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diy solar

looking to volunteer on an off-grid homestead for ~1 week

N

Noral

New Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2025
Messages
3
Location
North Carolina
My family has a separate parcel of land where I'm interested in building an off-grid cabin to live, but first I'd like to experience and learn about off-grid living by spending a week or maybe a little longer on an off-grid homestead (or maybe a couple different homesteads.) I'm willing to exchange free labor on whatever homestead projects you could use help with for the whole time I'm there for the opportunity to experience and learn from your style of off-grid living. Ideally I'd like to have plenty of time to talk to you and learn from you about solar electric things (while weeding the garden together or digging post holes or sharing meals or whenever.) If it's a warm enough time of year, I could bring a tent to sleep in, but I'd want to experience your off-grid systems for water, refrigeration, cooking, composting toilets... whatever systems you use as alternatives to the grid. Other things I'd like to learn about include oxen, cheesemaking -- I have substantial cheesemaking experience already, but I'd like to learn more -- selling cheese or other dairy, cold smoking meat, spinning and weaving homegrown fibers (flax, cotton, wool...), natural plasters, waddle and daub... but I'm interested in all sorts of homestead things and I'd be glad to help with whatever homestead projects you have going on. I'm especially interested in relatively inexpensive solar systems and solar systems that work together with low-tech non-electric options like wood cook stoves, hand and pedal powered devices, etc.

I'm 20 and my 18 year old brother might be traveling with me. I grew up on my parents' small farm and have lots of homestead/farm experience, but my parents aren't off-grid and don't have solar panels.

I'm looking for homesteads more or less in the Southeast or Midwest.

off grid.jpg
 
these days with little effort and cash outlay, living off grid is not that difficult. biggest issues would be water and sewage. the electrical side is pretty well covered with solar and batteries. At my place I run a fridge, freezer and all the normal items 24-7 off of solar, I even run an a/c split pack 24-7 from April (heat) to May and then from May to October (dry setting as its very humid) and then from October to late November (heat again) until wood stove change over. all on battery.
so the experience is not what it would have been even 10 years ago unless the person with the off grid cabin or house was roughing it on purpose.

I would suggest instead that you take about 1000 USD and build a mini DIY system including a battery pack that you build yourself, then use it to power say a fridge or an appliance that typically runs year round for study purposes. once you get that down expanding the system is just a matter of finances.

I started with a small camper that i built solar for as i hate the sound of a gen set when camping. I just expanded on that knowledge when building my cabin's system
 
I admire your attitude and spirit, but must echo @Daddy Tanuki in terms of saying that an "off grid lifestyle" is no longer very different than an "on grid" lifestyle. It seems what you're after is more of a "homesteader" or "back to nature" experience that just happens to also be off grid for electricity. I can see some of the appeal of that, but we can't offer that "experience".

In our case, and that of many others modern "off gridders", I suspect, we're off grid but have every modern convenience found in a typical home. We use heat pumps for both heating and cooling (in Maine), and an electric induction range for cooking. For coffee, I press a button. There's nothing on our entire property that burns wood other than a sauna. We have two refrigerators, multiple computers that are always on, and the house is even automated. More than once we've had visitors say, "I thought you were off grid!" and we just smile and take them down to the mechanical room to see the inverters and batteries. About the only thing we do differently is occasionally wait until the next day to do a load of laundry or run the dishwasher, and even that doesn't happen if it's inconvenient.

Are we spoiled? Definitely, but it's by design. But the point is that with modern solar panels, inverters, and batteries, "off grid" is no longer about "roughing it" or a "back to nature" way of living. You can do that if you wish, but it's a different experience than being "off grid", so you might need to rephrase the request to find the right hosts. I do wish you well with that.
 
Daddy Tanuki said:
that is a socialist commune, not something I would want to send a young adult off to get their head messed with.
Click to expand...
In socialist homestead, solar farms you!

