Thanks everyone, my wife and myself are currently living off the grid, no services available even if we wanted them. We have decided that we want to expand the area where we now live and build 6 cabins, all off the grid, for people to learn what it is like to live off the grid. Basically we want to have an off the grid learning center where people can come and spend a few nights living this way, and being able to see up close how the solar panels work, how a wind generator works and understand how and why they can live here, and need very little from the outside world. How they can grow their own food, generate their own electric and find a place in life that they can fit and be comfortable. Our only problem is we can not afford to do all of this without help. Banks say because we and everything we plan are off the grid they can not loan any money. So we have started asking for help from anyone that can afford to help us and also get the word out to help us make this come true. Just follow this link and it will explain what we are doing and then help us if you can and please spread this around to everyone you know. By doing this learning center we will be able to show lots of people that it is not out of their reach to live self sufficient. Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give. Off the Grid Living Experience
Interesting idea and sounds like a great learning experience. What will you charge people to come to off grid camp? From your link:
Good luck to your endeavor @jimnkaran !! Consider working with the college/students to create a learning experience helping you build, create gardens and so on. They will learn much more getting their hands dirty and have more satisfaction in creating a learning environment for future students. I would also suggest working with the college to discover grants and such that may be available to "outside the box" type of projects such as yours. Also, reach out to the local trade unions and see if they have any interesting in assisting with work on the solar systems, construction of the cabins and so on. Maybe the college or local FFA has a vo-ag program that would want to help you create gardens/crops/ and animal production. Just a thought or two on how to lower overall cost and speed the project up with the extra man-power..... again, good luck!!
It does not have to be 2 grand, any thing will help, even 1 dollar. The college students will be involved when we start enlarging the solar system, as far as the building part goes, we will do all of that ourselves with a couple of friends helping. That will cut all labor down to 0.
Some very good suggestions, @Yard Dart, the local college might like to have a hands on animal husbandry program, or veterinary program.
Melbo, we will have an off grid camping area also, just not sure of exact cost but it will not be expensive, we want to show as many people as possible what can be achieved. We have got to work on the roads before any rv's can even get to us, right now 2 miles that only an suv or truck can use.
OK ill be the 1st one. You would like for me to make a donation to you to start a business were you will make money teaching people the can live using solar power and planting a garden ... if i can spare 2G's i will get a 3 day stay ... HMMMMM??? Have you tryed investors? or am I missing something again
This is the way 'crowdfunding' works. You can donate $5 to the cause but they list 'perks' for large donations. Part of the incentive to help fund something like this is knowing that you're helping others learn to live off-grid. It's not for everyone - I think its a good cause which is why we allowed this thread.
That cabin on your home page is where I would love to live. I would actually have pushed the cabin back from the river or is flooding not an issue?
S Speaking of crowdfunding, have you all considered going that route via one of the sites? Kickstarter and Indiegogo are the first two that come to mind.
' @jimnkaran - That is a pretty good idea, it'll get far more exposure than just looking for funding on survival related sites. Might also attract some new thinking from the public.
Even though your idea does have merit, I just cannot see it's justification for asking for money. IMHO, if anyone truly wants to go off grid, then they will already poses the intestinal fortitude and quite a bit of knowledge to do so with out going to any type of so called learning center. What you are proposing is a basic type of bare bones cabin camping experience. Sorry, but for you to teach everything about solar and wind generation along with growing your own food will take a lot longer than just a few days to learn, specially gardening/farming. Learning to grow your own food will take years to learn for your specific soil, weather, and geographical location to be able to stand a reasonable chance to live off the fruits of your bounty without suffering from malnutrition and or starvation if everything goes south. For a lot of the members here that have gone off grid, this has taken them years to accomplish and we are continuously learning on a daily basis. Again, your base idea does have merit, but as stated by other members above, you will have better luck seeking investors from other sources.
They are every survivalist forum in the world, and even the Northern Arizona Wind - Sun Forum, probably every solar forum, but I didn't check. I have donated to causes on Indiegogo before, but I actually received a product when there reached their goal, $2K is a bit steep for even my deep pockets.
