Every empire rises with conviction and falls with excuses. The pattern is ancient and almost rhythmic. The Mayans, the Romans, the British, the Dutch each followed a familiar curve of expansion, dominance, stagnation, and decline.

But that curve is rarely symmetrical. It climbs slowly, peaks briefly, and then drops with surprising speed. The historian Ugo Bardi calls this the Seneca Effect: growth is slow, ruin is fast.

Seneca’s cliff is common across life. You can see the pattern in building a house, and burning it down. Dating and then years of marriage, followed by rapid divorce. Years for a tree to grow, minutes to cut it down.

If we can measure the pace of those rises and falls, we can begin to see where the United States may stand in its own historical arc.

Measuring Ascent and Decline

Historians often define ascent as the time between a civilization’s rapid expansion and its peak, and decline as the period from that peak to the loss of great-power status. It’s not an exact science, but the ratios tell an instructive story.

Empire Ratios of Ascent and Decline

Roman Empire (West)
• Ascent: 264 BCE → 117 CE (≈ 381 years)
• Decline: 117 CE → 476 CE (≈ 359 years)
• Ratio 1.06 : 1 – Long plateau and slow administrative decay

Classic Maya Civilization
• Ascent: 250 → 750 CE (≈ 500 years)
• Decline: 750 → 900 CE (≈ 150 years)
• Ratio 3.3 : 1 – Environmental collapse and fragmentation

Dutch Republic
• Ascent: 1588 → 1672 (≈ 84 years)
• Decline: 1672 → 1795 (≈ 123 years)
• Ratio 0.68 : 1 – Gradual commercial decline

Spanish Empire
• Ascent: 1492 → 1580 (≈ 88 years)
• Decline: 1580 → 1898 (≈ 318 years)
• Ratio 0.28 : 1 – Overreach and long stagnation

Ottoman Empire
• Ascent: 1299 → 1683 (≈ 384 years)
• Decline: 1683 → 1922 (≈ 239 years)
• Ratio 1.61 : 1 – Adaptability slowed the fall

British Empire
• Ascent: 1757 → 1920 (≈ 163 years)
• Decline: 1920 → 1997 (≈ 77 years)
• Ratio 2.1 : 1 – Rapid decolonization

Soviet Union (USSR)
• Ascent: 1917 → 1957 (≈ 40 years)
• Decline: 1957 → 1991 (≈ 34 years)
• Ratio 1.0 : 1 – Industrial superpower with sudden internal collapse

Aztec Empire
• Ascent: 1428 → 1519 (≈ 91 years)
• Decline: 1519 → 1521 (≈ 2 years)
• Ratio 45 : 1 – Immediate external annihilation through disease and war

Median Ratio: about 1.3 : 1, meaning empires tend to decline roughly 25 percent faster than they rose.

The Seneca Curve and Modern Collapse Theory

Plot these civilizations on a timeline and the curve looks like a tilted parabola. The rise takes centuries of accumulation: wealth, confidence, and faith in institutions. The fall begins when that same complexity becomes a burden: debt, bureaucracy, military overreach, and declining trust.

Writers like John Michael Greer (The Long Descent), Dmitry Orlov (Reinventing Collapse), and the systems scientists behind the 1972 Limits to Growth report all describe similar trajectories. Civilizations expand on cheap energy and easy resources, then contract as those foundations erode.

Greer calls it catabolic collapse: a self-cannibalizing process where societies consume their own institutions to stay afloat. Orlov, comparing the USSR and the USA, argued that once a society’s financial, political, and cultural systems lose legitimacy at the same time, the decline accelerates sharply.

The Limits to Growth models, revisited over five decades, still track closely with real-world data: peak industrial output and resource consumption sometime around the 2020s, followed by contraction through mid-century.

Taken together, these perspectives suggest that the global industrial system, with the United States at its core, is entering the steep side of the Seneca curve.

The Soviet Mirror

The Soviet Union offers the clearest modern example. It rose fast after 1917, peaked with Sputnik in 1957, and by 1991 was gone.

Its fall wasn’t caused by invasion but by internal contradiction, a system too rigid to reform and too drained to inspire belief. The collapse looked sudden, yet the decay was decades deep.

That pattern feels uncomfortably familiar in the United States today.

The American Trajectory

If we apply the same rise-to-decline framework to America, several timelines emerge:

Industrial Republic to WWII Victory

• Start 1789 Peak 1945 Ascent ≈ 156 years

• Ratio 1.3 : 1 Projected collapse ≈ 2060 range ( Likely scenario )

Post–Civil War to Unipolar Moment

• Start 1865 Peak 1991 Ascent ≈ 126 years

• Ratio 1.3 : 1 Projected collapse ≈ 2080 range (Very Optimistic)

Founding to Post–Cold War Dominance

• Start 1776 Peak 1991 Ascent ≈ 215 years

• Ratio 1.3 : 1 Projected collapse ≈ 2153 (HIGHLY optimistic, don’t count on this)

Likely Seneca-Style Steep Decline

• Ratio 2.5 : 1 Collapse ≈ 2075 range

Greer, Orlov, and the Limits to Growth team would likely cluster toward the 2040 – 2060 window, when financial, ecological, and institutional stresses converge. That aligns with the faster “Seneca” scenarios rather than the gentle centuries-long fade.

Parallels Between the USSR and the USA

Soviet Union (1950s–1991)

• Peak confidence: Sputnik and nuclear parity

• Energy base: oil exports funded empire

• Ideological faith: Marxism lost believers

• Elite structure: aging Party bureaucracy

• Peripheral costs: Eastern Bloc dependencies

• Collapse trigger: fiscal exhaustion and loss of legitimacy

United States (1991–Present)

• Peak confidence: unipolar dominance and global dollar

• Energy base: shale and financialization sustain system

• Ideological faith: liberal democracy fatigue

• Elite structure: entrenched political and corporate class

• Peripheral costs: global military and economic commitments

• Emerging triggers: debt overload, social fragmentation, institutional decay

Both systems overpromised and overextended. Both relied on perpetual growth. Both began to hollow out when their founding ideals no longer matched lived reality. When the story fails, the structure fails.

The Plateau Before the Cliff

The United States may not collapse as abruptly as the USSR. It is larger, wealthier, and geographically secure. Yet the same structural pressures are visible: bureaucratic bloat, hollowed-out local economies, energy fragility, political polarization, and an aging, debt-driven economy.

Empires stall before they fall. They enter a plateau of illusion: still powerful, but increasingly brittle. Rome appeared eternal even as its silver coins were debased. The Soviet Union still had nuclear weapons weeks before it vanished.

Today, America projects confidence while its infrastructure, finances, and civic trust quietly fray.

What the Curve Suggests

Every complex society grows by consuming surplus and collapses when maintaining that complexity costs more than it returns. Historically, decline lasts about three-quarters as long as the rise.

Modern industrial nations, however, are far more interconnected and energy-dependent, which makes their decline faster. If America’s ascent took roughly two centuries, a steep Seneca-style curve suggests contraction between 2040 and 2080, the same window Greer, Orlov, and the Limits to Growth model foresee for systemic breakdown.

That doesn’t mean extinction. It means transformation: de-globalization, localized economies, and a shift from expansion to maintenance. The end of empire is not the end of a people; it is the end of a story that no longer fits the facts.

How the Ascent-to-Decline Ratio Maps to Modern Collapse Forecasts

When we compare the historical pattern of empire lifespans with modern resource and societal models, the timelines begin to converge.
The average ascent-to-decline ratio of 1.3 to 2.5 produces a U.S. descent window roughly between 2040 and 2080.
Remarkably, that same range appears in nearly every serious collapse study of the last fifty years.

1. Limits to Growth (1972) – Peak and Decline Around 2040
The original MIT systems model, commissioned by the Club of Rome, simulated industrial output, population, pollution, and resource use. Its “business as usual” scenario predicted a global peak in material wealth and population around 2030–2040, followed by decline as resource and energy constraints outpace technology.
Later reviews of the data in 2014 and 2021 found that real-world trends still closely match the 1972 curves. The study’s predicted contraction beginning near 2040 lines up almost perfectly with a Seneca-shaped American decline.

2. Christopher Clugston – The “Blip” Ends by 2050
In Blip: Humanity’s 300-Year Self-Terminating Experiment with Industrialism, Clugston uses mineral-resource depletion data to show that the industrial economy is a one-time “blip” in human history. He forecasts systemic contraction by 2050, when nonrenewable resources can no longer support industrial complexity.
His reasoning mirrors the historical A:D curve: centuries of rapid expansion followed by a short, irreversible decline as essential inputs disappear.

3. J.D. Unwin – Cultural Collapse by 2050
Social anthropologist J.D. Unwin studied 80 civilizations and found that societies lose creative and moral energy roughly three generations after abandoning strict sexual norms.
Applied to modern Western culture, his pattern implies cultural dissolution between 2040 and 2050 — the same period when the A:D ratio points to civic and institutional breakdown.

4. John Michael Greer – “The Long Descent”
Greer argues that industrial society entered a drawn-out decline around the early 21st century. Instead of a sudden apocalypse, he foresees a stair-step collapse lasting one to three centuries, punctuated by crises and partial recoveries.
His mid-21st-century milestones — economic contraction, regional deindustrialization, and social simplification — overlap with the 2040–2080 descent window predicted by both the A:D ratio and Limits to Growth.

5. Dmitry Orlov – Soviet-Style Collapse for the U.S.
In Reinventing Collapse, Orlov compared the U.S. to the late Soviet Union and projected a similar rapid decline once financial and civic legitimacy erode. He suggested the first major shocks could arrive within decades of 2008, putting the core collapse phase somewhere around 2040–2060.
His model fits the sharper 2.5:1 Seneca ratio, where complex systems fail much faster than they grew.

6. Jack Alpert – “Rapid Population Decline Before 2100”
Engineer Jack Alpert’s work on energy-per-capita thresholds predicts that by 2060–2080, declining energy return on investment (EROI) will trigger large-scale population and infrastructure contraction. His emphasis on net-energy availability complements both Limits to Growth and Greer’s catabolic-collapse framework.

7. Other Parallel Forecasts
Writers like Richard Heinberg (The Party’s Over), Gail Tverberg (Our Finite World), and Nate Hagens (The Great Simplification) all center the critical turning point of industrial civilization around mid-century, when cheap energy, debt expansion, and social cohesion simultaneously fail.

Here’s a short new section you can add near the end of the essay (right after the chart or before the “Final Thought” section). It connects the historical ratios to technological acceleration and explains why newer empires burn brighter and fade faster.

Acceleration: How Technology Shortens the Lifespan of Empires

One striking pattern in the ascent-to-decline ratios is that the newer the empire, the faster both its rise and fall.
Rome took nearly four centuries to reach its peak and another four to fall. The British Empire rose in less than two centuries and collapsed within one. The Soviet Union lasted barely seventy years from revolution to dissolution.

This is the hidden cost of technological progress. Each new wave of innovation multiplies the speed of growth, but it also multiplies the speed of failure.
Technology allows for rapid extraction of resources, instant communication, and exponential economic expansion, yet it binds entire systems together in tight interdependence. When one part fails, everything else fails faster.

The Romans expanded at the pace of legions and sailboats. The British built an empire on steamships and telegraphs. The Americans and Soviets built theirs on fossil fuels, data networks, and nuclear power. Each new medium compressed time, concentrating both the ascent and the collapse into ever shorter cycles.

This mirrors what systems theorists call the law of receding resilience: the more complex and efficient a society becomes, the less slack it has to absorb shocks.
Technology doesn’t prevent decline — it accelerates it.

If history’s pattern holds, the digital-industrial empire that rose between 1776 and 1991 will not take centuries to unwind. It will take decades. And that matches exactly what the data suggest: a 2040–2080 collapse window, right in line with both the Limits to Growth model and the fastest historical Seneca curves.

A Converging Timeline

Across history, empires that rise for centuries tend to fall within a single lifetime.
Across modern studies, independent researchers using unrelated methods — system dynamics, anthropology, energy economics, and sociology — all point to mid-century as the critical threshold.

When averaged together, these forecasts produce a striking consensus:

Median predicted collapse window: 2055 ± 15 years.

In other words, the same timeframe (2040–2080) that the historical ascent-to-decline ratios suggest is echoed by the best empirical and theoretical models of modern civilization.
The implication is sobering: history and physics appear to be telling the same story.

Final Thought

The lesson from the Maya, the Romans, the British, and the Soviets is not despair but humility. No civilization escapes gravity forever. The higher the peak, the sharper the fall, unless it learns to shed weight on the way down.

America still has time to trade growth for resilience, expansion for repair, and empire for community. But the hour is late, and the curve of history rarely grants extensions.

So, what to do? It’s simple: Live simple.

• Don’t worry. You cannot stop this. It’s a historical pattern.

• Enjoy life now and take care of others. It’s all we have.

• Start biking, walking, hiking and kayaking more! Get rid of Netflix.

• Cook at home more. Save money and get healthy.

• Sell your expensive, energy guzzling suburban home. It will likely be worthless in a few decades. The property taxes will also rise more.

• Downsize to a tiny home, find a walkable neighborhood, downsize to a RV or camper. Get used to multi-generational living.

• Get healthy. Healthcare costs will keep going up.

• Don’t waste energy worrying. This might be a good change for many Americans. Let’s enjoy living simply.

Why This Exists

Not everyone wants a 40-acre off-grid compound or a van full of solar panels.
Some of us just want a small patch of earth, a warm roof, coffee in the morning, and bills that don’t require a second life.

This is the blueprint: a ⅓- to ½-acre setup, small enough to manage solo, big enough to breathe. Everything here is built around simplicity, resilience, and financial sanity.

🌍 Land & Setup

• Buy land (⅓–½ acre): $15,000–$25,000 (~$300/mo)

• Or rent a plot: $300–$500 / month

• Property taxes: $300–$700 / year

• Site prep (driveway, grading, permits): $500–$2,000

• Fence & gate: $300–$800

• Deck or platform base: $500–$1,200

• Tool shed / lean-to: $500–$1,000

A small patch of dirt is the foundation of freedom. Everything else is optional.

🛖 Shelter

• 10×20 cabin shed conversion: $10k–$15k

• Teardrop camper (DIY/used): $6k–$12k

• Canvas yurt / tent: $4k–$8k

• Insulation package: $600–$1,000

• Mini-split AC/heat: $800–$1,500

• Fans, shade, passive cooling: $100–$300

• Wood stove / propane heater: $200–$800

You don’t need a mansion—just a structure that stays dry, warm, and honest.

⚡ Power & Light

• Grid hookup: $500–$1,500

• Solar (1000 W + battery): $2k–$3k

• Battery bank (100 Ah): $400–$800

• Inverter + controller: $350–$650

• LED or USB lights: $50–$150

Power doesn’t have to mean dependence. Sunlight and thrift go a long way.

💧 Water & Waste

• City or well hookup: $500–$2,000

• Rainwater catchment (500–1000 gal): $600–$1,200

• Hauling setup (tote + pump): $200–$400

• Filter (Berkey/Sawyer): $100–$350

• Composting toilet: $600–$1,200

• Greywater system: $300–$800

• Outdoor shower: $150–$400

If you can manage water in and water out, you can live almost anywhere.

🍳 Food & Storage

• Propane stove: $80–$150

• HomeBioGas digester: $1,000–$1,200

• Solar oven: $150–$300

• Instant Pot: $100

• Mini fridge (electric): $150–$400

• Propane fridge (off-grid): $800–$1,200

• Canner / dehydrator: $75–$200

Food security begins with heat, a lid, and a plan.

🌱 Grow Your Own

• Raised beds / planters: $200–$600

• Garden tools: $75–$150

• Compost bins / worm farm: $100–$200

• Seeds & soil: $50–$150

• Chicken coop + 3 hens: $400–$800

• Feed / fencing: $150–$300

• Root cellar: $200–$500

You won’t grow everything, but you can grow something. That’s enough.

🚲 Mobility & Connection

• Cargo bike: $2k–$4k

• Small car (used): $6k–$12k

• Dumb phone: $50

• Mint Mobile: $15 /mo

• Cell booster / hotspot: $100–$400

• Starlink or 5G router: $600 setup / $120 mo

Stay connected enough to work, not enough to lose your peace.

💊 Health & Essentials

• Health Cost Share: $119 /mo

• First aid kit: $50–$150

• Fire extinguisher & smoke alarm: $50–$100

• Emergency fund: $3,000–$5,000

Health insurance is nice, but actual health is cheaper.

🧰 Tools & Maintenance

• Drill, saw, hammer: $200–$300

• Garden tools: $75–$150

• Maintenance supplies: $50–$100

• Locking storage: $100–$200

• Outdoor lighting / trail cam: $50–$200

Tools are the line between independence and helplessness.

🛏️ Comfort & Clothing

• Tatami mat or hammock: $150–$250

• Blankets / sleeping bag: $100–$250

• 7 total outfits: ~$300

• Rain gear & boots: $100–$200

Everything else is optional. Warmth and dry socks are not.

🧼 Hygiene & Personal

• Bamboo toothbrush: $5

• Safety razor + blades: $25

• Toothpaste (VanMan): $12

• Soap & supplies: $20

• Mirror: $10

You can be rugged and still smell human.

💵 Monthly Reality Check

Category Cost Land payment or rent $300–$500 Property taxes $30–$60 Power / fuel $40–$80 Phone / Internet $15–$135 Health cost share $119 Food / gas / supplies $200–$400 Total (Grid Life) $700–$1,000 / mo Total (Off-Grid Minimal) $400–$700 / mo

⚙️ Startup Snapshot

Lifestyle Setup Cost Monthly Cost Grid-Connected $25k–$35k $700–$1,000 Off-Grid Optimized $35k–$45k $400–$700 Barebones (rented land + rainwater) $15k–$20k $300–$500

Final Thoughts

A third of an acre.
A small cabin.
A dumb phone, a garden, and a way to heat water.

It’s not glamorous—but it’s free from the treadmill. The Micro-Homestead isn’t about prepping for the apocalypse; it’s about opting out of the absurd.

Because peace and independence shouldn’t require a mortgage.

A few fun ideas beyond the basics:

• Stock water swimming pool

• Fire pit area for outdoor living

• Find land in an off-grid community

Nothing grows forever in nature, absolutely nothing.

