Off the Grid by Dilbert

[MaineShark]

Yep, let's have a purity check for off-grid living.

Regular deliveries like propane and oil - on the grid.
How about salt?

Solar panels - on the grid.
How about the copper wire I use to distribute electricity in my house?

The nails used to hold my house together keep me on the grid.

Wait! The saw I used to cut the wood to build my house! I can't make it myself so I have to stay on the grid!

Heh.  I just get annoyed by all the folks who suddenly got on the "green" bandwagon, slapped a couple PV panels on their house, and now claim that they are energy-independent (without even having batteries).

I tend to think that "off grid" has become so muddled that it has essentially no meaning, anymore, which is what I was trying to point out.  To be technical about it, unless you can build and maintain it yourself, with no outside help, you're not independent.  I don't get the big deal about that.  Short of being a hunter-gatherer or a jack-of-all-trades, you will be dependent for something you can't make, yourself.  Big whoop!

Joe

[Russell Kanning]

noone is self sufficient
guys that don't rely on power from a line ... have certain advantages
a guy like Scott Adams can only hope to save on electricity considering how much he must use
we all have incentive to use less energy ... we save money

[Free libertarian]

 A typical day in the life of an off the grid guy, a "real" off the grid guy....So after a long day of foraging for roots and berries, I wiped the mud from the primordial ooze off my hairy unshod feet onto the hand woven swamp reed mat at the entrance to my abode. I then entered my cave and fed some pieces of dried yak dung into the firepit, good thing there were still some hot coals, because I seem to have misplaced my  flint firestarting rocks. It can be such an ordeal when I have to go on a quest for fire.  I was hungry and couldn't wait to cook up some of the days catch of small rodents, now where did I put that sharp pointy stick I use to cook with since I gave up the Revere wear?  Oh there it is right beside the charcoal pieces I use to draw pictures of antelope and wild horses on the walls with.  Gotta document those successful hunts y'know. It's not every 50 year old that can run down the nearly extinct Grafton Antelope, but when you're off the grid and hungry, it's what you do.

Not feeling much like drawing I've decided to fire up the hand made wooden laptop and check in to see how you on the grid folks are doing, you know to see if I could gloat or anything.     

[Tom Sawyer]

Poser, you're not really off the grid... I'm posting via smoke signals!

[Pat McCotter]

Yep, let's have a purity check for off-grid living.

Regular deliveries like propane and oil - on the grid.
How about salt?

Solar panels - on the grid.
How about the copper wire I use to distribute electricity in my house?

The nails used to hold my house together keep me on the grid.

Wait! The saw I used to cut the wood to build my house! I can't make it myself so I have to stay on the grid!

Heh.  I just get annoyed by all the folks who suddenly got on the "green" bandwagon, slapped a couple PV panels on their house, and now claim that they are energy-independent (without even having batteries).

I tend to think that "off grid" has become so muddled that it has essentially no meaning, anymore, which is what I was trying to point out.  To be technical about it, unless you can build and maintain it yourself, with no outside help, you're not independent.  I don't get the big deal about that.  Short of being a hunter-gatherer or a jack-of-all-trades, you will be dependent for something you can't make, yourself.  Big whoop!

Joe

OK. Just didn't want to get too much of a purity test on this. Also you do understand that hunter-gatherers are dependent on the entire clan to have enough food, water, wood, tools, etc, to get along well, no? And the jack-of-all-trades needs raw materials, not withstanding Free libertarian's wooden laptop.

[Pat McCotter]

we all have incentive to use less energy ... we save money

This is how I ave approached the alternative energy issue - Will it save me money? When I had the 60 mile one-way commute to work, three hours a week of collecting and filtering veg oil kept me from having to spend money on gas/diesel fuel, money I was able to use on other things.

Depending on somebody else for my energy needs? I just read the "I, Pencil' essay by Leonard E. Read to understand that I am not going to be able to - nor do I desire to - create the infrastructure needed to live in the manner to which I have become accustomed.

[Lloyd Danforth]

I read that about 1972.  Then I went out and made a pencil. Starting the fire to make the charcoal was the hardest part. Splitting the twig was easy when I found the right piece of stone.  After I packed the groove in the twig halves I finally worked out tying the halves together with split, wet grapevine fibers.
It worked rather well, although, not a true, 'lead' pencil.
I ended up giving it to a really 'Hot' Econ Prof from Hunter College. It was worth it!

[Free libertarian]

Poser, you're not really off the grid... I'm posting via smoke signals!

I would have done that too but the  drying racks covered with freshly speared suckers and mastodon scraps would have altered the smoke signals and I wouldn't want anyone to misinterpret my post, not to mention my favorite hollow log for drumming is out of tune...so I had to use the laptop