This is from a review copy I received from the author for which I thank her.
I enjoyed reading this author's Raising Backyard Chickens even though I have no desire to raise backyard chickens. Similarly, I enjoyed this one, too, even though I do not plan to go off-grid. I just like learning about alternative lifestyles!
This book is a very general introduction to the pleasures and pains of off-grid living, and though a bit disorganized and sometimes repetiive in parts I felt, it does give you a really good overview of how to disentangle yourself from the regular life that most people lead - at least in so-called 'first-world'civilizations. Of course there are many communities throughout the world that are off-grid whether they like it or not.
But if you're thinking of leading that lifestyle, this is a great place to start. It takes you through all the issues and pitfalls in a short read (about 120 pages) that will get you thinking along the right lines for a successful transition. It also includes an extensive reference section listing other works that can provide more - and more detailed - information.
The book is divided into eight chapters, the first of which exhorts readers to consider and understand why they might be thinking of living off-grid. Chapter two talks about learning from the mistakes of others, and chapter three discusses how to prepare yourself for off-grid living before you actually start any move off-grid. Four discusses acquiring a suitable property and the questions you need to answer when considering purchasing land, and five taks about options for building a home on the property, for which there is a variety of solutions. Six goes into the transition to, and integration into, your off-grid lifestyle, and seven discusses how you might make a decent living in your new status. Eight discusses making the most of this life. In short - the whole thing is covered in a general outline with pointers, hints, tips and resources for further reading.
The book doesn't go into excessive detail. This is aimed to open your eyes to the challenges you will face. It will give you a good grounding and get your brain focused on what's important, and what needs to be resolved. On that score, one thing I felt was under represented was medical care. In the US, medical care isn't free, and if you go off grid, unless you still retain some sorrt of regular employment, you will go off insurance as well as off grid. Simultaneously, you will by this new choice of lifestyle be potentially more vulnerable to sickness and injury if you're out working the land in all kinds of conditions, perhaps using farm machinery, so this I felt was not covered adequately, but I think the author thought of everything else!
One thing that felt a bit off was on the one hand talking of disconnecting from a life that can very easily be harmful to the environment and integrating into a more eco-friendly lifestyle, but on the other hand, and at the same time we're talking about felling trees and burning the wood as fuel, and this is one surefire way to remove a carbon sink (the tree) at the same time as we're putting the CO2 from that tree back into the atmosphere. But of course you have to balance that against an assortment of other choices you've made which may well be placing less of a burden on the environment precisely because you're off-grid. I felt that a word or two about that balance would have been nice.
I encountered one or two grammatical issues which were minor and understandable. The first I noticed was when I read about the kind of home you might choose to live in. It said, "The eco capsules are more adventitious..." and I felt that was the wrong word. I think the author meant 'advantageous'. In a similar case, I read, "The soil the house is built into is isolating," and I think the author meant 'insulating'. Later I read, in a discussion of clean water, 'drinking water and potable water - but these are the same thing. Potable means it's suitable for drinking. Bu you know, we've all been there!
In the same section I read that the author considered "25 gallons per person" (of water) was a good working figure, but there was no time-period associated with this. Obviously 25 gallons a day is way too much, and 25 gallons a year not enough, but I don't know if this was supposed to be over a week or a month or what! In that same section, I read, "...overall you will need to filter and purify what you want to drink. You will need to boil and filter the water you want to drink." which is repetitive. But as I said, these issues were few and far between and were not importnat when compared with the value of the overall message.
I commend this as a worthy read.