We humans are part of nature, and always have been, even if many modern disconnected humans try to reject that notion with all of their being. We are not immune to natural limits.

If you prefer a video format, here’s the video version of this article:

For the past 500 years we’ve been on a breakneck trajectory of discovery & growth. Funnily enough, I was born (1992) exactly 500 years after Columbus first landed on the shores of the “new world” (1492).

Like a ball being tossed high into the air, our global populations had the highest rate of growth in the 1960s - that moment was the ball being thrown sky-high.

Since the 1960s the population growth rate has steadily declined.

Here in 2024, our global population is like that ball hovering in place momentarily at the apex of the trajectory before falling back down.

We will briefly “hover” here for a few years, as population growth is plateauing prior to falling. UN projections forecasted our global peak much further into the 21st century. Many factors have sped this decline up.

It’s not just our population growth that is stalling. Our interconnected economies that rely on more people (consumers) being born into a world with easy energy (fuel) are stalling.

What would cause population growth and economic growth to slow, plateau, and fall in the immediate future?

Our global boom of “progress” over the last few centuries years has been powered by a finite resource base that is being stripped by today’s 8 billion humans. The easy pickings are gone and rapidly diminishing returns are what we’re left with.

We have three interconnected declines that are putting an end to societal growth:

1. The prime resource bases we depend on are depleting rapidly.

   1. Easily accessible oil with a high EROI + high quality mineral ores.

2. Human populations are now declining in many countries globally.

   1. Population growth rate is falling below 2.1/children per woman.

3. Our real economies for regular people are declining (don’t let GDP fool you).

   1. Prices for basic necessities have been skyrocketing as we hit limits.

This might seem like a confusing ‘chicken and egg problem’ where the root cause is debatable, but the reality is that we’d continue to grow rapidly if cheap energy and abundant resources were still readily available for humanity.

Human ingenuity was not the single deciding factor in our massive growth.

Cheap energy (oil) is what feeds us, houses us, moves us, and support us.

Cheap energy (oil) + easy to access minerals is what builds giant cities, distributes cheap products globally, and feeds 8 billion people.

More expensive housing, more expensive food, slowing population growth, and stagnating economies are all a product of us humans running out of the easy-to-get oil, abundant minerals in high concentrations, and high-quality topsoil for farming.

This is to say nothing of increasing natural disasters with mounting costs, increased global conflict, and our increasing pollution problems.

This issues are not disconnected. All of these issues are very much connected:

• Housing has become an unattainable dream for many.

• K12 school systems are deteriorating in quality.

• Higher education costs more than ever before.

• Utilities (electricity, gas, water) keep increasing in cost.

• Food costs have jumped dramatically globally.

• Governments are quagmired in ineffective gridlock.

• Resource wars are kicking off globally (Ukraine, Gaza).

• Small companies are closing their doors more and more.

• Quality of products and services are decreasing as costs rise.

• Bigger companies are merging into mega-monopolies.

• Life-expectancy has started to decrease for the first time in decades.

• Cancer rates are increasing in young people.

• You see more issues popping up everywhere, despite our temporary wealth.

We are effectively at our human peak in both our numbers, broad wellbeing and energy consumption.

The interesting thing is that there are not really any true solutions to fix this.

We simply have responses.

I used to assume solar and wind could replace fossil fuels.

I no longer believe this.

I used to imagine 8 billion modern people could be fed using permaculture practices.

I have massive doubts if that is remotely possible for all of us.

I used to believe in “eternal progress” at college studying computer science.

Now I see that modern life has been a brief & passing “bonanza” for humanity.

In many ways, we peaked back in the 1970s-1980s. Where are the new moon landings? Where are the flying cars everywhere? Geez, where are the affordable homes and healthcare?

We say we’re a species destined to colonize the stars and galaxy.

I’m confident no humans in our lifetime will live on Mars, if ever.

We can easily imagine things that will never happen, or are physically impossible. Just because we can imagine it does not make it possible.

Nothing has ever guaranteed that we humans would expand, grow, and “progress” forever. We somehow convinced ourselves that this was our future.

My perspective likely sounds very western, because it is. I do seek to understand what’s happening globally as we’re all connected now.

The “unshakable” faith in progress here in the west has been shaken for me. I believe that we have confused the wealth produced by “cheap energy” with our own supposed human brilliance.

Cars, airplanes, combines, plastics, modern medicine, concrete, steel, surplus grains for livestock, trucking, and most other modern miracles are all clever human contrivances, but without cheap oil, they all stop.

The oil is the magic. Cheap oil is what makes possible the massive middle class America has had. It stands to reason that as access to cheap energy + materials declines, so declines America’s middle class. We’re seeing this in real time.

Basic logic seems to validate this end of growth:

1. The earth is a sphere.

2. A sphere is finite in volume.

3. The earth supported about 1 billion people in 1800 before the industrial revolution. Earth then was far more unspoiled / unused than what we have today.

4. Pockets of this sphere called earth have a rare and powerful energy source: oil.

5. We discovered the most energy dense substance we’d ever harnessed: oil.

6. Being on a finite planet, oil is a finite resource.

7. Oil takes much, much longer to generate than we humans can afford to wait. Oil is not something that simply regenerates in a few hundred years let alone within decades.

8. It takes energy to explore, drill, pump, transport, refine, and harness oil. EROI: “Energy Return on Investment” is the energy we have leftover from this process.

9. Oil is now critical to how we feed, cloth, house, entertain, and move 8 billion people. Without oil no mega farms, no pesticides, no trucking, no cheap fertilizer.

10. If easy-to-gather pockets of oil were left, we wouldn’t spend billions of dollars on deep sea oil rigs or take the trouble to frack for the last dregs of oil that are left around older oil wells or in shale formations.

11. On paper we’re extracting more oil today than ever before globally, but this does not reflect that we’re drilling more than ever globally and getting less oil for our effort and energy invested.

12. The EROI (energy return on investment) used to be spending 1 barrel of oil to obtain 100 barrels back in the heyday of American oil (circa 1950s).

13. Today we’re spending 1 barrel of oil to obtain 15 barrels back. This is a massively diminished EROI.

14. This dynamic makes everything more expensive: food, travel, housing, medical expenses, manufacturing, etc.

15. Money is not wealth. Money is just imaginary tokens.

16. These tokens are just a paper system to make a claim on future energy.

17. Personal access to energy today is actual wealth.

18. Access to energy provides access to food, housing, water, travel, goods, etc.

19. Cheap diesel fuel comes from abundant oil.

20. Diesel fuel is a set percentage of a barrel of refined oil.

21. Diesel fuel is required to move our goods globally.

22. Diesel fuel is required to farm for billions of people.

23. Diesel fuel is required to mine for rare earth minerals.

24. Rare earth minerals are required for making solar panels and batteries.

25. Rare earth minerals & aggregates mined by diesel are required for making nuclear plants.

26. Diesel, coal, and natural gas (fossil fuels) are required for making wind turbines, moving wind turbines, and installing wind turbines.

27. Renewables are amazing tech, but are not powerful enough to produce and manufacture more renewables. You need coal and oil for this.

28. Most renewables (solar, wind, batteries) only have a lifespan of 20-30 years.

29. The percentage of useful rare earth minerals within accessible rock aggregate has declined over the past few hundred years as we mined the easy ores.

30. We need more fuel now to process more rock aggregate to access fewer rare earth minerals. This depletes expensive energy faster.

31. We’ve been masking the true cost of oil extraction and subsidizing fracking and other novel forms of oil extraction (tar sands) with clever debt financing, and other forms of energy subsidy in recent years.

This is a good deal to review, and it’s not obvious to most people.

It certainly wasn’t obvious to me.

I’ve linked to all of the authors at the bottom of this article who deserve credit for exposing me to this interrelated collection of ideas.

After exploring these ideas in-depth, I’m convinced the recent party is over for most of humanity and we’re in the midst of ragged decline for the world we know.

A few observations:

• Solar panels and wind power won’t power this civilization long-term, they can’t replace oil and coal’s energy density.

• Nuclear power won’t replace the role of diesel transport fuels for humanity.

• A hideaway bunker on Hawaii with billionaires isn’t the answer, this decline will take decades.

• A homestead in the country isn’t a fail-proof plan by any means, nobody on earth can be truly self sufficient. We can only learn to live with less.

• Escaping society to live as an off-grid hermit isn’t going to work, we humans are meant to thrive in small groups.

• A “stable-state” economy is not possible for 8 billion people.

• Most people don’t realize we’re at the edge of decisive decline.

• We likely won’t see some rapid apocalypse style ending, it will be longer & ragged.

• We’re more likely to experience a series of major crisis over the next 100 years.

• These major crisis will steadily batter civilization until we’re a fraction of today’s 8 billion humans.

• We’ll have brief periods of reprieve between the staggered and increasing crisis.

• Giving up because it seems impossible isn’t the answer.

• We simply have to adapt and learn to change. We shall live with less.

However, this doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom.

This is what happens in nature.

When populations of living creatures “overshoot” their resource base, this is what happens. This is how life behaves. Even for clever humans.

Up until the last two years, I truly thought solutions could exist to help 8 billion people continue our modern civilization. As I’ve dug deeper into my research I simply don’t believe this anymore. I don’t see any possible solutions to preserve the civilization we’ve built. I suppose if fusion every actually came to fruition we might have a different outcome, but nothing indicates that commercial fusion power is any closer to being viable today than it was 50 years ago.

This isn’t even new. Look to past societies that grew and fell: Ancient Rome, the Mayans, Easter Island, and so on.

This time it’s just on a global scale.

This doesn’t mean the humanity is over. Far from it.

It simply means we need to reorient our mindset.

The growth we’re used to is ending rapidly.

Soon we’ll be in long-term contraction.

This will mean a few things for everyone:

• Less cheap energy to use.

• Less jobs and more layoffs.

• Less people being born.

• Less travel and vacations.

• Less materialism and consumerism.

• Less waste and excess.

• Less eating out and processed foods.

• Smaller homes & simpler pleasures.

This will also mean (if you prepare yourself well):

• More time with family and less time commuting.

• More reading and less TV.

• More gardening and less Walmart.

• More DIY projects and less time in a cubicle.

• More skills and less money to pay other people.

• More creativity and less mass-consumer-culture.

• More focus on relationships and spirituality and less Tiktok.

• More beans and less meat.

• More gratitude for what we DO HAVE.

The next 75 years leading up to 2100 will be very, very hard for billions of people.

Especially people in western countries who no longer have practical skills.

Subsistence farmers in Africa will likely have an easier time with the world to come than your average American who doesn’t have the right skills or mindset.

It stands to reason we’ll have a small fraction of 8 billion people left after 2100.

This doesn’t mean we’ll have an apocalypse… But we will lose people globally, perhaps more rapidly than expected.

1. People are not having many babies, this is the main driver to less people now.

   1. This is due to both social and environmental factors. PFAS, micro-plastics, and chemical pollution reduce fertility. Rising costs also deter people from having children.

2. People who are unwilling to change will have a hard time coping.

   1. People who don’t understand we’re now on a downhill slope of growth will be confused, frustrated & scared by the unexplained decline in what they thought was normal.

3. We are seeing more casualties in resource wars today, regrettably.

4. Tragically we might see more famine in parts of the world as our industrial ag systems fail to deliver as they have in past years. This is already starting.

While it’s tempting to become depressed or to have a “doomer” outlook on this prognosis, I think that’s not a productive path to walk. Change is part of history.

For western readers, consumerism and modernity don’t make you happy past a point - this has been clearly proven over the past 80 years. In fact, rampant consumer culture and digital media are proven to make people sicker, have more mental issues, and skew our view of what a truly good life is.

Don’t get me wrong, many aspects of industrial society have given humans HUGE benefits to quality of life, longevity, and well being. I say we try to keep as many of those sensible benefits as we can. We just passed the point of diminishing returns a long time ago for our material wealth. We’re at a point in history where a vibrant social life has been replaced by toxic social media, and fast food restaurants are located beside dialysis offices. We’re not thriving today.

Technology is not all or nothing. We don’t have to choose between iPhones and living in caves. There are so many options in between. Who is tired of a cell phone and might prefer a landline again? Can you even repair your computerized car today? Isn’t it funny how many older products were simply made better or had a pleasant simplicity to them? We’re going to go back in time a bit.

Personally I’m tired of updating iPhones and won’t ever buy another one. Same with my MacBook. I’ll fix them until their 100% dead and then buy a flip phone and then a used PC. I’m tired of the never-ending “new-tech” game.

We will be gradually forced to give up many technologies in the coming decades. However, plenty of ‘old’ technologies will prove to be very useful in our downhill journey on the slope of fading “progress”. Think about battery-free tools, real books, and backyard gardening methods to name a few useful tools.

I’m not saying this is 100% accurate and will absolutely come to pass.

However, the data I see points in this general direction firmly.

God willing there is not a massive and painful decline. If there is, I pray it’s a slow decline rather than very abrupt. It will likely be a series of jolting crisis playing out over the rest of our lifetimes. Frankly, this is what we’ve been seeing since the 1970s oil shocks, but more pronounced since 9/11 followed by the 2008 Great Financial Crisis, COVID, and the current wars. The next shock could likely be a depression between now and 2030 or an energy crisis spurred by the conflict abroad and the decline of US hegemony and dollar dominance. All signs point to more shocks and declines being rapid by the 2030s to mid-century.

Tragedy is part of history. Many modern humans have enjoyed more abundance in the last 100 years than most humans ever have.

Nothing grows forever, not even the schemes of humans.

No politician would ever share this view publicly. It would be career ending.

No corporate exec would ever share this view publicly. It would tank their stock value.

No country will voluntarily start preparing through austerity, people would riot.

We will simply keep running the giant global machine until countless little regional failures roll into massive nation-wide failures and shortages.

And the failure will be regional at first. Much like Cuba losing power for 10 million people in October of 2024. Or the towns in North Carolina being wiped away by Helene. Or the conflict in Gaza & Ukraine. Or the day 0 water crisis in South Africa.

The USA will keep trying to repair itself from hurricanes like Helene, chemical plant fires (like the one in Georgia from BioLab), western wildfires, train derailments (Ohio), financial crisis, widespread layoffs, and other issues until the fabric of society is too depleted, spent and tired to continue repairing itself.

We’ve built far more than we can afford to maintain.

My own county I live in is $1 Billion behind in road work, and we’ll never have the tax base to cover it sustainably.

This is an end to wild human growth, particularly in the west, but it’s certainly not and end to humans.

We’ll adapt. We’ll live more locally.

We’ll start growing more gardens. Big companies like Walmart will eventually go out of business (that could be a while, don’t hold your breath). We’ll learn to build community again.

We’ll forget the McMansions and HOAs and golfing country clubs (I never bought into this vibe anyway, it’s very superficial).

We’ll learn to cook, sew, and repair things again.

We’ll be poorer, but I think many of us might be happier actually.

For those interested, here’s what I’m doing with my own family to adapt for this apparent end of growth:

• We sold many of our possessions to minimize.

• We sold our normal sized home to buy a much smaller home.

• We’re paying off any last debt to be more free and flexible.

• We don’t take fancy vacations. No Disney, mostly camping.

• We cook at home mostly. We don’t eat out as much.

• We’re reading more, and watching TV less.

• We’re learning to garden, keep chickens, and fix things ourselves.

• We’re building local community through Church and friend groups.

• We’re homeschooling our boys.

• We’re living frugally on one income and being content with that.

• We’re not worrying about some fancy retirement.

• I enjoy my work but have no longer made my career my identity.

• We’re downsizing from two cars to one car.

• I’m not worried about “keeping up with the Joneses” anymore.

• We hardly ever buy new things. We DIY or buy used items.

• We’re trying to be incredibly grateful for the little things:

  • A cup of coffee and a slow morning.

  • A walk around town with our boys.

  • Hot running water and a warm home.

  • Fresh food from a grocery store or our garden.

  • A functioning power grid (for today).

  • Gasoline under $4 (for today).

  • No fighting or dangerous conflict in our neighborhood.

I used to think “going off-grid” and leaving society behind was the answer to escape the challenges of modern life. I no longer believe this is a true solution. It’s a simpler lifestyle, with many benefits, but it’s not going to totally insulate you from the steady decline.

While we still want to work on having a small homestead, with a little garden, some chickens, goats, and a few acres of land, I don’t believe in the myth of rural total “self-sufficiency” anymore.

No human has ever been “self-sufficient”. I do think we need to rebuild skills. But we’ll never produce all of our own food, energy, tools, materials, etc. It’s not possible.

I find that living frugally, living simply, and practicing more gratitude today seems to be the best way to prepare for the much leaner days to come.

I must repeat: This decline isn’t the stuff of a single year or even one decade. This civilizational decline will extend far past the end of our lives. This is a long road.

I’m no ecologist, economist, or expert. However, I do think many experts are so siloed into their little niches they don’t see the bigger picture.

Who know’s what’s going to happen. This is just what makes sense to me after about a decade of research. You’ll have to draw your own conclusions.

Authors & Thinkers who have influenced this article greatly:

• Andrea P.

• Art Berman

• Sean Pruitt

• John Michael Greer

• Nate Hagens

• James Kunstler

• The Honest Sorcerer

• William Catton

One of the most important factors for living a simple, affordable, and attainable off-grid life is: location.

Where you choose to root your off-grid life is critical to your project’s success.

Our team has put together 55 PDF guides to help others (and us!) analyze every county in the USA for their off-grid living potential. All 50 states (& DC), & then 4 guides for the 200 Best & Worst Counties, all 50 States, & short summaries of all 3143 counties.

Ideal locations for off-grid living are somewhat relative & subjective to your personal goals and living preferences. Some people enjoy a desert setting. Others want a lush green environment. Some people want mountains, & others a coastal environment. Some people have very little funds, and other have plenty of cash. Some factors such as water, zoning, & population density are critical for any off-grid living setup. Other factors like terrain, temperature range, and snowfall are more subjective to preference.

These guides are our best effort to identify & highlight the key elements across all counties in the USA that enable affordable & attainable off-grid living.

You can live a simple life leveraging off-grid & appropriate technology anywhere if you’re determined enough. However, some places certainly make it easier to live this way than others. We’re trying to highlight those places that make it attainable.

