Off Grid, For Real

“Off-grid” sounds like a finish line, but it’s usually a moving target and sometimes a misleading one. I’ve been fascinated by off-grid living for years, yet the deeper I look, the clearer it gets: nobody is truly independent. Even with solar panels, a well, septic, chickens, and a garden, you still rely on fuel, replacement parts, medical care, tools, and the outside world showing up sooner or later. So I’m reframing the goal into something more useful for real-world preparedness and emergency planning: self-reliance as resilience through reduced dependency.

We dig into the hidden web of modern infrastructure most of us lean on every day, then zoom in on why “systems thinking” matters. A solar setup is not just electricity, it can be the backbone for water pumping, refrigeration, communication, and basic sanitation. I share a story about a couple living off-grid in northern New Mexico whose panels got buried in snow, knocking out power, which knocked out their well pump, which forced them to melt snow just to flush the toilet. That’s not a gotcha, it’s a lesson: failures cascade, and your plan has to include what happens when the plan breaks.

From there, we get practical about hybrid off-grid living, backup power, generators, batteries, critical loads, water storage, food pantries, and the unglamorous side of self-reliance: maintenance, testing, troubleshooting, and keeping spare parts on hand. We end with a simple challenge you can do today: list your biggest dependencies, pick one, and reduce it step by step. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so more people can build calmer, smarter preparedness.

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Transcript

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Welcome And The Off-Grid Dream

SPEAKER_00 0:02

You are listening to the Common Sense Practical Prepper. My ducting. The real ducting. It fixes everything except that decision. Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America. From border to border, coast to coast, and all ships at sea. Here is your host, Keith.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Hey all, you are listening to the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast for the 13th day of September 2026. For as long as I can remember, I've always had a growing fascination with living off-grid. You see videos about people moving out into the country, building a house on some remote piece of property, putting up solar panels on the roof, digging a well, raising chickens, growing a garden, adding a wood stove, and in a sense, walking away from the modern world. And I get that. There is something very appealing about the idea of being less dependent on everybody else, less dependent on the power company, less dependent on the grocery stores, the water systems, less dependent on all the systems that we normally don't even think about because of their reliability, for the most part, their reliability. But I've been thinking about for a long time the idea of being quote unquote off-grid. And I think that's a question that we probably don't ask enough.

What Off Grid Really Means

SPEAKER_01 1:34

And that question is: what does off-grid actually mean? Because the more you think about it, the more difficult it becomes to actually be completely independent. And I'm not saying that to knock the idea of living off-grid 100% the opposite. I think there's a tremendous value in becoming more self-reliant. And I believe there's a difference between being completely independent and being less dependent. And maybe the second one is much more of a realistic goal. So in full transparency, there is always going to be some level of dependency. Even the person living on 40 acres in the middle of nowhere, generating their own electricity, growing their own food, and getting their water from a well, they're still dependent on something. Maybe they need gasoline, replacement parts, medical care. Maybe they need to buy something from Amazon, internet connection, property taxes. Maybe they need a chainsaw, antibiotics for a sick animal, maybe the inverter on the solar system when it dies. At some point, the outside world is probably going to show up at your front door. And in my opinion, that's fine. Because I don't think self-reliance means you don't depend on anyone. I think true self-reliance means you deliberately reduce the number of things that you absolutely must depend on someone else for. And that's a very different way to look at being off-grid. So think about your life for a minute. How many things do you depend on every single day? Here's a quick list water, electricity, sewer, natural gas, gasoline, grocery stores, refrigeration, internet, cell service, banks, credit cards, pharmacies, doctors, the postal system, roads, trash collection. It goes on and on. So we're just barely scratching the surface. We live inside an enormous web of systems. Most of the time we don't notice those systems because they're invisible. Flip on a light switch, there's your lights. Turn on the faucet, there's your water. Flush the toilet, and your poop and pee goes down the toilet. Drive to a grocery store, there's food. Put your debit card into a machine, and here comes some money. We really don't think about the machinery behind all of that until it stops working. And that's

The Hidden Web Of Daily Systems

SPEAKER_01 4:15

where preparedness enters the conversation. Preparedness has entered the chat because preparedness isn't necessarily about eliminating every dependency. It's about understanding your dependencies and reducing the ones that matter the most. So here's an example. Imagine someone says, I'm off grid. They have solar panels, batteries, inverter, well, septic system, chicken gardens. That sounds pretty self-reliant. But let's look a little deeper. The solar panels aren't producing electricity at night. The batteries eventually wear out. The inverter eventually fails. The well pump can fail. The pressure tank can fail. The septic system needs maintenance. The chickens need feed. The garden needs seeds. Tools break. You need to mend a fence. Tractor needs fuel. The chainsaw needs fuel and oil. You see where I'm going with this. So now the real question becomes how off-grid are you really? And again, it's not a dig, it's not a criticism, it's just reality. In fact, I recently

