Sustainable Tarpon Springs - Off-Grid, On Track!

Over a decade ago, I became acutely aware that the structures we all assumed were stable seemed to be built on shifting sands.  Financially, politically, socially - everything seemed to be in flux, and I took it as a wake up call.  It was a positive awakening, something maybe I’d been deliberately preparing for most of my life.

As a child, I was always drawn to olden days when folks lived without the technical luxuries that we’ve become so dependent upon.   Then there was an era when PBS ran ‘reality programs’ where modern day people were challenged to return to pioneer settings and learned  to survive.  I never personally participated, but I always deliberated collected tools for doing things without modern conveniences.  

When we first moved north from Southern California, we lived on a small, three-acre farm outside of Spokane where our sole source of cooking and heating was a wood stove.  I had a hand crank flour mill, and many other tools for when the power would go out for days in the dead of winter.  We not only survived those times, we thrived, and built amazing family memories from those events.

I know we weren’t alone in seeing the advantage of having some primitive survival skills under our belts.  We grew a big garden, bought bulk food we couldn’t grow, raised goats for milk and cheese, and chickens for eggs.  Even though I’m a vegan now, I’m grateful for the knowledge and experience of those days.  Collectively, I saw others who were motivated along the same lines.  Maybe you’ve seen the inspiring story about the Dervaes family in Pasadena who liberated themselves through growing food and selling it.  (If you haven’t watched it, check out the youtube video called Path to Freedom.)

Beyond food independence, we thought seriously about energy independence as well.  We went on a quest for intentional communities with whom we could align ourselves, especially inspired by places like The Dancing Rabbit Eco-Village in Rutledge, Missouri, and The Farm in Summertown, Tennessee.  The Amish are probably the most enduring self-sufficient and off-grid example in the U.S.  In visiting the Eco-Village Training Center at The Farm I met a young architect from Vienna who directed me to the Earthship Community in Taos, New Mexico, stating that she thought Earthships were the most brilliant off-grid home design by far, achieving a low impact lifestyle without compromising modern conveniences.  We ended up visiting the Greater Earthship Community twice, and really hoped to build a home like that someday.  But as doors to that venture closed, others opened leading us to Tarpon Springs.

We still have the dream of independence from systems that will prove to be unstable, finite sources of energy.  The idea of very localized energy based on renewable sources is something many people have been increasingly discussing in the last couple of decades.  Renewable energy is most efficient when it doesn’t have to travel long distances, and there are ‘concept communities’ built around the use of collective solar, wind, and even methane, for small clusters of homes.  Does this inspire you?  We have ideas, so let me know so we can talk about going ‘off-grid’ together.  No one can do these things alone - it takes a village!