We use the following metrics to rate states & counties for helping you find ideal locations for building your off-grid lifestyle:

• Population Density

• Rainfall Levels

• Terrain & Topography

• Land Costs

• Zoning Freedom

• Estimated Tax Burdens

• Pollutions Levels

• Political Leanings

• Soil Types

• Min/Max Typical Temperatures

• Natural Hazards

We rate states & counties A - F.  We also rank individual metrics for states & counties.  Every state / county profile has an off-grid rating, a metrics list, a write-up description, and quick-links to the following resources for each individual county:

• County / State History + Demographics Wikipedia

• Birds Eye View in Google Maps

• Land for Sale in LandWatch

• Homes for Sale in Zillow

• Camping Data in Campendium

• Camping Locations in HipCamp

• Organic Farming Opportunities in WWOOF

• RV Stays in Harvest Hosts

We work to update our off-grid datasets every 6 months to give you current and useful data for your off-grid journey. We’re using these guides for our own journey’s too!

We do charge a small amount for the guides as a great deal of work and research went into their production. Here are links for exploring these “Acorn Off-Grid Guides”:

• 50 States Ranked by Off-Grid Living Potential

• All US Counties (3143) Ranked by Off-Grid Living Potential

• Best 200 US Counties for Off-Grid Living

• Worst 200 US Counties for Off-Grid Living

50 State Off-Grid County Guides:

Note: These guides range from 11 pages for Washington DC to 764 pages for Texas based on how many counties are within a particular state. The number of counties for a state will directly impact how many pages a particular guide is (estimate 2-3 pages of data per county).

1. Alabama Off-Grid Guide (67 Counties)

2. Alaska Off-Grid Guide (30 Boroughs)

3. Arizona Off-Grid Guide (15 Counties)

4. Arkansas Off-Grid Guide (75 Counties)

5. California Off-Grid Guide (58 Counties)

6. Colorado Off-Grid Guide (64 Counties)

7. Connecticut Off-Grid Guide (8 Counties)

8. Delaware Off-Grid Guide (3 Counties)

9. Florida Off-Grid Guide (67 Counties)

10. Georgia Off-Grid Guide (159 Counties)

11. Hawaii Off-Grid Guide (5 Counties)

12. Idaho Off-Grid Guide (44 Counties)

13. Illinois Off-Grid Guide (102 Counties)

14. Indiana Off-Grid Guide (92 Counties)

15. Iowa Off-Grid Guide (99 Counties)

16. Kansas Off-Grid Guide (105 Counties)

17. Kentucky Off-Grid Guide (120 Counties)

18. Louisiana Off-Grid Guide (64 Parishes)

19. Maine Off-Grid Guide (16 Counties)

20. Maryland Off-Grid Guide (24 Counties)

21. Massachusetts Off-Grid Guide (14 Counties)

22. Michigan Off-Grid Guide (83 Counties)

23. Minnesota Off-Grid Guide (87 Counties)

24. Mississippi Off-Grid Guide (82 Counties)

25. Missouri Off-Grid Guide (114 Counties)

26. Montana Off-Grid Guide (56 Counties)

27. Nebraska Off-Grid Guide (93 Counties)

28. Nevada Off-Grid Guide (17 Counties)

29. New Hampshire Off-Grid Guide (10 Counties)

30. New Jersey Off-Grid Guide (21 Counties)

31. New Mexico Off-Grid Guide (33 Counties)

32. New York Off-Grid Guide (62 Counties)

33. North Carolina Off-Grid Guide (100 Counties)

34. North Dakota Off-Grid Guide (53 Counties)

35. Ohio Off-Grid Guide (88 Counties)

36. Oklahoma Off-Grid Guide (77 Counties)

37. Oregon Off-Grid Guide (36 Counties)

38. Pennsylvania Off-Grid Guide (67 Counties)

39. Rhode Island Off-Grid Guide (5 Counties)

40. South Carolina Off-Grid Guide (46 Counties)

41. South Dakota Off-Grid Guide (66 Counties)

42. Tennessee Off-Grid Guide (95 Counties)

43. Texas Off-Grid Guide (254 Counties)

44. Utah Off-Grid Guide (29 Counties)

45. Vermont Off-Grid Guide (14 Counties)

46. Virginia Off-Grid Guide (95 Counties)

47. Washington Off-Grid Guide (39 Counties)

48. West Virginia Off-Grid Guide (55 Counties)

49. Wisconsin Off-Grid Guide (72 Counties)

50. Wyoming Off-Grid Guide (23 Counties)

51. Washington DC Off-Grid Guide

We hope these guides are useful for your off-grid journey! We’ll work to update these datasets about every 6 months to keep information current.

- The Acorn Team

It’s been 6 months of much change and adjustment for our Acorn Land Labs off-grid experiment! We finished our proof-of-concept micro cabin in 2023. Our Acorn team had to downsize at the end of 2023 but we’ve been organizing the off-grid property, adjusting to new jobs, and prepping for the next season of Acorn projects.

We just released our newest video giving you a tour of our new off-grid location we’ll be using for the long term. We’ll eventually offer hands on classes here for anyone interested. We’re on 7 acres in the woods here as we expand this off-grid framework.

Why this matters more in 2024 than 20 years ago:

As inflation grows, cost of living increases, house prices skyrocket, and social unrest increases we are convinced these off-grid projects continue to matter a great deal for securing future freedoms, especially with a family.

Western lifestyles over the past 80 years have been a miracle of overabundance, just not a miracle that can (or will) sustain forever. Between the debasement of global fiat currencies, growing political strife, ecological damage, and growing societal tensions we think off-grid solutions are a key niche for people to pursue for simple freedoms.

• Living in the suburbs will become harder as things get more expensive.

• Living off-grid is hard as you have to build new skills and roll up your sleeves.

• Living in the city will be harder as certain stresses increase and costs go up.

Nothing is easy, and each path will be “hard” in different ways. Pick your hard :)

Life over the past 80 years might have been as “abundant” as it will get for “the highest percentage” of people globally. We don’t know this for sure, however, the gulf between the wealthy and poor is accelerating more and more. The global middle class is being eroded due to numerous factors.

We’re not offering a silver bullet to an easy life, however, after much study I do know this is the lifestyle myself and my family will invest in for our preferences. We want to live simply, spend less, save more, own a small rural property to garden on, utilize solar power, learn to use less energy, build soil, and spend more time together as a family homeschooling the kids.

Housing is broken. Homes are shelter, not investments.

We’re currently in the process of selling our suburban home in order to have a laser focus on building a simple and affordable lifestyle that’s more embedded in nature.

Home prices are not guaranteed to be high forever. Homes can either be affordable, or be an investment. Today in the USA homes are a financial investment rather than an affordable shelter. Sadly, this dynamic harms young people, renters, and poor people. Sky-high housing prices benefit current homeowners (equity), banks (interest), local governments (taxes), builders (profits) and realtors + lawyers + brokers (commissions). I don’t think we’ll have a healthy society until we agree that homes are not supposed to be artificially constrained investments - they are supposed to be practical shelter.

Businesses are investments. Farms are investments. These are productive assets. Homes are not productive assets, however they have been treated as such because the supply has been constrained through zoning, bad policy, lack of building, etc.

While the solution of building lots of small homes is simple, in reality, this is a hard problem to solve in the modern landscape. Old people with homes and equity have a vested interest in limited new home construction (NIMBY - not in my backyard). The local government is not truly incentivized in solving affordable housing, because this looks like less tax revenue to them. Builders will only build if there’s a profit, which makes sense. Modern zoning makes building small homes not possible or profitable. The answer is allowing tiny homes, yurts, cabins, and all sorts of creative, owner-built, flexible housing options. Politics and zoning prohibit this, not technical ability.

I’ll save the housing deep dive for another article. Suffice to say, I believe the suburban housing model in particular is broken and wildly unsustainable. Suburbs are subsidized and are unable to pay for their upkeep longterm. The last owners of suburban homes in decaying suburbs loses. The tax base moves away and the infrastructure crumbles. We’ve seen this time and again over the past decades. Hence our family selling our home in the suburbs after I’ve learned more about this dynamic. We don’t want to perpetuate this cycle of “disposable communities” further.

“In or out” is the new motto I like for housing. A small house “IN” a little town or city is great. OR a small house OUT in a rural area is great. These are the models I prefer for practical reasons. However, in an age of more civil unrest I opt towards the rural towns and rural areas rather than metro areas or urban areas.

The Big Cycles

Scholars like Peter Turchin, Ray Dalio, Joel Kotkin, Neal Howe and others have dedicated great time and research to illustrating the “rise and fall” of societies and empires. These big cycles involve society going through hard times, tackling a crisis, rebuilding trust and strength, peaking, and then descending into decadence and crisis again. This is a pattern as old as civilization. It seems new to us Americans, but it’s an old story.

The world is not coming to an end. However, today’s warped Western world as we know it is cracking apart. It’s predictable. It’s not even a bad thing. This is what happens.

Our job might not even be to fix it. I don’t think anyone can fix it.

Our job is to learn, observe, adapt, change and ride out this wave.

History’s wave is often inevitable for the single human.

It doesn’t mean we don’t try to do good. We just cannot try to preserve systems and institutions that are too big and broken to fix.

We are homeschooling our sons with this mindset. Public education has systemic issues I cannot solve in my sons lifetimes. Our only logical option then is to live frugally, homeschool our boys, and adapt.

At the risk of rambling, I’ll wrap up this article.

We’re back to working on off-grid projects! We’re happy to be back. :)

The Shaky Foundations of Modern Living

Before delving into the details of the new sub-culture, it's essential to understand the challenges and issues that are driving people to seek alternative lifestyles. Three primary factors have contributed to my own desire for change: the housing crisis, educational system failures, and the drawbacks of large, centralized systems most of us depend on today (industrial agriculture, big banks, big tech, corporate energy, etc).

1. The Housing Crisis

America's housing crisis has reached alarming proportions. Skyrocketing property prices, limited affordable housing options, inflation, and the burden of mortgage debt have made homeownership increasingly out of reach for many. The dream of owning a traditional suburban home with a white picket fence is fading as people search for alternatives that won't trap them in a harmful cycle of massive debt and high stress.

2. Educational System Failures

The traditional education system in the United States has its fair share of flaws. Overcrowded classrooms, standardized testing pressures, and a one-size-fits-all approach to education have left many parents and students dissatisfied. Homeschooling has emerged as a viable option for those seeking a more personalized and flexible educational experience for their children.

3. Centralized Systems

Large, centralized systems, whether in the form of corporate control, political systems, healthcare or industrial agriculture, often lead to feelings of disconnection, alienation, and harm to the environment. People are increasingly aware of the negative consequences of these systems on their well-being and the earth around us. As a result, they are seeking ways to break free from this broken system and regain a sense of healthy control over their lives.

The Birth of a New Sub-Culture

In response to these challenges, a new sub-culture is emerging—one that blends various elements into a cohesive and transformative way of life. Let's explore the key components of this cultural evolution:

1. Off-Grid Living

Off-grid living involves creating a lifestyle that is not reliant on traditional utilities and infrastructure. Many off-gridders generate their own power through solar panels, harvest rainwater, and grow some of their own food. This self-sufficiency not only reduces living costs but also contributes to ecological regeneration.

2. Permaculture and Sustainable Living

Permaculture is a design system that aims to create sustainable and regenerative ecosystems. It emphasizes principles such as biodiversity, minimal waste, and self-sufficiency. Those adopting permaculture principles often cultivate food forests, practice organic gardening, and implement eco-friendly building techniques, fostering ecological regeneration.

3. Minimalism

Minimalism is about decluttering one's life and focusing on what truly matters. Minimalists often choose to live in smaller spaces, which not only reduces expenses but also encourages a simpler, less materialistic lifestyle.

4. Nomadic Life and RV Living

Nomadic life, particularly in the form of RV living, offers the freedom to travel while maintaining a sense of home. RVs serve as mobile living spaces, allowing individuals and families to explore different places, experience diverse cultures, and connect with nature.

5. Homeschooling

Homeschooling provides parents with the opportunity to tailor their children's education to their specific needs and interests. It fosters a deeper family bond and encourages experiential learning.

6. Slow Living

Slow living is a conscious choice to prioritize quality over quantity, to savor experiences, and to live intentionally. It encourages a mindful approach to daily life and a rejection of the constant rush.

7. Remote Work

Remote work has become increasingly viable due to advances in technology. It enables many individuals to earn a living from anywhere, reducing the need for a traditional office and commute with all the associated expenses (work clothing, gasoline, a second car, eating out frequently).

The Benefits of Crafting a New Lifestyle

The fusion of these elements into a new sub-culture offers a plethora of benefits, both individually and collectively.

1. Affordability

One of the most appealing aspects of this lifestyle is its affordability. Off-grid living significantly reduces or eliminates utility bills, while minimalism helps cut down on unnecessary expenses. RV living eliminates the need for a traditional mortgage, and homeschooling can be more cost-effective and offer more freedom than conventional public or private education options.

2. Ecological Regeneration

Ecological regeneration is at the core of this sub-culture. Off-grid living and permaculture promote eco-friendly practices, nurturing the restoration of ecosystems. Minimalism and slow living encourage the responsible use of resources, further contributing to ecological health.

3. Freedom and Mobility

The ability to live and work remotely, combined with the nomadic aspect of RV living, offers unparalleled freedom and mobility. Individuals and families can explore new places, connect with nature, and create their own adventures.

4. Personalized Education

Homeschooling allows parents to tailor their children's education to their unique interests and abilities. This personalized approach can lead to a more enriching and fulfilling educational experience.

Crafting a New Way of Life

To paint a vivid picture of this evolving sub-culture, let's envision a day in the life of a family embracing this lifestyle:

Morning

The day begins with the soft chirping of birds and the gentle rustling of leaves in the wind. The family resides in a compact and eco-friendly tiny home nestled in the heart of a rural area (most suburban & urban areas today do not allow tiny homes or small homes - this should be changed ASAP). The home features large windows that invite natural light and panoramic views of the surrounding forest.

As the sun rises, the family starts their morning routine. They gather fresh produce from their lush food forest, collect eggs from the chickens, harvesting vegetables, fruits, and herbs for their pantry. A small grid of solar panels on the roof provide ample electricity for a few energy-efficient appliances, ensuring that their daily activities are both sustainable and cost-effective. Cutting firewood replaces a car-ride to the gym. A quiet walk around the pond before work replaces the freeway commute. Tending the garden to harvest fresh produce supplants mowing and spraying the lawn. Cooking meals at home and keeping active reduces the need for prescription medication.

Midday

After a hearty breakfast prepared with homegrown ingredients, the family gathers for homeschooling. Guided by a personalized curriculum that aligns with their children's interests, they engage in hands-on learning experiences: building a chicken coop together, helping with a family business, learning about the family budget, cooking meals, and gardening. The forest becomes their classroom as they study ecology, biology, and botany in their natural surroundings. History is often studied on the road during RV trips to historical locations.

Afternoon

As the day unfolds, the family decides to embark on a seasonal adventure. They prepare their RV, a cozy and mobile haven, for a journey to a new destination. With remote work opportunities, the parents have the flexibility to maintain jobs while on the road, allowing them to support their nomadic lifestyle. A simpler and more affordable lifestyle reduces the need for both parents to work full-time.

Their travels take them to diverse landscapes, from the rugged beauty of national parks to tranquil lakeside retreats. The family can immerse themselves in local cultures, connecting with fellow travelers and sharing stories around campfires under the starry night sky.

Evening

As the day draws to a close, the family returns to their off-grid tiny home. They gather on the deck, illuminated by the soft glow of solar-powered lights, and reflect on the day's adventures. The children recount their discoveries in nature, and the parents share their memories from the day. A wood stove crackles with local firewood.

The family enjoys a simple & satisfying dinner made from their garden's bounty. They savor the flavors of their homegrown produce while relishing the peace and serenity of their natural surroundings. It’s not fancy, but it’s a refreshing freedom compared to what suburban-corporate culture has become.

Breaking Free from Suburban Stagnation

This new sub-culture emerging in America represents a significant departure from the conventional suburban way of life. It offers an alternative path for those seeking freedom, sustainability, and self-sufficiency. As individuals and families across the country embrace off-grid living, permaculture, minimalism, homesteading, nomadic life, homeschooling, RV life, slow living, and remote work, they are not only crafting new lifestyles but also challenging the existing norms of society.

This cultural shift reflects a growing awareness of the need for fresh evolutions in the American way of life. By addressing the housing crisis, educational system failures, and the limitations of large, centralized systems, this sub-culture paves the way for a more connected, sustainable, local, and fulfilling existence. It invites us to reconsider our priorities, reconnect with nature, and embrace a simpler, more intentional way of living.

In the face of modern challenges, the fusion of these diverse elements into a new sub-culture serves as a refreshing icon of hope, offering a path towards a more harmonious and balanced future—one where individuals and families can thrive, unburdened by the constraints of the past, and in far more harmony with the natural world, fostering ecological regeneration and regenerating ecological health in the process.

I don’t have a great name for this niche, evolving sub-culture yet.

For now, it’s permaculture + off-grid + nomadic life + decentralization + slow living + homeschooling + ecological living + localism + minimalism: P.O.N.D.S.H.E.L.M.

PONDSHELM…

A better name will come with time.

EDIT: “Solar punk“ is a strong contender for a name to describe this lifestyle.

A home needs the primary shell, or shelter rather. Beyond that a home needs water connection, sources of energy, and a way to deal with sanitation.

Our modern homes outsource ALL of these inputs.

Many of the materials used to build the shelter are sourced from distant locations.

Water is typically piped in from a municipal source.

Energy often is delivered in the form of natural gas or electricity from a coal / natural gas plant.

Waste water and sewage is piped back out to a municipal treatment plant.

Most homes are directly tied to these big centralized systems that are tied into a global economy.

These are all centralized systems that are highly sensitive to global shocks, inflation, regulation, and control from central sources. Your home has outsourced these key needs to energy companies, your county, and other faceless providers.

As inflation rises, as regulations tighten, as local government taxes rise to cover sprawling infrastructure, and as the asset bubble expands this form of housing becomes less tenable. Not to mention most homes today are inefficient, polluting, and very expensive.

What would another form of housing look like?

