OFF GRID living is a LIE....(deep dive)

how's it going everybody my name is Dave Whipple and you're watching Bush radical about a week ago I put out a video called off-grid living is a lie an incendiary title kind of clickbaity I totally get it the reason I put out a video with a controversial title like that is people see cable television shows or they see certain YouTube channels with a lot of equipment beautiful pieces of property in in magnificent settings and disposable income and I get questions all the time on my channel from folks that say hey what about these folks and these folks how in the world do they end up with all this stuff how do they have so much money there's really no transparency it's just kind of like boom here we are we have all this amazing stuff in this amazing lifestyle and people who are interested in off-grid living they want to know these things that's the reason why I made that video showing our story so everything was out there because we come from a very different perspective about off-grid living a lot of people out there look at off-grid living as this destination I want to be disconnected from the grid I want to be more self-reliant and that's all fine and good that's totally legitimate but with Brooke and I it was always off-grid living was kind of a a means to an end we always saw it as if we're willing to get around work around power and sewer and water and figure out alternative systems to power sewer and water we can look at properties that are beyond the power grid you know stuff that's farther out in the country that doesn't have power lines or maybe up on top of a mountain that doesn't you're not going to be able to drill a well so long as you are willing to work around power sewer and water and it kind of opens up your options the world is kind of opened up to you so for Brook and I that was kind of the angle that we're coming from it's a lifestyle that fit us because we were looking for affordable living and getting a foothold in life and that's really where my heart's at that's why I made that video so many people out there are looking for a fresh start or they're looking for a start in life and you either have a 30-year mortgage or you can buy a really cheap piece of property do all the work up front and then you don't have 30 years of servitude that's how we got into alternative living and I think there's a lot of people out there that are really attracted to that idea being able to have a larger piece of ground that's more private that's in a better setting and not being on the hook for 30 years of slavery to the bank to get all of what they want out of out of their living situation with Sweat Equity honestly my channel is not so much an off-grid channel is it is a Sweat Equity channel so I got a lot of great comments on that video but I also got a lot of hate mail and I think people got their wires crossed a lot of folks are subscribed to all kinds of off-grid channels if they started to maybe feel like I was disrespecting their favorite off-grid channels people you know people got a little bent out of shape and that's not my intention all I really want is transparency so that people who are interested in in trying something different with their lives and getting farther ahead with Sweat Equity and off-grid living so they have they have clear examples to follow that aren't full of omissions right so let me dive into the comments here and kind of Flesh the whole thing out to give you guys a much better idea of what that video was all about and why I think it's probably one of the more important videos I've done stay tuned Wayne Rogers Outdoors rights so you're basically just gatekeeping off grid criticizing others who don't do it the way you do that's absolutely not the case I don't care if you're on grid or you're off grid coming from our background we look at it much more like this is a way to kind of circumvent the system and stay out of the the mortgage game by looking at pieces of property that are marginal or more remote or or beyond the power lines uh it kind of opens the world up to you you have a lot more options and if you're willing to camp and then build a little tiny cab and then build yourself a house you know three years down the road you have everything anybody else wants but you can be completely debt free and that's just gonna give you a better life so I don't care how anybody off grids or if they do or if they don't it's not it's not where I'm coming from with it this channel is uh like I said a better way to look at it it's a Sweat Equity perspective on off-grid living Michael geese writes and I apologize if I got your name wrong I kind of clipped part of it off when I was screenshotting this comment could somebody explain the title how is off-grid living a lie and a guy named Chris Trapp wrote back and said a lot of YouTubers promote living off grid but generally they're spending millions of dollars for property water Power Systems that don't set realistic expectations for regular people Chris thank you so much for answering that comment for me I couldn't said it better myself that's a really good way to explain that there's a channel called Zippity doodah who wrote this comment you literally claim in your title that off-grid living is a lie but you don't give the parameters of