When One System Fails Others Follow

SPEAKER_01 5:32

came across a story that I thought would be a very good example of this. A couple living off-grid in northern New Mexico had solar power. Well, septic. They were doing exactly what many people picture when you think of off-grid living. Then they had a significant snowfall. The snow covered their roof and solar panels. The solar system stopped producing electricity. Their electricity just was not turning on the lights. The well pump depends on that electricity. No electricity, no pump, no pump, no water. And they suddenly found themselves melting snow so they could flush the toilet. So that story kind of stuck with me. Not because it proves that off-grid living doesn't work, it actually proves something a little more interesting. That everything is connected. And I know this isn't exactly a news flash for everybody. Their solar system just wasn't their electrical system. It was part of their water system. Their water system was connected to their plumbing, and their plumbing was connected to something as basic as flushing the toilet. One failure propagated through several other systems. So that's exactly the kind of thing I think preparedness-minded people should be thinking about. Not just do I have solar, but what does my solar system support? And then, secondary question, what happens when solar is not available? All right. We'll answer that question. Maybe we have a generator. Perfect. What does that generator need? Gasoline. How much do you have? How long will it run? What happens when that gasoline is gone? Maybe you've got a battery bank? Perfect. What happens when the batteries eventually need replacement? Do you have the knowledge and tools to troubleshoot the system? Do you have spare fuses, replacement connectors, a spare charge controller? Can you even diagnose what component may have failed? Because there's a big difference between owning a system and being self-reliant with that system. And I think that's one of the things that sometimes gets lost in this conversation about off-grid living. We could become very focused on the equipment, the panels, wind turbines, rainwater catchment, generator stoves, freezers, gardens, livestock, whatever. And all of those things are incredibly useful. But every system you add creates another system that you have to understand and maintain. What does social media and social media's version of off-grid or social media's vision of off-grid, what does that not show you? The photos will show you the solar panels. It doesn't show you the maintenance schedule. It shows you photos of a beautiful garden, but it doesn't show you the weeds. It shows you the chickens. It doesn't show you the 6 a.m. trip outside in 14 degrees because something got into the coop. It shows the wood stove. It doesn't show the six cords of wood sitting outside that someone had to cut, split, stack, and eventually carry into the house. And again, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying any of this is bad. Actually, it's fantastic. But self-reliance comes with a lot of responsibility. You are becoming the utility company. You are your own water department. You are becoming part of your own food chain. You are now the maintenance technician. And sometimes you become the repair shop. That is a pretty big job. Which brings me to something I think is worth considering. Maybe we shouldn't think of being off-grid as an on or off switch. Maybe it's a spectrum. At one end, you have someone who is completely dependent on modern infrastructure, like I am, probably 90% of the time. If the power goes out, they're in trouble. If the grocery store closes, they're in trouble. If the water system goes down, you get it, they're in trouble. If the internet goes down, they can't function. And then at the other extreme, you've got someone who has deliberately eliminated as many dependencies as possible. They produce their own electricity, they have their own water, they produce a significant portion of their own food. They have alternate heating. They have the tools and the skills. They're able to maintain their own systems. They've thought

The New Mexico Snowfall Lesson

SPEAKER_01 10:30

through what happens when individual components fail. And somewhere in between those two extremes is probably where most of us, including myself, want to live. And that's where I think the concept of hybrid off-grid becomes really interesting. Because maybe you don't need to be completely off-grid. Maybe you need to be less dependent on the grid. Take electricity, for example. Maybe you don't need to disconnect from the power company. Maybe you install solar, maybe you add your batteries, maybe you keep the grid connected, but build the capability to operate without it. Or maybe the opposite. You are off-grid and you only connect to the grid when you have to. So you're still connected. Maybe you're no longer completely dependent. And maybe the same thing applies to water. You have a municipal water supply, but you store your own water. Maybe you have added a way to purify that water. Maybe you have a rain catchment system. Maybe you have another source available. You're still connected to the water system, but less vulnerable to its failure. Food. I don't think most people are going to grow every single calorie that their family consumes. Some do, and hats off to you, that is fantastic. I'm certainly not going to pretend that's realistic for everybody because it's not. But you can have a pantry like I do, you can have a garden like I do. You can preserve food, have chickens, buy directly from farmers that I really want to start doing. You can learn to cook from basic ingredients. You can develop skills that make you less dependent on prepared foods and less dependent on a functioning grocery store. You're still going to the grocery store, and that's fine. The goal isn't to necessarily stop going to the grocery store. The goal is to make sure that missing a few trips does not become a crisis. And that brings us back to preparedness because that's what we're really talking about. Self-reliance doesn't necessarily mean independence, it means resilience through reduced dependency. I'll say that again. Self-reliance doesn't necessarily mean complete independence, it means resilience through reduced dependency. And I think there's another important part of this that we don't talk about enough. You have to decide what dependencies you actually want to eliminate or reduce. Because we cannot eliminate all of them. So sit down and make a list. What are the things in your life that, if they disappear tomorrow, would cause you the biggest problems? Electricity, water, food, heating, transportation, communication, money, medication. But maybe you have a different list. Then ask yourself