Here’s our flow chart illustrating our concept for a local-first, ecological, affordable, and sustainable way of operating a home’s core systems:

This flowchart illustrates how shelter, water, energy, sanitation, some transportation and even food can all be incorporated into a holistic system for living.

These ideas fuse tiny homes, minimalism, permaculture, composting, decentralization, and localism into a new way of resilient living.

This is a simpler way to live locally.

Does this blueprint look like a direction we might head into the future?

What do you think?

We built a prototype off-grid micro cabin using these concepts here in this mini documentary:

This off-grid project was a big win for the team as it gives us and others a blueprint.

This 200 square foot off-grid cabin provides water, affordable shelter, clean energy, green sanitation & simple food systems for vegetable gardening & free-range eggs.

The goal was to build an affordable, sustainable, off-grid cabin with a $25k budget in the course of 30 days. We met this goal to prove it’s possible. Land would be an additional cost, but the entire project built on 2-5 acres of rural land could be completed for $50k or less. Financial freedom through simple off-grid living is very doable.

This project was a response to astronomical modern home prices, high inflation, high taxes, the broken industrial food system, and other decaying centralized systems.

We documented the entire project through our Acorn Land Lab video series. You can view our 5 minute recap video below, or view our 1 hour 45 minute video documenting the process further down the page.

5 Minute Acorn Off-Grid Systems Overview video:

1 hour 45 Minute Acorn Off-Grid Documentary:

Our goal for this off-grid project:

We believe that through simple & sustainable living people can live more affordably, work fewer hours, enjoy better food, find more purpose, and have more time with family. That was the driving purpose behind this project. The goal was to show others that these methods, technologies, and systems can indeed support a simple and elegant lifestyle through appropriate off-grid, ecological technologies & permaculture.

Most Americans are tied to a system where they will work their entire life to pay for an over-sized, over-priced, unsustainable home to live within. Taxes, interest, mortgage, insurance, utilities and other costs eat up much of your hard work.

As time moves forward we can see more clearly that the suburbs are not financially sustainable. The American Dream has turned into a debt-trap for most people.

Off-grid living, local living, and slow-living show us a new path forward that requires innovation, but it returns priceless dividends of freedom and personal autonomy.

Why we did this:

We want to explore a new way to live that is a refreshing break from the debt-fueled “American Dream.” We want time spent outdoors with family, more time working with our hands to grow things, and more memories made working on meaningful projects with family.

We don’t want more social media, more fast food, more artificial media / entertainment (Disney, Netflix), more excessive taxes (suburban tax base), or more late nights at the office (corporate hustle culture).

We are seeking “enough”. Enough shelter, water, food, energy, sanitation, and transportation. These are the key physiological items we require as humans. These needs are why we work our jobs, pay for our cars, and live in (often) expensive homes near our work. Surely there is more to life than fueling the GDP for Wall Street.

What if we have things backwards? What if we focus less on chasing the money, and more on meeting our needs directly through ecological systems and practices? Money should just be the tool to buy these needs: food, water, shelter, energy, sanitation, transportation. But what if we focused on building systems to reduce the need for money? We won’t ever eliminate the need for money, but if we can reduce the need, that’s a huge win… Our modern world is hyper-financialized, and it’s not healthy.

Enter the “Acorn Home” concept…

Below is a flowchart showing how all these key off-grid systems work together in our “Off-Grid Acorn Home” concept that we followed for our off-grid build project:

The key off-grid systems we’re using:

The 5 basic needs we are working to meet at varying levels are: Shelter, energy, water, food, and sanitation. We roll transportation up under energy.

For the shelter shell we opted to use a 200 square ft pre-built shed shell from Derksen Portable Buildings. You could easily make your own cabin from 2x4s, 2x6s, tin roofing, plywood, and 4x6” skids. We could have also used a canvas tent, yurt, A-frame, RV, camper, or even a mobile home for an affordable shelter shell. An Earthship or WOFATI would make great options for a non-portable structure.

We’re using a solar panel kit from Continuous Resources to provide our electrical needs. This kit includes photovoltaic panels, charge controller, batteries, inverter, and other accessories to collect 2800W of max power on a sunny day. We’re able to charge power tools, run a small window AC unit, fans, power lights, cell phones, laptops, etc. Huge thanks to the Continuous Resources team for the amazing support and help!

We’re heating the micro cabin using a Dwarf tiny wood stove from Tiny Wood Stoves. The stove we are using is able to efficiently heat our 200 square foot area easily.

We’re using GoSun solar ovens for cooking food. These can utilize sunlight directly, or even plug into a 12V power source to cook food at night or on shady days. We also have a 12V GoSun Cooler for keeping food refrigerated or frozen.

We’re using a simple rainwater catchment system that collects rainwater from the tin roof using a gutter, and then a first flush diverter from Blue Mountain Co. We have future plans to also drill a well for a more regular supply of water (we’ll power the well with a generator to fill the cisterns). Our rainwater systems uses food-grade 275 gallon IBC tanks to store water. We use a 12V RV pump to pressurize the water through food-grade hoses. We can then purify the water using a WaterDrop purifier.

We have a HomeBioGas 2 unit to producing liquid fertilizer and 2 hours of daily cooking gas for a grill-top burner. This HomeBioGas unit is a methane digester that intakes food waste / manure into it’s water-holding-tank, and then produces methane biogas and liquid fertilizer. HomeBioGas even provides a toilet that can connect to the unit, in addition to a hot water heater that can be powered from the methane biogas. We use a small greenhouse to keep the HomeBioGas unit warm in the winter for optimal performance. It needs an avg temp of 68*F to produce gas properly.

We’re using a canvas outhouse on a small wooden deck for a bathhouse, with a Nature’s Head Composting toilet, and a foot-pump sink. This gives us a simple and affordable bathroom.

As a guest house, we have a canvas Life-in-tents tent, a blow up mattress, a 400W solar panel, and a Delta EcoFlow solar generator.

We use Birdies raised beds from Epic Gardening for growing veggies from compost in our permaculture gardens. We use seed trays, Botanical Interest seeds, and many other tools from Epic Gardening as well. They were a huge supporter of this project and we’re incredibly thankful for their encouragement and support! Thank you Kevin & Team! We also built a $50 chicken coop for giving a few of our hens a home to lay eggs at the micro-cabin location!

We also tested out Aventon Aventure e-bikes as a lightweight form of micro EV transportation that can easily be charged by our solar panel system. They can cruise at up to 30 MPH and have a 30-60 mile range. They work very well to get around locally! If only we had more bike paths locally, these would be an incredible way to get around here in the US! Checkout our video about the e-bikes here!

Using all of these systems together, we’re able to provide for the basic needs of: water, energy, shelter, sanitation, transportation & food. Utility bills don’t exist, a mortgage doesn’t exist, and property taxes / insurance / maintenance would be very low.

If you financed these systems for 5-10 years, OR paid cash, you could have a lifestyle that only requires a little cash for health insurance, the food you don’t grow, and transportation needs outside of an e-bike. You could live a very high-quality life with a $50k salary, be debt free, and work part time. You could reclaim freedom.

The order of installation for us:

🍁 Off-Grid in 30 Days - Building an off-grid home for less than $25k

🏕️ Episode 1: Canvas Tent, Clearing Brush, & Ordering the Cabin Shell

💧 Episode 2: PV Panels, Water Pump, IBC Totes, Composting Toilet, Biogas Digester

🪴 Episode 3: Green House, Raised Beds, Seed Cells, Cabin Arrival

🏡 Episode 4: The 200 square ft Micro Cabin shell tour - inside and out!

🐓 Episode 5: Building a Chicken Coop for $50!

🏕️ Episode 6: Finishing the inside of the canvas bell tent

🐑 Episode 7: Insulating the cabin with Havelock Sheep's Wool

📐 Episode 8: Installing LVP flooring inside the cabin

🌧 Episode 9: Rainwater Catchment System + FirstFlush Diverter & Water Tank

🪵 Episode 10: Installing Plywood siding inside the cabin

🔥 Episode 11: Installing the Dwarf Wood Stove from Tiny Wood Stoves

🌿 Episode 12: Filling & Fertilizing Our Birdies Raised Gardening Beds

☀️ Episode 13: Installing a 2800W Solar Panel System with Batteries

🪑 Episode 14: Furnishing the Micro Cabin + Full compilation of the off-grid build!

Sharing these ideas far and wide:

We’ve worked hard to document & record as much of the information we’ve learned as possible. We WANT there to be a quiet & peaceful revolution of people changing local zoning laws, building tiny homes, planting gardens, going off-grid and reclaiming local autonomy through sustainable systems and slow lifestyles. It’s time to reject the broken American Dream of debt bondage in favor of a new dream of simple living, slow lifestyles, sustainable systems, and enjoying “enough.”

We’re actively working to convert Acorn Land Labs into a non-profit for 2024 and beyond. We’ve never made much money from this endeavor, but that’s not the goal. Spreading ideas for a different way of living is the goal. We do have hosting, domain, server, and other digital expenses to keep all of this running. All the proceeds from our book, ebook, course, audiobook, and community access sales go to help support our continued work on researching and sharing off-grid, sustainable living ideas.

We’ve marked all our learning materials down to the lowest we possible can sell them for for 2024. You can learn about ALL these systems for free reading our blog posts and videos. We want these ideas to be available with deeper info through printed books and video courses! Here’s the 2024 pricing if you want to dive deeper:

• Purchase our Acorn Bundle: $49

  • The 10 Hour Off-Grid Video Course

  • Lifetime Acorn Off-Grid Community Access

  • Lifetime Off-Grid Simulator Access

  • eBook PDF Download

  • Acorn Off-Grid Audiobook

• The 10 Hour Video Course: $39

  • + Lifetime Off-Grid Community Access

  • + Lifetime Off-Grid Simulator Access

• Acorn Off-Grid eBook PDF Download: $4.99

• Acorn Off-Grid Kindle eBook: $4.99

• Acorn Off-Grid Audiobook: $7.99

• Acorn Off-Grid Paperback Book: $14.99

• Acorn Off-Grid Hardback Book: $29.99

• Acorn Off-Grid Audible Audiobook

Thank you for ALL the support and encouragement this year. We hope your 2024 is fantastic! Go grow something or build something and enjoy the blessing of today!

Sincerely, Kemble & the Acorn Team

This article is for us folks in the suburbs.

I’ve spent most of my life in the suburbs, so I get it. This is what most of us were born into. It seems normal because it’s all we’ve known.

I have a few questions, just to get you thinking.

What is the true cost of living in the suburbs?

1. How much do you earn post-taxes and health insurance?

Start with your salary. Subtract federal taxes for your bracket. Now subtract state taxes. Now subtract your employer health insurance costs if applicable.

What number are we left with?

For many Americans this about $40-$50k post taxes.

2. How much is your mortgage or rent + home insurance? Subtract that.

Rent is simple. It will include maintenance + property taxes. Rent is also very high for most people right now, so it’s not exactly a great deal.

If you own a home, what’s your monthly mortgage? This should include your property taxes too. If you own your home outright, what’s your monthly property tax bill? You also need to factor in average maintenance. Did the HVAC break? Water heater? Did the house need new paint? Pest control? You might even have HOA fees to tack onto this number.

Add on your homeowners or renters insurance to your mortgage/rent.

Now subtract this from what’s left of your post-tax salary.

The median rent in American is over $1900. The median mortgage payment is just over $2000.

3. How much are you spending on cars to GET to your job?

Add up the monthly car payment(s), insurance, fuel, and average maintenance. For many Americans this is close to $1000 monthly.

Your car is mostly to get to work. Most people can’t write this cost off. You pay a massive chunk of your income just to get to work. Business can write off vehicle expenses, most workers cannot.

Subtract this from what’s left of your income.

4. What are your total utility bills + phone bill?

Combine water, sewage (if applicable), gas, electricity, and internet. Add this to your monthly phone bill.

Subtract this from what’s left of your salary.

5. What are you spending on food?

Monthly groceries + eating out. Subtract this as well. Take-out is easy after a long commute or a day sitting in front of screen.

6. Subtract education costs, entertainment and miscellaneous.

Streaming subscriptions, coffee, clothes, etc. Do you have student loan you’re repaying? Add this up and subtract it.

7. After all this, are you saving or investing anything?

Many Americans are not. Many folks are not doing this at all.

Is this sustainable? Is this working for you?

Did your property taxes jump after home prices increased massively?

How much time do you actually have left for LIFE after all these expenses are met, your job is worked, and the bills are all paid?

When many people run the numbers it’s often apparent that their suburban lifestyle owns them. Perhaps not everyone. But it’s increasingly apparent this system isn’t working well.

Ironically, the suburbs are even subsidized. Your property taxes don’t fully cover the costs of the roads and infrastructure where you live.

This means that:

A) Your property taxes will have to rise massively over time to cover these costs (this only tends to happen if your area gentrifies).

B) Costs won’t be covered and infrastructure will degrade over time after the initial build (this is more likely to occur).

The suburbs had a few decades where they seemed to work well post WW2. This was a mirage. The suburbs have been designed as a disposable model predicated on everyone owning cars, continual growth, and subsidized roads and infrastructure.

Even today, with the mirage still partly intact, is the lifestyle one that people truly enjoy?

With current home prices, car prices, energy prices, grocery costs, and property taxes, the suburbs seem to take everything you earn to keep functioning.

Most of us accept it because it’s all we know.

It seem inevitable.

However, it’s not.

The suburbs might be comfortable, but are they a golden cage?

Do you trade freedom for comfort?

There’s a growing movement of people opting-out to build freedom elsewhere outside of the rigid and outdated suburban models.

Rural property taxes are a fraction of the cost.

Off-grid homes can be built debt-free.

Health share medical programs can cost 1/2 of typical insurance.

Reducing car dependence can save tens of thousands of dollars yearly.

Ditching the corporate suburban commute and the matching lifestyle free up a great deal of time and money. the irony is that a city job often is very expensive to keep between the suburban home, the commute, the cars, the takeout, and the taxes.

It’s a real chicken and egg game.

You need the higher income to support the suburbs, you need the suburbs to support the higher income.

What if you opted out?

What if you cut your expenses by 50%, and cut your work time by 30%?

What if you moved to a quieter, smaller town?

What if you had time to hike, think, paint, explore, and create?

What if you earned less, because you needed less?

What if you had more time?

Is that type of freedom worth it for you?

Our mission at Acorn Land Labs is to share the ideas, methods, tools & concepts needed for people to leverage off-grid systems to live more freely and affordably. Go build something!

🎥 Off-Grid Systems Video Course - 10 hour off-grid systems course

📗 Acorn Off-Grid Home eBook - 50 key off-grid systems we use for living simply

🎧 Acorn Off-Grid Audiobook - 50 key off-grid systems we use for living simply

📚 Acorn Off-Grid Systems Paperback / Hardback Editions - buy on Amazon

2023 has been a busy year for our team here at Acorn Land Labs!

We’re excited to share that we’ve published our first book to promote these ideas!

Our driving mission all year has been to build, test and then share off-grid technology and ecological methods that can help people to live more affordably & locally.

Our new book is: “The Acorn Off-Grid Home: A Tiny Guide for Off-Grid Living - 50 Key Steps and Systems”

We have this “Acorn Off-Grid Home” book in multiple formats based on what works best for you:

• PDF ebook on our website: $14.00 (for 50% off [$7] use ACORN50 code)

• Audiobook on SoundWise: $18 (for 50% off [$9] use ACORN50 code)

• Kindle Ebook on Amazon: $9.50

• Paperback on Amazon (170 pages): $19.25

• Hardcover on Amazon (170 pages): $34.32

The “Acorn Off-Grid Home” book provides a high level tour of why off-grid systems can give people more freedom in our modern age. We need affordable, sustainable, decentralized ways to provide for shelter, energy, sanitation, water and food. Many people crave the freedom and connection to nature this way of life provides.

Beyond the why behind off-grid living, we delve into the 50 key off-grid systems that enable life to be lived well in a sustainable, affordable manner. These are the building blocks for sustainable freedom.

We fuse together concepts from:

1. Permaculture

2. off-grid tech

3. minimalism

4. localism

5. decentralization

6. appropriate technology

7. and the tiny home movement.

We explore how tiny homes, solar power, rainwater systems, biogas, micro cabins, permaculture, composting, biomass heating and many other off-grid building blocks integrate together to provide a life of affordable and sustainable freedom.

Next year, in 2024, our team will be taking a step back from publishing the weekly video content. It’s been a wonderful year here in 2023, but we need to catch our breath and focus on family. We’ll be enjoying using the off-grid tools and methods we’ve been promoting all year for the online community. We hope all this has been an inspiration and help to you and others!

I’ll continue work to write here weekly.

We’ll still work to publish a video every few weeks or so. Perhaps monthly!

But it’s time for us to take a breather.

Not forever, just for a season. Acorn Land Labs isn’t going anywhere. We’re a small team highly dedicated to this work. We do need a bit of a rest though :)

A short recap of 2023…

We designed a 1/4 acre off-grid land lab for growing local food organically. We grew over 2500 lbs of local produce along with free range eggs!

We built an off-grid simulator for helping anyone plan off-grid design projects digitally (raising over $65k to build the app on Kickstarter).

We recorded and published a 10 hour video course for sharing these off-grid ideas.

We formed an online community for connecting off-grid enthusiasts together.

We published off-grid system videos for millions of viewers on Youtube, Instagram and Tiktok.

We kicked off the concept for an off-grid video game called “HomeFree”.

We also kicked off our “Off-Grid in 30 Days Video Series” on youtube documenting our micro-cabin build to provide local shelter, energy, sanitation, water and food.

We want to sincerely thank you all for the support and encouragement.

This project is a labor of love to help share ideas to spread freedom.

We care about humans building freedom while caring for other people & the planet.

We care about local people charting their own independent course.

We care about lifelong learning for everyone.

We care about restoring the health of our soils and waters.

We care about freeing people from financial bondage to banks.

We care about moving away from mindless consumerism.

We care about redesigning our homes & communities to be enjoyable.

We are thankful to have had this year to share these ideas with you!

Pickup a copy of “The Acorn Off-Grid Home” ebook, paperback, hardback, or audiobook today! Learn about these ideas and help spread them far and wide.

We try to keep our materials as affordable as possible. This effort takes considerable time and funds to produce, and every book sale helps to keep it running strong.

