The Everything Guide to Living Off the Grid (9 page)

Can I stay warm in a yurt?
Yes. The shape of the yurt is very thermally efficient. A large yurt can be easily kept warm using a small wood-burning stove down to 23°F without any additional insulation. In Central Asia, layers of thick felt keep the yurt warm as the outside temperature drops well below -40°F.

Building Your Own Shelter

The first thing you need to decide when it comes to building your shelter is whether you are going to do it yourself or hire a contractor. If you have the skill set to do the job, including experience in the construction trades, building your own home can be a fulfilling experience. If you do not have the experience, you can make costly mistakes. However, there are many sources available to help you work through the process of building your own off-grid home.

Since you are building to live off-grid, you want a home that is energy efficient and as green as possible. Earthship Biotecture
(
http://earthship.com
)
provides an entire website explaining how to use recycled materials to create a self-sustaining green home. Using used tires as a base for foundations and walls, the architects at Earthship have developed technologies from solar lighting to geothermal heating to wastewater management that can be built into your off-grid home.

Greenhomebuilding.com (
www.greenhomebuilding.com
)
offers potential off-grid homeowners “a wide range of information about sustainable architecture and natural building.” Through this website, you can learn about alternative, natural building materials like sod, compressed earth, plaster, straw, tires, recycled paper, cans, bottles, cordwood, and even corn cobs. You can also find building plans and reviews of books about green and recycled building options.

If done correctly, your off-grid home will not look like a traditional home found in most neighborhoods. Off-grid homes are often built into the land to take advantage of passive geothermal heating and cooling. They often have windows on the south side of the house, to add in passive solar capture, but don’t have windows on the north side because of heat loss. Very often, off-grid homes are more compact, so you are not heating extra space. However, off-grid homes can also be works of architectural beauty, expressing your unique tastes.

CHAPTER 5
Family Needs

When you move off the grid with your family, there are many things you need to consider. Schooling is probably the primary cause for concern. Are you able and willing to homeschool your children or are you going to rely on the local public school system for your child’s education? Many places that are suitable for off-grid living don’t have the best educational systems. Do you have a predetermined social group like a church or even extended family who can provide moral support and socialization? Have you considered the other support services you will need like health care and legal services? In this chapter, you will be offered an overview of the needs of your family when you move off-grid.

Socialization for Kids and Adults

Loretta F. Kasper, PhD, writes: “Socialization helps to shape and define our thoughts, feelings, and actions, and it provides us with a model for our behavior. As children become socialized, they learn how to fit into and to function as productive members of human society. Socialization teaches us the cultural values and norms that provide the guidelines for our everyday life.”

Kasper explains that the family has primary importance is shaping a child’s attitude and behavior because it provides the context in which the first and most long-lasting relationships are formed. Further studies show that the family determines a child’s identity in terms of race, religion, social class, and gender. However, Kasper continues, even though we begin the process of socialization within the context of the family, a child’s school offers more objective social relationships: “School is a social institution, and as such, has direct responsibility for instilling in, or teaching, the individual the information, skills, and values that society considers important for social life. In school, children learn the skills of interpersonal interaction. They learn to share, to take turns, and to compromise with their peers.”

Children need to interact with peers to develop the ability to interact in the world. As you consider your off-grid location, you need to consider how you can provide some kind of socialization for your children.

You might think children are the only ones who need socialization. However, in a recent University of California study, researchers have identified a distinct pattern of gene expression in immune cells from people who experience chronically high levels of loneliness. The study’s findings revealed that feelings of social isolation can cause inflammation, the immune system’s first response, which can lead to an increased risk of heart disease, viral infections, and even cancer.

It’s a good idea for you to become part of a community of people who share similar values and beliefs. Whether you can find that through a church, a fraternal organization, or like-minded individuals on an emergency preparation forum, you need to reach out beyond your nuclear family to develop relationships that will bring you support and a sense of belonging.

The ABCs of Off-Grid Schooling

Off-grid schooling can encompass either homeschooling or public or private schools in the nearest community. Many rural areas have school systems that bus children from out in the country into town to meet their educational needs.

If you are considering a public or private school, you should go to a site like
GreatSchools.org
(
www.greatschools.org
)
to compare test scores, class size, teacher involvement, administrative involvement, and parent reviews. These kinds of sites can help you decide if the public school in your area is going to meet your needs.

Homeschooling may be the fastest-growing form of education in the United States (at 7 percent to 12 percent per year). Home-based education is also growing around the world in many nations. There are about 2 million homeschooled students in the United States.