what qualifies as off-grid living perhaps you can give us your definition of what off-grid living is be precise very good question I'm happy to answer that like I said off-grid living in my opinion is just working around water sewer and electricity I had another comment here that I kind of lost I don't know where it went to but it was along the lines of this I don't think of it as off-grid I think of it as Micro Systems whoever sent me that comment I think that's a very very good way to look at it you're not really living without water power or sewer what you're doing is you're you're creating your own Micro Systems to take care of your needs in those areas you know you can have an outhouse you can have a you could have a septic tank with an outhouse over it pump the septic tank solar batteries wind LED lights if you use a propane refrigerator you're you're not going to need the ref you could have refrigeration but you don't have to necessarily have 110 power a lot of little Micro Systems you know even the Amish aren't completely off-grid a lot of Amish every Amish that I know actually and I grew up in Amish Country they all had these little Honda five horse motors and they'll run old table saws and stuff with a belt off a little gas motor and a gas motor is essentially an electrically run item so Microsystems is a great way to think of it thank you so much for that comment whoever that was T-bird race fan writes I don't see the requirement for being poor to live off grid you know that's not what I'm saying uh but I do I do empathize with people who don't have a lot of money because from our story another reason I wanted to show it was we started with nothing and worked into what we have today by working around water septic and electric and starting with really cheap property you don't have to be poor to live off grid but those folks that have a 400 000 house in The Burbs and they want to sell the house and they want to move somewhere to um to be off-grid to be more self-reliant that's that's legit it's its own thing but it's not my experience and the folks that watch my channel see channels like that and they're like how in the world are they making this work when viewers see a lot of money in off-grid videos it's immediately people want to ask questions and being that I've always tried to answer as many questions as I can I guess I'm just like I said hypersensitive to it some of these channels have amazing things given to them and then folks see off-grid Channels with amazing equipment and expensive whatever tractors and Sawmills and whatever and then uh I'm the guy that actually answers comments and I I get to field these comments how do these people afford it personally I think and this is just kind of a this is my own opinion regarding YouTube if you're a channel I would buy anything that you want to Deep dive into and review and then you're just not beholden you you don't you don't have any obligation to you could be free to say what you actually think I just think that's a better way to go Crimson Acres Homestead writes that was pretty judgmental and arrogant video I've been watching you for years and there's no real definition of off-grid it's relative to each individual so your idea of what constitutes off-grid isn't any better than any others I was disappointed I'm paraphrasing a little here I could see where you would think that I'm uh kind of being a snob about the way Brooke and I experienced living off grid and how we approach it and how we would how we would describe it the problem I have is omission people need to be in my opinion nobody needs to do anything but in my opinion people need to be really upfront about what is actually going on the minutia behind the scenes because omissions lead to questions and if those folks aren't answering those questions like how do you afford this you know where's your money coming from how can you get all this how can you have this amazing Instagram type of lifestyle and people see those and they just they can't put two and two together people can't make the mental jump of how you could get from you know moving off grid and then all of a sudden you're you're living like royalty so what I told Crimson Acres Homestead was some off-grid channels mask the idea that living off-grid can be an affordable way to stay out of debt and get a foothold in the world for folks that are starting out that's my issue it's the lack of transparency that's disheartening to people who are looking for clarity and answers a viewer named number one Pappy writes I have respect for anyone who goes out and builds their own Homestead I really do what I don't understand is why there's this running attitude that having running water and electricity is a negative thing well it's definitely not a negative thing I don't endorse off-grid living and I don't disparage people from it we have a house here that we've had for 10 years old farmhouse it's got water and sewer and electric we're here most of the year we also have a few cabins that are totally off-grid and when we go when we go up like to Alaska we have a lot of friends up there we we used to do a lot of business up there and we're completely off grid there we could have power at our log cabin in Alaska there is power up that mountain but we just choose not to have it we don't