I love the idea of an off-grid house but it always comes with too much DIY.<p>I wish there were sellers with fixed affordable off-grid packages.<p>You get House A on Plot A for $50,000<p>You own the house and the plot. It is fully off-grid (except WiFi) and we made smart decisions and installed reliable systems.<p>You pay your money and you maintain the house.<p>Unfortunately it’s never like that. It’s all DIY:<p>Come camp with us for 4 weeks without a hot shower while we teach you how to mix AirCrete and sell you a pump. Get 4 friends and spend 4 months slathering cob incorrectly together. Never cut down a tree before? Buy a chainsaw and start stacking 1-ton logs- you’ll be perfectly safe: nobody has blogged yet about having crushed themselves.<p>I realize this is contrary to the spirit.<p>I just want a convention-over-configuration small off-grid house that I can see in models, read specs for, and purchase outright, including the land it’s sitting on.
I've ridden the RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) three times. Each year, a different route brings you and 15,000 of your closest friends through small towns like Marne and Manilla. The chosen communities always enthusiastically rise to the occasion by providing food, water, beverages, entertainment, fun diversions, historical themes, hospitality, well wishes and much more.<p>Riding out of town after having a stack of pancakes at the firehouse or a piece of pie from the local Rotary Club, you have plenty of time to think about what it takes and how remarkable it is for some of those towns to accommodate everyone.<p>The RAGBRAI is a great way to experience the State of Iowa.
Alaska discourages people coming to Alaska without preparation.[1] "You should have a round trip ticket and cash or credit card resources ($2,000 for temporary and $3,000 for permanent work) to live on while looking for work. Many who arrived short of cash encountered serious hardship and shattered dreams. Public assistance programs cannot be counted on by persons relocating to Alaska without adequate funds. Homesteading is not available now. The climate and unpredictable summer weather generally discourage camper or tent living for extended periods."<p>[1] <a href="https://www.labor.alaska.gov/esd_alaska_jobs/ak_over.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.labor.alaska.gov/esd_alaska_jobs/ak_over.htm</a>
What a great article.<p>I can see the appeal of living in nature, off-grid, but I see a few problems that are really hard to solve for such type of living:<p>1) healthcare access - you might be hours away from medical assistance. It's all nice and good until you need it.<p>2) social activity - it's nice to be by yourself, or with a few people, for a few months; but would you live like that for decades? Wouldn't you miss social interactions?<p>3) work - not everybody can be a software developer. What kind of work you could do if you are so far away from any community?<p>4) sense of community, sense of belonging - this is the hardest I think. Humans are social animals, there's no way around it. Some of us are perfectly fine living in a semi-isolated state; but at least for me, that would become a problem eventually. One thing that Covid has taught me is how important my social interactions are.<p>Edit: also on HN today you find "What Makes a Community? (2020)". Interesting read. [0]<p>[0]: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26274450" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26274450</a>
I love reading these articles just for the fantasy material. Camping is one of my favorite hobbies but it’s generally car camping and not without some fairly straightforward luxuries (I’m probably not one to hunt and forage).<p>Still, it seems like it could be worth it to have some land that will be less affected by climate change in the future, especially if you have children you can leave it to.
The title of the link is a bit misleading. It might be better to say:
"Ways to get land in North America without paying" as it lists some techniques you can use: committing to building a house, taking care of a farm, or via squatters rights to obtain land in Canada and the US without needing to buy it.<p>As there are substantial non-monetary obligations attached (for example, the need to build a house), I wouldn't call this "giving away land". And as most of these programs have been in place for a long time - in some cases dating back to common law - I wouldn't frame it as news. Rather, it's another set of life hacking tips.
There's plenty of places in rural WA state where you can buy 20 acres for $20,000. In some really beautiful remote places. With starlink and much lower costs of photovoltaics, and better batteries in the past 3-4 years, a high tech life off grid isn't <i>technically</i> hard.<p>But I would budget at minimum an additional $50k for septic system, water well drilling and setup, and PV+wind+battery setup. Before you even start with the cost of laying a foundation for a house.
The list includes a decent size city, Buffalo, New York, as well as some small towns. Buffalo has an Urban Homestead Program.<p><a href="https://www.buffalony.gov/306/Urban-Homestead-Program" rel="nofollow">https://www.buffalony.gov/306/Urban-Homestead-Program</a>
Everything is free if you don’t count the price you have to pay.<p>In this case, the price is working like a maniac 24/7 and living in a tiny shack without electricity.
