I grew up in Marner’s Creek, a small town in the Ohio River Valley — the kind of place with one Main Street and two stoplights. I write Off Grid Journey Life from the suburbs now, forty-five minutes and a completely different world away, and I’m not going to pretend that distance doesn’t bother me.
My grandfather Earl ran a working cattle farm outside town, mostly without modern conveniences, well into the 2000s, out of sheer stubbornness. Some of my clearest childhood memories are from that farm — kerosene lamps during storm outages, a hand pump at the old well that still worked after the electric one went in, Earl explaining why you check a fence line before you check anything else. He passed when I was 19. The farm was sold out of the family two years later. I don’t talk about that much, but it’s the real reason this site exists.
Why I Started This Site
I run a landscaping company, started it at 26 out of my truck bed, still going seven years later. I spend my working life outdoors, building things, managing land. Just not my own land, and not for growing anything. That contradiction sat with me long enough that I started digging for real answers on off-grid living, and mostly found forum arguments instead. So I started building the resource I wished existed: I dig through building codes, extension office research, and manufacturer specs, and turn what I find into something a beginner can actually use — so nobody else has to wade through the same swamp of comment-section confidence I did.
How I Work
Every article starts with AI-assisted research, then I go through it myself before anything gets published (see How This Site Uses AI for the full breakdown). I’d rather tell you I don’t know something than repeat it because it sounds right. A number doesn’t make it onto this site until I’ve checked it against a real source.
Who This Site Is For
This site is for anyone standing where I’m standing — daydreaming about land and quiet and doing more with your own two hands, even if the actual move is still just a plan on a napkin. I don’t have a fixed date. I’m saving, scouting land most free weekends with my dog Duke and my truck and trailer, and waiting for the right piece of ground instead of forcing a timeline. I want you to have real numbers and real trade-offs in the meantime, not the polished version that’s easiest to write.
Got a question about an article, or want to know more about how I dig into this stuff? Reach out through the Contact page — I love talking about this more than I probably should.