need that bill eight months out of the year when we're not there and we don't really miss having the power when we're there because of Microsystems like we talked about before a little bit of solar little LED lights for later on in the season a generator to run power tools that's basically all we would need now if we were there year round we might hook up to the grid you know I'm not a zealot or a Salesman or an apostle for off-grid living I see it as a way to to get ahead in this world so you don't end up in that trap of debt and a nine to five job that barely pays for the debt you know what it's like that's just the story of the world right now to me I've I've always looked at off-grid living as is a shortcut as long as you're willing to sweat and learn and work hard you can have a lot of stuff in a very short amount of time time that might otherwise take you 30 years to pay for and if you just went out and got a loan from A bank bank's never going to loan you money to to build an off-grid house the bank might loan you money to build a house by the time you're done with like a construction loan you're going to owe just as much as if you would have probably just bought a house so I don't think that's the answer for everybody and the bank's not going to loan you money for swampy land or land that doesn't have anything on it you know you're probably going to spend 35 to 50 percent in a down payment for a bank to finance raw land to you so if you're just starting out I like the raw land and build up the off grid really makes it doable because you can look at cheaper property that's going to cost less money to get into and property is always cheaper where there's no power there's no water there's no infrastructure and as long as you're willing to work around that uh you can kind of shortcut the process to establishing yourself in you know just in life you know honestly I've kind of come to realize myself that uh I'm a hoarder I have to admit it I'm a hoarder I don't have I don't have a house just just full of papers and packed up with junk I'm not that kind of a hoarder I'm a free time hoarder I want to hoard as much of my own free time as I possibly can and I want to hoard as much of my own my own Freedom as I can in the time that I'm here on this Earth so that's kind of the context behind the video I put out a few days ago why I'm passionate about people seeing the reality of off-grid living the potential of off-grid living and it may be more important than anything the why why you would actually go that route and how it would benefit you some people assumed that I was picking on their favorite off-grid Channel honestly I don't have a problem with any off-grid channel out there so long as they're transparent so people can see that well these people are are filthy rich but they and they had most of a house paid off that was worth three hundred thousand dollars when they moved they had all that money to play with that's honest that's that's right up front that would at least clear things up so people don't watch that those channels and think how in the world can these folks afford this because this is this is a topic that has to do with people's lives honestly if you want to just be untransparent in in another area in YouTube I could care less but if somebody's going to sell off their house or if they're going to put part of their life savings into a new Venture I think the transparency needs to be there that's why when it comes to off-grid I have a problem with channels that omit where they're getting their money and all their fancy stuff because it drives other folks nuts they want to know how to make this happen from where they are that's the problem you know I mentioned a helicopter in my previous video that was actually Homestead rescue that's a television show Marty Rainey is the star of that show and in the episode I saw they're trying to drive this low to building supplies across like a like a five foot deep raging River I mean it was hairy it's a really good way to drown right in the truck tips and anyway they end up solving the problem by helicoptering the building supplies to the site ridiculous right now Marty rainey's making television and you got to take television with a grain of salt and I'm not even I'm not down on Marty Rainey he seems like a super nice guy I think he's just a genuinely good person because it's just not realistic it might be good entertainment and it was it was it was a pretty interesting episode but on the other hand in the real world you know no nobody gets their two by fours delivered with a helicopter and from my perspective there's always been a financial aspect to it it's always been a way to get ahead not an uh and not a goal to achieve off-grid independence but a way to a way to not be stuck with 30 years of bills one of the YouTubers people brought up quite a bit with Sean James he builds cabins I build cabins and he's huge in the space so there's no way you can't know who the guy is John James is the guy that um he's always working with his hands he's always shooting long-form content it's obvious that he's doing all the work himself and I have no problem with Sean James because realistically he shows people the process of what it looks like to do all these different woodworking projects building log cabins