To the OP:
It may be a while out but check out Gridlessness on Youtube. Every year they have a week long camp up there and you get to experience things like butchering a pig, making cheese, harvesting, leatherworking, the whole shebang and they're totalky off grid. Might be right up your alley.
 
Noral said:
My family has a separate parcel of land where I'm interested in building an off-grid cabin to live, but first I'd like to experience and learn about off-grid living by spending a week or maybe a little longer on an off-grid homestead (or maybe a couple different homesteads.) I'm willing to exchange free labor on whatever homestead projects you could use help with for the whole time I'm there for the opportunity to experience and learn from your style of off-grid living. Ideally I'd like to have plenty of time to talk to you and learn from you about solar electric things (while weeding the garden together or digging post holes or sharing meals or whenever.) If it's a warm enough time of year, I could bring a tent to sleep in, but I'd want to experience your off-grid systems for water, refrigeration, cooking, composting toilets... whatever systems you use as alternatives to the grid. Other things I'd like to learn about include oxen, cheesemaking -- I have substantial cheesemaking experience already, but I'd like to learn more -- selling cheese or other dairy, cold smoking meat, spinning and weaving homegrown fibers (flax, cotton, wool...), natural plasters, waddle and daub... but I'm interested in all sorts of homestead things and I'd be glad to help with whatever homestead projects you have going on. I'm especially interested in relatively inexpensive solar systems and solar systems that work together with low-tech non-electric options like wood cook stoves, hand and pedal powered devices, etc.

I'm 20 and my 18 year old brother might be traveling with me. I grew up on my parents' small farm and have lots of homestead/farm experience, but my parents aren't off-grid and don't have solar panels.

I'm looking for homesteads more or less in the Southeast or Midwest.

View attachment 269245
Click to expand...

Hi @Noral

My Dad was a Farmboy. He obtained is Masters & worked as a P.Ag. I understand the attraction.

I have had a 4 decade career in commercial construction. You seem to be interested in “making” or “building” things & stuff ,,, Whether Agriculture or Construction it seems you are attracted to the “learning & ability” ,,, This Screams TRADES.

Something for you to ponder ,,, Mike Rowe (the dirty jobs guy);

 
My camp is completely off grid but not much differs from home. I have a well for water, and septic system/ drain field same as any other house in the country. Solar/inverter/batteries/generator solve the off grid power problem.
I think what you are looking for is life skills in various aspects of life. Being off grid AND independent means you are your own plumber, builder, electrician, mechanic, farmer, chef, butcher... you get the idea. You can just get a job doing any of the above and learn as much as possible.
My dad owned a construction company where i worked for a bit, but the techniques are a little different when working with full dimension sawmill lumber, i always wanted to learn timber framing skills...

I wish you luck on your journey, welcome to the forum!
 
Whatever someone else does at their location doesn’t always mean that you can do it at yours. Water is probably the number one issue. If it’s easily accessible it’s a godsend. Solar isn’t viable in some locations because of lack of southern exposure, obstructing trees, slop or inadequate area. Learn what the path of the sun is at that location for time of year. Septic is usually viable even in some areas where the ground doesn’t “perk” test well IF you have enough money and area to make a mound system.
Before you commit to a piece of land, be sure that it’s financially/effort viable for to qualify it for your needs. There are a lot of beautiful parcels of land that people have cut pads into with great dreams only to find out something important isn’t easily found there and they unload it cheap. Simply put; know your needs and see if they are there, if not…. Next.
 
