Many people dream or desire to live off-grid by ourselves, enjoying a peaceful life of solitude. However it’s easy to underestimate the issue of this. Living off the grid is hard enough if you have family and different homesteaders around you. Going it alone is even more difficult. Here are some things to think about before deciding to live alone on your off-grid homestead:
Consider your physical strength
An off-grid lifestyle needs plenty of physical labor. Tilling the garden, delivering a calf, or chopping firewood are all common tasks on the homestead. So if you’re going it alone, be ready to do all the hard work yourself.
Review your technical knowledge and skills
Most off-grid homesteads generate power from the land’s resources. Typical power sources are the sun for solar power, the wind for wind power, and flowing water for hydro-power. Many times these primary power systems are saved with a diesel generator.
The common power generation technologies can malfunction or just stop working. As an example, solar energy is a great technology. However, it usually entails electronic controllers like an inverter to convert captured energy into a type usable by modern appliances and equipment. You’ll need to know how to program, maintain and troubleshoot the inverter. Generating power from the wind or water rely on mechanical parts that can wear down, stop working together, or just break. Finally, while diesel generators are reliable workhorses, many years of experience with them have taught me that the smallest issue will make a diesel generator come to a crashing halt.
So find out how to maintain, troubleshoot and repair the power generation equipment you rely on. Sure, you can get specialists to come out and fix things, but this can be expensive, especially if you live a long way from metropolitan areas.
Prepare for medical emergencies
For the solo off-gridder living in a remote location, it’s essential to own first-aid knowledge and access to emergency medical care just in case of a serious injury.
For first-aid knowledge, take each the standard and advanced first-aid courses available through local schools or government agencies. After mastering the talents, ensure the homestead is fully stocked to handle everything from a minor burn to a gunshot wound to a severed limb.
You also need access to emergency medical aid. If you live far away from a hospital, check out plans where you’ll be able to pay a small annual fee to get helicopter transfer to the nearest hospital. Analysis the plans carefully to understand how they work and their limitations.
Don’t forget security
Living by yourself on an isolated property may be a dream come true for many — including me. But it’s not a safe world out there. There are people who have no compunction about stealing what’s yours, whether or not you’re home at the time.
So learn self-defense, and get the guns you need to protect your life in the case of theft or home invasion. You’ll also need to think about the wildlife around you, and choose the correct firearms to protect yourself against curious bears, mountain lions, or any of the other predators out there that roam sparsely populated areas.
Cultivate working relationships
I get it. you want to live on your off-grid homestead alone and watch out of yourself by yourself. But things happen when you’ll simply need someone else’s help. For instance, there are probably plenty of chores around the homestead — tending the garden, feeding the chickens, milking the goat — that basically got to be done a day. If you seriously hurt yourself and end up bedridden or in the hospital for a couple of days, it’s good to possess someone you can trust who can competently take care of the homestead during your absence. So get out there and make some friends and build some relationships, even if it’s the last thing you want to do.
Living alone is hard work. Learn the correct skills and build the correct relationships to be successful at it. Taking the correct steps now will permit you to continue your solitude, even after a serious injury or other incident prevents you from caring temporarily for the homestead.
