Willa,
I live in Ripton, Vermont and on April 15th I sat without power on and off then finally without until earlier am of April 16th. Which started out with power and again constantly flickering until finally I had no power for 2 days. I have only lived in Vermont for 2 years and have been amazed at the normality of not having power in Ripton has been. I even come home to find that the power did flicker or go out at some point in the day and with no apparent reason. I have a 3 children and being without flushing toilets or running water is hard but is manageable. Fortunately my husband has an outdoor wood burning stove for our heat and hot water so along with a noise generator we were able to have heat and a lamp (the rest of the house had candles were needed). The worst part was that we had a tree across our driveway on powerlines making it so we couldn't even leave to get to civilization for basic needs. Eventually we cut the tree ourselves since CVPS was busy. My first motivation to be off-grid is self-reliance and to become less of the problem that we humans create. The second is CVPS, PSB and VELCO!!!! Since I have been here in Vermont they have been my driving force to be away from "big brother". As you know from living in Middlebury, you have seen the devastation VELCO has created by the monsterous poles they have chose to erect ALL across Addison County. I have taken personal interest in this from the start which was over 5 years ago, when they proposed to put the poles through the middle of my grandparents house in Middlebury, on Haplin Rd, if you haven't seen this it is worth taking a drive down there. Both pole lines exist and will continue to exist. But that is another story for another time. My blood boils and my emotions run high on this subject, bottom line what they (VELCO) did is and will forever be wrong. So to be completely free of CVPS would mean my self respect to doing the right thing and not be a cause or apart of something that is wrong. I have been looking into alternative energy for awhile now and after this nor'easter I have been doing a lot of research to figure what we can afford to do and how we should go about it. Electricity and propane are not going to get any cheaper. So cost in the short and long run are also a driving factor. I come from farm families on both sides of my family, one from Vermont and one from Massachusetts. I have seen too much change in Massachusetts that it drove me to want to leave my only home I knew. Like I said earlier to live differently for 2+ days we had no power
was a challenge but anything that is different at first is that way. I hear all sorts of things about being off-grid and the costs and benefits and drawbacks, but I know in my heart it is the right choice. I watched the 20/20 show last night about planet earth and was amazed that people are not already using recycled products on a daily basis, or using energy efficient light bulbs (which have been around for 20 years)- maybe now people will realize that the little things they do daily will make a huge impact on the earth overall. Small steps lead to big accomplishments. I know you were looking for people off-grid but I just wanted to put my 2 cents in. There is a family (and probably several others) here in Ripton that built a green house and are completely off-grid. They are having an open-house again in May. I will mention this website and post to them and I am sure they would be excited to talk with you. They are as passionate about this as I am, even about the VELCO issue. Good Luck with your research and if I can be of any help let me know.
