So our new house will be off the grid. To clarify, that means we will be on all solar. We will, however, have regular phones and even DSL. (When we found out this was possible, we regarded it as a sign from the heavens that this was meant to be. Most places in Portal/Rodeo do not have DSL.)

We have talked to a few people who have solar and even looked at the set up. It doesn’t look bad at all. We did get costs on running power, but it’s fairly expensive ($16,000/mile plus) and really doesn’t seem necessary. And as one future neighbor pointed out, not running power is likely to keep future development out.

In telling people about our new adventure, it’s been interesting to gauge reactions. One thing I didn’t anticipate is that saying we would be “off the grid” would cause people (even those who know us) to question our sanity. In fact, after I told a few people, I stopped telling others. Or I just said we’ll be solar. That seemed less troubling to folks.