Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Off Grid - the seed is planted

Over the past few months I’ve been stewing over the concept of taking our life style "off grid. LaVonne wasn’t a hard sell about the idea, she has always been the conservation leader in our household. When I say "off the grid" what I really mean is that the Hilton household is going to move towards more self reliance, but probably not total self reliance - except perhaps if our local/national economic system goes through a major adjustment. We’re no "survivalists" but we would like to be less of a burden on a strained distribution system - perhaps we can even do our part to help others if times get tough.
But whether or not tough times come, I think we’re at a point where the economics are beginning to make sense. Energy prices are finally rising to where they ought to be (the politicians can’t hold them down forever you know). Our potable water sources are stressed to the max and we’ll soon see skyrocketing water prices (they’re artificially low now because politicians are afraid to charge what it costs to develop, maintain and expand the system).
I’ll fill in more details later but already I can see that our mind, our perspective, is changing about the way we do things. The way we look at energy, water, food. It’s going to be an interesting ride.

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