing all that is around us, somehow finding solutions that fit with our surroundings, our goals and our lives here.

Those solutions are really site specific as well, they may not work anywhere else or for anyone else for that matter. I bring to you simply the ‘method’.

Trust no thought arrived at while sitting down, and your life will be transformed. In motion your mind tears apart the facade, the disconnected nature of everything, the status, and all that is left is the right solution.

Give it a try, it works.

Even in the city there are quiet times that can be had in the garden, early morning, early weekend mornings, all can bring peace and joy, and a clearer understanding of what life is all about.

We consider ourselves very fortunate to have followed our dreams and not stuck ourselves in the mold that was ready-made for our lives, made by friends, and family, it was our choice.

And we can assure you that our decision to begin living off the grid was not made while sitting down.

One of our favorite things about our vegetable garden is extending the seasons for living off the grid.

We did forget to mention in the video that it is supposed to rain tomorrow. Watch the video to see why that is important.

Making living off the grid enjoyable, productive and easy.

Is living off the grid right for me? You might be wondering why anyone would choose such a lifestyle. Are they hermits, loners, anti-social, escaping from something, or just plain stupid to deny all of the benefits of urban life.

The truth is that most people who assume these things about us, have no real or actual basis for making their decision. Or they assert that moving over 300 miles away from your known family and friends was a huge mistake and hurt your children immensely. The truth is that the alternative, of staying where we were would have hurt them even more, a fact that these people never really assess fully.

Off grid living as we have experienced it the past 18 years was really a positive move of moving towards a goal of having resources with which to keep our life, our expenses and ultimately our sanity intact.

Jane and I really like being around people, most people, but we want to be able to choose our social circumstances instead of having them chosen for us. In the end we just wanted to be in control of our life, our social life, our working life, and our health.

Nothing has yet to touch our lives in quite the same way: not sports, not religion, not careers, none of those things save for Jane and the kids has been so important to us. Being off the grid whether it is at home, or when we are on a canoeing adventure is something that transcends our lives and touches our soul in a way that all of those other things could never do.

The benefits of urban life? Well, they are just a short drive away, but now we have the choice to visit the museum on a Tuesday, or shop at our favorite outdoor store on Wednesday, when they are not so busy and even to drive when the peak traffic is not there. We time our visits so that it is with maximum enjoyment, as it is not only the shopping that is important, but the getting there for us.

On a recent visit to the city we had a picnic in the park while we watched the hustle and bustle all around us, all those people and not one with a smile on their face. It made us wonder.

No doubt they were wondering about us too, all smiles and joy at being there. I began to wonder if they were truly happy with their choices because outwardly it did not seem like that was the case.

I mentioned that if we had not moved it would have been worse for us, and for our children? Had we not made the decision to follow our dream? Yes, we would have been miserable just like these people seemed to be when we watched them. How do we know that? Because we were miserable with nearly every minute we spent where we used to live.

And, if we were miserable with our life… guess what happens? Your kids soon inherit that misery, that same outlook on life. But, we chose this living off the grid adventure and they embraced that adventure too… until they got to high school that is and peer pressure, and a dominating motivation from there swayed their decisions to more of an urban outlook.

We have enjoyed watching our 2 older kids learn about how much they had while they lived here, and how hard urban life can be… just like how we learned it. Yes, the grass may seem greener, the money might be more showy, but in the end the happiness is not there. The real peace and joy is not there. They are discovering these things, that life without resources is tough indeed.

Being able to simply heat your home, or drink water, or find building material, or food right in your own back yard is a huge advantage these days. Most people pay dearly for these things, and that makes life tough… because these things have to be paid for with cash. Things we can go out and work for regardless of whether we have a job or not.

Yes, we still make mistakes, lots of them, but life is in how we manage our mistakes. In our minds, living off the grid is a huge advantage today, especially when life intervenes and throws us a curve ball when we were expecting a high hardball on the inside.