You may decide to homeschool your children for a number of reasons. You might like the idea of incorporating your new lifestyle into your child’s school curriculum. You might feel the time spent commuting to and from school is too long. You might feel the public education system does not meet your child’s needs. You might have a differing point of view about what should be taught at school.

The website Free Home Education (
www.freehomeed.com
) is a great resource with links to free homeschooling resources on the Internet. You also need to research your state’s particular laws about homeschooling. The Home School Legal Defense Association website (
www.hslda.org
) can provide you with resources about the laws within every state in the United States, resources and information about homeschooling, and support groups for you.

You will find that living an off-grid lifestyle is a wonderful way to incorporate teaching experiences with real life. When you plant a garden, you can teach your child botany. When you cook with your child, you can teach mathematics and chemistry. As you raise livestock, you can teach biology.
Most educators agree that a “hands on” learning experience makes more of an impact than just reading something from a book.

There are many resources to help you decide on a teaching method at Julie Shepherd Knapp’s website “Homeschool Diner” (
www.homeschooldiner.com
). The site provides information about seventeen different popular methods and philosophies of homeschooling. Knapp writes, “Each approach is given a brief description, and you will find links to additional books and websites so you will be able to research the methods you think you and your child might enjoy. Under each approach you will find curriculum options, brief reviews of some popular commercial products, free online resources, and a listing of important websites and books.”

Support Groups and Assistance

The Internet has opened up the world to us. We can chat with people on the other side of the world with just a few clicks of a mouse. This is a boon for people who are living off-grid who want to still have a community of friends and mentors.

From homeschooling to emergency preparedness, there are forums on the Internet that can provide not only basic information, but also a community of like-minded people who will understand and support you.

On
Timebomb2000.com
, A World’s Events Focus Group and Forum (
www.timebomb2000.com
).
members are encouraged to not only share information and opinions about world events, but also to participate in sub-forums like Preps, Alternative Living, Homemaking and Homesteading, Granny’s Kitchen, Alternative Medicine, Firearms Hunting and Fieldcraft, and Mechanics. In these forums, members share their experiences and are willing to help novices with counsel and advice.

Many online forums are recognizing a need for their members to actually meet, so they arrange local events where members can get together.
Timebomb2000.com
actually has a forum that is divided into geographical locations, so members can communicate with one another about local events and even plan local get-togethers.

To locate a group that meets your needs, start with an Internet search in the subject area that you are interested in. Then spend some time on the
various forums as a guest. Observe the interaction of the members with each other. Is there a lot of hostility or is there good-natured disagreement? Do many of the views reflect your beliefs? Does the information seem solid or does it seem extreme? Is there a cost to be a member? Who is the owner of the forum and what is the forum’s goal?

Once you feel comfortable, join the forum and venture into the conversations. Introduce yourself and ask some questions. Don’t be a wallflower, but don’t be a know-it-all either. Slowly make you way into the fold of the forum, respecting others’ opinions and sharing some of your own.

Of course, choosing an off-grid lifestyle does not necessarily mean that you will be isolated and limited to interaction on the Internet. Visit the nearest town and learn about opportunities to volunteer in areas that interest you. Join local groups, especially groups like 4-H or Scouting programs for your children. Become a member of a local church, not only for religious instruction, but for the support you can receive from members of a religious community.

Do You Still Need Health Insurance?

Health insurance is used to cover the cost of private medical treatment for any illness and injury that is curable and short term.

Without insurance, you will be responsible for the cost of any health care treatment you or your family requires. These costs, at times, can be astronomical. As you look at your budget, you need to ask yourself what will happen if you can’t afford the premiums. How will you be able to afford the treatment?

With new legislation on the horizon, many of the old “Charity Care” safety nets for health care may be gone. Charity Care was federally funded, but each state has its own version of it. The Hill-Burton program, initiated between 1946 and 1974, was one initiative. Through Hill-Burton, federal funds were used to improve state medical facilities. In return, those facilities had to provide health care to those who could not afford it.

How do you know if you fit under the “can’t afford it” label? To qualify for services, an applicant’s income must fall within the annually published Poverty Guidelines of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

What is considered “income” under the Hill-Burton program?
Gross income (before taxes), interest/dividends earned, and child support payments are examples of income. Assets, food stamps, gifts, loans, or one-time insurance payments are examples of items not included as income when considering eligibility. For self-employed people, income is determined after deductions for business expenses.