Camper wanting to leave the Campsites

[Manda60]

Hello I live at a campsite in Southern California and I am looking to start homesteading. I really want to learn how to get started on transitioning to complete off grid living or getting back to nature. I am hoping I could get some great tips on how to leave the campsite living and strikeout on my own living off the land.

Please send me some tips and ideas on how to get started for the least amount of money and the first steps I should take.

Thank you
Hope to hear from all of you soon.
Manda60

[ET1 SS]

Have you considered apprenticing at an Organic farm?

Not all of them are off-grid, but some are. Good way to learn the skills. In some areas these programs lead toward owning your own farm.

[gibbsgirl]

If you're planning to do it living in your camper, I'd start playing around with solar to see if you can get a system running on the roof that is good enough for you to maintain without being hooked to campground power.

Dad lives in an rv at our place. His camper skirt is a must have in winter. And he has his own propane tank and septic at his site on our place. The lines are connected 24/7 and its much more convenient and economical to do that. He also changed his lights to LEDs. Had to hunt for them but it's made a difference.

I wouldn't recommend living in a camper though. Stuff breaks on them constantly, and dealers suck at handling it. He's had 3, all bought from a dealer, two were new. There's a real wear and tear issue when you use them full time. That's been our experience anyway.

[texican]

Reading is your friend... one could educate themselves quite nicely, by reading for days in the relevant forums...

[Bellyman]

I agree with the idea of seeing what you can do with your camper. It might be a good learning experience for you. There are quite a few campers out there that have added some solar panels and some deep cycle batteries to be able to have enough electricity to live decently without any electrical hookups at all. It's not enough to run an air conditioner but just about anything else, including such things as an energy star 120volt refrigerator.

The camper also offers a lot of things that will operate on 12 volts and a lot of things that will operate on gas. Granted, you can't make your own propane but it does give you the potential to be less "connected".

Other things the camper might give you good experience with, if it hasn't already, is the idea of water conservation. People living in typical homes often use 10 (+) times the amount of water that an RVer typically uses. The hot water heater is often 6 gallons and a shower will often be in short runnings of water, enough to get wet, shut off, and enough to rinse off and done. With some effort, a decent shower might only take a couple gallons of water, not 20 or 30 or more. A toilet flushing might only take a few cups of water rather than a gallon or more.

It's not all that uncommon for people to live in an rv while they build their homestead so it may be something you'd want to hang on to, depending on the quality of what you have now. Some of the cheaper RVs really can turn into money pits whereas some of the higher quality ones really can last a good long time when given decent care. My wife and I have lived RVs for almost 10 years now. They've not been the most expensive ones out there but they've been far from the cheapest. We went with a bit higher quality, bought used, and they've done well for us.

Good luck!

[InvalidID]

There are a few really off grid campsites in So Cal. I won't post the one I know here as it's not really the kinda place we'd want to discuss on HT... But there are some nicer spots down there. You might try it out and see what you think about off grid in the camper.

You'd save a few bucks camping at those sorta spots and get a real lesson on making do as well.

[Grandmotherbear]

Ide suggest you start with a good foraging book and field trips and some edibles in containers. If you are in a HOT climate, I suggest some 2-3 gallon pots planted to Malabar Spinach and Yardlong Beans. You'll need to trellis them. a 5 gallon pot will grow hyacinth beans, which ARE edible, but when mature require extensive soaking. You might plant some Chaya trees, moringa and Katuck in 10 gallon pots and keep them trimmed small. Those 3 trees are the most nutritious plants in the world. High protein, iron, calcium, Vitamin C. Chaya needs to be cooked in 2 changes of water to reduce hydrocyanides, makes a great southern-style greens pot. You can read about tropical(hot zone) vegetables at www.echonet.org

[Nimrod]

What is your goal? If it is to live off grid on a homestead and be self sufficient, it is probably not going to happen. You will need an outside job or source of income to pay taxes and buy food. If you are tied to a job it may limit where you can live.

There are free campsites in many state forests and BLM land but they usually limit your stay so you can't live there. They also frown on you gardening on their land.

I suggest you camp for free where you can and only move if a ranger tells you you have to. Then move to another free campsite and repeat. Around here it costs $12 a night for a campsite in a developed campground. That's about $360 a month. If you can live in your RV in a free campsite for several years you can save up your money and pay cash for a piece of land.

Once you own a piece of land, you can build a small cabin, garden, raise critters and do whatever makes you more self sufficient.

The goal for me is to learn the skills it takes to be self sufficient so that I can be if necessary. I really don't want to be self sufficient because it would mean a drastic drop in my standard of living. You need to figure out what your goals are and how to get there from where you are now.

[Buffy in Dallas]

There are tons of you tube video channels about people living full time in their RV. Some live in a park, some boon-dock and some have land. Search you tube!

[thestartupman]

You will need to decide if you are willing to move out of CA, or if you are determined to stay there. CA has high land cost, taxes, and rigid building codes, and permits. There are some states with no building permits, and low taxes, although the climate may not be as comfortable as you are use to.