Sometimes I think it’s not very important to be good at the basic skills for living off the grid. Things like chopping wood, growing a garden or even fishing are all things I sometimes take for granted as they have been part of my life for so long.

But, then usually just as I start to question how important these things are, I wonder ‘what would my life be without them?’

A friend of mine once told me that to be a good writer you have to ‘write about what you know’, and I hasten to add, write about what you love, your real passions.

Here is what I know.

I know the ring of an axe on a cool spring morning as it splits the silence as well as the wood. The sun isn’t up yet but the Robins and the Woodcocks are out singing already. The joyful ‘beeps’ of the morning calls of the male Woodcock as he tries to impress the girls about really does bring joy to my heart.

He sometimes chirps at the sound of the axe, or I ‘beep’ back at him just to say hi. This truly is the song of my pen, things I know, things I cherish about our life.

That’s why it always comes as a surprise when I question their importance in my life. For too long I was conditioned to think that the only thing that mattered in life was economic importance, but there is so much missed if we don’t consider the uneconomic, and much more soul satisfying things around us.

When I am stressed out, thinking about things too much, and life starts to get complicated I can always pick up an axe, and swing my mood back to where I want it. With the birds providing background music my mind is once again centered and I am whole again.

But, it never ceases to amaze me how being good at the chores of life once again opens us up to live.

Living off the grid is definitely not for everyone, so many people miss the subtleties of life’s music, I know because I used to be one of them.

When we first moved here I would sit on a large rock out in front of the house and drink my morning coffee and try to soak up the peace, the sounds, the wildlife and I found my senses being extended beyond their confined boundaries.

For too long I had held my senses in check, tried to control them, to not listen, to not hear, just as you would pass a stranger on a busy city street. But, deep down I longed for the contact, the opening up process to begin, to let those long suppressed senses to be free.

Every morning I would listen, I would hear, and gradually my sense of hearing expanded out to a great distance, with tremendous acuity. And in return it filled my soul. With peace, with joy, and a never ending smile. That is true self sufficient living.

It’s funny how that defensive city mode of keeping to ourselves really is keeping us ‘from’ ourselves, preventing us from living at all.

Living off the grid has opened up my life, and allowed me to live a simpler existence where chopping wood even brings joy.

One of the many questions we are asked here concerning living off the grid, is about banking. Should we try and live without a bank account? Is it possible? What options do we have?

Whether you are off the grid or not you will need some form of banking in most cases. There are just no ways to totally escape from needing some cash, some money, and most forms of payment occur at the bank.

Our assertion is not to try and get out of our responsibilities and shuck the banks. What we have tried to do and try to teach are ways to lessen their control of our lives. Ways in which the average family can keep more of their money in their pockets. Avoiding banks totally is not really the way to do that, here is what you need to do.

The basic path to reducing your dependence on banks is to simply use their services less. It sounds simple but it isn’t. You have to work hard to reduce your dependence.

Start first by reducing the number of accounts you have. Keep this to a minimum.

Next, do your best to pay with cash. Budget your weekly cash needs, for all of your expenses and work hard to use just cash. This way you will get better in touch with your finances and be able see where it is that you have been spending money. Simply budgeting is about just writing down what you spend vs. what you make.

Keep track for a while and you will be well on your way to being off the grid. The next area that probably needs work is debt free living. When most people ask about banking they are usually talking about credit as well, namely credit cards. Reduce how much you use these and your expenses in the form of interest and penalties will go way down.

Again, cash is the answer. Use cash and you win. Borrow and use your credit card for everything and you end up further behind.

After several years of dealing with credit card companies we decided to just end it. We tossed them and never looked back. True freedom was just around the corner.

It’s not easy but you can do it too. Our basic aim here is to show you that you can reduce your expenses, and not reduce the quality of your life. Most of those things you were whipping out the card for are probably unnecessary items anyways.

You will be able to afford a better home, better living and even look at reducing other expenses too, paving the way to installing renewable energy in your home.

