I have doing some research on how to get off the grid. After hurricane Ike’s
tremendous impact not only on the coast but also how far it went throughout
the U.S., I needed to find something that I could do rather cheaply.

I found that Off the Grid Living has all the information you will need to make
the change from being married to your utility company to financial and personal
freedom.

Their promise is that you can build a 1000 watt wind generator with no special
tools and no experience in about 2 weekends for under $100. So far there have
been hundreds of families who have duplicated their success.

All of the books are written from their own experience, with photos and diagrams
to help readers along with their own journey to living off the grid.

* Do you want to build your own wind generator?
* Do you want to build your own home?
* Power your vehicle with bio diesel, or heat your home with biodiesel?
* Do you want to know how to build and install solar panels?

They are all there in the 5 book collection, along with their original Off
Grid How-to guide, ‘Renewable Energy Solutions’ to keep you moving in the right
direction.

As you know, I do not promote anything that I do not believe works. However,
this is worth a look and implementing. Out of all the programs I have researched
this one comes across as being the most informative, especially for the DIYer.
The author has been living off the grid since 1993.

Happy building and let me know how it works for you. When I complete my current
project, I will be jumping in to doing this. Probably after the holidays.

You can make your own biodiesel with these three ingredients; methanol, sodium
hydroxide (lye/ caustic soda like for cleaning drains, found next to Drano), and
vegetable oil. Everything you can get at the grocery store. Except for maybe the
methanol, but you can get it at the auto parts store. Gas line antifreeze is
usually pure methanol.

One version of the recipe calls for unused vegetable oil only, another said you
can use either. So go with the fresh unused vegetable oil.

Work outdoors for plenty of ventilation and wear rubber gloves and eye protection.
In a glass container with an air tight lid, add one cup of methanol and then half
a teaspoon of lye, put the lid on and swirl or stir until the lye is completely
dissolved. Do NOT mix the methanol and lye in a plastic bottle as the lye attacks
some types of plastic, (but after it’s mixed it’s ok to pour into plastic as the next
step calls for). Next heat four cups of vegetable oil to 140 degrees F (60 degrees C).
Use a funnel to pour the heated oil into a DRY 2 liter plastic bottle then add the
methanol/lye mixture, tightly close the lid and shake vigorously for 20 seconds.

After about 10 minutes a dark layer of glycerin starts to form beneath the lighter
layer of cloudy biodiesel. Over the next couple of days the biodiesel becomes clearer
as all the glycerin settles. And waa-la! You’ve made your own fuel!

Now for the CAUTIONS:

BE CAREFUL!! Wear your protection, watch the children and the pets, don’t breathe it,
eat it, drink it, blah, blah, blah, and safety blah blah or skull and cross-bones blah.

Our decision to go underground with the electrical was two fold:

1 – safety – nestled underground, no dangling wires for tree limbs, the wind, storms,
or nitwits to knock down. Just need to record the location, (nitwits are uncanny!)

2 – the view – one more time, – the view. All those who can’t wait for the day
that every stinking over-head wire goes underground, please raise your hands.

Going underground is by no means cheap. The power company will gladly do it for you, but,
get ready to give up your first born and a higher education for the rest.

Since we don’t have kids, this is the way we got around the expense:

We bought a “temp” pole for around $175. It comes with the weather head, meter box, and a large
circuit breaker box with double 100 amp main breakers, all installed. These are used for
mobile homes and new home construction sites (hense the name “temp” poles). We set the pole
in the NE corner of our property near the power pole with our transformer. So from main box
to RV breaker box is nearly a 100 foot run.

We dug a trench 2 feet deep to lay the electrical line. Paid $300 for 100 feet of 6 gauge
copper and that was cheap as they were out of 8 gauge. Threaded it through 1 inch pvc.
This was a rushed process, afraid to take a bathroom break, or God forbid, let dark catch
you half done. Because as sure as the sun will rise, that whole run would be unzipped and
nothing left but air in the trench. I can just imagine the little jerk, waiting in front of
the metal recycling place, sitting on my copper wire, sipping a hot cup of coffee, grinning!
Copper is so high now I swear they can smell it.

The whole time we were laying this expensive copper to hook up to an expensive power grid
the free wind was blowing the hats off of our heads and the free sunshine was still making
us squint through our sunglasses. We vowed to ourselves that if we ever get to the point
of getting the everyday necessities accomplished that we were going to build that wind-turbine.
That non-polluting energy generator and if we can ever find cheap solar panels, no roof on
this acre will be safe!

We vowed to get off of the grid or the grid will be paying us. Put that in your coal
burning power plants and smoke it.