The fun and trials of living off the grid.

By Marc 

We first moved onto a 512-acre parcel of land just outside of Jackson, CA. on October 15, 2001. This parcel of land is in the foothills above Sacramento. When we first arrived the only development to the property was a new gravel road to the site we chose for our new home.

                            The road in...

As for city services, we had none in the beginning. No water, electric, sewer or phone. Not even a flat place to park the trailer.  

Claudia and I set about making our spot in the hills home. We set up the trailer under a few very nice oak trees so that we would have some shade in the summer. Just before I had 25 tons of large rock brought in to make our parking area along with a driveway from the gravel road, our fulltiming friends, Dave & Barbie Jenkins stopped by for a visit of two days.

       Waiting for our gravel                    Here comes the gravel.

   Spreading the gravel was no fun.

It was great getting caught up with the Jenkins and I helped Dave finally get the remote start for his big generator wired to the fifth wheel so it would easily start from inside. Their visit ended all too soon as they needed to head south and hopefully find warmer temps.

 Dave & Barb, great fulltiming friends.        Dave hitching up to pull out.

Next, we had to find a way to keep the cattle from destroying everything since the owners rent the pastureland in the wintertime. I ended up recycling some old fencing and gates and in a few weeks we had a nice area all fenced off for ourselves. 

Then came the deck. We had purchased a screen room that attaches to the trailer awning. I figured it would be up for several years at least, so we might as well have a nice carpeted deck to go along with it. A few items from Home Depot and a days work and we now have a great deck with blue indoor/outdoor carpet.

     The deck under construction.                The carpet install.

Marc puts the finishing on the carpet.           Screen room completed.

Wonderful view from our cozy outdoor room.

To this point we still had no services though. The next problem to solve was power and water. I was hauling water with the big truck in two 55-gallon barrels. This was never going to work for us long term. I decided that I would make a trip back to Bend and get my trailer and 2 water tanks that we once used in Bend. While I was back, I also purchased the parts I needed to install a good inverter and battery bank to work off of.  

When I returned, I set up the water trailer with a nice pump so that we have city style water pressure whenever the generator is on. We plan our showers and laundry around the charging times. 

As for the power needs, both Claudia and Rachael like to use an electric blanket at night. Another creature comfort we like is the extra freezer, which runs on 120 volts. I decided that if we were going to be here for a few years we might as well be comfortable. I chose a 2000-watt inverter and three 8D Lifeline AGM batteries for storage. It took me a whole day to break out the circuits I wanted to power with the inverter and do the rest of the installation. So far it has worked out just great. I would like to add one more battery to the bank the next time I get to Bend. 

By the time I had all this done, we had been without Internet for about two months and all of us really missed being online. Claudia and Rachael had taken to the library for a limited amount of surfing. It took me about a month to get the phone company to work with me in getting a phone line to the trailer. It was just a little over 1400 feet from the nearest point of connection to our rig. I even had to go under an old road to get to the splice box. We now have two phone lines that work OK for the net, but they have a little too much noise on them when the inverter is on. Makes surfing a real chore. 

We really did not have a clue as to how much trouble we would have living off the grid for an extended time. Some things went pretty much as I thought they would. Other little problems cropped up that I did not even think about. Like mice that can get into everything. And I mean everything. Some of the places I have found them—well, the pictures will tell a better story. 

We will do separate posts with more detail for some of the systems we did to get along here. Follow along with us as we go and see how things work out.

       Our completed homestead.                  Sierra view from our site.

            Duske homestead from the air.