Off Grid As A Spectrum

SPEAKER_01 13:52

how dependent am I on that system? And then ask, what can I reasonably do to reduce some or one of those dependencies? Not eliminate it, just reduce it. Maybe you are 100% dependent on the electrical grid. Get that down to 75%. Maybe you're completely dependent on the grocery store. Get that down to the point where you have 30, 60, 90 days worth of food. Maybe you're completely dependent on gasoline. Can you keep your vehicles fueled and maintain enough reserve to get through a disruption? Maybe you're completely dependent on your cell phone for communication. Can you develop another method? So this is where I think preparedness gets really interesting because you're no longer simply buying things, you're building capacity. You're asking yourself, how much of my own life can I keep functioning when something outside my control stops functioning? And maybe that's the better definition of self-reliance. Not living in a cabin in the woods and pretending civilization doesn't exist, however tempting that might sound, but becoming a better steward of your own ability to take care of yourself. And that word steward matters. Because being self-reliant isn't something you accomplish just once. It's something you need to maintain. You don't become self-reliant because you bought a generator. You become more self-reliant because you know how to use it, how to maintain it, you test it, you have fuel for it, and you understand what you're going to do when the generator itself fails. You don't become self-reliant because you bought a solar system. You become more self-reliant because you understand what the system can and cannot do. You know how much power you actually use. You know what your critical loads are. You have a plan for cloudy weather. You have replacement parts. And maybe most

Build Capacity One Dependency At A Time

SPEAKER_01 16:12

importantly, do you have a backup for a backup? That is preparedness. And maybe that's the mistake we make when we talk about going off grid. We make the destination the goal. I want to be off grid, but maybe the destination doesn't matter as much as the direction. If you're less dependent today than you were one year ago, you are moving in the correct direction. If you understand your systems better than you did last year, you are moving in the right direction. If you have more skills than you had last year, say it with me, you're moving in the right direction. If you can go longer without outside assistance than you did last year, you're moving in the right direction. That's self-reliance. You don't have to move to 40 acres in Montana to do it. Although that would be kind of cool. You can start right where you are. Maybe the first grid you get off of is the electrical grid. Maybe it's the grocery store. Maybe it's the financial system. Maybe it's your dependence on a single vehicle. Maybe it's your dependence on technology. Maybe it's your simple dependence on someone else knowing how to fix something you don't understand. And I think that's where the whole conversation becomes a lot more practical. You don't have to get off the grid. Maybe you just need to get off one grid at a time, reduce the dependency, build the backup, learn the skill, maintain the system, and then move on to the next one. Because complete independence may be impossible, but greater self-reliance, that is something almost every single one of us can work towards. And perhaps the real question isn't, are you off grid? Maybe the better question is, if one of the grids you depend on disappeared tomorrow, how much of your life could you keep running? And that is a much more useful question to ask yourself.

Closing Thanks And Flippin Arkansas

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Hey folks, again, thanks so much for stopping by. If you got anything out of this episode, please like, subscribe, share, review. It really, really means a lot. Practicalprep podcast at gmail.com. Of course, I'm on the Twitters at prep underscore podcast. All right, folks, before we sign off, I want to mention one thing. Every couple days I look at the metrics, look at the data, and I get a list of like new listeners. I get the city, the state, the country. Yesterday I looked and there is a new listener in Arkansas. The town in Arkansas is called Flippin, Arkansas. F-L-I-P-P-I-N. Population, I think like 2,000. Can you imagine? Hey, Mike, where do you live? Flippin, Arkansas. Well, I mean, you don't have to be rude about it, Mike. I'm just asking where you live. But how cool of a name is Flippin, Arkansas. I'm from Flippin, Arkansas. Frickin', Arkansas would probably be just a little more funny than that, but Flippin, Arkansas, welcome to the podcast. I hope you become a loyal listener. All right, folks, as always, please be careful out there. Take care of one another, and until next time.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

You've been listening to the Common Sense Practical Prepper. Subscribe, like, drop a review over in the house.