Sincerely,

Kemble Hildreth

Acorn Land Labs resources & tools:

• Acorn Off-Grid Systems Course

• Acorn Off-Grid Community

• Acorn Off-Grid Simulator Web App

Our mission at Acorn Land Labs is to share the ideas, methods, tools & concepts needed for people to leverage off-grid systems to live more freely and affordably. Go build something!

🎥 Off-Grid Systems Video Course - 10 hour off-grid systems course

📗 Acorn Off-Grid Home eBook - 50 key off-grid systems we use for living simply

🎧 Acorn Off-Grid Audiobook - 50 key off-grid systems we use for living simply

📚 Acorn Off-Grid Systems Paperback / Hardback Editions - buy on Amazon

2023 has been a busy year for our team here at Acorn Land Labs!

We’re excited to share that we’ve published our first book to promote these ideas!

Our driving mission all year has been to build, test and then share off-grid technology and ecological methods that can help people to live more affordably & locally.

Our new book is: “The Acorn Off-Grid Home: A Tiny Guide for Off-Grid Living - 50 Key Steps and Systems”

We have this “Acorn Off-Grid Home” book in multiple formats based on what works best for you:

• PDF ebook on our website: $14.00 (for 50% off [$7] use ACORN50 code)

• Audiobook on SoundWise: $18 (for 50% off [$9] use ACORN50 code)

• Kindle Ebook on Amazon: $9.50

• Paperback on Amazon (170 pages): $19.25

• Hardcover on Amazon (170 pages): $34.32

The “Acorn Off-Grid Home” book provides a high level tour of why off-grid systems can give people more freedom in our modern age. We need affordable, sustainable, decentralized ways to provide for shelter, energy, sanitation, water and food. Many people crave the freedom and connection to nature this way of life provides.

Beyond the why behind off-grid living, we delve into the 50 key off-grid systems that enable life to be lived well in a sustainable, affordable manner. These are the building blocks for sustainable freedom.

We fuse together concepts from:

1. Permaculture

2. off-grid tech

3. minimalism

4. localism

5. decentralization

6. appropriate technology

7. and the tiny home movement.

We explore how tiny homes, solar power, rainwater systems, biogas, micro cabins, permaculture, composting, biomass heating and many other off-grid building blocks integrate together to provide a life of affordable and sustainable freedom.

Next year, in 2024, our team will be taking a step back from publishing the weekly video content. It’s been a wonderful year here in 2023, but we need to catch our breath and focus on family. We’ll be enjoying using the off-grid tools and methods we’ve been promoting all year for the online community. We hope all this has been an inspiration and help to you and others!

I’ll continue work to write here weekly.

We’ll still work to publish a video every few weeks or so. Perhaps monthly!

But it’s time for us to take a breather.

Not forever, just for a season. Acorn Land Labs isn’t going anywhere. We’re a small team highly dedicated to this work. We do need a bit of a rest though :)

A short recap of 2023…

We designed a 1/4 acre off-grid land lab for growing local food organically. We grew over 2500 lbs of local produce along with free range eggs!

We built an off-grid simulator for helping anyone plan off-grid design projects digitally (raising over $65k to build the app on Kickstarter).

We recorded and published a 10 hour video course for sharing these off-grid ideas.

We formed an online community for connecting off-grid enthusiasts together.

We published off-grid system videos for millions of viewers on Youtube, Instagram and Tiktok.

We kicked off the concept for an off-grid video game called “HomeFree”.

We also kicked off our “Off-Grid in 30 Days Video Series” on youtube documenting our micro-cabin build to provide local shelter, energy, sanitation, water and food.

We want to sincerely thank you all for the support and encouragement.

This project is a labor of love to help share ideas to spread freedom.

We care about humans building freedom while caring for other people & the planet.

We care about local people charting their own independent course.

We care about lifelong learning for everyone.

We care about restoring the health of our soils and waters.

We care about freeing people from financial bondage to banks.

We care about moving away from mindless consumerism.

We care about redesigning our homes & communities to be enjoyable.

We are thankful to have had this year to share these ideas with you!

Pickup a copy of “The Acorn Off-Grid Home” ebook, paperback, hardback, or audiobook today! Learn about these ideas and help spread them far and wide.

We try to keep our materials as affordable as possible. This effort takes considerable time and funds to produce, and every book sale helps to keep it running strong.

Sincerely,

Kemble Hildreth

Acorn Land Labs resources & tools:

• Acorn Off-Grid Systems Course

• Acorn Off-Grid Community

• Acorn Off-Grid Simulator Web App

It’s time to slow down folks.

Autumn is very much here. The plants are slowing down. The animals are hibernating. The geese & snow birds are heading south for the winter.

It’s natural to slow down now.

It’s needed.

We shouldn’t be grinding away on the next product, release, or milestone 24/7/365.

Give yourself permission to slow down.

The trick is, you need to slow everything down for this to work.

Work less, but also buy less.

Worry less, but also hurry less.

Be content with enough, and you’ll find slowing down to be natural.

We can reclaim the lost art of slowing down for the Autumn and Winter.

This is a season to read more books, take slow hikes, and think about the changing colors around us and enjoy nature’s spectacle.

Who or what is pushing you, keeping you from slowing down?

Push back a little, encourage them to slow down. They probably need it.

We all need it.

Rest your mind as the year winds down.

Think about making the Holidays simple. Just schedule some family meals and some experiences together. Try cutting out the gift exchange entirely. People don’t need more stuff, they need time together.

Give yourself a simple and free holiday season.

Let people know you’re downsizing and slowing down. No gifts please, just time spent together making good food and taking it slow.

Try to be a calming water for others during nature’s season of slowness.

Don’t succumb to the pressure for hustle, bustle, consumerism, and all the junk they try to sell you during the Holidays. Let this year be a turning point.

Help others understand they can slow down too.

If they do, wonderful! Take a slow walk together.

If they don’t, that’s ok. Slow down for you.

Our mission at Acorn Land Labs is to share the ideas, methods, tools & concepts needed for people to leverage off-grid systems to live more freely and affordably. Go build something!

🎥 Off-Grid Systems Video Course - 10 hour off-grid systems course

📗 Acorn Off-Grid Home eBook - 50 key off-grid systems we use for living simply

🎧 Acorn Off-Grid Audiobook - 50 key off-grid systems we use for living simply

📚 Acorn Off-Grid Systems Paperback / Hardback Editions - buy on Amazon

I am thankful for the places in the suburbs we’ve called home. Truly.

We’ve made memories, and been fortunate to have a place to live here to raise our boys. Everything has a season, and this season has been good.

However, as I’ve watched my toddlers grow, and as I’ve watched time pass more quickly, I’ve noticed that the suburban environment will continue to gobble up all that I work hard for. The cost to fund this lifestyle is my time. That is a steep cost.

America has normalized a suburban culture that is materially top heavy: requiring us to work around the clock to pay for this increasingly expensive lifestyle. It’s not sustainable: financially or ecologically.

I’ve spent a great deal of time analyzing the suburbs.

The high ongoing costs of two cars for a family: fuel, insurance, maintenance, payments, etc.

The high ongoing costs of a suburban home: property taxes, mortgage, maintenance.

The high ongoing costs of being tired out by working to pay for the lifestyle: little time to exercise, temptation for takeout food after a long day, spending weekends keeping it all fixed up.

The costs of doing the typical suburban diversions to “recharge” from suburban life: having pets, gym membership, vacations, takeout, pool membership, etc.

It’s a curious experiment we’ve been running in America since WW2. The suburbs in America are a product of very cheap energy, huge government subsidies, and extreme conformity in urban planning. It was never going to last.

As a family, we’ve been steadily moving away from this suburban culture for years. We work on homestead projects in favor of gym memberships. We’re raising chickens for eggs and raising kune kune pigs, rather than have more pets that don’t help on the homestead. We’re cooking at home, rather than eating takeout. We built our first canvas tent Airbnb to earn extra income, instead of entertaining ourselves at the movies or chasing other suburban diversions that cost money.

However, we’re finding that this new lifestyle of production and creation is clashing with the suburban culture of consumption.

Legally, we’re only allowed 4 chickens. We have 40…

Legally, we’re allowed one mini-pig. We have two. (a minor infraction, but an infraction nonetheless)

The county shut down our popular canvas tent AirBnb. We need permits, a business license, and they have an ordinance against RV and Tent Airbnbs.

It might just be a sign that we no longer fit our environment. The suburbs are telling us to leave. Maybe it’s for the best.

The suburbs are all about consumption and conformity.

Creation and creativity are penalized and are often prohibited here.

Home costs in the suburbs are astronomical in 2023. Property taxes have spiked accordingly to the property values. My income is good, but it is not rising faster than property taxes, utility bills, maintenance costs and groceries. These two growth lines are diverging. I don’t want to sacrifice even more time with my children simply to keep paying suburban expenses deemed normal as inflation grows.

This is not sustainable. We could keep this cycle going, but it will increasingly consume more time, money and effort to keep it going. A family often needs two cars in the suburbs. By the time you do save some money, an HVAC systems breaks. Or a car breaks. Or the house needs paint. Something tends to pop up. The suburban lifestyle ensures steady consumption will always occur. The funny thing is, we don’t need all this. It’s way more than we need. Many people are happy with far less.

Why have we created this culture of excessive work for excessive stuff?

We can live so much more simply.

Ironically, the suburbs prohibit simplicity and affordability by design.

You must have a home bigger than 1800 sq feet in many parts of our county, even if you want a tiny home.

You must have a car to be mobile here, even if you’d happily bike or walk.

You must not plant a front-lawn garden or have chickens in an HOA, even if you’d like to grow your own food.

You are expected to mow your front lawn, rather than plant a pollinator garden of wildflowers.

You should do as everyone else does.

In our fast-paced modern world, where the suburbs have long been hailed as the epitome of comfort, safety, and stability, we are now daring to ask the question: Is it time to leave the expensive ease of the suburbs behind? The suburbs have undoubtedly offered us a predictable life, with well-manicured lawns (copying the British aristocracy - at great expense in fuel, mowers and time), secluded privacy, and an abundance of conveniences. However, as property taxes soar, our connection to the outdoors diminishes, and the daily grind becomes an endless loop of monotony, more and more families are contemplating the idea of trading convenience for more time, familiarity for new adventure, and stability for freedom. We’re one of those families.

One of the more immediate reasons to consider leaving the suburbs is the astronomical rise in property taxes and home prices. While the suburbs may initially seem like a financially sound choice, the reality is that property taxes and home prices in these areas have been rapidly climbing. The cost of maintaining infrastructure, schools, and public services often falls heavily on homeowners, causing added financial stress for many families. The idea of trading in that hefty tax bill for a more affordable rural property is incredibly enticing.

We’re planning to homeschool our boys, so there is small satisfaction in knowing most of my high property taxes fund the local schools. I’m thankful for the local schools, but my limited dollars should fund my boys homeschool experience.

Another compelling motivation for departing the suburbs is the critical need for more outdoor time. In suburban life, we often find ourselves trapped in the cycle of commute-work-commute, leaving precious little time to connect with nature deeply. Nature is a vital source of tranquility, inspiration, and well-being. Living in a more rural setting allows for daily encounters with the natural world, fostering a deeper connection with the environment and a healthier lifestyle for ourselves and our children. With fewer expenses I’ll have more time to be with our kids. Yes, we’ll have to live more simply, but that’s a good thing.

Suburban life also has a knack for trapping us in a repetitive routine. The never-ending traffic jams and the daily pilgrimage past the same fast-food chain restaurants and big-box stores can wear on one's soul. Breaking free from the suburbs presents an opportunity to explore the unknown, savor unique places, and rediscover the excitement of adventure found apart from the HOAs, strip malls, dialysis centers and gas stations.

The rustic peach orchards I used to play in as a child have been bulldozed for giant warehouses. Now folks will get Amazon same-day delivery, I suppose. But we don’t have the peach orchards anymore. The old dairy farms are all tract housing now. There are still a few pastures left with some remnant cows, but the apartments are being built left and right over what’s left.

Speaking of children, one of the most profound reasons, for us, to leave the suburbs behind is for the sake of our youngest family members. While suburban living may offer them a “stable” environment, it can also limit their exposure to diverse experiences and hinder their creativity. Life is short, and the suburbs have a way of boxing children in, both physically and mentally. More rural life opens up a world of exploration, fostering independence, imagination, and resilience.

Furthermore, it's essential to acknowledge the unsustainability of the suburban model, both environmentally and financially. Suburbs, with their vast & brittle infrastructure and reliance on automobiles, contribute significantly to environmental issues such as pollution, resource depletion, and urban sprawl. The suburban lifestyle is heavily subsidized, and when it eventually falls apart (simply look to many older suburbs around metro city centers), the original inhabitants and builders have moved to the peri-urban fringe, building suburbs anew, and perpetuating a cycle of disposable communities that harm both the environment and the sense of belonging.

Our communities should not be built to be disposable, but this is exactly how the suburbs are built. Our communities should get better with time, not worse.

Leaving the suburbs is a decision that requires careful consideration, as it entails trading one set of conveniences for new challenges. For us however, it is an opportunity to regain more control of our lives, to prioritize the well-being of our family, and to embrace a more sustainable and fulfilling way of living. Life is an adventure, and it's time to embark on a new season, leaving behind the expensive ease of the suburbs for a more simple way of life.

We’re building a small off-grid home base, and pairing that cabin with a single vehicle pulling a camper. Between the off-grid systems we’ve been using for years, and a traditional camper, we’re excited for a lifestyle that’s more simple, even if it takes more direct effort to procure together. I’ll put it this way: I’d rather chop wood with my sons to heat our home than work in a cubicle by myself to pay the gas bill.

We’ll travel a bit more, I’ll work a bit less, we’ll live even more frugally, and we’ll work as a family to define a new culture at least for our little tribe. We’re hoping to share land with friends and family for a more immediate community. The suburbs sadly do not foster strong communities. Total privacy and the ability to be left alone are held sacred in the suburbs. In the suburbs we don’t know most of our neighbors, as many prefer to be left alone. I’m not criticizing that. It’s just a reality.

I was raised in the suburbs. I’m not trying to knock them in an ungrateful way.

As I’ve grown, observed, and studied more, it’s clear to see the suburbs isolate and compartmentalize everything we humans need to a high degree. Work is miles away, recreation is miles away, the kids are in school miles away, nature is in a park miles away, your food is in the grocery store miles away… Some people might like this, but it’s not a healthy way for humans to live in my opinion.

I want to work where I live, teach out kids at home, explore the majesty of nature, grow food where I live, setup canvas tents for guests, not worry about the zoning board’s rules, and not pass McDonalds on the way home every day.

Everything has a season, and perhaps we should all be looking at how it’s time for the suburbs to evolve into something that’s more active, healthy, frugal, and enjoyable for all. The suburbs are particularly limiting for both children and the elderly.

If the suburbs cannot evolve, then perhaps it’s time to move on to something that meets those needs. For now, we’ll be trying our hand at creating that environment with our own hands.

—

If you’re interested in the off-grid systems, tools, and methods we’ll be using to leave the suburbs as a family, we have a 10 hour video course we created to share these ideas in depth! We cover cabin design, tiny homes, yurts, bell tents, solar power, methane digesters, solar ovens, permaculture gardens, small livestock, and much more.

The Acorn Off-Grid Systems course is our team’s big 2023 project to help share these ideas and fund our research moving forward. Thanks for being here!

Our mission at Acorn Land Labs is to share the ideas, methods, tools & concepts needed for people to leverage off-grid systems to live more freely and affordably. Go build something!

🎥 Off-Grid Systems Video Course - 10 hour off-grid systems course

📗 Acorn Off-Grid Home eBook - 50 key off-grid systems we use for living simply

🎧 Acorn Off-Grid Audiobook - 50 key off-grid systems we use for living simply

📚 Acorn Off-Grid Systems Paperback / Hardback Editions - buy on Amazon

The HomeFree kickstarter has officially launched! Help us make this real today!

We’re pouring all of our off-grid experiences into making HomeFree an incredible RPG experience. This video game project fuses adventure with real-world off-grid systems. We want to teach everyone about the amazing off-grid tools that exist today!

Build your off-grid home base, setup energy systems, explore mysterious mountains, purify water, grow food, barter with your community & build your off-grid homestead.

We’ve been hard at work with our game studio partners to craft a storyline that takes you from the city, searching for information about your family’s history, and building a resilient home using off-grid systems, permaculture, and homesteading concepts.

Raise livestock, compost, plant your permaculture gardens, cook with methane fuel, harness sunlight, collect rainwater, build creative shelters, and learn from others.

Are you ready to learn about real off-grid systems and learn about real skills on this HomeFree journey? From solar ovens & methane digesters to solar panels, it’s all real.

Are you ready to reconnect with the natural world around you? It’s always been here waiting. You just had to decide to get out there once again.

Are you ready to explore the skills and tools needed to build a home apart from the concrete and asphalt of the suburbs and cities?

Come explore HomeFree. It’s time to build something amazing and learn about a new way of living. Help make HomeFree a reality to help people all over the world learn more about off-grid living!

In Praise of Stillness: Finding Calm Amidst the Chaos

In the midst of our modern lives, we often find ourselves racing against the clock, minds cluttered with endless tasks and bodies drained from a relentless pace. It's important to step back and ask ourselves: when did this become our norm? For, indeed, this constant hustle is not normal, not when you trace back the tapestry of human history.

The essence of humanity wasn't built around fluorescent lights, ringing phones, and the incessant ping of notifications. Our ancestors (perhaps unknowingly) reveled in the simplicity of a life attuned to nature's rhythm: the slow rise of the sun, the whisper of leaves, and the gentle flow of rivers. They knew something we often forget: the art of being still.

The Mirage of Modern "Normal"

Somewhere along the way, we've conflated busyness with success and hurrying with productivity. The measure of a day's worth has become about how much we've done rather than how well we've lived. We often wear our exhaustion as a badge of honor, mistaking motion for progress. But this frantic life is a mirage, and behind it is an aching void, a yearning for tranquility and simple purpose.

Would a bowl of rice and beans enjoyed slowly in a woodland, with a full day of freedom, serve us better than inhaling sushi in the concrete city between meetings? Perhaps so…

Subscribe now

Reconnecting with Nature: The New Off-Grid Movement

There's a growing movement of souls seeking solace in simplicity—those who choose off-grid living not as an escape, but as a return. Return to a life where time isn't money, but moments. Moments that matter.