It is not an easy process and it really starts with trust. Do you trust someone else to hold onto your money? Do you think they just leave it there? No, they are investing your money and making more money for themselves.

In most cases these investment options are open to you too. Gold, Silver, and land are all great choices for living off the grid investments. Precious metals have been a standard of currency for over 5000 years, and no bank or anyone else is going to tell you otherwise.

Paper money is of no intrinsic value, but if there is a cash and you have pure silver coins in your pocket, then you will be ok. Most people when asked would rather bury their head in the sand regarding a crash, or an emergency, the truth is that it could happen anytime. Being prepared, embracing self sufficient living and lowering your dependence on banks is a great way to get started off the grid.

Hi, My name is Valerie Rogers and here is our story of living off the grid.
When we moved from Minnesota to New Mexico almost 11 years ago, we had the intent to seek self-sufficiency.

We heard plenty of folks talk about going solar but never actually doing it.

For the first five years here we were on the grid, all the while reading and learning about solar.

We decided a hybrid system solar/wind was the way to go as you mostly have sun, wind or both.

Being minimalists and low-energy users (one electric bill was less than $2 of actual power use), we still needed to make adjustments such as changing out some appliances to those solar friendly, and doing without those electricity hogs that were not essentials.

It takes a lifestyle change – balancing needs and wants, and getting those needs down to a minimum. This past January 2012 marked the beginning of the sixth year off grid. We vividly recall “the day the meter went away” and our system has served us well without a glitch since!
Property: 11.5 Acres Bath: 1 System: Solar World 165W panels, Air X Land 400W Wind Turbine, OutBack Inverter FX Series 3000W

Thanks for your great introduction Valerie, we really appreciate it.

In addition to this story Valerie and her husband Will have decided to sell their property for personal reasons.

If any of you are interested in living off the grid in the Zuni Mountains of New Mexico you can read more about their property listing at the following link.

http://off-grid-living.com/property/living-off-the-grid-in-the-zuni-mountains-nm/

It is a very interesting off grid home that Will and Valerie are justifiably proud of. They have achieved a goal on their own of near self-sufficiency, and being off grid for them has been a tremendous learning experience.

We have enjoyed talking with them and we now call them friends. Enjoy your new adventure, thanks.

One aspect of living off the grid that we get asked about often is our recommendations for mobile options for charging electric devices such as cell phones, laptops and tablets.

We think we have found a really interesting solution, that we have been testing ourselves, for when you are off the grid.



The solar backpack is really catching on and for good reason. It is the perfect setup for kids to college students. Even us oldsters get a kick out of using these useful packs. They are ergonomically designed and will charge just about any device.

You can also get just about any kind of adapter you can name that will custom fit your equipment from cell phones to laptops.

What do we like best about the solar backpack? Simply put, you just don’t have to buy batteries anymore, what a savings. Or you can charge rechargeable batteries which are a great thing for mom and dad too. Stop buying batteries for your kids. And they will never be without power.

The backpack contains a small battery pack that is always being charged when you are off the grid. It works great.

The next device that we like for going mobile while living off the grid is the simple solar charger.

It can be taken anywhere, even camping in the wilderness, and they work great. Most come with a 1 watt to 5 watt solar panel and a direct feed to a charger that can be adapted to pretty much any system.

One thing we like to use this for is when we are camping and want to charge our camera. There is nothing worse for a photographer than having a great scene and no charge in your camera. Works great for pretty much any kind of vacation too.

We often leave the solar panel on the dash and charge our laptop while driving. Of course we can just plug into the car, but we work hard to try and use only renewable energy equipment. Besides we are not limiting ourselves by being stuck to the vehicle when on vacation. We are free to wander, to explore wherever we want and still have a mobile power source for our equipment, it just makes sense when you are off the grid.

We wanted to include this discussion because sometimes our readers get stuck into thinking that living off the grid is only about powering our home, but there is so much more to it.

When we first moved and began living off the grid we had never really even considered ice fishing as a means to provide for our family.

