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The original was posted on /r/offgrid by /u/TurkeySwiss on 2024-09-04 00:39:37+00:00.

Recently read a post on here from a guy whose girlfriend left him and he was struggling to keep everything going on his own. That made me think back a couple of decades: I’d just discovered Backwoods Home Magazine and dreamed of going off-grid. (I am also a product of the 90s “separatist” movement, so that’s always in the back of my mind.)

We finally got a place out in the country and got a few animals. We were still grid-tied, but we were raising a garden, trying to start an apple orchard and cutting wood along with the animals. It was full-time and I learned to hate it. We couldn’t take any vacations, no weekend trips, nothing. We had nobody that would take care of anything for us. Thankfully, that kept us from going too deep down the rabbit hole.

Kids grew up, animals started dying off and I gave up the dream. I still come to groups like this to see who’s making it and how long they last. Nobody I knew from back in the day have lasted. They’re all back in town. We’re still in the woods but have no garden, the apple trees didn’t make it, we’re nearly out of chickens and we don’t burn wood. We’re basically city folks living among the trees.

How many of you in this sub have given up? Am I the only one