Imagine a space where the only clock you answer to is the rising and setting of the sun. Your daily chores revolve around nature's bounty: tending to gardens, drawing water from the rainwater barrels, and watching the dance of flames in a hearth. The cacophony of the modern world fades, replaced by the harmonious chorus of crickets, the rustle of wind through the trees, and the gentle lullaby of a distant owl.

You won’t live the same life you had in the city or suburbs, It will be much more simplistic. However, that’s the whole point.

October’s Song: An Ode to Slowness

There's no better time than October to appreciate the profound beauty of nature's cadence. As the leaves shed their verdant hues for fiery reds, oranges, and yellows, nature, in its infinite wisdom, teaches us the elegance of letting go. The trees, with their branches swaying like the hands of a seasoned conductor, lead a symphony of change. Creeks, with their silvery threads, crisscross landscapes like veins, pulsating with the lifeblood of the Earth.

Paths meander through woods, each turn holding a secret, each clearing a new story. The October sky, painted with clouds and stretched across the horizon like an artist's canvas, reminds us of the vastness of the universe and our tiny, precious place within it.

Nature isn’t always growing, rushing, and pacing. After the explosion of Spring, and the height of summer, nature slows down to rest into Autumn. We too should rest into Autumn.

We can and should reject the constant push of humanity keeping the proverbial machines turning all day and night, during all seasons. Let’s simplify our needs, and let the machines gather some dust. Don’t bring the noise into the forest with you. Leave the cars, leave the phones, leave the TV, leave the noise behind…

Breathe, Be Still, Reflect

As you stand amidst this October panorama, take a moment to breathe. Really breathe. Feel the cool air fill your lungs, hold it, then release. With every exhale, let go of the pressures, the deadlines, the self-imposed burdens. Embrace stillness. Understand that, in this moment, there's nowhere you need to be but here. There's no task more pressing than to simply be.

As you immerse yourself in this tranquility, ask: Isn't this what life is about? Isn't this the true essence of living? For it's in these quiet moments that we find our most profound insights, our deepest joys, and our most genuine connections.

Opt-Out, Simplify, Breathe

In our relentless pursuit of more—more money, more success, more things—we've forgotten the beauty of less. It's time we opt-out of the race, even if just for a moment. Simplify. Return to basics. Cherish the beauty of a slow morning, the joy of a walk in nature, the pleasure of a book read under a canopy of trees.

Let October's serenade be a reminder: life is not about how fast we run, but how deeply we feel each moment. So, slow down, breathe, and let the world's beauty wash over you. For in stillness and slowness we find a life worth living.

God bless today. May you enjoy the little moments.

Our mission at Acorn Land Labs is to share the ideas, methods, tools & concepts needed for people to leverage off-grid systems to live more freely and affordably. Go build something!

🎥 Off-Grid Systems Video Course - 10 hour off-grid systems course

📗 Acorn Off-Grid Home eBook - 50 key off-grid systems we use for living simply

🎧 Acorn Off-Grid Audiobook - 50 key off-grid systems we use for living simply

📚 Acorn Off-Grid Systems Paperback / Hardback Editions - buy on Amazon

We’re building a video game to quietly introduce people across the world to the powerful concepts of permaculture, homesteading, off-grid systems, and a new lifestyle of freedom. We’re calling this game “HomeFree”.

Why?

Because Acorn Land Labs sees “Home” as the future of humans living well.

And because breaking “Free” from big systems is our goal for us normal humans.

Enter: HomeFree.

The term HomeFree means: “In a secure or comfortable position, especially because of being certain to succeed”

Most young people today don’t feel this way at all... But they should!

Young people deserve some hope, and a path towards freedom.

HomeFree as a game contains all of the permaculture ideas, homestead concepts, local food systems, sustainable systems, off-grid tech and local-first concepts we promote here at Acorn Land Labs.

These fresh ideas give us hope.

These ideas give many of you hope.

We get emails every day from people thanking us for sharing these ideas of hope.

Billions of people today play video games globally. Our dream is that HomeFree might be the last video game many people ever play. Or at least, one of the last! Our dream is that people enjoy playing HomeFree, and then seek to recreate that simple, local lifestyle for themselves in the real world. Rolling up sleeves and redesigning the broken world around us.

Joe, our media director, loves to game and is leading the charge to design the HomeFree game with a talented RPG game development team we’ve partnered with. Their passion will help bring this work to life in a very real way! At this point in my life, I personally don’t play video games often. I like to garden, work my compost piles, feed my chickens, tend the pigs, and build off-grid systems in the real world. I will likely play more video games again when my sons are a bit older; and I’m sure I’ll enjoy gaming from time to time with them! My role in developing this game is to ensure the off-grid systems and methods are accurate, realistic, and truly educational. Video games are like most treats: not bad in moderation, but an addicting vice when used too much. We know billions of people play video games, so we are aiming to share these ideas with people through this creative medium. Video games have amazing potential as an education medium, but they’re not being leveraged properly for empowering people. We want to change that with HomeFree. We’re kicking off HomeFree as a kickstarter you can follow here.

The solutions to global problems are all LOCAL.

• Permaculture food systems for healthy food

• Homesteading methods & technologies

• Off-grid systems for meeting basic needs

• Circular systems for sustainable living

• Strong community ties for local resilience

• Healthy families for personal stability

• Green spaces for mental tranquility

• Walkable environments for safety & wellbeing

• Affordable & creative small homes for security

These solutions certainly don’t come from “elites”, big government, bureaucrats or tech moguls. They come from us normal people working together locally to reinvent the world around us. They come from us breaking up the clutches of big tech, big agriculture, big government, big zoning, big car culture, big banks and big everything. We have to opt out. We have to build our own economies. We want our local communities back and the big elites & centralized systems out. The big systems simply take and don’t give back.

HomeFree is all about educating people of all ages: young, old and everywhere in between. We are particularly focused on reaching young people with these ideas, because young people need the most hope and the most help.

Young people today are coping with depression, anxiety, worry, financial disempowerment, and so many issues previous generations simply cannot relate to. The human world today is a paradox of gross excess and rapid decay.

Extreme housing costs, massive education debt, poor quality industrial food, unsustainable car-centric design, and our polluted industrial world DO NOT give young people much hope…

Young people deserve some hope.

Young people need access to fresh ideas they can use to break free from the failures of previous centralized systems. We need a revolution of freedom, simple living, permaculture, and remaking home to being a place of natural harmony...

…we would like to be HomeFree :)

Please follow the Acorn Land Labs Kickstarter page to keep up with the HomeFree video game project! We so appreciate your support!

The advent of the early 21st century has come with its unique set of suburban challenges, particularly with car-culture and housing affordability. Urban landscapes worldwide are witnessing unprecedented changes, grappling not just with skyrocketing housing prices but also the detrimental environmental impact of car-heavy infrastructures. The current suburban designs are suffocated under the weight of sprawling roads, big, inefficient homes, and the incessant hum of engines. In the midst of this expensive cacophony, arises a fresh concept that offers hope - Keyhole Zoning.

The Magic of Keyhole Zoning

Keyhole Zoning is not just a strategy, but a vision. Imagine a picturesque, car-free, walkable avenue winding its way from the bustling heart of downtown, weaving through neighborhoods and stretching out to the rural, untouched fringes of the county. This route isn’t choked with cars, but alive with pedestrians, cyclists, and eco-friendly modes of transportation (e-bikes, scooters, feet and golf-carts).

Keyhole zoning gets it’s name from the shape of an old fashioned skeleton key-hole. The existing downtown of a county is the circle, and the greenbelt, multi-use pathway is the corridor extending from the walkable downtown. This sliver of the county is the keyhole zoning district. This zone provides the foundation for smaller homes, car-free transportation, and affordable suburban renewal. Watch our video on keyhole zoning here.

This ‘greenbelt’ isn’t just a walkway. It's a community. Tiny homes nestled amidst trees, local cafes with their aromatic coffees, small boutique shops with unique finds, and pocket neighborhoods creating micro-communities – all of it designed with an emphasis on human interaction and affordable, eco-friendliness.

Picture this: A young couple, just starting out, buys their very first home. They are not bogged down by crippling debts or sprawling mortgages. A senior citizen, after decades in a large family home, finds solace in a tiny house with just the essentials, surrounded by friendly faces and a sense of community.

My own county is a tragic example of car-centric, poorly planned, suburban sprawl. Growth overwhelmed this county and the county did not have a cohesive plan to manage the growth well. The best part of our county today is the historic, walkable downtown with little shops and cafes, which was designed literally 200 years ago in 1823. The best part of our county was designed two centuries ago... We have not improved on the original walkable design since then. Most metro counties in the USA are like this. They are all similarly covered in expensive roads with lifeless suburbs that nobody walks in. You need multiple cars as a family to exist here. Spending hard earned money on endless fuel, insurance, car payments and repairs. Taxes rise quickly to cover all the endless roadwork. Most of our counties currently lack the vision or creative thinking to design a more affordable, enjoyable, or unique environment. Once a pastoral rural county, growth was not managed well and now asphalt, cement and clogged roads spread out like tentacles over the county. It does not have to be this way.

Most counties in the USA today have large minimum square foot requirements for homes design, require massive parking lots of businesses, build for cars rather than people, and prevent walkable communities by not having mixed zoning. Why have we let our counties become so backwards? We need to abolish these backwards zoning rules.

Let’s review the many benefits of keyhole zoning…

Keyhole Zoning: More than Just an Ideal

1. Affordable Housing Options: Homeownership is a dream for many. Keyhole zoning's emphasis on pocket neighborhoods and tiny houses means that this dream isn’t distant anymore. It’s right here, tangible and attainable. Community gardens, connected parks, and the option to live without a car. Living locally becomes a true possibility.

2. Reinventing Communities: It's not just about walking. It's about fostering social interactions, promoting health, and revitalizing local economies, creating a ripple effect of benefits for the entire community. The keyhole community concept helps promote the little interactions we all crave. A happenstance meeting while walking on the pathways, a chance visit at the cafe, and the quiet connectedness from not being behind the wheel in traffic.

3. Economic Growth with a Local Touch: Keyhole-zoned areas are likely to witness a surge in local businesses. Artisanal shops, cozy cafes, and local service providers will find a thriving market, creating a unique local flavor. Foot traffic is key to small business success. Malls from the 1980s and shopping centers from the early 2000s are dead and soulless. It’s the late 1800s era walkable downtowns that people seek out. Those areas are gentrifying, and the wealthy move in. Why not rebuild that for everyone?

4. Nature at Its Best: Reducing our reliance on cars translates directly to reduced emissions and environmental degradation. Green pathways and lesser concrete jungles mean a significant drop in the urban heat island effect. Being within trees and forested areas has been proven to be good for our health. We should reclaim this way of living locally in a lush environment.

5. Practical Savings: The shift from vast asphalted areas to more green zones and walkways spells reduced infrastructure and maintenance costs. More suburban gardens, less parking lots. More trees, less fast-food restaurants. More walking and biking, less sitting in traffic.

6. A safe place for families and children: “Why don’t the kids play outside anyone?” The old people ask. Well, previous generations designed today’s communities to be filled with asphalt roads with giant hulks of flying metal zooming around everywhere. That’s why. Our suburbans homes are often built on zero lots with no yards, and cars totally dominate the roads and town. Why would the kids be outside? If every county had at least ONE keyhole community greenbelt from the downtown to the county edge, many children could enjoy the safety of a car-free environment with parks, shops, paths and homes all connected to an enjoyable multi-use greenbelt.

Implementing Keyhole Zoning: A Structured Approach

A vision, however grand, needs to be executed with precision. For Keyhole Zoning, the strategy is four-fold:

• Educate and Empower: It starts with awareness. Workshops and sessions to spread knowledge about Keyhole Zoning’s potential are crucial. Use our free keyhole zoning template letter to write to your city, county and community leaders to share this vision and bring it to life.

• Incentivize the Change: Change is always challenging. But with tax breaks for early adopters and other financial incentives, the transition can be made smoother.

• Simplify Processes: An easy, clear-cut application and approval process ensures that potential participants aren't bogged down by red tape.

• Hand-Hold with Expertise: Guidance committees can assist in this transition, offering expertise and advice to early adopters.

Harnessing Existing Assets: Rails to Trails

Our legacy infrastructures, like old railway tracks, are untapped assets. Converting these into pathways for walking or cycling is a smart strategy. This not only preserves history but also provides a ready framework upon which the keyhole zoning model can be built. Adjacent land can be used for pocket neighborhoods, small homes, tiny home communities, and other creative, alternative housing concepts.

Addressing the Elephant in the Room: Financial Sustainability

An average American spends a colossal sum on car-related expenses monthly. With the increasing costs of fossil fuels and the imminent need to mitigate pollution, can we really afford to maintain our car-dependent infrastructures? Keyhole Zoning offers a viable alternative, providing both financial relief and an eco-friendly solution.

Modern homes built by large builders are made very poorly, are energy inefficient (costing the owners more), and are entirely built around car-centric design. We need to ditch these broken home patterns in favor of long-term quality and affordability. Homes should be built for human well being, not for speed or profits. This means we need to become involved in building our homes again. We cannot leave this important task up to the tract-housing, national builders.

Making Walkability Universal

For close to a century, urban planning has, knowingly or unknowingly, made walkable communities a luxury that only the affluent can afford. This has deepened urban divides and fostered urban decay. Keyhole zoning offers the promise of leveling this playing field, making walkable communities a universal right, not a luxury.

Conclusion & An Appeal

Keyhole Zoning isn’t a mere proposition. It’s the synthesis of a vision for a brighter, inclusive, and greener future. The potential benefits are manifold, touching economic, environmental, and social dimensions of our lives.

It's a call to action, a demand for consideration, and a dream for a better tomorrow. It's time to bring this to the forefront of urban planning discussions, ensuring that our future is not just sustainable, but also inclusive. Together, let's reimagine, rebuild, and rejuvenate our communities.

We cannot complain about housing costs, car costs, pollution, or rising taxes if we’re not willing to do something about it. Everything starts with an idea. Here is the idea. We even wrote the first letter for you. With 3143 counties in the USA, we only need 3143 people to begin sharing this vision (and letter) with their community leaders. This is how we change things for the better. Are you game to reinvent our world? One local community at a time?

Use our free keyhole zoning template here to write to your city, county and community leaders. As funny as it sounds, it’s time for a zoning revolution.

Scroll farther down to watch our team’s podcast on keyhole zoning, or click here to watch the full video podcast!

Our mission at Acorn Land Labs is to share the ideas, methods, tools & concepts needed for people to leverage off-grid systems to live more freely and affordably. Go build something!

🎥 Off-Grid Systems Video Course - 10 hour off-grid systems course

📗 Acorn Off-Grid Home eBook - 50 key off-grid systems we use for living simply

🎧 Acorn Off-Grid Audiobook - 50 key off-grid systems we use for living simply

📚 Acorn Off-Grid Systems Paperback / Hardback Editions - buy on Amazon

In recent years, the concept of Universal Basic Income (UBI) has gained significant attention as a potential solution to address poverty and income inequality. However, it is crucial to critically evaluate the consequences of solely relying on financial support without considering the broader implications for human well-being and empowerment. Providing individuals with true access to real land for self-sufficiency in producing water, food, energy, shelter, and sanitation will almost certainly offer greater holistic benefits than a UBI. By reconnecting with nature, engaging in physical activity, and fostering community ties, land ownership empowers individuals and enhances their overall quality of life. As a homesteader myself, I can attest to the incredible satisfaction of growing produce, collecting eggs, harvesting rainwater, cooking food over methane biogas, & collecting solar energy to power many of the tools to work my 2 acres.

Let’s dive into what happens to people when you break the link between meaningful work and fair income…

The Detrimental Effects of Money for Nothing:

The provision of money without the requirement of work has been proven to have detrimental effects on human beings. Numerous studies have shown that a lack of purpose and meaningful engagement negatively impacts mental health, self-esteem, and overall life satisfaction. Human beings thrive when they have a sense of purpose, when they actively contribute to society, and when they engage in activities that challenge and fulfill them. We are part of nature. We are sustained from the soil, we are meant to plant living things, we are supposed to be linked into the fabric of life. When we are boxed away in apartments, watching TV, and eventually receiving government UBI checks, we are truly isolated. “Free money” breaks even our link to work, rendering us truly disempowered for directing our own futures.

The Importance of Physical Activity, Time in Nature, and Hands-On Projects:

Human beings have an inherent need for physical activity and contact with the natural world. Living in dense urban environments, detached from the sources of our basic needs, hampers our connection with the environment. The opportunity to engage in hands-on projects, work the land, and interact with nature fosters a deeper sense of fulfillment and well-being. Physical activity contributes to physical health, mental well-being, and a greater sense of accomplishment and purpose.

The Final Step to Disempowerment:

UBI, in its currently conceptualized form, risks further disempowering individuals by perpetuating the cycle of dependence on centralized, external systems. It disconnects people from the fundamental aspects of self-sufficiency, community engagement, and personal growth. While financial support can alleviate immediate hardships, it fails to address the underlying need for purposeful work, active participation, and connection to the natural world. A society dependent solely on UBI risks losing the potential for innovation, creativity, and personal development. They also risk all political autonomy, as whoever disperses the UBI checks will effectively own the recipients through a massive asymmetry of power.

To break free from the disempowering cycle of a UBI-centric society, we must embrace land reform as a means of empowering individuals. Land ownership allows people the opportunity to build their own environments, cultivate sustainable livelihoods, and restore community ties. The principles of permaculture offer a holistic approach to land use, combining agriculture, energy production, and ecological design to create self-sufficient systems. By gaining control over their local sources of water, food, energy, shelter, and sanitation, individuals become empowered, resilient, and connected to their immediate surroundings.

The Benefits of Land Empowerment:

1. Self-Sufficiency: Land ownership enables individuals to meet their basic needs directly, fostering independence and reducing reliance on external systems.

2. Community Engagement: By reconnecting with the land, people forge stronger community ties, fostering collaboration, and creating support networks.

3. Environmental Stewardship: Land ownership encourages responsible land management practices, promoting sustainability and conservation.