I have to tell you that I simply love fishing. My earliest childhood memories are of sitting on a pier with my dad and casting out my line to catch the plentiful perch from Lake Erie. That was some years ago, but the lessons dad taught me have stuck. He kept everything he caught, and we ate  fish on a regular basis in the summer.

I never got the chance to take him ice fishing, pretty sure he would have loved that too. It is a time to connect with family, to soak up the winter wilderness all around us, and if done right, bring home some fish for supper or the freezer.

The lakes in our area are stocked with Trout, and during the first part of the winter are not very difficult to catch. We use minnows and a simple tip up or short rods that we have made ourselves. It’s really fun making the tackle and gear for expeditions, even if they are only day trips living off the land. We love it either way.

In the next few weeks we are planning to camp out on the lake. Before you go to fretting, and maybe call my Mom and tell her that her son has flipped, the ice is now over a foot thick and as solid as walking on a highway. Very safe. In fact, the very first thing we do is to scout out the ice conditions even before we consider bringing fishing gear.

Catching supper is what it’s all about for us, and hopefully putting away another meal in the freezer. We count it as a very successful day if we can accomplish that.

My fishing partner out on the ice this year has been Andre’ , our youngest son. He has taken to living off the grid like none of our other kids ever did. He is a natural in the woods, born to be outside.

Inside he frets and doesn’t know what to do until our next adventure outdoors. You can bet he is up early if we are planning on going fishing. Living off the land is something he has learned very well.

Those 5 nice trout are testament to a pretty good day ice fishing. Yes, he caught the biggest, about 3 lbs and 18 inches. Nice job. In the photo, taken this past Monday, it’s raining, but that would never take the smile off his face.

Sharing this time with family is so important to us. Like nothing else that we can do indoors, getting outside and enjoying the wilderness, getting off the grid for a few hours, fetching up a fresh supper for your family. All of these things put a big smile on our face. Just like all those years ago fishing with my dad, I hope I can pass along that same joy he felt to my own family.

Check for the next warm front coming through and get out on the ice just before it moves through. Get your fishing license and read the regulations book and learn what it takes to live off the land in the winter.

Certainly you will enjoy living off the grid for a few hours just as much as we do. Next week we will be taking Jane along for the first time this year. You can bet there will be some whooping and hollering going on then, she loves those days off the grid especially when the fish are biting, she can never contain her joy when she brings up a nice trout through the ice.

One of the most important aspects of living off the grid is our large garden.
Watch the following video about the fall garden and learn to live off the grid.

From the Living Off The Grid Homestead.



This past fall season has been a wonderful time for our family with the seeming extension of the growing season. One of our great challenges with being off the grid is growing food for the entire year.

This year the season has grown much longer than normal, as you probably saw in the previous video. Our garden truly is a focal point of our life, and for good reason.
With just a simple amount of foresight you too can extend your season.
Watch the video first and you will see what we mean. Why not try a bit of garlic in your own garden, or overwintered onions if you live in a warm enough climate. Garlic is one of those vegetables that anyone, regardless of skill can grow.
You will notice also, that I use the word lazy, for lack of a better reference to describe our gardening approach. Some people work like mad to get all of the weeds out, but you will notice we leave as much as possible, clearing only enough space to do away with close competition weeds.
Living off the grid can be a lot of fun, or it can be a lot of work if you let those small chores get out of hand. We prefer to leave the work to natural processes, which do the job much better, although perhaps a little slower. It seems to work very well for us here. The extra composting material may seem unsightly to some, but it’s just another excuse to have everything clean as a kitchen floor?
We prefer to work with the natural cycles of the seasons, let the compost worms do their job and leave the rest to winter to accomplish.
If you take the time to clear everything with a rototiller it does seem to overwork the soil as well.
Take a few minutes off and just let it go, you do have better things to do than to presume to do the job of nature.
Thus comes the description of lazy as described in the video, some think that is the case, I prefer to let those soil critters do their job, while I watch.
Part of the fun of living off the grid we think.