Survivorman: Off The Grid
Nature — By admin on December 5, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Thoreau said that if an emergency struck, a man should be able to leave his home with nothing more than the clothing on his back and feel like he left nothing behind. Self sufficiency is almost impossible to obtain in modern society. But wilderness survival expert Les Stroud proves that it can still be done.
This is not the story of hippie-communal-back-to-the-landers, this is the story of what it takes to live with alternative power sources now – to live with nature in this modern age. This is to be our permanent Walden; a life lived off the grid.
Tags: Les Stroud, Survivorman, Wilderness Survival
5 Comments
This was a great documentary and I enjoyed all of the work and effort that this family went through to make it happen.
I personally find it incredible that such women exist who will go through all of this effort with their husbands. When I suggested to my former spouse in 1996 that we move back to Ottawa, Canada from Silicon Valley, California in order to spend more time together with our kids, I was divorced a week later and never saw my three kids again.
My former spouse did not want to live in a place where it snowed in the winter time and got cold.
How can some women be so tough and resilient and others not. I really have a lot of respect for this family and especially the wife and kids for accepting and enduring the challenges of this experimental project and new modern simpler lifestyle.
With regards to the husband, he and I are a lot alike. I definitely wanted this type of lifestyle for my family too and had done a lot of research to make it happen.
Unfortunately my former spouse did not share that dream and in the end my own family was destroyed before the dream could even get started.
I enjoyed the happy ending of this documentary story and the resilience and dedication of everyone involved to make it happen.
However I have to laugh at the line “living off the grid and all the FREE electricity” they now enjoy.
The electricity this family enjoys is anything but FREE. The cost has simply been paid in advance into all of the work to purchase and install the solar panels, purchase and install the battery storage, purchase and install the wind power, purchase the land and build the house. The battery packs will also have to be replaced every five years or so as the chemicals become exhausted. Hopefully in five years time though lithium battery storage systems can be purchased and installed.
So there may not be an electric bill in the mail every month, but make no mistake about it their electricity is NOT FREE! I discovered this when I was pricing my own alternative photovoltaic power systems and wind power generators.
When everything is said and done though this family and the kids definitely have the coolest house in the neighborhood. Many people would love to be able to do this, including myself!
A job and documentary well done. Something to be proud of for years and years to come!
Arnold Vinette
Ottawa, Canada
Very disappointing documentary. Totally useless, in terms of being off-the-grid.
This documentary is bullsh*t. It should be titled off the grid living for millionaires. Using big ass trucks, 18 wheelers, helicopters, portable saw mills, clamshells etc just to make one family off the grid? It’s too much waste to do this, it isn’t worth it. And they never mentioned what they eat. I guess they still driving that gas guzzling truck to the store 50 kilometers away to buy on-grid food. I’m looking forward to see a documentary which shows a more modest way of achieving off the grid living.
Does anyone know how much the construction of this “off-the-grid” compound costs?! Nowhere in the film does he mention his expenses for the helicopters, pre-fabricated cottages, hired-help or back-hoes and saw mills or generator fuels. This must be a complete turn-off for anyone actually considering going off the grid, because it represents everything that a true homesteader would be trying to get away from, and totally missing the point as to what off-the-grid living is trying to get to. What a disappointment. If you had a drink every time he mentioned his career pressures you would be drunk! We we’re excited to come across this documentary, but its just one misinformed, unprepared, drama-fueled lunatics pissing contest for his manhood. There are some really great resources for off-the-grid living and natural building techniques, so don’t anyone be discouraged by this! Try “Garbage Warrior”, Tree-hugger.com, “The good house book” by Clark Snell.. and many more.
How to live “Off the grid” for MILLIONAIRES. Those solar panels COST A FORTUNE, and getting them in that rough location is not cheap either.