08-17-2014, 11:57 AM
I've learned that I'm too addicted to power in one form or another. I like having it and most don't so well without it.
I was thinking a couple days ago of how back in the 70's I lived off the grid for a while, before there was solar energy to be had. One place on the Olympic Peninsula was an old homestead that had no wiring or plumbing, no plug outlets in the whole house, was built in the 1800's and never updated. If we wanted to make a call we drove 20 minutes into town or just looked for whoever it was in case they were in town too.
No refrigerator. (When we camped we would do stuff like submerge beer in a stream to get it cold.) Water at the house was a well dug in the ground and we pulled water up in a tin bucket tied to a rope, boiled it on the stove before using. Heat was propane, as was stove. Bathroom was an outhouse and a jug of water and a basin for washing. Light was kerosene lamps. Music was a 12-volt car stereo and a battery (if charged), and a guitar.
Groceries we got once a week and showers were at the state park where you paid for each 5 minutes of hot water. Our road was a muddy track through the woods along the edge of a river, that no one ever maintained. Reading was done in the daylight hours. Evening we had conversation.
Power and water outages had no meaning to us. A tree falling on the house would have been bad, but the house was in a big clearing so that couldn't happen.
It poured rain most every day and there were actually mushrooms growing on the walls inside the house. And there were mice. We needed a cat badly. Those things bothered me.
I do want to get a solar backup going, but ultimately that's so I don't have to deal with my addiction to running things with plugs and batteries to be charged, things I lived without 40 years ago, even though I had a toddler and another on the way.
I'm really spoiled now compared to my younger self, I admit it.
I was thinking a couple days ago of how back in the 70's I lived off the grid for a while, before there was solar energy to be had. One place on the Olympic Peninsula was an old homestead that had no wiring or plumbing, no plug outlets in the whole house, was built in the 1800's and never updated. If we wanted to make a call we drove 20 minutes into town or just looked for whoever it was in case they were in town too.
No refrigerator. (When we camped we would do stuff like submerge beer in a stream to get it cold.) Water at the house was a well dug in the ground and we pulled water up in a tin bucket tied to a rope, boiled it on the stove before using. Heat was propane, as was stove. Bathroom was an outhouse and a jug of water and a basin for washing. Light was kerosene lamps. Music was a 12-volt car stereo and a battery (if charged), and a guitar.
Groceries we got once a week and showers were at the state park where you paid for each 5 minutes of hot water. Our road was a muddy track through the woods along the edge of a river, that no one ever maintained. Reading was done in the daylight hours. Evening we had conversation.
Power and water outages had no meaning to us. A tree falling on the house would have been bad, but the house was in a big clearing so that couldn't happen.
It poured rain most every day and there were actually mushrooms growing on the walls inside the house. And there were mice. We needed a cat badly. Those things bothered me.
I do want to get a solar backup going, but ultimately that's so I don't have to deal with my addiction to running things with plugs and batteries to be charged, things I lived without 40 years ago, even though I had a toddler and another on the way.
I'm really spoiled now compared to my younger self, I admit it.