Living off the grid is illegal! No that’s not a joke. It’s a sad reality of our country now. It’s illegal to be disconnected from the grid and public utilities in many areas of the country. To make matter worse, you’re not even allowed to camp on YOUR OWN LAND! You read that right. In most places across the USA you’re not even allowed to camp on your own land for more than 2 weeks out of the year. This means if you wanted to live in an off grid RV or camper, or travel trailer powered by solar panels and a small wind turbine with a battery backup for energy storage, you’re not allowed to. This goes for anywhere in the USA! You’re literally not allowed to live off grid without being connected to public utilities or a proper septic system either!
Why!?
Because the powers that be don’t understand off grid living. It’s ignorance. Pure and simple. They think that you can’t live off grid and be safe and healthy. And they make laws that make living off the grid nearly impossible in most areas. Especially near cities.
Here’s the deal. Local municipal regulations, county and city ordinances, state and federal law prohibit most forms of off grid living without jumping through hoops and wading through mountains of paperwork. The bureaucracy is sickeningly and infuriatingly frustrating.
This doesn’t even include all the legal fees and permitting costs, hookup fees (for water if you can’t drill a well). It’s massively expensive. It’s severely restrictive. And they do it all in the name of “health and safety”.
Sure! It’s good to be healthy and safe and protect the environment, respect the land and generally be a good human being that doesn’t pollute or cause problems.
Good people are made to conform to overly restrictive rules and regulations, ordinances, covenants and restrictions.
If you’ve ever purchased land or done your research into purchasing a piece of property specifically for the purpose of living off grid, detached from the power grid and public utilities then you understand how insanely stupid and overly resitrictive some of the ordinaces and regulations are.
Zoning restrictions. Minimum lot size requirements. Minimum square footage requirement that restrict the size of your dwelling to 600, 800, 1000 square feet or more that effectively prevent you from living in a small cabin or tiny house. These laws are ignorant and exclusionary and alienate tens of millions of people from living off the grid.
Most of the overly restrictive laws are not specifically or deliberately created to prevent off grid living (though some are). Most of the ordinances and restrictions are created by lawyers and city council members and county zoning commissions that have no idea how to live off the grid and are only familiar with their own suburban or city dwelling lifestyle.
This isn’t to say they are completely wrong. Let’s make that perfectly clear. They’re only ignorant of the many different ways to live and the off grid lifestyle itself.
They’re ignorant of self reliance and many of these folks are nice people who simply don’t understand how to homestead or grow their own food, nor have they ever tried. They’re city dwellers that have never lived on a farm or ranch and who have never hunted or fished for food in their lives.
They know nothing of survival or growing food fruit and veggies in your own garden. They don’t know how to raise livestock and care for cows and chickens and horses.
But they make laws that restrict our way of life. They make laws ignorantly restricting how we live off grid. They make laws the prohibit us from living in a tiny home or camper trailer that is perfectly fine for a permanent dwelling. They force us to connect to public utilities under threat of fines and even imprisonment if we refuse to comply. God forbid we try to defend our property rights or human rights of self reliance. Because you know what would happen then. They’d send SWAT and call the FBI and ATF. Ruby Ridge and Waco comes to mind.
I’m not advocating violence. I abhor violence. But I’m a firm second amendment supporter, I love my country, my people and my family. I have property rights as we all do. All US citizens have property rights and we have the right to protect our property.. I’m not condoning nor do I support violence in any way. I’m just saying that the government is overstepping and infringing on our rights in a way that is encroaching on the constitution and perhaps even on our human rights to personal independence and freedom and self reliance.
People all over the world live in cabins and tiny homes and RVs, caravans, camper trailers vans, tiny houses, yurts, dome homes, shipping container homes, underground bunker type dwellings, stone homes, log homes, and many other kind of shelters safely.
The extremely restrictive ordinances need to be loosened to allow off grid living. We need to contact our local city councils and zoning commissions. We need advocacy. We need representation. We need to be abl to build a cabin with our own hands and live disconnected from the public utilities if we choose.