4. Personal Growth: Engaging in hands-on projects, individuals develop skills, gain knowledge, and foster a sense of accomplishment, enhancing personal growth and self-esteem.

5. Economic Opportunities: Land-based activities open avenues for entrepreneurship, local economies, and the development of alternative livelihoods.

Final thoughts:

While Universal Basic Income may provide short-term relief, it fails to address the fundamental human needs for purpose, connection with nature, and active engagement. Land empowerment offers a path to restore these essential bonds, enabling individuals to produce their own water, food, energy, shelter, and sanitation. By embracing land reform and permaculture principles, we can create a society that encourages self-sufficiency, fosters community ties, and empowers individuals to thrive in a harmonious relationship with their environment.

We humans were meant to have a direct connection to our needs. Simple needs. Fresh water, living & local food, clean energy, creative shelter, and green sanitation. Perhaps one of the answers to many of our modern problems is reclaiming our connection to these things.

Our mission at Acorn Land Labs is to share the ideas, methods, tools & concepts needed for people to leverage off-grid systems to live more freely and affordably. Go build something!

🎥 Off-Grid Systems Video Course - 10 hour off-grid systems course

📗 Acorn Off-Grid Home eBook - 50 key off-grid systems we use for living simply

🎧 Acorn Off-Grid Audiobook - 50 key off-grid systems we use for living simply

📚 Acorn Off-Grid Systems Paperback / Hardback Editions - buy on Amazon

We are so excited to help empower you with these off-grid systems, ideas and methods.

All three tools have officially launched! You can beta test the SIM, explore the course, and join the Acorn community today!

These three educational tools are how we’ll be educating as many people as we can about the systems we can all use to build local freedom.

We want to reclaim our time, our health, and finances, and a sense of peace. We want to help you and millions of others do the same. We want to swim out of the mainstream, we want to opt-out, slow down, to live more simply and locally.

Today’s centralized, modern systems have eroded our local communities, destroyed healthy food, hurt small businesses, stolen free time, and damaged our sense of purpose. Big agriculture, big tech, big education, wall street landlords, big energy, and the other “big and centralized” systems have been eroding our control over our own lives for far too long. It’s time to push back in a grassroots effort to reclaim life.

Land Lab Off-Grid Simulator

In our Land Lab SIM, you can explore our growing database of off-grid systems to grow local food, harvest fresh water, capture clean energy, build affordable shelter, and process green sanitation.

• Drag and drop off-grid systems into your own custom designs.

• Export a full CSV list of systems, costs, purchase / DIY links & learning resources.

• View what percentage of human needs are being met by your off-grid systems.

• Explore new systems every week as we add more off-grid systems to the database.

• Choose one of our pre-made off-grid templates and adjust it to meet your needs.

You can support our work and Land Lab SIM app development by exploring the Land Lab SIM PRO version. Our amazing Kickstarter backers have given us the tools to build the beta; we want to go further with more features! Our team has put a great deal of our own time, money and resources to making this concept real. The goal is for this app to help educate people everywhere about building local freedom. Your financial support for our Land Lab SIM pro app, our off-grid course, and Acorn Community provides the funding for us to continue this critical educational work.

Acorn Off-Grid Overview Course

Beyond the Land Lab SIM, we spent our summer building the Acorn Off-Grid Overview Course! We’ve been working around the clock to make this a reality. We’ve tested dozens of off-grid systems and methods in our Acorn Land Lab and we’ve been impressed with the results. Many of you have wanted to dive deeper and learn more. This course is our response for those who want to learn more!

• 10 hours of premium Acorn Land Labs off-grid video content.

• 9 full chapters of in-depth exploration around all of our off-grid systems.

• We cover the core issues & major failings in our modern centralized systems:

  • Big agriculture and corporate food’s toxic patterns.

  • Water system problems and future issues around access.

  • Modern housing moving under corporate control for the bottom line.

  • Energy systems pollution, brittle infrastructure and rising costs.

  • Modern sanitation shortcomings breaking the nutrient loop.

• 43 video lessons covering covering sustainable, affordable off-grid solutions:

  • Local, off-grid solutions for: Water, food, shelter, energy & sanitation.

• Resources about our booklist, favorite authors, and big ideas guiding our team.

• Our off-grid successes and failures shared in a casual way. We want to equip you!

• We cover everything we wish we had known 10 years ago starting our journey.

• Resources for our favorite systems, stories, DIY projects, and bonus content.

• The basics you’ll need to begin designing your own sustainable, affordable, off-grid environment for living well.

Our off-grid technology course is the information I am planning on sharing with my young sons as they grow older. If you and I had a weekend to hike and talk around a camp fire, this is what I’d share with you (for as long as you wanted to listen!). This information is what I wish more people had, so more of us could build real freedom for ourselves and as a community. Jump onboard, and we’ll rebuild something real.

Acorn Off-Grid Community

The world is broken, divided, and lonely. Too many people feel hopeless. Young people ask “what is the purpose?” I know, because I asked. Modern society is the perfect recipe for depression, anxiety, loneliness, and sickness.

We humans were never meant to live this way.

We are meant to be connected.

We are meant to enjoy nature.

We are meant to have free time.

We are meant to live in community.

We are meant to work with our minds and our hands.

We are meant to push back against those who would trap us.

Restoring bonds with each other is the first step to reclaiming freedom.

Our team sees a future where we live more locally, life is slower, we enjoy eating local food, we have much more time with family, we ditch the freeway commute, we roll up our sleeves, and we restore healthy community with each other locally.

We can and should reclaim control of our shelter (housing), our food systems, our energy systems, our sanitation systems, and our water systems.

A creative and affordable home should be simple, legal to build, non-toxic, durable and accessible. Modern housing today is built for a high tax base, builder profits, shareholder value, insurance profits, and car-centric design... Is housing built for human well being? Not so much.

The modern American economy keeps people working endlessly to pay for outrageous housing costs, expensive cars, crumbling car infrastructure, poor quality industrial food, and expensive and polluting energy.

Solutions exist. Good solutions.

Two things stand in the way of more people implementing these solutions:

1. Education

2. Regulation

Our team is seeking to help solve the education problem with our Land Lab SIM, Acorn Off-Grid Course, and Acorn Community. As more people are educated around how attainable these systems are, we believe more people will demand changes to regulation.

Modern regulation (mostly local zoning, big ag regulation and financial regulation) hampers creativity and innovation that could help millions of people thrive.

If enough people are educated about the problems, changes to regulation will come about one way or another.

Creating a community to discuss these technologies, share ideas, and refine methods is key to rebuilding a healthier, sustainable, local way of living.

Join our Acorn Community to do just that. It’s time for us to reinvent normal.

Our team is excited to see you there. Thank you for all the support, we hope these tools help you build freedom for yourself, your family, and your community!

Sincerely,

The Acorn Land Labs Team

Our mission at Acorn Land Labs is to share the ideas, methods, tools & concepts needed for people to leverage off-grid systems to live more freely and affordably. Go build something!

🎥 Off-Grid Systems Video Course - 10 hour off-grid systems course

📗 Acorn Off-Grid Home eBook - 50 key off-grid systems we use for living simply

🎧 Acorn Off-Grid Audiobook - 50 key off-grid systems we use for living simply

📚 Acorn Off-Grid Systems Paperback / Hardback Editions - buy on Amazon

You’d like to be in nature more.

You’d like to be at peace and breath easy, directing your life’s journey in a slower and more methodical pace. Life shouldn’t be so frenetic.

Your job was simply supposed to be a way to make a living. But the pay simply doesn’t match the cost of living anymore. Especially with inflation.

There has to be more to living than the rat race of modern life.

Some days it feels like you just work simply to afford to be able to go to work: you pay for your apartment or house rent, you pay for the car, the insurance, the utilities and all the other bills needed for you to work your job. Is that your only purpose?

Seems a bit circular, doesn’t it? What’s the point here?

Aren’t you supposed to have at least a little time to head off for a hike, help a friend, do some writing, bake with your kids, or just slow down to catch your breath?

Most of us barely have time to think, once we dove into the work force, and things have only been getting worse with inflation. It seems like a current you can’t break free from.

The big winners are the people who sell you the fuel to drive to work, sell you the car, create the countless ads you see daily, the credit card companies, the big banks, and the corporate landlords who rent you the apartments and homes that sit empty while you are at work. Are you winning? Or are you just working 24/7 to pay the “winners”?

Back in the day we called that “indentured servitude.” America is heading back to medieval feudalism…

Our needs are less than you think. Just a few generations ago our ancestors couldn’t imagine the material wealth of today. Maybe that’s the problem…

Society can order same-day Amazon products, and we can order door-dash of any cuisine within an hour, but many people can no longer afford a home, free time, or peace of mind... Wouldn’t you trade 2-day shipping and Panda Express for getting your time back? For reclaiming your life? For freedom and peace?

Many people are.

Maybe you should too.

What’s an alternative path to a different way of living?

I’d like to propose a path for you.

It’s radical. It’s something that’s not easy. But it is possible.

It involves leaving behind the debt-laden cocoon of modern American living.

It’s going to stretch you, force you to learn new skills, and require you to live more simply.

But the upside is freedom. More time alone to think, or more time together to visit, more time in nature, more time watching clouds drift across the sky.

I’d like to outline how you can make the jump to off-grid living to reclaim more freedom and build a different lifestyle. We’re going to list real steps, real technology and tools, and real costs.

This off-grid path is not for everyone. It’s a huge shift away from our consumer culture of ease and convenience. It’s for those who seek to be free and are willing to make a big change.

This path has risks, but it also has huge rewards.

Perhaps you need an adventure, and a new purpose beyond the freeway, rush-hour commute and the eternal 8-6 grind. This guide is intended for a single person or perhaps two people together.

This is the guide I wished I’d had 10 years ago. Let’s get started…

If you have a family, many of these concepts will work, but making this off-grid jump with children is harder. It’s not impossible, just harder. You can still do it. We are.

Let’s get down to brass tacks. What does it take to make the jump?

I’m going to give you the rapid fire summary, and then we’ll unpack each step in detail after this overview list:

Going off-grid summary, in 7 steps, for $12k or less (for 1-2 people):

1. You need to decide if you actually want this. Only then will you see it through to completion.

   1. Do you really want to break free from the machine?

   2. Do you truly want a life changing adventure to reconnect?

   3. It’s ok to be a bit scared. Charting a new path is always scary.

   4. But more than anything, get excited. You’re breaking free.

2. You need access to land. Not much land; 1/4 acre or less will do. You have a few various options:

   1. You can buy a small piece of land (costliest option - best long term).

   2. You can rent a bit of land (fastest option - good for starting out).

   3. You can barter for access to land (requires good people skills).

   4. You need to ensure you can live on your land in a tent, yurt, cabin or RV. You’ll likely need a rural, low regulation environment where people enjoy freedom and leave others alone. Think: Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, North Georgia, Mississippi, Alaska, New Mexico and other states with low regulation. Often you’ll find more freedom in “mountain country.”

   5. We’ll dig into these options more later.

3. You need a quality shelter to begin with. I recommend a high-end canvas tent. Hear me out; this can be an amazing home for the first 12 months while you build a cabin or something stronger. Some people live for years in a canvas tent.

   1. A canvas tent is 100X better than Coleman tent for long-term use.

   2. It can be setup in 1-2 hours. It can last for years with proper care.

   3. You can heat it, cool it, and cover all your basics with this basic shelter.

   4. Our ancestors would have LOVED a tent like this compared to their teepees, tents and yurts.

   5. We really like using a canvas outhouse over the toilet, makes a great combo with the canvas tent.

   6. If you’re not down for a canvas tent, a simple A-frame cabin, off-grid camper, teardrop trailer, or yurt can all work too.

4. You need water. There are many options here as well. Let’s cover a few:

   1. Rainwater catchment. This is quick to setup and often can meet your needs fully. Costs a few hundred dollars to setup properly. Most realistic route.

   2. Running surface water: Creek / stream.

   3. Hookup if available (only applies if you are renting / borrowing land). This could be a well, city water, or another local water source.

   4. Hauling water in for a while. Not glamorous, but 100% viable.

   5. Purification can be as simple as a sediment filter, and then a gravity fed kitchen water purifier (like a WaterDrop filter).

5. You need sanitation. Everybody poops, you included. Composting toilets or a HomeBioGas methane digester toilet are fantastic options for solving sanitation.

   1. Composting toilets are simple, affordable, and work better than you’d imagine. Trust me. I was unsure at first, but after testing them I’m a big fan.

   2. If you want to keep flushing, and have the water available, opt for a HomeBioGas methane digester toilet. It’s truly some amazing technology.

   3. You need to wash your hands of course. We recommend a simple hands-free, foot-pump sink to start out with. We have really enjoyed ours.

6. With land, shelter, water, and sanitation covered, we really need energy now. There are so many cool options for your energy needs:

   1. 400 watt solar panel kit + solar generator. This reliable electrical setup can power:

      1. Laptops, cell phone, LEDs, TV, fans, power tools

      2. An AC unit for a 1-2 hours, or a heater briefly

      3. An efficient freezer or a very small 12v refrigerator

   2. A tiny tent wood stove for heating during cold months. If you have easy access to sticks, branches, and logs this will keep you warm during the cold months on the cheap.

   3. An electric blanket for personal heating from the solar generator.

   4. If you use the HomeBioGas methane digester with your toilet, you’ll have 1-2 hours of clean burning cooking fuel daily. A fantastic bonus.

   5. You can also cook food directly with sunlight, using vacuum tube solar cookers. GoSun makes some solar ovens our team loves using.

   6. As far as food goes, you really just need a safe place to store rice, beans, produce, eggs, spices, and some condiments. You barely need refrigeration space: just for dairy or meat really.

7. Technically that’s it to make the jump. Growing your own food off-grid is another ballgame, and we’ll cover that in future posts. The off-grid journey is incremental, and if you pull this off you’re doing amazing. Keep building skills, refining your systems, and evolving your new lifestyles.

It’s not flashy, but that’s what it takes to get started. To get started living off-grid you now have the basics covered:

1. You decided to actually make it happen.

2. You found access to land to begin your off-grid journey.

3. You setup an affordable, and simple, shelter from the elements.

4. You found a water source that works for you.

5. You built a sanitation system that is effective and safe.

6. You found energy systems that provide for your basic needs.

7. You continue to learn, evolve, and refine your lifestyle.

Now that you’ve read the high-level overview, let’s dive into the nitty gritty on costs, technology, zoning, and more!

1) Committing 100%: Is this journey truly for you?

Are you physically healthy enough for this? To live on the land you need to be in good shape. You’re going to be lifting, sweating, working and using your body. This might be just what you need. Don’t go into this without prepping yourself. Our modern sedentary lives make us weak. You need to be strong and you’ll enjoy this journey more.

Are you in a good financial position? (mostly debt free). If you’re tied down to big student loans, consumer debt, or other debt you can’t quickly pay off, you’ll have a harder time becoming free in an off-grid environment. Debt follows you, especially student debt. Perhaps this lifestyle will help you reduce expenses to pay off debt. If so, great! Sadly, debt is often the trap that prevents people from actually making this dream real.

Do you have a creative work solution? If you’re moving to a more rural area, what work can you do? Are you able to get internet with a hotspot for remote work? Do you have skills in the trades that can be used in nearby towns or cities? Think through this. You’ll still need an income, even living off grid. There will always be property taxes (except some parts of Alaska), vehicle fuel (typically), and it’s unlikely you’ll actually grow all your food. The goal is to not need much money, but you’ll still need a bit of income. Remote work is my choice, being in the software industry.

Do you have kiddos or other dependents to factor in? You might be able to rough it, but can your spouse and kids? Some families love this adventure! You need to ensure everyone is ready for a big change. With a family, sometimes it takes baby steps. If it’s just you, what are you waiting for? Jump!

Do you know that off-grid living, while awesome, won’t solve every problem? "Wherever you go, there you are”. Off-grid living and simple living can make life more peaceful and simple in many ways, and in other ways life will become more complex. Choose your hard. Off-grid living is not some romantic meme. It’s a different lifestyle with different challenges.

If yes to the above, are you ready to launch off-grid? If you have seriously considered the factors, and you’re ready to jump, go ahead and take the leap! With one life to live we all should have a bit more adventure…

2) Finding access to land

Zoning / Codes

Zoning and building codes will be the trickiest part of going off-grid. You can rule out most big cities, most suburbs, and many small towns even. Every state, county, and town has different rules and regulations. It’s on you to do your homework. Some states are generally better than others for off-grid living. Here’s a few:

• Alabama: Good for finding a county without building codes

• Missouri: Good farmland for growing crops, low regulation

• Alaska: Good for experienced off-griders and adventurers

• Tennessee: Good for off-grid living, mild weather and low regulation

• Kentucky: Good for off-grid living, affordable land

You’ll need to research on your own, as zoning codes and building codes change yearly. The general rule of thumb is that the more rural you go, the better. Find land that has access to water, mild weather if possible, and plenty of trees if you can swing it. Personally, Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky and Alabama are some of my favorite states to find off-grid land.

Finding Land: I like to use LandWatch.com, Land.com, and Zillow.com for searching for land to purchase. You can filter by county, acreage, price and more.

Municode - Rules & Zoning for Land

When you think you have a county you’d like to buy land in to go off-grid, research it in depth using municode. This database will show you county and city codes across the USA. You want to research the following:

• Minimum square footage for a home. Can you build a tiny home legally?

  • Many counties in the suburbs require homes of 1500 sq ft or bigger.

• Can you legally live in a tent, mobile home, RV, or camper?

• Are there building codes?

• Can you have livestock? How many?

• Can you dig a well?

• Can you legally capture rain water?

• Do you have water rights on your land?

• Can you legally be off the power, sewer or water grid?

The fewer regulations the better. Most rural counties have less regulation than suburban counties. Ideally you can find a county that doesn’t even need building permits.

Purchasing

After you find the land you want to buy it’s time to think about financing (I often search on LandWatch.com, Land.com, or Zillow.com). You typically need 20% down to purchase raw land. Raw land is often considered farm land, hunting land, or recreational land. AgCredit is one of my favorite national lenders for buying rural land. You’ll fill out an application, submit your financial information, and then complete the approval process.

