Off the grid?

Hi guys!

Well the rain has finally stopped here for the day and the sun is shining! I thought I would come on quick and fill you all in before heading out with the dogs for a good walk.

Following my last blog post on Alternative housing we have recieved emails from people who are living in alternative housing and living off grid. It has all been really interesting reading so I thought I would add some links so as you can see the blogs and communities that these people have directed us towards.

Just this evening we recieved an email from Steve. He and his wife live in Northern Ireland and are in the process of rennovating a cottage. They currently live in a converted truck.
http://www.offgridsteve.co.uk/p/truck-house-conversion.html
Such a novel and successful conversion. His blog is well worth a read as they live off grid and are rennovating their cottage using recycled materials. Even if you don't want to live a converted truck, it should definately give you food for thought with regards supplying your own utillities.

Then there is @WildlyDiff who I stumbled across on Twitter. They are living in Yurt and as far as I can see from their blog, have done for some time while they are building a house. For me this is really interesting as I am facinated by yurts so to read someones first hand experiences of living in one in the UK is great.
http://www.wildlydifferent.org.uk/
Again if Yurt life is a bit too far for you this blog is great for if you are interested in growing your own veg. A great way to reduce your outgoings and stress levels!

Now, this has got to be my favourite by far! Simon Dale built his house for £3k! He put alot of hard graft into it but got a home out of it.

                                            I dont know about you but I think it looks amazing.

Simon is now continuing his work and has applied for planning to build an Eco village. To read his blog go to http://www.simondale.net.

And last but by no means least, I quickly hit on the issue of planning in the last blog. Well this should prove that planners are starting to take the need for low impact eco houses seriously.  
http://www.lammas.org.uk  These people have set up an Eco Village in Wales with planning consent granted for it.

For us the biggest issue we can see with all this is land ownership. We are striving for security for our famillies and I'm unsure how moving into alternative housing with possible planning issues on rented land would improve this situation but interesting reads none the less and I would like to pull a little something from each of these and inroduce it into Operation Better Life such as growing your own food and being able to supply your own utillities. At the end of the day a vast majority of your personal income goes on both and if we could acknowledge and make changes to these through our project as well as providing secure housing then we are not only helping people succeed and save money we are also helping the environment and teaching our children valuable lessons for the future. Bonus on all counts!

xx