It's there in the saltwater electrolysis diagram on the right hand side, but probably worth calling out in big scary letters. Separating saltwater this way produces chlorine gas as a byproduct.
A number of towns in Kansas on the list. I've lived here for many years and I've only heard of one of them, and that's because they're giving away free lots or houses or something.<p>I'd be really careful about building the type of house described in the article in Kansas. Obviously places in Tornado Alley have that to worry about. Not every place is like that - we've had one tornado since 1966 - but there's nowhere in Kansas you can escape the heavy thunderstorms.
Looking at so many places from Kansas reminded me of this video by a Geography nerd who went down census numbers from every state to try to explain patterns.<p><a href="https://youtu.be/4ZM3UFIt0Xs" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/4ZM3UFIt0Xs</a><p>Truly remarkable how it takes only a decade to see entire counties and states to change completely.
I despair. In the UK land is so parcelled up, monopolised, and held for posterity that you need serious wealth to buy anything even low grade. And now that we've left the EU it's not like it's even possible to move elsewhere. I despair.
Adverse possession is probably not realistic for most people. iirc it kicks in after 20 years after you build something on that land or surround it with a fence, plus it would take years and hiring an attorney to get it through the court system.<p>So yes, it's technically free land, but after 25 years. I'm sure some states have slightly different rules about adverse possession though.
I grew up near two villages listed in the article (Pipestone and Scarth, Manitoba).<p>Definitely low population but growing up there I never felt I was missing out. Spent lots of time outside adventuring around. I still sometimes miss how dark and quiet notes out there were.
Interesting threads here got me thinking about the fact that “off grid” is clearly not synonymous with “not being on the internet”. There’s like “the grid” and then “The Grid”. I wonder how many people would argue that being truly off grid means exactly that - no mains water, electricity, but also no internet. I don’t know enough about these sorts of communities to hazard a guess.
I like the general idea very much. unfortunately in Germany where I like it is almost impossible to achieve. outside of city limits it is forbidden to build a house, even if the property is yours and inside city limits and a permit and that one you can not get with off grid concepts. connection to the road, electricity, water and waste water is mandatory. even people who produce zero waste MUST pay for waste collection. saw an article once where a family planted a tree in the waste bin. Still had to pay for having it not collected.
Took a look at the New Richland Montana one - they are charging you 25,000 for the cost of putting in roads and such. So A: not off grid. and B: not free. Not sure how well researched the article is.
The amount of DIY knowledge you need to know to live off grid is more than making a PhD in some STEM field.<p>Living near civilization is far easier, even with a soul-crushing job.
Even without living off the grid. What's it's like living in this places in the US? I'm looking at New Richmond Minnesota that's mentioned on the blog and there are only 1,200 people living there.
I wonder if you can live there as a single in your 30's as someone who grow up in a small country where all cities and major places are just very close by.
Fantastic resource, covers all the bases.<p>I've tried this a couple of times: move to the woods with some like-minded people and start a little Permaculture village. All the physical stuff really works: composting, rocket stoves, etc.<p>In my experience the problems are always people. ("Hell is other people." ~Voltaire or somebody.) Drug and alcohol abuse or just plain crazy can bust up a venture.<p>I did meet a group of people who were living very very well in a communal village. They did things like holding hands in a big circle and singing grace before meals. They are probably among the happiest and most fulfilled folks I've ever met.<p>- - - -<p>One thing I would add to the list: Aircrete dome houses. Cheap, easy, fast, beautiful, durable (fire- and earthquake-proof.) Start at <a href="https://www.domegaia.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.domegaia.com/</a> for a group that teaches how and developed a backyard-scale foamer. There are lots of DIY videos and information out there too.
I think it will be interesting the day that a local community bans central banks/fractional reserve banking and starts to sell houses in Bitcoin/Gold. People will be able to afford houses in cash without going into life time debt.<p>People will be able to remote work due to internet technology, local work hubs will appear where you can have social interactions.
This article gives a decent description of the 'how', but I'm more curious about the 'why'. Yes, it is possible to avoid paying money for land, food, housing, water, sewer, etc. Considered on a basis of how many hours you have to work for a given standard of living, however, it's not very attractive.