off grid in Nevada

[hunter63]

If California falls into the ocean...ocean front property?

Oh, yeah...some one complained about using that analogy...If I remember correctly.

[Loneviking]

BTW, rainwater collection in Nevada is legal if you have water rights. So yes, make darn sure of your water rights.

[backtobasics]

Hi there folks. New to this group!

Looking for ideas for the new land. Bought 53 acres in northern central Nv. Planning on building on this land to hopefully one day be able to move out there full time. There is nothing near. No electric or water. I plan on putting in a septic system with time. We have one at our current house we own in the mountains in Cali. We plan on using solar energy for electric for simple uses such as a fridge freezer. We don't really use lights in our current home. My one concern is water. In Nv you don't need a permit to drill a well but it's expensive. It's illegal to use rain water but come on its Nv. I don't think 3" of water a yr will do us any good. Any other ideas?

We will be using propane for cooking like we do in our current home and wood burning stove for heat like we currently do.

I am curious what kind of animals we could farm with and recommendations on quantity due to water concerns and extreme heat. This will be for a family of 2 and a crap load of dogs

Thank you for your input!

I lived off grid in northern Nevada for 3 years. If the land is clay the water may not be drinkable from a well and growing will be hard. We collected wild horse manure off the roads for the garden. I had a good friend nearby that let me use his well and we hauled water. There was also a spring not to far that many used for water. Water is #1. We learned to brush our teeth with 1 cup of water. We used little electricity. 2 solar panels and a couple of batteries. Generator for power tools and washing machine. Propane frig and freezer. For animals I mostly saw poultry some cows tho. It really depends on the land. My neighbor less than a half mile away and the land was much different. If you can get good water drill. Ask the people in the area.

[backtobasics]

One more thing solar will pull the water that is how my friend had his set up.

[backtobasics]

I'm totally in the dark on this and just have to ask: how on earth could there be restrictions on rain water? How does that even work?
If nbaker is sitting on 53 acres out in the middle of nowhere, will someone check up on him every time it rains?

They will never check. We were north of Reno still in Washoe county where outhouse are illegal but everyone had one and some collected rain water as well.

[kyratshooter]

A moot point in an area that gets less than 10 inches of rainfall per year, and much of that as snow.

[backtobasics]

True one could not live on rain water alone but in the desert every drop counts. Unless you have a well then your good.

[WalkingTree]

Assuming a scenario wherein someone is able (financially) to put such engineering into something (but are needing to avoid always buying water and having it trucked in)...I wonder if it's a good idea to try and design a habitat that is a quasi-closed system which doesn't let any of it's humidity out and constantly condenses it out of the air, gardens which are inside with a glass wall and below ground it is separated from the ground outside also - in order to effectively recycle as much water as you do have and have things set up so that the same water passively/actively cycles constantly through it's many uses. I know that some Earthships are like this in that their gray water goes to their gardens and then a couple of other things long before it is ultimately released. I guess the biggest problem would be the water from your bodily wastes - properly processing such wastes yet extracting the water from it, yet not having things be stinky.

Maybe your black-waste garden and pond with the right flora and fauna (and something with that bacteria that you can get) is indoors, to always take the humidity from that air putting it back into the system after it transpires from the leaves and everywhere else...but this area is sealed off from the rest of the house, airlocked. Or, you can have those toilets which dehydrate the stuff, before it goes to the next stage of composting, and the water after removing the stinky gas is reclaimed.

Wouldn't do the trick completely, but in combination with what little water you get from the ground or rain, might take care of everything?

And so...I'm sure that the right such-minded person can come up with a simpler DIY redneck set-up to do this kind of thing to some extent.

edit - Just make your outhouse a big greenhouse garden which you accept is always a little stinky, and the ground and airspace is a closed system, and water is condensed out and reclaimed.

I'm thinking the real problem with all this is that in a really closed system you do have some things which build up and get out of balance, and you may end up with diseases in the air or somewhere because it's so closed.

[finallyME]

The only purpose for Northern Nevada is to drive through it to the coast. Of course, my luck driving though it last week was a blizzard from Winnemucca to Utah. I consider Nevada a buffer between me and Cali. When society collapses and So Cal runs out of water, they won't be able to make it to Utah. They will all die in Nevada.

[finallyME]

Assuming a scenario wherein someone is able (financially) to put such engineering into something (but are needing to avoid always buying water and having it trucked in)...I wonder if it's a good idea to try and design a habitat that is a quasi-closed system which doesn't let any of it's humidity out and constantly condenses it out of the air, gardens which are inside with a glass wall and below ground it is separated from the ground outside also - in order to effectively recycle as much water as you do have and have things set up so that the same water passively/actively cycles constantly through it's many uses. I know that some Earthships are like this in that their gray water goes to their gardens and then a couple of other things long before it is ultimately released. I guess the biggest problem would be the water from your bodily wastes - properly processing such wastes yet extracting the water from it, yet not having things be stinky.

Maybe your black-waste garden and pond with the right flora and fauna (and something with that bacteria that you can get) is indoors, to always take the humidity from that air putting it back into the system after it transpires from the leaves and everywhere else...but this area is sealed off from the rest of the house, airlocked. Or, you can have those toilets which dehydrate the stuff, before it goes to the next stage of composting, and the water after removing the stinky gas is reclaimed.

Wouldn't do the trick completely, but in combination with what little water you get from the ground or rain, might take care of everything?

And so...I'm sure that the right such-minded person can come up with a simpler DIY redneck set-up to do this kind of thing to some extent.

edit - Just make your outhouse a big greenhouse garden which you accept is always a little stinky, and the ground and airspace is a closed system, and water is condensed out and reclaimed.

I'm thinking the real problem with all this is that in a really closed system you do have some things which build up and get out of balance, and you may end up with diseases in the air or somewhere because it's so closed.

You can do it.... think biosphere for Mars. Won't be cheap.