and there's really no disconnect as far as how a viewer could get from where a viewer is to where Sean James is by a little piece of property that's remote start peeling logs that's basically you could basically be doing the same thing there is no there's no giant money disconnect and as far as the other off-grid channels that were mentioned honestly I need to be upfront with you guys I don't watch off-grid content as a rule uh I just mentioned Sean James I've probably seen 15 minutes of Sean James material in the seven years he's been out I just don't watch stuff that's in my field if I'm building something I get all the off-grid building that I ever want I definitely have no appetite to watch other people build cabins in the woods I subscribe to channels like um I watch Scotty Kilmer's Automotive Channel I watch Chris fix he's an automotive Channel I think Scotty's a hoot and Chris fix does the best work in that space uh I watched motorcycle channels I watched a lot of stuff from RevZilla they're pretty good uh I watch fortnite which is a guy named Ryan clufftonger up in Canada those guys do amazing film work and they're kind of almost like a MythBusters for motorcycles and motorcycle products really awesome Channel other than that I I subscribe to my brother's Channel and my wife's Channel and we have some friends nine to five to life there we know those folks are up in the upper peninsula I subscribe to their Channel but as far as like off-grid homesteading cabin building content I never watch a minute of it so if you're asking me you know what do you think of these people there's a lot of couples a lot of couples off grid if you're asking me what do you think of these people or I think these people are awesome and I hate you for disparaging them or I think these people are fake understand that I don't watch any of that stuff when I do see it it's because it's brought to my attention someone will say you know they'll ask me how did these people end up with this or what's you know how do you find a piece of land like that one of the questions I get the most is how do I find an awesome piece of off-grid land I don't think you're ever going to find off-grid land listed as off-grid land it's just land that's far enough out you're off the power system you know you're not going to have city sewer that's for darn sure and you're gonna have to figure out your water your sewer and your electric yourself and if you want to look at properties like that they're always cheaper they're always more private they're generally in nice settings you know you have your pick of cheap properties if you're willing to travel out far enough you lose a little bit in the economic angle just from driving back and forth to a property that's farther away from us an economic Center where you're working but if you want to know what I think of X Y and Z off-grid Channel understand I just don't watch them and I have no problem with anybody that's transparent and maybe a better way to say it is proactively transparent someone who puts the information out there just plain as day so everybody can everybody can see what's really going on when you're watching my channel the off-grid living content on my channel basically what you're getting is you're getting a view into like the Fairbanks Alaska dry Cabin Market because that's basically where I got my ideas for how and why Brooke and I have built stuff off grid and and in our workarounds that's what it's like up there in Fairbanks a lot of marginal land you know when we built our first cabin the average good building lot was a twenty thousand dollar acre and a half lot that's a good lot a marginal lot would be fifteen thousand and we actually bought a six thousand dollar piece of land that was obviously had some permafrost on it you could tell by the trees you could tell by the soil but you can work around permafrost you know you build a gravel pad and you you build a foundation that can be adjustable so for us it was like that's we're kind of funneled into that lifestyle because that's what we could afford and that's the example we had to look at was everything else in the area off-grid living is definitely not a lie the title was a little clickbaity but I wanted to grab people's attention the gist of comments I got is you know who are you to say what's right and what's wrong when it comes to off-grid living and my running response to that was I have no issue with high dollar YouTube channels that have sponsors and get equipment given to them so long as they don't leave those details out and set unreasonable expectations for people looking for ideas in the off-grid space that was the entire Crux of the conversation so if you watched my video the other day and you absolutely loved it thank you so much for the comments if you watched my video and absolutely hated it I'm sorry you took it that way I hope this video clears things up a little and if you if you watch this video and you still hate it you're probably watching the wrong Channel thank you guys so much for hanging out with me my name is Dave Whipple and you've been watching Bush radical and be radical eh see you soon [Music]

Channel: Bushradical

Views: 249,119

Keywords:

Id: n0ZJrRKcIiI

Length: 21min 3sec (1263 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 27 2023