The off-grid reader: An occasional column on off-grid news and views

An off-grid-living fest, a wood-burning pizza stove - yes, it's off-grid - and more

I’m always up for a festival, but an off-grid living festival? Hell, yeah!

Incredibly, Australia has had one every year thanks to Kate and Ralph Nottingham. They’ve lived off-grid for seven years, and are so passionate about the lifestyle they put together their festival so that “people can learn about alternative ways of living, connect with others and get an opportunity to try new things in a welcoming, all inclusive environment.”

The Nottingham family, off-grid for seven years now, and creating a festival to celebrate the lifestyle.

The festival features a ton of exhibitors, with businesses showing off their solar systems, ovens, hemp products, and lots of other products and services. Permaculture, anyone?

Speakers? They have plenty. This year includes experts talking about futuresteading, straw bale home building, earthship building, switching over to electric vehicles, and more.

Workshops? Yes, they have those too: test drive an electric vehicle, make vegan Kimchi, and - love this one - finance your life-changing idea.

They also offer a free, downloadable magazine on the off-grid life.

Fed up with power blackouts and more, Californians go off-grid

The New York Times has a large feature on Californians ditching the grid. They’re fed up with blackouts, utility-caused wildfires that tear through hundreds of hectares of land, and increasing power costs.

“There have long been free spirits and survivalists who have lived off the grid. But the decline in solar and battery costs and growing frustrations with utilities appear to be laying the groundwork for more people to consider doing so,” writes Ivan Penn in the Times.

Notes Penn: “The appeal of off-grid homes has grown in part because utilities have become less reliable. As natural disasters linked to climate change have increased, there have been more extended blackouts in California, Texas, Louisiana and other states.”

These are not basic homes either. In photos of one, it depicts a kitchen with granite counters, and high-end cabinetry, along with a stone fireplace to house the wood stove.

That would be the home of “Alan Savage, a real estate agent in Grass Valley, who bought an off-grid home six years ago and has sold hundreds of such properties. He said he never loses power, unlike PG&E customers. ‘I don’t think I’ll ever go back to being on the grid,’ Mr. Savage said.”

(I hope the New Yorks Times story is not locked behind their paywall; it’s well worth the read.)

Off-grid pizza, anyone?

This might be a bit of a stretch: a pizza oven billed as being off-grid. Why would I characterize that way? Because they say it’s powered by wood and gas.

Wait.

Isn’t that wood-fired pizza oven a thing?

Even so, wood - er, I mean, would - I want one?

Well, yes! Of course!

The Solo Stove Pi looks like a homemade pizza, wood-burning stove that would produce phenomenal pies every time.

Don’t believe me. Here’s what Solo Stove has to say: “Stone-baked pies beat oven-rack pizza every time, especially with set-up that’s just as quick and crust that’s twice as crisp. It all starts with the Demi-Dome construction and Panoramic Opening that makes maneuvering, launching pizzas, and fuelling your fire as simple as setting the table.”

Okay, okay, the “Demi-Dome,” and Panoramic Opening” are a bit over the top.

But still!

Details: They make 12 inch pizzas, you can fire three to four pizzas in the first hour, and it can be used pretty much anywhere outdoors.

It brings to mind this and this.

Mmmmm…pizza. Off-grid pizza.

Don’t be a Squirrel Dan

Finally this: “Squirrel Dan” is getting the boot.

And who is Squirrel Dan? That’s the name Dan Richardson got tagged with - one of those fellows who equates off-grid living with being able to do absolutely anything anywhere, and anyplace he likes.

Except it doesn’t work that way.

Richardson built a cabin on publicly owned land on the Isle of Man, and is now getting the boot, not surprisingly from local authorities. Reported Manx Radio: “The cabin is built without either planning approval or the Department’s consent, as land-owner. This cannot be condoned or ignored. The Department has a duty to protect public land for the enjoyment of everyone.”

In the off-grid sites I belong to along with the one I admin, I often - too often - see would-be off-gridders advising others to just ignore zoning rules, home inspections and more.

Don’t. Because you could lose everything.

Don’t be a Squirrel Dan.