“Off-the-gridder” finds a job

I’d like to clarify the concept of “off-the-grid” in order to give a clearer picture of our experience. There’s the off-the-grid reality of our esteemed neighbour Mr R (who is fast becoming our guru of self-sufficiency). His setup includes 40 water tanks with a storage capacity of 230,000 litres, 62 solar panels capable of operating a small factory, 4 wind turbines, large dams containing thousands of tilapia fish, fruit and nut orchards, worm farms producing litres of liquid fertilizer per day and more vegetables than his household (of 2) can consume. Not to mention the hundreds of quails, ducks and fowl which produce protein rich eggs and “waste” which in turn feed the fish. (Needless to say, his property is surrounded by a serious electric fence).

Our current living situation on the other hand:

12,500 litres of water storage for a household of 5 (the current level which is about 2%, equating to enough water for 3 days), 5 solar panels, one tomato plant (which got raided by baboons last week), 3 very small moringa trees and 2 avocado tree shoots (grown from pips). Although our sprout yield is almost enough to survive on and I harvested a handful of green beans yesterday, we clearly have a long way to go!

And don’t think we are immune from any of the economic fall out affecting the rest of the world’s population. The fine art photography market (which constituted at least half of our income) has taking a knock and our commercial clients are applying the expenditure brakes. In an effort to get onto the land, we are building (tiny and modest) and excavating a dam which in turn leads to an ever-increasing bond. But there is light at the end of the tunnel: I’ve finally found a full-time accounting job in town!

The thought of having a boss after 8 years of being self-employed is quite bizarre, but strangely comforting. I’ll have to ditch the hippie wardrobe, get up early and adopt the lifestyle of “fine upstanding citizen” (whatever that means!). My intention is to bend like a willow tree and embrace the change with gratitude and joy.

Are we survivalists?

I’ve been coming across the term “survivalist” recently in my (limited) exposure to the media. The concept has intrigued me enough to investigate its meaning. According to Wikipedia, it is a term used for “the preparedness strategy and subculture of individuals or groups anticipating and making preparations for future possible disruptions in local, regional or worldwide social or political order”. Some of the most common scenarios being natural disasters, weather changes, economic collapse and/or worldwide depression and a general collapse of society, resulting from the unavailability of electricity, fuel, food, and water. Survivalists often prepare for this anticipated disruption by stockpiling food and water, preparing for self-defense and self-sufficiency, and/or building structures that will help them to survive.

We are in the midst of a severe drought with the world’s economy dangling by a thread and food security on everyone’s mind. We’ve moved to a small farm with the view to becoming self-sufficient and are already off-the-grid (in terms of water, electricity, sewage and services). I think we may well fit the description….

I feel reassured by this quote I read today:

“A great deal of what makes us unique is rooted in the variety of ways we choose to deviate from social and cultural norms.”

Wall raising

Our office walls went up with much excitement on Sunday. Or so I am told, as I spent the day with the toilet, getting acquainted with the stomach bug that had invaded my intestines. I was extremely grateful for the fact that our toilet is currently in working order & that we have just about enough water in the tanks to flush with (though not quite enough to have a decent bath with). Luckily, Kevin was there in full swing, video camera in hand. Check it out:



The fact that so many of our friends and neighbours took up the invitation to “raise our walls” is a shining example of neighbourly love in such a mad world!
To all who came:
THANK YOU! I feel privileged and honoured to have our walls imbued with your loving energy & good intentions!

I begin by reporting that we are being eaten alive.... by sand fleas! Poor Luke has been bitten worse of all. We almost cancelled his birthday party as we initially thought he had chickenpox (and in the time it took me to write this paragraph I’ve had to stop and catch 3 fleas in my bed!) We did the eco-aware citronella-spray thing for about 3 weeks (while more and more of our beloved friends and family also got munched) and finally succumbed to calling in the fumigators (horror upon horror!). Excuse me while I catch another one…

Anyway, the evening after the pest control guys were here, we managed to catch about 20 live ones. Now the owner of the company is coming to check it out…in the meantime I’m have a bottle of DYFLEA next to my bed! Oh my, how easily this “greeny” has succumbed…

Luckily all of this infestation only happened after the episode with the septic tank which left us without a flushing toilet from Christmas till new year! And of course we are still praying for rain.

