Living off the grid in Arizona

by Shari Hogan
(Salem, OR,)

Lived off-the-grid on 120 acres in No. AZ for 5 years. Business, construction, went south so we had to move back to a city to start over after losing everything but the ranch itself.

Yet our place was/is fantastic! I say IS 'cause we recently had to foreclose on the buyer after 5 years, so we own it again... the renters arranged by buyer remain.

When buying off-grid, no regular lender will touch it, so we carried the loan on our property, just like the people who sold it to us. It is isolated, yet we had more friends and social life there (2 miles from nearest neighbor, 4 miles to Hwy) than in any tract home before or since!

The silence, sunsets, stars, and lack of light pollution are GLORIOUS! There is a man-made pond in the middle of a creek. The dogs and other pets loved it!

Yes, we had to truck in our water (500 gal at a time (VERY cheaply) to fill a 2500 gal tank), but added a water PUMP (as gravity was not making it to the bath at other end of house), water heater, solar system and backup generator.

Also found we could get by on 100 gal of water each per month while the Los Angeles stats are 75 gal of water usage per PERSON per DAY! Funny what you can do when paying attention!

It is a wonderful life and we miss it greatly. The 2-bedroom house existed, while we added an 8,000 sq. ft. barn and raised a couple cows & hogs (for our own use) as well as 40 chickens, rabbits and goats which brought money in for eggs, goat milk, rabbit and goat (meat or) for squiring. I could go on forever about the great advantages of this life...