Practice v Theory

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This is the next installment of the series about going off the grid.

Right off the top with this post, I came to the realization that the kind of posts that I will be doing will be different.  Up until now, most of my content was derived from what others were doing.  I would comment upon what someone else had written.  Then the idea came up to do this, and I researched a number of topics about what to do in order to make going off the grid work.  But that's all theory.  At some point, the theorizing has to end and there had to be a decision to make as to whether or not to do anything about all the theories.  As mentioned, I decided to go ahead and make the purchase of the land, which is now a done deal.  No more theories, it's time for the rubber to hit the road.

As a sidebar, I'll segue into the following:  I've written a lot of stuff about space.  To put it mildly, this property is like a moonshot.  It is quite unlike any place that I've lived in before.  I've been a city boy all my life.  This is more than country, it is wilderness.  Almost like being on the moon.  One mistake and you're dead.

As a consequence, you want to keep things as simple as possible.  All materials to get started with will have to be kept to a minimum.  Trucking stuff in is to be avoided because of the expense and the difficulty, frankly, of getting it there.  But I'm going to have bring stuff in.  There's no avoiding this.  The KISS method is to be kept in mind at all times.

That leads me to a decision not to dig a trench.  Simplicity wasn't the only reason.  The other reason is rattlesnakes.  The last thing I want is to have a bunch of those critters crawling into my trench and setting up shop there. Rattlesnakes probably don't like open areas because it is too hot. They also like to hide in dark places. I want to able to see one of these suckers if one decides to show up.

Instead of a trench, there ought to be some sort of structure, maybe just a couple of walls that block the sun and give shade.  You can just drive in between the walls and park.

It will have to be an RV type setup at first.  The RV is where I'll live until I can get my adobe hut built.  It should be possible to get something simple in there.  The smaller the better.  Not a good idea to have heavy vehicles in a place where the roads aren't the greatest.

With respect to roads, this could be a problem in this place.  Since it is a hilly region, when the rain falls, as there exists many unprotected areas with no vegetation for cover, water can do a great deal of erosion.  It can literally wash out the dirt roads.

Now for vehicles for these bad roads.  I was thinking four wheel drive, but this would entail the purchase of a new vehicle, which is an expense I'm trying to avoid.  That leads to another decision:  to buy another vehicle or try to modify the existing one?  The trouble with keeping my existing vehicle is that it's old with a lot of miles on it.  Do you want to keep something old and have it break down?  It needs to keep me going for awhile in the delivery business, but be good enough for some off roading.

I've got time for these decisions.  It isn't necessary for me to move in just yet.  The time table is flexible and that is where I'll leave off for now.