Of course, our “season” was not all drought, insects and sanitation woes. We spent some beautiful quality time with a magnitude of wonderful friends and family. One of the greatest benefits of living in the Garden Route is that we get to see our loved ones while on holiday from their lives, which affords us the chance to relax as well.

I can proudly report that we now have solar power on Farm 119, thanks to our trusty neighbour and alternative energy specialist, Mr R (not his real name). He’s been developing his own fairly self-sufficient off-the-grid farm for the past 2 decades & has lots of interesting ideas on how to survive the “end of days”. He was amused by the fact that we buy bananas since one of the trees in his orchard (growing in a specially dug trench fed by his septic effluent) produced 700 bananas in one season.

Our container-office-complex is coming along nicely (on schedule for a Friday 13 Feb completion). I’ve spent days restoring the reclaimed Oregon front door of the office. The floors are in and the timber frame panels of the outer walls have been built and clad - I look forward to experiencing the space once the walls are up. We’ve invited some of our strong friends to a “wall-raising” party on Sunday at which time the walls will be raised and attached to one another. (A kind of Amish alternative to cheap labour!)

I don’t really go for new year’s resolutions, but this year I thought it would be great to start mastering the fine are of telepathy. I remember hearing years ago that this is the next evolutionary step for human kind and it’s a lot more convenient than email. With no knowledge of the subject, I’m hoping to find the ability stored somewhere in a dormant DNA strand. If you have any advice or experience to share, please send it along (in whichever way you wish).

This aerial view of our farm was taken by Kevin while dangling from a microlight....his guardian angels were active in full force as the engine seized while in midair. Luckily they were close to the landing site & were able to glide down to a smooth landing.

I’ll sign off with this quote from the DailyOM which resonated with me today:

“Personal growth always results when you let yourself expand beyond the farthest borders of what your life has been so far.”

Refrigeration

After a chickenpox false alarm, Luke's birthday ended up being a very enjoyable day. Rain finally came last night (almost 20mm), so we can happily flush the toilet and wash the beach sand out of our hair.

The gas fridge stopped working a few days ago, so we hooked it up to the solar electricity, which worked for a few hours before wiping out the electricity in our batteries. This means that we are now praying for sunlight to charge our batteries - we need 3 full days before we can use lights again...

Catering for all our Christmas visitor without refrigeration promises to be an interesting adventure. We are eating mostly sprouts from the window sill & storing our cheese at the office. I attempted to feed myself lunch from the garden but could only produce a few sprigs of celery, some basil leaves and a couple of nasturtium flowers!

I am happy to report that my worms are doing very well however, and Mila's horseriding teacher is teaching us all we need to know about keeping chickens...

Water worries

3 years ago we were waiting for Luke to be born (he was expected on the 10^th & arrived joyously on the 15th). This time around we are waiting for rain.

While filling the sink to wash the dishes late Friday afternoon, the tap sputtered and let out some rather bottom-of-the-barrel looking water… and a few disappointing taps on the tanks later confirmed the bad news…no water…no toilet…Luke’s birthday party 2 days away…& no rain sight…

Well what to do but pray? And call in your friends to help pray for rain.

Early this morning (Saturday) I woke to the sounds of a diesel engine rumbling on the driveway. My dapper knight in shining armour/husband managed to source a forestry local who was filling our tanks at a very gratifying rate. I am delighted at the prospect of being able to have a nice warm bath before Luke’s birthday, give him a wash and cook the pots of macaroni I had planned!

And our secret-agent water purveyor informed me that a cold front is on its way on Monday, so Luke’s birthday might bring a big present for all of us.

Please keep praying, it seems to be working…

Evicted!

Latest news from the bush is that the landlords we rent our office from will not be renewing our lease agreement at the end of February - quite a spanner in the works.
We had planned on building a house first & keeping the office where it is: in a converted barn down the road which has electricity (useful for operating our 4 computers, large format printer and DSTV where Bongani (the nanny) watches 4 hours of soapies a day!).
The builders go on holiday soon & will only return mid-January which means that we will probably be converting a few more containers - instant office in a box!

I'm learning to enjoy life's unexpected twists & turns...