Today, I’m going to
talk about recreational uses of off the grid properties. Most of us
are interested in moving towards an off the grid lifestyle, but one
thing that’s commonly overlooked is all the recreational
opportunities that are available on rural land. There are a lot of
things we can do with rural that we are living on, that we have our
vacation cabin on, that we’re hunting on, or that we are just using
for campaign and other purposes. 

What are some of the
things we can do for recreation?

Purely recreation and
community building are a whole lot. Here are some things that you may
have thought of, but maybe you haven’t thought of, one nice idea; a
trail. Most of the acres is owned by home standards is quite large,
you know, definitely over an acre.

Most people are looking
at five to ten acres or larger lots. In subdivisions that are
beautiful that have different scenic areas, you could put a trail on
the perimeter of your property that connects maybe to scenic spots or
road or you could work with other neighbours and do some sort of
connective trail throughout the subdivision having some of the trail
on your lot, some on the roads that go through the sub and some on
other people’s lots, who knows, maybe just do it on your own for
yourself and you don’t share it with your neighbours and you make
your own private trail, just for exercise and roaming around. 

There’s a nice idea for
improving your lot that doesn’t take a lot and it’s a community
building effort also that can help you meet your neighbours, or you
can make an outdoor shooting range those of you are into skeet
shooting.

You could build a nice
tree house, that’s kind of fun. Not a place to live, but kind of a
fun thing to hang out in when you’re visiting the lawn, maybe your
camping maybe the kids playing a type of thing, that’s fun.

Hiking and cross country
skiing trails; those are a little bit different than the trails that
I mentioned in the beginning of the presentation and those trails are
meant to get people somewhere. 

These trails are meant
just for exercise, like skiing. Right? Hiking on your lot, right? So,
design the lot if you get snow during the winter. A little bit of
elevation changed from mostly flat for cross country, skiing and
cetera. So, a couple of different considerations when designing a
cross country skiing trail.

What else can you do
recreationally? You can put a bowl on; you might have a waterfront,
you might have a lake or a river, and you can build your own boat
lounge.

You could use it as a
spiritual sanctuary and build nothing, right? 

What else can you do
recreationally?

Right. Some people plan
to venue, not a commercial venue, but just for fun, you know, just
for fun as an alternative to gardening project, right?

What else would be fun
for you?

Oh, walking trails we
discussed before, but some subdivisions even go as far as to paving
portions of a walking trail, turning it into a biking trail. So you
can upgrade all the way to a biking trail with you, and your
neighbours if you guys want to do some biking around the subdivision
and nice idea. It really adds value too.

Outdoor photography
studio.

What else? I’m just
scanning, I have a long list and I’m skipping most of them, of
course, you know, to park your RV, your trailer. If you’re not
going to build, you may want to bring your trailer out there, your
RV.

Probably a couple more.
Let’s see what else we can come up with here.

Education, I mean,
education is a nice one. You know, if you know off the grid living,
you can bring people out here on the lot and teach it. I mean, your
friends and family, right? And you could make a, you could even
donate some time to a local boy scout troop or girl scout troop and
teach off the grid living skills for a few hours on your lot. Very
valuable for you and the people you teach.

And then, of course,
basic recreation like four wheel driving, snowmobiling, dirt biking,
mountain, biking, paintball tournaments; I mean, if you’ve got five
more acres, you can do all that. Right? 

A lot of the more obvious
off the grid recreational opportunities revolve around, you know,
four wheeling and snowmobiling, dirt biking and that kind of stuff.

And, tiny houses are fun
but that gets more into actually developing and building the lot
which is the subject of other presentations.