Off the Grid

Off the Grid Off-grid isn’t a state of mind. It isn’t about someone being out of touch, about a place that is hard to get to, or about a weekend spent offline. Off-grid is the property of a building (generally a home but sometimes even a whole town) that is disconnected from the electricity and the natural gas grid. To live off- grid, therefore, means having to radically re-invent domestic life as we know it, and this is what this book is about: individuals and families who have chosen to live in that dramatically innovative, but also quite old, way of life. This ethnography explores the day-to-day existence of people living off- the-grid in each Canadian province and territory. Vannini and Taggart demonstrate how a variety of people, all with different environmental con- straints, live away from contemporary civilization. The authors also raise important questions about our social future and whether off-grid living cre- ates an environmentally and culturally sustainable lifestyle practice. These homes are experimental labs for our collective future, an intimate look into unusual contemporary domestic lives, and a call to the rest of us leading ordinary lives to examine what we take for granted. This book is ideal for courses on the environment and sustainability as well as introduction to sociology and introduction to cultural anthropology courses. Visit www.lifeoffgrid.ca, for resources, including photos of Vannini and Taggart’s ethnographic work. Phillip Vannini is Canada Research Chair in Public Ethnography and Professor in the School of Communication & Culture at Royal Roads University in Victoria, BC, Canada. He is author of dozens of journal articles and book chapters, and author/editor of ten books. Jonathan Taggart is a Vancouver-based photojournalist and member of the Boreal Collective. He holds a MA in Intercultural and International Communication. His photography exhibits have captured national audiences and his pictures have appeared in magazines and newspapers across the country, such as Canadian Geographic, Yukon: North of Ordinary, BC Business, and The Tyee. Among other awards, he is the recent winner of the 2012 West- ern Canadian Music Award album cover design. Innovative Ethnographies Series Editor: Phillip Vannini, Royal Roads University The purpose of this series is to use the new digital technology to capture a richer, more multidimensional view of social life than was otherwise done in the classic, print tradition of ethnography, while maintaining the traditional strengths of classic, ethnographic analysis. Available Forthcoming Ferry Tales: Mobility, Place, and Time In Solidarity: Ally Ethnographies of on Canada’s West Coast by Phillip Friendship and LGBT Activism Vannini by Lisa Tillmann Digital Drama: Teaching and Learning Art and Media in Tanzania by Paula Uimonen Concrete and Dust: Mapping the Sexual Terrains of Los Angeles by Jeanine Marie Minge and Amber Lynn Zimmerman Water in a Dry Land: Place Learning Through Art and Story by Margaret Somerville My Father’s Wars: Migration, Memory, and the Violence of a Century by Alisse Waterston Off the Grid: Re-Assembling Domestic Life by Phillip Vannini and Jonathan Taggart III Off the Grid Re-Assembling Domestic Life Phillip Vannini and Jonathan Taggart First published 2015 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2015 Taylor & Francis The right of Phillip Vannini and Jonathan Taggart to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Vannini, Phillip. Off the grid : re-assembling domestic life / Phillip Vannini and Jonathan Taggart. â pages cm. — (Innovative ethnographies) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Sustainable living—Canada. 2. Self-reliant living—Canada. 3. Alternative lifestyles—Canada. 4. Simplicity. I. Taggart, Jonathan. II. Title. GE199.C2V36 2014 640.28'6—dc23 2014016461 ISBN: 978-0-415-85432-0 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-85433-7 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-74440-6 (ebk) Typeset in in Caslon, Copperplate, and Trade Gothic by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii 1. Grids 3 An Ocean for a Fence 6 Tangles of Lines 8 Inhabiting Place, Incorporating Materials 11 2. The Pull of Remove 21 Voluntary Simplicity? 