Sometimes 15% down is enough if you have a good credit score. You want at least a 700 credit score or higher. However, 20% down requirements are becoming more standard. Interest rates will vary, but are around 7-8% today. You typically purchase land for a 10, 15, or 20 year payment period. A 30 year mortgage is not common for raw land. You can also consider owner financing if the owner of the land offers this arrangement.

If you’re thinking about buying 5 acres of rural land for $40k, you’ll need at least $8-9k for the downpayment and closing costs (assuming 20% down payment). Let’s say after hunting for a while, you find 2 acres of mountain land for $18k, and put down $4000 including closing costs. The county is rural, there are not building codes or zoning regulation. You have unrestricted land to build on. We now have the land.

Other Costs

You’ll pay property taxes yearly, often at the end of the year. Don’t forget about this cost. These can range from a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars. Many people are not aware that special tax breaks exist for farm land, timberland, or land to raise hay on. If you enroll your property in one of these conservation programs, you can often save up to 90% on your land taxes. This means you can’t develop a subdivision or warehouse on your land, but if you’re seeking an off-grid life I doubt you’re into building subdivisions.

Drilling a well, clearing a driveway, and other earthworks projects will also add up in costs. Much of this you can do yourself if you have the time and desire to build new skills.

Renting & Bartering

Renting land is absolutely an option for off-grid living. I’d recommend not building permanent structures if you want to relocate. If you find a farmer or landowner who’s willing, you could rent a small section of space for your off-grid setup. This often takes effort, connections, and perseverance, but it’s doable. Many people barter their work on organic farms, eco-villages and homesteads for a place to live.

Renting will be far cheaper in the short term, but you’ll miss out on building equity over the long haul. Renting can be great at the beginning to build the skills, and learn the new methods required for off-grid living.

3) Quality (affordable) initial shelter

Canvas tent: A quality canvas tent can cost $800-$2000+. We love the bell tents made by the Life in Tents team. A good bell tent with the accessories will cost about $1500. Bell tents make a great temporary shelter. They’re far higher quality than the cheap nylon tents. Bell tents are made of cotton canvas, so they breath well. A canvas tent can by surprisingly comfortable in the winter with a small wood stove, and it can be quite enjoyable in the summer with a few fans or a tiny solar powered AC unit. Living in a bell tent for 6-18 months while you build a bigger cabin or home is a great way to get started. You’ll want a fly (protective layer) on top of your tent to protect from UV damage. You’ll also want to install it over level ground with a tarp underneath. Sand, small gravel, packed earth and wood chips make a good base under a tent. The best base is a large wooden deck, but this can become expensive quickly. A bell tent can be setup in a matter of hours.

Yurt: If you really want more space and durability right away, a yurt is a great option if you have the budget. Yurts typically range in cost from $10k to $20k+. You’d likely need to finance a yurt, and pay $1k-$2k down. Or use a zero interest credit card. We don’t recommend consumer debt unless you use it strategically with a solid plan to repay quickly. Yurts are far better insulated and durable than canvas tents.

Used RV / Pop-up Camper: For the same cost as a yurt, or less, you could also consider a used RV or pop-up camper. Many decent used camper options can be found for $5-$15k. Once again, you’d likely need to finance this unless you could pay cash. These are great if you have a vehicle with a tow-hitch to move the camper. Mobility is a greta feature. You don’t even need your own land with a camper. For $80 yearly you can purchase access to BoonDockers Welcome or Harvest Hosts and camp for free at thousands of sites across the USA. This is an amazing option if you want to be more mobile.

Reclaimed A-Frame / Cabin: If you want something more durable right away, a small a-frame cabin or tiny home could be a great option. These will take the most effort, and be more expensive than other options, but if you have the time & skills to build it, it will be the longest term shelter. Tiny homes and cabins can be build for a few thousand dollars on the low end, to much more expensive builds over $100k. We love the simple build for $5-$10k where people found reclaimed materials wherever possible. Many people purchase portable sheds and convert them into tiny homes, which is a cool concept that’s more plug and play.

Whether you opt for a bell tent, or finance a more expensive shelter, you can get going for a few thousand dollars. Let’s say you spend $2k on a bell tent and the accessories.

4) Finding access to water

Rainwater: In many parts of the USA, rainwater alone can be enough for your basic needs. You’ll want to be safe and filter the rainwater of course, but this option can be very rewarding. You’ll want to research average annual rainfall in your area, and then use this formula to compute hoe much rainfall you can collect:

Roof Area (ft²) X Precipitation Amount (in) X 0.623 = Amount Collected (gallons)

You’ll need a roof of course. A simple tin roof covered area can be enough. Sink four 4x4 posts, create a few trusses, and add tin sheeting. Now you have a covered area to eat under, relax, and catch rainwater! You can add a gutter, attach a downspout, and divert the water into a few 275 gallon IBC totes. You’ll want to use food grade IBC totes that carried corn syrup, or other non-toxic materials. Never use a non-food grade IBS tank for potable water as it could have previously stored carcinogenic chemicals like diesel fuel. Google “food grade IBC tanks for sell near me” to find your tanks. You would spent about $500 for the covered area, and another $500 for the IBC tanks and gutter hardware. Let’s add another $500 for miscellaneous parts and a water purifier like a WaterDrop gravity system. We’re at $1500 for water infrastructure.

Here in Georgia we are able to collect tens of thousands of gallons of water yearly from rainwater collection. The average human needs about 10-60 gallons of water daily for all of your needs.

Surface water: You can capture water from a creek, stream, pond, lake or river if your land has proximity to these sources. Absolutely check on pollutions levels. Is the water downstream from a big city? Don’t drink it. Are there any CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) or industrial plants nearby? Be careful! Surface water can work, but do your research and purify it well. A gravity purifier, distiller, or osmosis purifier are all good options.

Hookup or Well: If you’re renting land, using Boondockers Welcome for a camper, or if your land already has a well - you can use a hookup! These are obviously special cases, but if you already have a water hookup, use it! Don’t worry about being an off-grid purist from day one. Start with what is available. Wells can cost $5k-$15k to dig, so they’re one of the more expensive water options.

AWG: Atmospheric Water Generators are a new type of technology for pulling water from the humidity of the air. Some, like the Source Panels, work in an off grid capacity using only sunlight. You’re able to pull daily drinking water, but not enough water for bathing, washing clothes or gardening. AWGs are a fascinating new technology, but they’re currently expensive and typically require alot of power. This is an off-grid technology to watch closely.

Hauling water: The least desirable and least sustainable option is hauling your water in. You can fill up tanks and truck water into your off-grid site. This is not always cheap, it’s not very green, and it’s not convenient. However, it can be a viable option to get started.

Let’s say you opted for the rainwater collection system with the tin roof and tanks. We’re at $1500 for a simple water catchment system. You could build an even cheaper version using scrap lumber and free vinyl billboard tarps.

5) Solving sanitation

Composting toilets: Composting toilets work much better than most people likely imagine. You can have a streamlined toilet like the Natures Head using peat moss, or create a simple bucket toilet with sawdust. The key is to learn the proper technique of the composting toilet that works bets for you. I really like the Nature’s Head toilet. #2 (solid waste) is contained in a chamber with peat moss. A small 12v fan keeps things dry, and vents odors outside through a tube. #1 (urine) is diverted into a tank. By keeping #1 and #2 separated, this keeps your waste odor free and easy to deal with. Combining urine and waste is what makes sewage so nasty. When you have filled up either than #1 or #2 chamber, you can take it to the woods to fertilize trees and bushes. Plenty of other brands exist: From Ogo, SunMar, AirHead, Separette, C-Head and more. Most quality composting toilets cost about $900-$1000. This might sound like alot, but a traditional toilet costs about $300, and the septic tank it requires costs about $15,000 (often a similar cost for sewer hookup). A composting toilet is about 1/15th the cost of a traditional toilet system. We love our canvas outhouse with our composting toilet. A composting toilet and a canvas outhouse run about $1500 total.

Safe processing: Composted waste and urine are great fertilizer for trees and bushes. Safe handling is key, and ensuring you cover the composted waste with leaves or grass to break down further. Our modern sewer systems allow so many chemicals and other toxins into our waste stream. Our human waste is simply a part of nature, and it should be returned to the earth to keep the nutrient cycle working. Off-grid toilets and composting toilets are far more eco-friendly and affordable than any city sewer or septic system.

HomeBioGas Methane Digester Toilet: The HomeBioGas toilet is an incredible solution for both waste and cooking fuel. The HomeBioGas methane digester allows you to have a flush toilet (that uses 1/10th the water of a normal toilet), and then use your waste to produce up to 2 hours of methane cooking fuel daily. I think this is incredible. You cook using a gas burner that ships with the HomeBioGas system. We love our HomeBioGas digesters, and are excited to install our first HomeBioGas toilets. We’ve been powering our HomeBioGas system using food waste for the past 18 months. Many people prefer a flush toilet to a composting toilet, and this is the solution. At about $1500, this is 1/10th the cost of a traditional toilet and septic tank ($1500 for HomeBioGas compared to $15,000 for traditional septic).

Woodchip leach field: If you use the HomeBioGas toilet, you’ll need to install a leach field (similar to a septic tank) for the liquid to flow into. This allows the HomeBioGas system to expell the digested liquids and fertilize trees, bushes, comfrey or bamboo. You can then use this biomass you grow for biochar, composting, or other projects. Note: Do not use the liquid from a human waste HomeBioGas directly on vegetables for consumption for safety reasons.

Composting biomass: For all of your food waste, leaves, grass clippings, paper, paper towels, cardboard, and other biological materials - compost it! Composting is natures way of dealing with waste. Nothing is wasted. Everything turns back into rich soil. Soil you can grow future veggies in!

If we opt for a Natures Head toilet and a canvas outhouse, or a HomeBioGas system with a toilet, we’re looking at adding about $1500 to our total cost.

6) Capturing energy

Electricity, Photovoltaics: Solar generators and solar panels have come such a log way just in the last 10 years. For $1500 you can have a 1kwH solar generator + inverter and 400w of solar panels. This can power so many devices at once: Laptop, fans, lights, 12v cooler, cell phone and even a heated blanket or tiny AC unit. You don’t need as much electricity as you think if you’re willing to live differently. Arctic cold AC and a giant refrigerator are luxuries, not true needs. If you’re willing to use a small 12v cooler and keep cool with fans and a tiny AC unit, you can make do with a very small solar panel system. We love the Delta Ecoflow system with 400 watts of solar panels. You can always scale up down the road, but to begin with, 400 watts of power in panels with a 1.3kwh battery can go a long way.

Your energy budget: Laptop, lights, fans, fridge: Add up the watts needed to run your devices. Your laptop, lights, fans, a cooler, etc. You won’t be running any dishwasher, clothes dryer, or massive AC unit off-grid. But that’s ok! Going off grid is about living better with less. You need an idea of your energy budget.

TEGS, Thermo Electric Generators: If you have a small woodstove in your tent, you could even use a TEG to generate electricity. TEGs are solid devices that sit on a hot surface. They generate electricity from the difference in energy between the hot side on the stove, and the cool side away from the stove. TEGS are fairly expensive, and don’t produce a great amount of electricity. They’re best used in cloudy areas where you would run a wood stove often to keep warm. A small TEG unit to generate 100 watts of power can run about $700.

Micro Wind / Micro Hydro: Using a micro wind turbine or a micro hydro turbine for power generation requires unique land. If you live in a very windy area in the west, midwest, or a coastal area, a micro wind turbine could be a great solution for you. You’ll spend about $1800 for a 1.5kwh turbine. This can power everything listed above from the solar panels and more IF you have the steady wind to keep it turning.

If you’re on land with a river or creek, and you have the right distance of falling water (head) you could consider running a micro hydro power station. These are more expensive (often around $5k), but can generate a huge amount of power (more than you’ll need), if you have the right location with falling water.

Heating, Biomass: Solar, hydro and wind would have a hard time heating your home. For heat, you want to rely on a different type of fuel: biomass (wood). A small wood stove can cost $200-$400, and do a bang up job heating a bell tent, yurt, tiny home, cabin or camper. You’ll want to be very safe with the install, as there is a fire hazard, but these tiny stoves are a great option for affordable, sustainable heating.

Cooking, Biomass + Biogas + Solar: You can always cook on your stove top or a camp fire. If you’re looking for other ways of cooking food (outside of traditional butane / propane stoves), we have some fascinating options. If you have your HomeBioGas system setup, you can cook for 1-2 hours daily using your clean burning methane gas on the burner. HomeBioGas is great for cooking using your existing pots and pans.

If you have a sunny day (summer or winter, does not matter the outside temperature) you can cook using SUNLIGHT. GoSun makes solar ovens that allow you to cook food at temps of 500F or higher within 20 minutes. We love our GoSun solar ovens, and think it’s amazing we can cook using just sunlight.

Cooling, Electrical: Cooling can be tricky. Placing your cabin or tent in a shady area is the best first step. Insulating your cabin or yurt is also key. Saving energy on cooling is the best first line of defense. You can use solar power to power fans for cooling too. Small window AC units (5000 BTU) often need about 500 watts of power. If you have enough solar panels and battery storage, you can power a window AC unit on hot days when it’s really scorching outside.

We’ll opt for a 400W solar panel setup with a 1.3kwh batter +inverter kit for our power needs to begin the off-grid journey, this will run us $1500. We’ll also opt for a $300 solar oven too. We’re at $1800 for energy needs. Let’s add a tiny wood stove for $200 for the bell tent. Now we’re at $2000 for our off-grid energy systems.

7) Next steps in your journey

Let’s review. We now have the following systems in place:

• LAND: You have access to land: $4000 down payment (or less perhaps)

  • You either own it, rent it, or are using Boondockers Welcome for a camper.

• SHELTER: You have a canvas bell tent: $2000 to own it outright

  • Great shelter for 6-18 months years while you build a bigger home

  • Or not! You might love your bell tent. Just take good care of it with a tent fly for protection.

• WATER: Rainwater collection systems: $1500

  • Tin roof covered area, IBC tanks, gravity fed purifier.

• SANITATION: Composting toilet OR BioGas toilet: $1500

  • We have a well functioning eco toilet solution in place for 1-2 people.

• ENERGY: 400W solar panels, 1.3kwh battery/inverter, solar oven, tiny stove: $2000

  • We can power electrical devices, cook with sunlight, and heat our tent

• EXTRAS:

  • We have not yet factored in items like a 12v cooler for food, a bed, or chairs. We’ll add in $1k for basic items you might not have now that you’ll need for your off-grid setup.

• Grand Total:

  • LAND + SHELTER + WATER + SANITATION + ENERGY + EXTRAS

  • $4000 + $2000 + $1500 + $1500 + $2000 + $1000 = $12,000

These are prices from September of 2023. Prices change over time of course. Prices are different in various parts of the US and across the globe. Your budget off-grid build could be more or less. It depends on many factors. They key idea here is that it does not take a fortune to begin a simple off-grid life. Some people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars or more to go off-grid, like Curtis Stone. Other people spend a few hundred dollars or less, like Robin Greenfield. It’s your journey to define. The key skill is learning to enjoy living well with LESS and to give up modern suburban culture.

If you used a 12-month 0% interest credit card for your key systems, you could make this off-grid project happen for $6k-$8k. You would need to be strategic and have a plan for the debt.

Land is the biggest variable here. You could find 1/4 acre for $5000, you might find 3 acres for $25000. Land prices vary everywhere, and change over time. The key is to be patient, and know what you’re looking for.

We’re making some assumptions that you already have your car, you’ll need that. You’ll need other basics like your digital devices (perhaps?). Personal items are not included in our estimates here. This is a general guideline to show you the core systems and their costs.

This off-grid setup is barebones. It’s basically high-end glamping. However, this is a better set of systems for shelter, energy, water, and sanitation than millions of people have globally. Our “typical American lifestyle” is incredibly excessive. If everyone lived like Americans do we’d need over 5 earths to provide the materials.

A simple life is a good thing. Simply living can bring freedom.

That’s it. If you setup these systems, you could be living off-grid and beginning your journey. You could work less, explore more, watch the stars, visit with friends while hiking, and begin a new way of living.

This won’t be an easy project. You’ll have to save money, learn new skills, get uncomfortable, and break out of old habits.

But it might be the best adventure you ever begin.

Our team at Acorn Land Labs has designed our Land Lab Off Grid Simulator app to help more people easily understand which system can help them go off-grid. You can drag and drop hundreds of systems to easily see which ones will meet your specific needs for shelter, water, energy, sanitation, food and transportation.

We publish videos on our social media illustrating ideas, concepts, tools and technology. We want there to be a renaissance of freedom in the USA and across the globe.

We’ve built a 10 hour online course to dig into these off-grid topics in even more depth.

Our dream is to help millions of people build simple, sustainable, enjoyable, and healthy lives through off-grid living ideas and principles.

Humans were not made to work around the clock for wall street.

We are supposed to have time to think, wonder, build, hike, bike, cook, visit, love, share, and invest in others.

Let’s break the mold. Let’s live bigger by needing less.

Let’s reclaim our time, energy, and finances.

We humans can do so much if we put our minds to it. Let’s turn off the TV, ditch the video games, skip the fast food, and get to work rebuilding our freedom one step at a time. Comfort has been killing America for decades. Life is short, so we need to start living today.

Keep learning more about off-grid solutions for freedom at: AcornLandLabs.com

If you need more examples of amazing people who are making the change to live differently, here’s a list you might enjoy:

• John & Fin Kernohan - Tiny House Living

• Kirsten Dirksen - Creative Tiny Homes

• Jack Dody - AbundaCulture solutions

• Robin Greenfield - Simple Living

• Noah Sanders - Permaculture Farming & Faith

• Joel Salatin - Local Farming & Faith

• Paul Wheaton - Permaculture & Simple Living

• David Holmgren - Permaculture & Energy Solutions

Godspeed & be well everyone! I hope this article helps your journey to freedom.

- Kemble Hildreth

Our mission at Acorn Land Labs is to share the ideas, methods, tools & concepts needed for people to leverage off-grid systems to live more freely and affordably. Go build something!

🎥 Off-Grid Systems Video Course - 10 hour off-grid systems course

📗 Acorn Off-Grid Home eBook - 50 key off-grid systems we use for living simply

🎧 Acorn Off-Grid Audiobook - 50 key off-grid systems we use for living simply

📚 Acorn Off-Grid Systems Paperback / Hardback Editions - buy on Amazon