I sincerely believe that is a human right. It’s the ultimate freedom to be 100% self sufficient and self reliant.
No one is saying we shouldn’t have proper waste disposal. No one is saying we want to dump our waste in the rivers and streams and lakes. No one is saying we want to pollute the environment.
As off gridders, homesteaders and self reliant people we understand our obligation to the land and the animals and other natural resources we use to live. We understand that we are merely temporary caretakers of the lands we occupy while we’re here on this earth.
But we won’t stand by and let our rights be trampled by ignorance and stifling laws that prohibit our way of life.
We have a right to live off grid. It’s that simple. We have a right to grow our own food. We have a right to our own land. We have a right to build our own home. If we choose to live off grid that is our right of choice! Period. End of subject!
We need to write letters to our representatives. This isn’t about politics. This isn’t about political parties. This transcends the political spectrum to our way of life and the way of life of BILLIONS of people all over the world who live happy healthy safe lives off grid and the right for all human beings to do so.
If the powers that be choose not to educate themselves on off grid living then we shall educate them on our way of life. We will protest if we must. We will write letters and communicate our wants and needs. We will vote. We will make sure we are represented by people who understand our way of life and who respect it.
Living off the grid is a human right. We don’t need to be connected to public utilities. It’s perfectly fine and acceptable and possible with modern technology to be completely and utterly disconnected from the grid and all public utilities and live happy healthy safe lives. Our families, children, friends and guest all can live happily and healthily off grid.
No more overly restrictive minimum lot sizes. No more exclusionary minimum square footage restrictions that effectively prohibit tiny homes, small cabins, and cabin/shed conversions. No more expensive mandatory hookup fees for water and gas and other utilities that effectively force you into compliance or not be able to use your land. No more restricting RVs and tiny houses, campers and other shelters and dwellings. That’s just ignorant. No more “permanent dwelling” clauses or similar restrictive language in local ordinances. No more overly expensive price gouging permit fees or legal fees that effectively cause undo encumbrances for people looking to move off grid.
There are ways to allow all these kinds of dwellings and shelters without hurting the environment or property values. That’s another thing. It’s about money too. Someone with a $500k home doesn’t want their neighbor living in an RV on the parcel next to them.
We get it. We understand that. But…A line must be drawn here. Common sense must balance with human and civil rights. We have a human right to live in a dwelling of our choosing. We also have civil rights as citizens that protect our property, land, home and personal property.
We understand the importance of a proper septic system and we have no interest or want to pollute the environment. We respect the land. We respect the animals. We love nature. But we also understand that these things support our lives and are natural resources that we need to live happy, healthy and safe lives.
If this is truly about health and safety and not money, then these overly restrictive laws and regulations, covenants and restrictions must be repealed and new laws written that allow our way of life as off grid homesteaders.
Technology has increased to the point we can work from home. We no longer need to commute to work. We can live off our land. We can grow our own food. We can build our own homes.
Off grid living should not be illegal! It should not be illegal to camp on your own land if you want to. It should not be illegal to grow your own food. It should not be illegal to produce your own power and store it for use later. It should not be illegal to build your own cabin, live in an RV or tiny house, or tent if you so choose. I believe we all have a human right to do so.
We must be able to create a homestead off grid and live the life we know is possible without fear of being fined or losing our homes or land.
Living off the grid is a human right.
We need to make it that way.
Legally! And with haste.
The current system can’t support itself the way it is forever. Something has got to give, and when it does, if you’re not self reliant you’re at risk of losing everything. The food system is not reliable. The health system is not reliable. The housing system is not reliable. Any major disaster and people living in cities who depends on the system for food and shelter will suffer.
We’re not crazy “doomsday” people. We simply understand there are 3 main reasons for living off the grid.
- Freedom
- Family – To provide happy healthy safe lives for our families.
- Self Reliance – Which gives us the two things above.
Use that as part of your legal argument. Let them know that the system is not dependable. That it’s prudent to be self reliant. It’s ok to be off grid.
If you’re not off grid you’re not free. Live free!
Live life off grid!
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