Joe Garland

I would like to thank those of you that replied, either in the thread or by purple mooseage. Yes, I am still seeking, but no, I cannot travel much this time of year due to snow. It is a good time of year to explore as humans.

To clarify from my original post:
1. I am not a religious man. I am moral, kind, honest, giving, faithful but not religious. My moral compass is solid, but my own.
2. If you're going to ask for face images and then vanish, I can assure you I am neither Brad Pitt nor a bridge troll. I fall within their joined Venn diagram, but such behavior reveals how little you comprehend of my post.
3. If your children still live with you, at our age, then it is no interest for me. I am seeking an adult partner with independent adult children, if she has them.
4. I am not looking for a super model; any references to fit and healthy are just that - can you physically move with me, work with me, share with me, and live a lifestyle that, to me, is a healthy natural existence?
5. I am a wordy man, on paper, text, and verbally. I am communicative, open, aware and willing, but I do not chase nor hunt. Say hello, be honest, blunt and state who you are. Life is short.

Keep looking. I know I am.  
Peace.

I sure hope Lisa Brunette managed to get that insect out of her back left jar of pickles before she canned them. Or are these protein infused pickles? :-)

I am a fifty four year old man living my mountain dream. Eight miles from pavement in the middle of a 20,000 acre gated community, about 9800 feet above sea level. I am fully off grid with well, septic, greenhouse, solar array and a deep battery grid. Life is old fashioned here in many ways. I wake with the day, go to bed as it winds down, and life is a bit slower here, more normal, more connected. Traffic here is only your neighbors, and most of them you know within the community.

(Not really wishing to post my face on here, but happy to send via private message.)


I retired from IT earlier this year and have yet to decide what's next, probably writing and woodworking to some degree. I cut, split and stack my own wood for heat.  I gather a few edibles. I have an amazing greenhouse going. I preserve my own food for long term storage sans equipment. This level of connection to the real world matters much to me. Centers me. Ground me. Life feels real here.


This lifestyle is not for everyone. It is a 75 minute drive (each way) for food and supplies to any note. It is the Rockies, and we do get snow. Lots of snow at times, and lots of wind. Our roads are not maintained in the winter so I am seeking a mate that can stay put with me over the bulk of winter, has her own hobbies, but is up for adventuring out on machines when we need to get out. It is an adventure, for the hearty, the healthy, the fit, the snowshoe enabled. The machine below is how I get in and out now.


But the homestead is a lovely hand hewn cabin on my own little mountain top. You can go for many weeks without seeing other humans in the winter. You can spend nights under the stars unimpeded by artificial light. You can spend mornings waking up with the world with nary a sound of civilization.


About me:
I am a true autodidact, dropping out of college to begin a life that has worked itself out quite well. I read a lot, write a bit, think a lot, and rarely watch the telly. I never watch sports. I have no 'bros'. I prefer long deep intelligent conversations on a myriad of topics. I am a real man in a real environment seeking a real woman that knows herself, is grounded, and capable of contributing to the lifestyle I am building here. She is intelligent, creative, active, wishing to adapt both to nature and a rural community lifestyle, and is age appropriate for a man such as myself.

I am fit, active, take no medications, have no health issues and eat an organic paleo diet rich in proteins and fats. I cook from scratch with rich hearty ingredients and a deep palate of spices and truly love to cook for a mate.  If you might wish to look out over this vast display of nature and consider such a lifestyle, please do reach out.

Thanks for that information. I do seem to spend far more time in absorb mode than float, if that's an indicator of such.

I have a 1200 watt array, and I was told it's capable of generating 3.5 to 5.5 Kwh per day based upon angle and where I am. So yes, I have more depth of storage than power to recover from such. As stated earlier, the old man I bought the place from wanted to run his fridge for ten days sans sun. I use between 1.3 and 1.6 Kwh in a normal day, up to 2 Kwh twice weekly.

I've only run the generator a single time in the year I've now been here (a low voltage disconnect), and that was partially my fault in a snow storm, for leaving things on I thought I had powered down. I think I'll take your advice and fire it up and see what happens to the float indicator. I appreciate it!

Thanks to all for your input. I truly do appreciate it. I felt the same as Michael Q - if you can't run your equipment, you might not have a well designed system.

Others have asked for a bit more data, but the old man I bought the house from lost a lot of food during a crisis here when he ran out of propane and the roads were such he couldn't get any more. So, he beefed up the battery storage and the grid soon before I bought the place. He said he could now run the electric fridge for ten days without any sun. This seems to be about right, by my math and the reserve in my batteries. I am on a 24 volt battery array and was told I have about 24.5 Kwh in reserve.

I do have a separate 220 inverter for the well pump, but I am pretty sure it's just pulling two 110 lines from the regular inverter.

I do run a house vacuum off it, do laundry via a washing machine, and run the shop tools (radial arm saw, table saw, lathe, drill press, etc.) and all seems okay. I use more on sunny days, etc. but I just get warned A LOT by folks out here to use the generator for vacuums and shop tools to save my equipment. Having to use the generator and fuel is a change in where you spend your resources, but not necessarily a savings, per se.

I was also surprised by Thomas R's message that since the 80's he is using a propane fridge. At 1.91 a gallon at the moment, I am curious but would prefer to continue to use the sun.  I only have seasonal road access, so depending upon a trucked in fuel would not make me happy over the long winters we have out here. Nor the cost. I might have to buy new batteries, but it's free in the interim.

Thank you all for the information. I enjoy this site.

I've moved into a fully off grid subdivision and a couple of my neighbors have warned me off using appliances (e.g. a vacuum and my radial arm saw), not for the grid cannot handle them, but because of the ramp up stress it puts on the inverter.

One man uses his generator (so the load switches to it instead of the array) during these usages, and even suggested using a fridge that runs continually, versus one that starts up and puts a big load on the inverter (as does the well pump, for example).

I'm only a year into this, so I'm curious what others think and do with large, short lived loads, or fridges overall.

Thanks.

Vegan Meatballs

Preheat oven to 365 degrees F.

Mix Together:

1 lb extra firm tofu, mashed
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp wheat germ
1/4 cup parsley, chopped or flakes
1/2 tsp oregano, chopped or flakes
2 Tbsp soy sauce  
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
2 garlic cloves, chopped OR 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 Tbsp onion powder
1/2 tsp salt (optional)


Spread 2-4 Tbsp of olive oil in bottom of 9x9 or so baking pan.

Mix ingredients together thoroughly and form into sixteen to twenty 1 to 1 1/2" balls, packed tightly.

Bake for 40 minutes, turning every 10 minutes until set and browned. Turn gently at first with a spoon and form for they will be soft.

Upon completion, drain on a paper towel and serve.

As the others have posted, a Kilowatt meter will be your new best friend.

I tested everything I planned to take off grid and built a spreadsheet of my estimated daily/weekly energy consumption, as compared to my daily average generation, battery array capacity, etc. Without data, you do not know where you are, it's just a guess. I wanted to know how deep was the reserve, at what depth does what draw power, what should I turn off, or not take, etc.

And all laptops are NOT the same. Gaming laptops are hungry (obviously), but you cannot go by the rating on the power supply - keep your battery mostly charged in the laptop, and you'll only see power spike up when charging or heavily processing/kicking on the fan, etc. For example, my new desktop replacement laptop rarely peaks above 35% of what the power supply can produce.

Finally, some things 'leak' power (they consume power even when you've switched them off), and a watt meter is a great way to see what leaks as such. Buy a few of something like this in that case: Power Switches

This way, I know when something is not in use, the drain has been closed.