So you wish to go off grid, eh?

From wanting to be more self sufficient, to living a more minimalist lifestyle, there are many reasons to want this kind of life. But before jumping right it there is much research to be done! Having lived this way for a few years now, I thought I’d write out a list of things I wish we had done better or differently on our journey into this life.

Research

We did a lot of research before moving to Alaska, especially since we knew we would be off the road system here. I still think we could have done even more, though. I have a whole list of books we included in our research here, but my favorite by far is The Woodland Homestead: How to Make Your Land More Productive and Live More Self-Sufficiently in the Woods. This book helped to realize we could do anything we wanted out here, while leaving many of the trees. I also read blogs and joined forums and discussion boards. I’ll break down specific topics to research further in this post.

Land

Read: Six Reasons Why We Homestead In Alaska

The first step is figuring out where you want to go off the grid. I’m partial to Alaska personally, but there are many places in the US and around the world where living this way is possible. Once where is decided, specifics need to be researched. Alaska, for example, has a vast difference in weather, precipitation, and growing season between Fairbanks and Juneau. We also have lots of wetlands up here, so finding dry ground to build on can sometimes be a challenge.

My land wish list included:

• being high and dry
• at least 5 acres
• no road access
• having water nearby
• no building permits

Luckily, we found a place that checked off everything on our list!

Weather

What kind of weather can you handle? What will make you miserable? I cannot handle Florida. Even Texas was too hot and humid for me. When we decided to move to Alaska, I looked into how much snow certain towns averaged, along with winter low temperatures, and decided where to look at property based on that. I was not willing to deal with the snow load that places like Talkeetna received. Farther south also had milder weather, if you can call -30F mild! If I had to choose again, I’d probably move farther south, closer to Homer or on one of the islands in South Central AK.

Power

I have a pretty big wish list when it comes to power. We currently bounce between using our 400w solar kit and our Honda generator, depending on the season and what we are powering. Items like the microwave, vacuum and coffee pot can only be run off the solar during a full sun day. The fridge and freezer run just fine off of our system, though we do unplug them at night.

My power wishlist includes:

• a huge upgrade to a 10kw solar system
• adding wind power for winter
• a large lithium battery bank
• an invertor(Amazon link) that can handle all the above

Our battery bank right now is fairly small, at only 3 12v batteries, but it works well for our small set up. Solar prices have fallen a lot since we purchased our system, the same kit is half the cost now!

Water

Read: 5 Ways To Get Drinking Water Off Grid

Living off the grid means not being connected to any municipality services, and this includes water. Whether getting it from a well, collecting rain water or hauling from a creek, this needs to be planned for. We’ve collected water many ways out here at one point or another. I will say that we should have been collecting rain water way sooner in our journey. Hand digging a well may be time-consuming, but it is a good option if there are plans for a large garden or animals. My water wish list right now is a well and well house to keep it from freezing. It’s something we realistically should have made time and budget for in the first year out here.

Cabin

You can see all of my cabin related wish list on this post about our dream home plans here. The biggest issues with our current cabin is the layout doesn’t flow easily. We built as we could afford to, so things sometimes ended up in wonky places. Our plan once we move to the big cabin is to gut this place and add shelving, cupboards and a kitchen island, as well as just upgrading some items in it like the kitchen sink. We’re okay viewing the ceiling insulation, but if we ever have guests, I want it to look like a proper tiny cabin!

Animals

So my animal wish list out here is a little long, I’d like ducks, rabbits, cows and a pig again. If we ever had money to spare, I’d get horses as well. We’ve had chickens, and I won’t do them again with our current power capabilities. Chickens need 14 hours of light a day to lay eggs, and I can’t provide supplemental light, so we ended up with no eggs throughout winter. Goats are another animal we’ve tried, and neither of us like them very much. I know I like cows, so I’d much rather get a small breed of cow for milk. Full sized cows produce more milk than we could ever use, even making cheese and yogurt too!

Garden

One thing we should have done earlier was build a greenhouse. We only have about 65 days of growing season here, so a greenhouse will help us plant earlier and harvest later. I grew up planting in March, so delaying to June is an enormous difference. Usually I’d be harvesting some things by then! We have plans for several 25×20 that we will add together until we have one 25×80. It’ll be part garden, part orchard, and part rabbitry. This will allow us to be much more self sufficient in the near future. We’ll be clearing land for those this fall.

Equipment

Living off grid requires equipment that may not be necessary living in the city. Some of our most important pieces of equipment include a chainsaw, sawmill, wood splitter and atv’s/snow machines. Our vehicles are important because they allow us to reach our property during season changes when driving a truck is not possible. The chainsaw and wood splitter allow us to cut down and split wood for burning. This is important because we only heat our cabin with a wood stove. A sawmill is necessary because it gives us the opportunity to build on our land without paying for and hauling wood from town.

Other equipment I wish we had (and that we’ll get someday) include:

• brush hog
• tractor
• backhoe
• rototiller

These are the things I wish for most often at least. Right now we are man power or hand-held tools to do everything out here. Having some larger equipment would help!