10 years living off grid

I have now lived off grid for ten years on narrow boats, and realise that I have become conditioned to conducting my life in a different way. This blog, isn't going to be me being virtuous about my response to climate change, and I wont judge you for the choices you make in your life. Its purely an observation on myself, and what I have learnt, and how I have changed over the last ten years. Its my story, and you may find it interesting, you may find it useful, hopefully some of you may find it inspiring.

England is your garden when you are a traveler . Great Bedwyn

Over the years I have been inspired by living close with nature and the elements, and therefore have built a great love and respect for our environment and Mother Earth. As I said, I don't preach, because, I myself am far from perfect, and could tweek some things in my life choices here and there, I'm learning all the time. A lot of the decisions I make in my life are with respect to the environment, but as a mother sometimes, I just have to let things go, although, not often without a fight or at least severe feelings of guilt (e.g letting my child get a magazine which has plastic tat attached to it)
Prior to living on a boat and being a mother, I had a 2 litre soft top Audi sports car, a hot tub in my garden and plenty of disposable income, recycling bins were literally just about to be distributed to homes in my area, so I don't recall doing any household waste recycling prior to living on the boat.. I was a sinner, and although I loved to see nature, and walk down a quite beach on a windy day, I had little idea of the catastrophe that was happening with climate change, I am embarrassed to say I was completely ignorant, until 2007. Living in a small space with no refuse collection, you soon become aware of how much landfill and recycling you create. So when I go shopping, I am conscious of how much waste my goods will make. One example of this is fruit, veg and meat packaging. If I go to the market or the butchers, there will be very little packaging, in comparison to buying the same things from a supermarket. I am lucky in Newbury that we have a shop that refills your Ecover products like washing up liquid and fabric conditioner. Again, because I live on the water and all my waste goes into the canal, I had to buy products that contain no nasty chemicals like parables (which create the bubbles), so by default I started buying environmentally friendly products. Another point to make about shopping is that because we live in a small space, I rarely buy deals, like buy 2 get one free. I have a very small freezer box, in which I can store a limited amount of stock. Also because I don't drive to the supermarket, I do it by foot or bike, I can only carry so much anyway. Often one of the biggest problems with shopping, is people just buy to much
When I met my lifelong partner / soul mate / boyfriend / Mia's Dad (I am never quite sure how to refer to him, I'm almost middle aged for goodness sake), he had this vision of a romantic life on a narrow boat. I was always a bit alternative and hippy at heart, and this was music to my ears. As much as I had been enjoying my life, with a good career, great community of friends, (work hard / play hard) I always felt there was more to life, and I should be doing something more meaningful, something a bit more 'out there'.
Richard is a very knowledgable and forward thinking person, and we would talk late into the night about politics, and what was happening in the world. I learnt many things from him, and he really opened my mind, and my thirst for wanting to know more; so much so I ended up becoming an environmental activist. I have lots of spirit (as I have been told), and I think I needed something in which to focus on and somewhere to channel that energy, creating a better future for the planet became my call.
I shouldn't be too hard on myself, because, when I was a teenager, and got into fashion and making my own clothes, after my parents bought me a sewing machine one Christmas (thanks mum and dad). I always liked to look individual and had a knack for being one step ahead with my designs. I would make things out of remnants, and anything people didn't want, I even did the proverbial making a skirt out of a bin bag. I would go to charity shops (which were a lot cheaper then), and buy anything groovy I could find, I had a bohemian look going on. I experimented with vegetable dying natural fabrics, most of my motivation was to find a cheaper way of doing things, and being more creative, rather than just picking u a beautiful fabric in Liberty (not that I could afford it) and making  a garment, that just was too easy for me. I am a naturally resourceful person (or you could say 'tight' being I'm from Yorkshire), so the planet wasn't my motivation like it is now.
Back to boat life, so when I moved onboard in 2007, I had very little in the way of home comforts. We had no working shower, limited water and electricity, but we had a cooker and a fire and lots of love a passion for each other and the desire to make this work. It was a 45 foot shed, filthy, hardly anything working properly, and a potentially dangerous place to live looking back.
We lived on board 'Still Thinking' as we renovated it, something I would never advise anyone to do, unless needs must.
Getting back to the topic of living off grid, I think electricity was our most problematic thing to have to adjust to. We had a temperamental old engine and tired batteries, we were totally living off finite energy sources.
I had got a job at the Council and I would take things like lights in to charge in the socket by my desk., I would shower at the Leisure Centre, and use canal water boiled up for washing pots and clothes.
By night, we would sit listening to radio 2 drinking wine with very poor lighting, but we always had a nice cooked meal, warmth and each other; oh, that thought is  making me feel all warm inside. We realised we had taken to this life style, like a duck to water, excuse the pun, so began to look for a bigger and better boat, one that could be a family home..

