Love this blueprint—clear, grounded, and actually doable. Having done a few semi–off-grid projects myself, here are a couple additions that have made the difference between “cute experiment” and “durable life.”
1) Start with community, not hardware.
No one truly lives off-grid; we live on a mesh of human, ecological, and logistical support. Before buying panels or a cabin, map your human stack: 3–5 nearby allies you can swap labor with, a weekly skill-share (repairs, canning, first-aid), and at least one neighbor with a well, tractor, or workshop. Build a micro-co-op for bulk buys (propane, feed, fencing) and an emergency tree for illness/travel. Community is resilience; gear is amplification.
2) Consider geography arbitrage.
What feels “impossible” in one country/region can be straightforward elsewhere. Land prices, permitting, water rights, and cultural norms vary wildly. If your life allows it, explore places where smallholdings, homesteading, and barter are normal. Moving countries seems big, but it can mean more land, better community fit, and dramatically lower total cost of living.
3) Add a real permaculture/food-forest plan (with budget).
Food security isn’t just raised beds—it’s a designed system. Line-item a 3-year plan: soil building, water capture & swales, windbreak/hedgerows, guilded perennials (fruit/nut/medicinals), small livestock, and a nursery corner to propagate your own trees. Include costs for compost, mulch, trees, fencing, irrigation, and tools. Design for medicine and trade too—herb beds, mushrooms, honey/eggs/seedlings as reliable barter.
If you append a “Community & Bioregion” section (allies, co-op buys, skill circle, mutual-aid map) and a “Permaculture Phasing & Costs” table (Year 1 soil/water, Year 2 perennials, Year 3 canopy & surplus), this guide goes from solid to rock-steady. Peace and independence don’t require isolation—they require good neighbors and good design.
Will FreeDudettes want a man telling them how to rock it?
I’ve pondered that. I need a FreeDudette cohost. I will be talking more about men’s issues too, so I want to be careful with that. Thoughts?
I was recently made a single dad to two sons. That experience has really shifted the advice I’d give to my boys or other young men. But I do want to help inspire the freedudettes too!
Are you sure about that? There are alot of indicators giving away that it was written by AI. I know yall already use AI art so it wouldn't surprise me. Do you even know what key on your keyboard to press to type the emdash?
Absolutely. I'm not against AI either, I just don't think it should be used for creative processes like writing, art and music. If it is used in those scenarios it should be the same way we use something like the brush tool in photoshop rather the entire creation. It would be ignorant to deny it's incredible use cases in data analysis, medicine, engineering, etc.
Something just really irked me about an off-grid green project using hundreds of gallons of water and pumping out 10s of pounds of CO2 to offload the process of human creation. I promise I'm not trying to be toxic or malicious.
Love this blueprint—clear, grounded, and actually doable. Having done a few semi–off-grid projects myself, here are a couple additions that have made the difference between “cute experiment” and “durable life.”
1) Start with community, not hardware.
No one truly lives off-grid; we live on a mesh of human, ecological, and logistical support. Before buying panels or a cabin, map your human stack: 3–5 nearby allies you can swap labor with, a weekly skill-share (repairs, canning, first-aid), and at least one neighbor with a well, tractor, or workshop. Build a micro-co-op for bulk buys (propane, feed, fencing) and an emergency tree for illness/travel. Community is resilience; gear is amplification.
2) Consider geography arbitrage.
What feels “impossible” in one country/region can be straightforward elsewhere. Land prices, permitting, water rights, and cultural norms vary wildly. If your life allows it, explore places where smallholdings, homesteading, and barter are normal. Moving countries seems big, but it can mean more land, better community fit, and dramatically lower total cost of living.
3) Add a real permaculture/food-forest plan (with budget).
Food security isn’t just raised beds—it’s a designed system. Line-item a 3-year plan: soil building, water capture & swales, windbreak/hedgerows, guilded perennials (fruit/nut/medicinals), small livestock, and a nursery corner to propagate your own trees. Include costs for compost, mulch, trees, fencing, irrigation, and tools. Design for medicine and trade too—herb beds, mushrooms, honey/eggs/seedlings as reliable barter.
If you append a “Community & Bioregion” section (allies, co-op buys, skill circle, mutual-aid map) and a “Permaculture Phasing & Costs” table (Year 1 soil/water, Year 2 perennials, Year 3 canopy & surplus), this guide goes from solid to rock-steady. Peace and independence don’t require isolation—they require good neighbors and good design.
Agreed 100%. People + Location are critical.
Thank you
Wonderful comment, you fit literally all of the indicators show off in this video. Bot.
https://youtu.be/9Ch4a6ffPZY
Man, if it is an AI comment it did hit the nail on the head. Community and geography matter so much. Those are my topics next time
What about the FreeDudettes?
Will FreeDudettes want a man telling them how to rock it?
I’ve pondered that. I need a FreeDudette cohost. I will be talking more about men’s issues too, so I want to be careful with that. Thoughts?
I was recently made a single dad to two sons. That experience has really shifted the advice I’d give to my boys or other young men. But I do want to help inspire the freedudettes too!
Is this AI generated?
It's human crafted :)
Are you sure about that? There are alot of indicators giving away that it was written by AI. I know yall already use AI art so it wouldn't surprise me. Do you even know what key on your keyboard to press to type the emdash?
We do use AI to help format our content, or add icons. Way faster that way.
All of our content is written by us. No sense wasting time with icons, formatting and spell check.
Hope the material use useful for ya!
I suppose if its just arranged and refined from information you gathered and wrote yourself, that's not so bad.
That’s how we feel. AI is terrible for many reasons. It’s not all bad though. We try to use it for good when we can. But sparingly.
We have to do our best to hold AI companies accountable. The cat is out of the bag now.
Absolutely. I'm not against AI either, I just don't think it should be used for creative processes like writing, art and music. If it is used in those scenarios it should be the same way we use something like the brush tool in photoshop rather the entire creation. It would be ignorant to deny it's incredible use cases in data analysis, medicine, engineering, etc.
Something just really irked me about an off-grid green project using hundreds of gallons of water and pumping out 10s of pounds of CO2 to offload the process of human creation. I promise I'm not trying to be toxic or malicious.