24 Showering with Grizzlies 27 In Love with Place 32 3. Involvement 39 Wood and the City 39 Affect and Ways of Heating 44 Hot and Cool Energies 51 4. (Off)Roads 57 Tank Farms and Utilidors 58 Roads, Access, and Insulation 62 V VI CONTENTS 5. Power Constellations 69 Have Cessna, Will Travel 70 The Farthest Home 72 Costs, Efficiencies, Externalities, and More 75 6. Comfort 87 Groovy Yurts 87 Lighting the Way, on a Bike 90 The Thoreau Effect 96 7. Convenience 105 Growing, Storing, Cooking, Eating, Shitting Organic Food 106 De-Concession 110 Sun-Dried Everything 113 8. House Building, DIW-Style 123 Building with Dirt and Garbage 126 Regenerative Life Skills 131 Vernacular Architecture 134 S9. lower Homes 141 It’s Sunny. Tell the Kids They Can Come Inside and Play the Wii 146 Synchronous Power and Unplugged Appliances 150 New Age Homes for a New Millennium 153 10. Breaking Waters 159 Onerous Consumption 162 Self-Sufficient Homes 165 Alternative Hedonism 168 CONTENTS VII 11. Camping, Out on the Land 179 Frozen Fishing 183 12. The New Quietism 189 Non-Users 191 Lifestyle Migrants 196 In Search of Stillness 200 13. A Better Way of Life? 207 Amidst (Fallen) Trees 210 The Way Back 214 References 217 Index 229 This page intentionally left blank Preface Off-grid isn’t a state of mind. It isn’t about someone being out of touch, about a place that is hard to get to, or about a weekend spent offline. Off-grid is the property of a building (generally a home but sometimes even a whole town) that is disconnected from the electricity and the natural gas grid. Off-grid buildings are therefore self-sufficient for light, power, and heat. But as it goes, people who live in off-grid homes also tend to be independent for procuring other vital resources, such as water and food. To live off-grid, therefore, means having to radically re-invent domestic life as we know it, and this is what this book is about: individuals and families who have chosen to live in that dramatically innovative, but also quite old, way of life. We call them “off-gridders.” Off-gridders homes are, in many cases, experimental labs for our collective future. The lessons they are learning today about living with renewable energy are the lessons we will all need to learn tomorrow in order to make our lives more sustainable, more respectful toward the environment, and less dependent on non-renewable resources. This book is an intimate look into unusual contemporary domestic lives, but it is also a call to the rest of us leading ordinary lives to examine what we take for granted about our homes, our needs, and our wants. We believe that this book will be valuable in courses on the environment and renewable resources as well as ethnography. We also hope that our work will appeal well beyond the academy. From 2011 to 2013 Jonathan Taggart and I spent two years travelling across Canada to find off-gridders and visit off-gridders’ homes. Sometimes we were able to stay with them for a short period of time. Sometimes we were allowed to take photographs and record video and audio. And sometimes we even had the chance to practice off-grid living ourselves through short stays IX X PREFacE at off-grid cabins and homes. Altogether we visited about 100 homes and interviewed about 200 off-grid Canadians, as well as many American and British expats living in Canada. In sum we were able to find off-gridders in every single province and territory of what happens to be the second-largest country on earth. This book is our story of our travels, and ultimately our narration of their experiences, their challenges, their solutions, their aspira- tions, their ways of life, and their own stories. To make our work possible Jon and I had to fly on dozens of planes, ride snowmobiles, paddle kayaks and canoes, don snow-shoes, ride ATVs, sail ferries and small boats, drive on ice roads and city streets, and bike and trek across many regions of our country. To render the intensity of that kind of experience we wrote this book in the style of a travelogue. But these aren’t really the pages of a travel essay; ours is first and foremost a work of ethnography. Interviews, observation, and participation in the day-to-day life of off-gridders have not only inspired us to reflect, interpret, and contextualize off-grid living in itself, but also (and perhaps more importantly) to question our collective, modern, on-grid way of life. Ideally, after reading this book anyone should understand much more deeply what we all usually take for granted about our modern condition in relation to comfort, convenience, and connectivity.

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