I used to say that I lived “off the grid”. And then I learned about living off the grid and I realized I didn’t. But I have also discerned that I share a kinship of sorts with those who do. The relationship between “living off the grid” and “living This Vintage Life” is found in the fact that both groups of people have divorced themselves from the tyranny of the modern age.
Many of you will know this but living “off the grid” means simply living while “not connected to public utilities”. I say “simply” but this lifestyle is anything but simple. But there are many advantages to this life. If you are not using public utilities like electrical power or heating and if you are avoiding having to come up with $100,000 down on a crushing mortgage for a home they claim is worth $1.1 million, than you will not need to pay out of pocket for these things – meaning you will not need an income or at least the type of income a regular job provides. An off-grid life is self-sufficient and relies on things like solar panels and planting a garden – as in using the purity of these natural resources – the sun and the earth – to live, to sustain life. If anything happened to the world’s economy or supply chains – or if, say, there was a worldwide pandemic – those living off the grid would likely not even know it. Those living off the grid are “self-sustaining”; they don’t need The Man.
I can understand this lifestyle through my consumption of westerns. Part of what I love about these films is the depiction of those who rode up on a patch of land with a horse and wagon, jumped down onto the dusty earth, looked around with hands on hips and then grabbed an axe. The settlers and homesteaders of the past simply chose suitable land and then built a home, a corral, a fence all with their own hands. With rope and wood. They then chose where to plant crops and how to best utilize the local water source. And they lived. They thrived. This is how towns and cities were started. That has always fascinated me. And those living off-grid do things similarly.
So, I say I live off the grid but obviously I don’t. And I couldn’t, really. I was watching a video of one couple who are living off the grid in the area of Victoria, B.C. They have found a lagoon on which they have constructed several structures that float on the water. They’ve built a compound, of sorts. One simple thing the woman said about their lifestyle struck me. She said it was a lot of work.
This somewhat obvious statement of fact gave me pause. When I say I live off grid, what I mean is that I disassociate myself from – well, from a lot of things. Most things. But what I want to do with this separation is…nothing. I don’t want to do a lot of work. What I want is to be left alone to pursue the things I am passionate about. And those things are very much of the mind, of the soul and spirit. Of the imagination. The things I want to do most are done in my basement and in my study. These rooms serve as portals of sorts that lead me to all the places I want to go. Yes, I’d love to take off and live in the woods, in a cabin by the water. On a boat moored off the coast of some little island. But in reality I know I cannot do these things. But what I can do is live simply; needing little, asking for little and taking little, in the same way that those who live off-grid do.
I am fascinated by other cultures, other countries and by far-off places. But I don’t necessarily want to travel to them. That entails heavy lifting. It means expense and it means getting time away from the prison of my day job. Instead what I have often said that I do is mind-travel. Through film and books, even music, I have traveled the world. I have studied other places and cultures and I have felt them just as much as you can without actually going there.
You see, I want it easy.
Planning and executing vacations can be challenging; it can be a little like work. And living off the grid? Like that woman said, that is a workload I am unwilling to take on. I want it easy. I want to carry out my mind-travels and my explorations of vintage leisure without effort. I want my portals easily accessible and open all the time. And you know what that means – I need the internet. In a way I hate to admit it but I do. I need to have quick and easy access to the worldwide web (and physical media). I need to flick a switch and turn a light on. I need to simply turn the oven on so I – as in, my wife – can cook supper. I do not need to get up every day and consider how I will achieve these things with solar panels, satellite phones, generators and wood stoves. I simply need public utilities to live the way I want to live. This includes having to put up with the regular and sometimes unexplainable hiking of the cost for these things.
So, I play ball. I sign up with an internet provider, I pay taxes, I pay for hydro. I use all these things selfishly – I use them to live off grid “my way”. And that is to live in a sort of isolation. This means I would fail Civics or Citizenship class, like they had back in the day. I am a terrible citizen and I am terrible at doing my part for the environment, for the future of the earth. I care little for wars and famine and for the economy. Interest rates, the cost of groceries or gas. Heck, I need gas – charge me what you want. What can I do about it? Confessing to all these things sets me up for reprimand but I do it to make my point. Leave me alone. I don’t ask for much – or for anything, really. Just don’t expect me to engage. I’ve got movies to watch.
