Living off grid requires dedication, commitment, and a considerable amount of knowledge and skill.  Most people do not acquire those skills over night.  Therefore, if this is concerning, continue reading and learn how to improve your off grid skills.  

Most people I’ve met that live a self sufficient lifestyle are motivated, flexible, self-starters. They are hardy do-it-yourself types, critical thinkers, and problem solvers. Furthermore, those that avidly work toward self sufficiency realize that it is almost impossible to know everything. It takes some time to acquire the needed off grid skills and knowledge. Most folks learn by doing. Creativity and ingenuity become your best friends.

Being able to manage your own resources and provide most of your daily needs  requires a considerable amount of skill and knowledge. I know this can be intimidating but you need to start somewhere. 

WHAT TYPES OF OFF GRID SKILLS ARE NECESSARY?

There seems...

Where did Patrick come from and why

should you listen?

Childhood

In my early childhood my family moved around a lot. Although we lived in numerous different places, it was mostly limited to northern Georgia and south eastern Tennessee. We eventually settled in a house in Chattanooga which is where I spent a great deal of my childhood. The house was very small. I had a brother and two sisters. Neither of my parents graduated high school because they quit in order to help on the family farm. They were the average blue collar parents that worked very hard to provide everything they could. We never really did without anything but we had very limited financial means and the little extras in life were few and far between.

There were two working farms in the family and none of us were strangers to hard work. I often spent months at a time helping on one of the farms. Starting when I was about 5 years old, both of my grandfathers began teaching me how to work the farm. Donning over-sized...

When Buying Rural Property, how do you find the right place?

I purchased a 46 acre property over 20 years ago that I considered to be my dream property. I had always wanted to build a log cabin and establish a homestead that was completely off-grid. That is exactly what I did. I still have that property today and still live there full-time. Fortunately for me, things worked out well despite my lack of forethought and planning.

At the time I also had a complete lack of understanding of all the possible considerations for buying rural property. I made many, many mistakes. It was only the second piece of real estate I had ever purchased in my life. When I found this place, I knew it was exactly what I wanted and I jumped at the opportunity.

Because I did not have a lot of money at the time,  I took a significant financial risk. Fortunately the people I dealt with were honest, extremely helpful, and willing to risk placing their trust in me. Only in retrospect did I realize just...

Since I purchased my cabin property 20 years ago, I’ve learned many new skills. This is not only because I wanted to learn how to do things myself but also because it saved me a tremendous amount of money. I can proudly say that I have managed to complete roughly 90% of the projects on my property completely by myself. Consequently, I have learned from first hand experience the many benefits to DIY.

If you are not accustomed to doing things yourself, I would recommend starting with very simple projects until you are comfortable with your new skills. Plenty of home improvements stores offer workshops and short demonstrations on how to complete various projects. Additionally, you can find most anything on what I call “YouTube University”.

Continue reading to learn the 20 benefits to DIY.  You will also get to see me in the progress of completing a nice deck on the back of the cabin.

1) Learning new skills gives you more personal freedom.

Learning to do something...