Off the Grid?

Today the propane truck pulled up and filled our reservoir tank, so we're at full capacity and ready for whatever may come in terms of cold weather.  Back when I lived in the suburbs, I used to imagine what life would be like "off the grid" and how nice it would be to have energy efficiency that would remain uninterrupted should the shit hit the fan and our nation's or just our area's power grid went down.

A great many people put a lot of time, energy and money into assuring they are self-sufficient in case of a disaster.  Any episode of "Doomsday Preppers" will bear that out. While I think it's a good thing for everyone to be prepared to survive independently for a few weeks in case of a disaster, I think people who fantasize they are independent enough to last longer than a few months are fooling themselves.

That's because some infrastructure is necessary, even for those who consider themselves "off the grid." We're off the grid in terms of propane for a few months, but eventually we would need a refill, and it would take a truck to bring it up here to where we are. If you have solar panels and battery storage, you're only independent until the day something breaks and you need a replacement part.  Because ee're on propane here, we will always have hot water, but in order to have heat we need the electric blower that runs the furnace.  We have a solar oven and it works great, but it's our second one -- our dog broke the glass cover on the first one, rendering it inoperable.  You can run things for a long time if you have, say, a generator, but eventually you will need to go out and find fuel to run it.  Almost no one is completely independent, and even those who are can only be that way as long as they are fairly young and manage to live the rugged life without sustaining any serious injury or illness.You get the point.  

I used to think it was possible for many of us to be independent for any "long emergency" that might come down the pike, but after living country life for a few months, I've become more of a realist.  If we can last a few weeks without infrastructure, I'll be happy and consider us a success in the prepping department.  Any more than that and we would need support.  Which probably goes for any of us.