Our off grid home in the thick of nature

Since we got our latest boat Foxy Lady, our 70 foot narrow boat, (and had a baby) we have a great electric supply, for 8 months of the year we can live soley on solar power, which includes running a proper washing machine. In the darker months of the year we rely on our engine or a generator for our electricity (which can go wrong at any moment which can be devastating, but we always manage to get by).
As a rule I wouldn't generate electricity from fossil fuels to power items such as hair dryers, or irons, or any other non essential electrical item. Electric items I have in my home, are laptops, washing machine, a small TV, a hand blender and a Juicer. I do possess a hair dryer, which I use on a Sunday night in the winter to dry my daughters hair. I loathe adverts for electric items that you 'Cant Live Without'. The last one I saw like that was a George Foreman Steak Griller. What??? Whats wrong with a normal grill? Fossil fuels and plastic were made to produce this item, fossil fuels will power it, and then after being stuck in the back of someones cupboard for a couple of years will go into landfill. That's what I'm thinking about when I see adverts.
When I go to houses I am incensed by how quickly an electric kettle boils, these are the biggest energy consumers (even worse than irons). I feel the buzz of energy around me in a building, and now find it bizarre that I can just plug something into a socket in a wall and electricity comes out of it. That's what I mean by being conditioned. A couple of years ago we went on holiday with Richards parents and stayed in a cottage in Wales. Well I never, we couldn't figure out how to use the oven or the washing machine because they were so high tec (It was like something out of James Bond to me). I was distracted by the fact that there was so much electricity usage in the place, and felt uncomfortable not knowing what the energy source was. When Richard and I had a night out, I had to ask the locals about there electricity supply, I was really happy when they said most of it was from a local Hydro plant. I could then relax knowing we were using renewable energy.
Within the community I live in, we are known to share our electricity supplies, If someone has a problem like a broken engine, we will help each other out. Its usually clothes washing, but we have been known to use each others ovens too. In the middle of the summer when we are at our peak for electricity with the solar, I will often go round asking if anyone wants any washing doing!

Mia nearly 4 helping rig up the new solar panels

Water is the other commodity that can be a finite resource when living off grid, especially as a traveler. Now we are static most of the time at our mooring, and we are fortunate enough to have a water tap, which we hook our hoses up to fill our tanks. All of us still us water with the greatest respect, as we have all lived on the tow path, where, if you run out, you may have to travel for half a day to go and fill your tank. One of the biggest water wastes in a domestic household is the toilet flush. On a boat we have porta loos and may use a cup of water to wash down our solids, so our consumption of water is very low. We mostly have showers, which we use less regular than most householders, its very rare you will see a bath on a boat. In the winter I permanently have a large copper kettle filled on my stove, which I will use for washing (I cant use it for food or drinks as I have had to put river water in it when we ran out of water on the Thames this year). Another way I save water is by cooking all my veg in one pan, then generally I will just give it a wipe with a clean cloth when I have finished and hang it up, unless it had scum on it of course. At a rough estimate I think we use at least a quarter of the water normal households do, probably much less.

Bath water would be used for washing clothes too

5 year old helping with toilet chores

I love living off grid, and wouldn't have it any other way, my 7 year old daughter knows no different and has complete knowledge of where her electricity, fuel and water comes from, and what happens to the sewage and rubbish.I believe those of us that are bringing our children up off-grid, are creating a generation that will have knowledge and skills to pass on to others, when times become harder with climate change. These children are resourceful, conscious, lateral thinking and have many practical skills and knowledge of nature and the season that will stand them in good stead for being the next generation of off-griders. They see adults making things, mending things, looking after the land and using its resources sustainably.
That is unless they rebel and go and live in cities, drive fast cars, and own a jacuzzi!
(Seems like a life time ago)
And Finally,
As I wrote this blog, Mia my 7 year old, interrupted me stating that her toothbrush was no good anymore. Whoops, bad mummy, I maybe should have replaced it a month ago, the bristles were pretty bad, so I give her a new one. Her last one she has had since January, a bamboo one, which I then put on our fire, and felt wonderfully relieved that it wasn't going to landfill.