Skypower said:
Whatever someone else does at their location doesn’t always mean that you can do it at yours. Water is probably the number one issue. If it’s easily accessible it’s a godsend. Solar isn’t viable in some locations because of lack of southern exposure, obstructing trees, slop or inadequate area. Learn what the path of the sun is at that location for time of year. Septic is usually viable even in some areas where the ground doesn’t “perk” test well IF you have enough money and area to make a mound system.
Before you commit to a piece of land, be sure that it’s financially/effort viable for to qualify it for your needs. There are a lot of beautiful parcels of land that people have cut pads into with great dreams only to find out something important isn’t easily found there and they unload it cheap. Simply put; know your needs and see if they are there, if not…. Next.
Click to expand...
agreed, my biggest issue is water. currently on a community well that if it went bad we would be hard pressed to drill (cost and depth) 100k+ due to depth the soil being lava rock and lava based sand and we being at 3500 ish feet means a long deep well to get to the water. so if you are considering a homestead or offgrid in the future make water and solar your two prime motivators
 
Hi Noral, looking at your post, it seems me you are looking at alternative ways of living, farming,.. not only at solar offgrid. Perhaps you could look for biofarming communities, they often are in this sort of thinking. I know some, but it's on the other side of the ocean. Every community I saw had different focuses, but always interesting. Sure you can find some near you live. Just visit them before choosing to stay (a week or more) to see if it matches your needs.
 
Why not just go camping with your brother next summer?
Also, there used to be an organization where young people volunteered to help at a farm, usually at harvest time. Name, anyone?
 
Thank you everyone for the help.
I do have lots of experience with homestead related things but there is always more to learn. I guess I was thinking that the people I might could learn some solar things from might be doing some homestead things as well. You all have me thinking that I may be able to figure enough out with just books and youtube videos and help from this forum. I don't have a clear enough vision for what I even want yet. It is helpful to learn that most people's off grid solar systems do not require a special lifestyle and hardly any sacrifices.
The organization you might be thinking of for volunteers could be wwoof. I have looked into that, thank you!
I appreciate all the ideas. Thank you all for helping me out!
 
My older son and his wife were heavily involved in 'conventional work" and toyed with the idea of continuing that - but also moving to a farm - for fun.

I know enough to be dangerous, but one thing I do know is that it is a lot of work. I convinced them to take a "vacation", working on some farms to get some experience. They lived in Fl at the time. They found some things in the Asheville NC area at the time, but most of those were wiped out by the flood.

They also did some kind of tour thing through Europe and by the end, they decided to not do it.

My suggestion is to automate and machine power as many things as possible vs imagining that you will have a lot of extra time to do things by hand.

If your goal is to learn about solar power and how to use it, consider to find RV and van people. They post all kinds of info on forums ( including this one ) and are all over the place in the SE. You might be surprised what you can learn from just visiting some camp grounds and walking around - talking to people.
 
HarryN said:
My older son and his wife were heavily involved in 'conventional work" and toyed with the idea of continuing that - but also moving to a farm - for fun.

I know enough to be dangerous, but one thing I do know is that it is a lot of work. I convinced them to take a "vacation", working on some farms to get some experience. They lived in Fl at the time. They found some things in the Asheville NC area at the time, but most of those were wiped out by the flood.

They also did some kind of tour thing through Europe and by the end, they decided to not do it.

My suggestion is to automate and machine power as many things as possible vs imagining that you will have a lot of extra time to do things by hand.

If your goal is to learn about solar power and how to use it, consider to find RV and van people. They post all kinds of info on forums ( including this one ) and are all over the place in the SE. You might be surprised what you can learn from just visiting some camp grounds and walking around - talking to people.
Click to expand...
yep RV'rs and Yacht's or sailboats. thats where I got my start on solar.
 
Noral said:
You all have me thinking that I may be able to figure enough out with just books and youtube videos and help from this forum.
Click to expand...
You certainly can, I did.
Noral said:
I don't have a clear enough vision for what I even want yet.
Click to expand...
I didn't either when I first started, don't know that I have an end goal yet either. 🤣
Noral said:
It is helpful to learn that most people's off grid solar systems do not require a special lifestyle and hardly any sacrifices.
Click to expand...
I started with a tiny backup system for my coal stove, now I power my entire house and use energy from the sun to can food from the garden.
 
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