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Thread: So how many of you have ever seen or visited 'of the grid' communities?

  1. #41
    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    Yep - its been done.
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  2. #42
    Senior Member WalkingTree's Avatar
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    I once visited what might be called a sort of so-called hippy commune for a few weeks, just to find out a little about such things. Technically it is an "intentional community". One of many throughout the U.S. Been there since the 70's, about a hundred people permanently plus maybe as many "part time transient members", about 1,000 acres deep in the sticks, mostly OTG but with their own business(s) that they share and work in equally.

    It was really weird - The one thing, at the very top of my list, which I was very mindful of and wanted to find out about, is their sociological state. As a quasi-closed-society, it would be prone to particular introversions and social deteriorations. Everything else they were doing ok with...but this one thing I was curious about the most. It's what makes or breaks everything else. Well...these people were horrible. Their social dynamics and the way that they were with each other was aweful, and they don't even have the capacity to recognize it in themselves either. There is a strange presence of intellectual and emotional stuntedness and psychopathy there.

    Really strange - It was beautiful, was working, and there are some cool things about it that stuck with me...but it has a darkness about it. I got out of there and will not go back.
    The pessimist complains about the wind;
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  3. #43
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Here, have a glass of Cool Aid.......

    I'm sure that your observations are pretty much dead on.
    Not for me.
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  4. #44
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    Yeah, some of us still remember Jim Jones.

  5. #45
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    Quote Originally Posted by natertot View Post
    Also,many of those that did gain employment took a major pay loss. All in all, not a pretty picture.
    Yup; I'm still making less than I was in 2001. Of course, I did move back to a lower cost of living area, but in looking at pay rates where I was then, it still hasn't really improved: most of the jobs that were more than $3-4 over minimum wage then have only seen about a $1-2 increase since then.

  6. #46
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    Quote Originally Posted by LowKey View Post
    The two women's houses we visited had wood-fired cookstoves, those big massive black and chrome things.
    There used to be a small Amish community here, and I keep meaning to find out who owns the land since they left. I'd love to spend some time looking over their outdoor bread ovens and trying to recreate one. (When it's >100F for weeks in the summer, with even overnight lows in the mid 80s, I can't imagine doing any cooking indoors without air conditioning. Even in my little 550 square foot place the heavy duty 220V window unit can't keep up with the gas oven on the hottest days: it barely keeps up when the bread machine and crock pot are both going.)

  7. #47
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rick View Post
    Yeah, some of us still remember Jim Jones.
    And it was FlaVorAid, not KoolAid. Can't imagine why they don't use that in their advertising.

  8. #48
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    It was pretty common to have outdoor kitchens for the summer. Especially for canning in August and September. We're more sofisti...saphist....we have more fetchin' up these days. Now we can heat up the house and cool it down at the same time.

  9. #49
    Senior Member WalkingTree's Avatar
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    Ok...um...there are a couple of other different but vague references on the first couple pages of a google search, for that exact spelling, but the earliest and clearest explanation of saphist is lesbianism. Is this saphist what can heat up and cool down a house at the same time? I'm wondering how that works.
    The pessimist complains about the wind;
    The optimist expects it to change;
    The realist adjusts the sails.

    - William Arthur Ward

  10. #50
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by NightSG View Post
    And it was FlaVorAid, not KoolAid. Can't imagine why they don't use that in their advertising.
    Maybe so...I didn't have any, I was drinking beer....so passed.....the sugary drink aren't good for you.
    Look what happened to them.

    I do get a case of the hair on the back of my neck standing up..... and a weird spot in my stomach when I hear....
    "Like minded people....
    "Group activities....
    "Collective thinking....
    "Moving to a higher place.....

    Generally means some one want you to pay and do the work on and for their activities.

    I'm a lone wolf kinda guy and don't like sugary drinks.
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  11. #51
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    Actually, I was being facetious. A play on sophistication. My bad. Humor only works when it's....well, funny.

  12. #52
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Wow, low flyer there,..... Rick....who would have thunk it...Nonsense actually meant something....Bhohahaha

    Lucky shot?....saphist is lesbianism...and here I thought you were just messing up "sophisticated", as a joke.....
    Geezer Squad....Charter Member #1
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  13. #53
    Alaska, The Madness! 1stimestar's Avatar
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    Hahha. I got it.

    My friends Wayne and Scarlett who I go see every year lives off the Yukon River. Take the boat down river, park, ride the atv up the mountain to their cabin. Anyways, totally off grid. Two years ago they built another little cabin for their guide (they do dog mushing expeditions). This year, they are working on a bigger cabin. So that will be three cabins. Guess that could qualify as a community. But yes, all are owned by Wayne and Scarlett and who ever lives in them will be working for Wayne and Scarlett. They also get paid...

    In the summer they send most of their dogs down to the glaciers to give rides to tourists. This way they don't have to feed them all summer and they get an amount of money for their dog lease. But in the winter, if your guide happened to get married over the summer and you want him to come back, guess it's nice for the wife to be able to come with...
    Why do I live in Alaska? Because I can.

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  14. #54
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    Default What exactly is "off the grid" no comm, no electric grid, no well?

    That is very cool 1stimester being "off the grid" in the far north takes a lot of labor! Many long days especially during the summer. My father grew up in a very small wooden house (looked more like a shack and had a dirt floor and was used to store lawn equipment and a small tractor when I saw it), it was about an hour from Edmonton, Alberta. No electricity or running water when he was a kid, born 1915. Would have been 100 years old this Sept 1st, we will celebrate his life.

    I and many of my school friends spent our summers in indigenous villages of the Amazon rain forest, with no electricity, running water and many hours by small plane from the nearest medical clinic. That might be considered "off the grid" by some. One of my friend's mothers is almost 80 now and still spends several months of the year living with the indigenous people their family first started to work with back in the 1960's. Several other of my friends about my age live in similar conditions in that Amazon region and in various parts of Africa and South East Asia for many months of the year or even for a year or more at a time. But with some trips to town. Some electricity from solar panels for computers and very low bandwidth for communications so not technically totally off the grid if you still have some digital communications I guess. Most still need to go into a small town every few months for minimal supplies. Some of my friends home school, others send their older kids away to boarding school. One couple I have known since grade school lives in Mozambique they have a special needs child who goes to a special school for him in South Africa, but they don't use that as an excuse not to live in the bush with tribal people.
    Last edited by TXyakr; 08-25-2015 at 02:35 PM.

  15. #55
    Alaska, The Madness! 1stimestar's Avatar
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    You can have internet and still be off grid. My friends have solar and wind power and satellite internet. How did you get down in the Amazon? That has to be an interesting story.
    Why do I live in Alaska? Because I can.

    Alaska, the Madness! Bloggity Stories of the North Country

    "Building Codes, Alaskans don't need no stinking Building Codes." Sourdough

    Yes, I have wifi in my outhouse!

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