It's Been One Year Since I Started Living Off Grid....

When I started my off grid journey, I envisioned plucking luscious tomatoes off the vine, munching on crunchy homegrown carrots, and petting baby goats in the sunshine. Although I do get to have these moments, there is so much more to going off grid than what our idealistic selves want to believe is the truth.

We bought our off grid property in December 2021, and dove in head first. We didn't have power, a well, or sewer. We just drug our camper to our sprawling property (30 acres!) and parked it, full of dreams and high hopes.

Our immediate attention was to figure out our water system. We ended up putting a 330 gallon IBC tank on a trailer and towed it 10 miles to fill up at the local water depot. We were lucky enough to have the depot so close to us!

We accidentally forgot to take off the lid of the IBC tank and crushed it when pumping the water out! Luckily, we were able to get it back to normal.

Next, we tackled power. We ran a generator for our power needs, charging phones and laptops, watching a little TV at night, nothing too heavy duty.

We had to build a fence as we had plenty of trespassers wanting to ride their ATVs on our property, as it used to be the old partying grounds. We were able to recycle old barbed wire fence and T posts that were already there. Boy, it sure was a lot of work!

We ended up purchasing a large solar power system that is big enough to keep our air conditioners going, which is a must-have when you live in an RV in Arizona. It was a very expensive system, and it took a lot of time and research to figure out how to install it.

After those projects were complete, we decided if we were going to grow food, we would need to put in a crop cage. I call it a crop fortress because it's 1500 square foot and fully enclosed. Even the mice cannot get in!

So things are going pretty good, but the first year has been very stressful. Building materials and supplies have skyrocketed in price, and we had to pay a lot more money than we were expecting to put in the essential systems we needed.

Our income has been rocky as well, as we both lost our jobs to all the BS going on. We launched our own business while in the midst of building our homestead, so the pressure has been extreme.

Things seem to be calming down now, but we have pretty much ran out of money to keep working on projects. So we are content to be where we are at right now with the systems we have.

There is always so much more to do when living off grid, and it will never be perfect. You just have to keep on plugging away at all the challenges and projects, and try and stay optimistic.

I have so much more that I could write about, but I think this is a good time to stop. Do you have any questions for me? Comments? Please, feel free to drop one below!

You can also visit my website, www.MaximumOffGrid.com to learn more about going off the grid. I have been working on the website for years, adding tons of valuable content as I have learned and researched so much knowledge.

Sincerely,
Regina Cal.