There’s a fine line between reality and unreality when it comes to living life. I believe that you can perceive a life for yourself and make it happen; save up and plan and take a couple of trips a year. Or even make the big move to living off-grid – I can easily see the appeal of that. But often when you see a depiction of an alternate way of living, you realize almost at once that it is actually unattainable in your circumstance. And that can be frustrating but the sooner you accept that, the better. There are subtleties between adopting a lifestyle wholesale and applying some of what you’ve seen or learned to your everyday life. When I travel annually to my patch of heaven on the southern tip of a barrier island on the Atlantic, I ache when I come home with the realization that I don’t live there, that I can’t live there. That I cannot – at least at this point in my life – make that my home, my reality. But what I CAN do is implement some things and certainly some of the attitudes and perspectives into my daily life. You may feel energized and refreshed, you may feel healthier when you get away from the grind and enjoy a vacation. Why? Partly, it’s a change in perspective. Well, you can take that change into your daily living. Instead of barely surviving life until you can get to your next batch of holidays, why not have a “vacation attitude” all the time? I attempt to adopt this attitude every day by my mindset and also by the media I consume or my diet and exercise and even in the clothes I wear. Part of the appeal of wearing Hawaiian shirts? It’s how they make me feel.
My regular readers may have noticed that Vintage Leisure has taken a decidedly philosophical turn in 2024. Well, partly that’s because I feel like I’m sitting at the beginning of the rest of my life. I feel like this is the outset of my second half. And I’m looking inward to see how I feel about the outward and how I feel about what life will look like going forward. As you can imagine, I am managing to think about these things through my pursuit of This Vintage Life. It may be a feeling akin to the plot point I have seen in films like Big Wednesday. Like they did in that movie, I’m looking at my hobbies, my lifestyle. Does what I have spent my life doing really have any value to me? Is it legitimate and will it – or will having done it – sustain me going forward? I feel like it does, it is and it will. Make no mistake, though – it is my faith that really sustains me. The rest is incidental.
Living This Vintage Life off the grid comes down to escapism. And I would be a lousy tour guide if I didn’t make note of some viewing you could do to easily get away from it all every day.
Real Off-Grid Living
Check out Wild Homestead on YouTube. This guy has bolted life in Toronto to build a homestead in the Canadian wilderness. As usual with any of these off-grid channels, I wonder at the people’s ability to video edit so well and to share their journeys on the internet while living in Coyote Nowhere. But this guy’s project is fascinating, nonetheless.
Another channel I’ve found is Exploring Alternatives. Here they highlight the many faces living off-grid takes and showcase people all over the world. Cabins in the woods, boats on the water and tiny houses. Only thing I’ve found with these videos – very frustrating when I think I will never live on some of the cozy boats or little homes I’ve seen here. You have to keep your perspective. I need to remember that I do, in a way, live like these people – on my couch in the basement.
Off-Grid Hollywood Style
I thought that searching “Off Grid” by Keyword at IMDb would be a good idea but that doesn’t yield much. We all can think of movies depicting homesteading, people living in the woods and off the land and you likely have your go-to’s. Westerns are, by definition, of this family but there are a few others worth mentioning. Check out the Canadian film based on a true story Backcountry from 2014. An urban couple goes camping and gets lost in the woods with a man-eating black bear on the loose. In Captain Fantastic (2016), a father instills family values by raising his brood off-grid but a tragedy compels them back into society and their relationships are tested. Cast Away (2000) is a stunning film and a fan favourite that always has me asking what I would do in Tom Hanks’ place. Goodbye World (2013) sounds fascinating. In this apocalyptic film, a father sees the societal collapse coming and takes his family and goes to live off the grid but friends and co-workers show up to use this family’s home as a bunker of sorts. Into the Wild (2007), directed by Sean Penn and starring Once Upon a Time in Hollywood‘s Emile Hirsch, tells the true story of a guy who chucks it all to hike to Alaska and live in an abandoned bus he discovers. Listen for Eddie Vedder doing “Hard Sun”, originally by Canadian Indio. And does I Am Legend count? Great film, anyway.
And for their own escapist appeal I have to add films like 1944’s To Have and Have Not starring Humphrey Bogart as charter fisherman Capt. Henry Morgan living one of my favourite film lives. And you know I’m gonna mention him – King Movies (the films of Elvis Presley) are the very epitome of escape. What’s more escapist than a good-looking, singing race car driver having adventures that work themselves out neatly inside of 90 minutes? What’s more escapist? Maybe beach party movies. Frankie, Annette and the gang live carefree on the beach. Keeping it simple and getting their kicks. In 1964’s Muscle Beach Party, Frankie even says that he asks little from the world and only takes from life what is free. My man.
SoulRide 