The property sits about twenty minutes outside of Port Angeles. It’s “on-the grid” if you will, which means they receive power and internet access the same way everyone else does... Magic Tubes! Or maybe just Wave Broadband, the Internet provider for the Olympic Peninsula. Either way, their old man has a router in his house, and everyone else streams off that.
I know people who live in what I would assume to be urban areas, and AT&T would not provide DSL service because it is too far from the DSLAM the way wires are routed. When their neighbors across the street has DSL service, that really hurts. And “broadband” is also a really loose term - it could mean anything from 1.5 Mbps to Google fiber. It’ll be nice to have more details if it is available.
By being willing to fix shit... Their house, car, motorcycle or kayak. Whatever it is, they don’t discard things. Instead, they breathe life back into stuff other people would pass up. This, and a steady income, allows them to live as close to ‘off-the-grid’ as any of us would be comfortable with, IMO.
I’d say the dream is having a choice in how (and how much) you engage with society at large. They’ve found a happy medium between luddite/hermit and a tech-dependent city existence.
This is kind of how I live within the city. I rent a room, and I save my money for investments. I don’t own a car (my girlfriend does however, and we share), and I don’t make payments on anything. My wealth is in my savings, it’s in my knowledge, it’s in my spare time, and my spare interests.
If I want to buy anything, I buy outright, because accumulated debt is an anchor that weighs a person down to a lifestyle of repetition and fatigue. Living below your means gives an air of freedom that I have literally never seen anyone with a credit card achieve, regardless of where they go.
How many people can pack up all their stuff tomorrow and leave the country with the clothes on their back and some money in their account and go wherever they want without any sort of burdens or debts left behind?
I know I can. Everyone else? I know of very few, besides the elderly, whom have paid everything off in full.
The family above shows that it’s entirely possible to remain happy and enjoy the amenities of everyday society without breaking your back or being held back by obligations, rules, or timelines. They may not live entirely off the grid, but they don’t need to, because at the end of the day, their life was an adventure, and tomorrow only brings more so.
Lots of people just don’t seem to have much interest in learning how things work or at least figuring it out, much less how to fix them. I’m one of the folks that just love that stuff, so this article really resonated with me as my wife and I consider our opportunities for retirement on a low budget.
R W
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