Off the Grid in a Tiny House with Robin Greenfield — Transcript

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1. 0:00Welcome to the Teeny Greeny.
2. 0:02My name is Rob Greenfield
3. 0:03and this is my off the grid,
4. 0:04in the city, tiny house adventure.
5. 0:07After years of simplifying,
6. 0:09I have gotten down to a debt free
7. 0:10and bill free lifestyle.
8. 0:13I moved here 4 months ago
9. 0:16with only the possessions that fit
10. 0:17on my bike and my trailer
11. 0:19and I bought this house for $950.
12. 0:23And I’ve been living wonderfully,
13. 0:24simply, and healthfully the last 4 months.
14. 0:28Today I'm going to give you a tour
15. 0:31and show you what's going on here
16. 0:33in my off the grid in San Diego, tiny house life.
17. 0:36So first of all, let me show you the house.
18. 0:38Alright, so come on inside.
19. 0:41I was planning on buying something bigger
20. 0:44but I went on Craigslist
21. 0:46and found this listed for $950.
22. 0:49I was going to build my own,
23. 0:50but I just couldn't resist.
24. 0:52It's not quite tall enough to stand in
25. 0:54but by not being able to stand,
26. 0:56I don't spend most my time in here.
27. 0:59This is all 50 square feet of it.
28. 1:02Pretty simple living in here.
29. 1:05All of the woodwork is just refurbished wood.
30. 1:08The shelf I built myself and these as well.
31. 1:11This is a simple mattress for $75
32. 1:14on Craigslist that pulls out.
33. 1:18Yeah, pretty simple on the inside.
34. 1:20This light is powered by the solar panels
35. 1:23which I’ll show you
36. 1:23It’s a 3 watt light bulb.
37. 1:25And my clothes, my books,
38. 1:28and some of my basic necessities are here.
39. 1:31Hardwood floors, repurposed materials
40. 1:34That's the inside but
41. 1:35what's more important is the outside.
42. 1:38A lot in my life revolves around food so
43. 1:40I’m going to take you to the kitchen next.
44. 1:44This is really simple, this is just a little camp kitchen
45. 1:48that I got online used.
46. 1:50The sinks are right here and the water
47. 1:52just drains down Into this 5-gallon bucket.
48. 1:56Here's the refrigerator / cabinet.
49. 1:59All of my food is stored in jars.
50. 2:02I buy all the food in bulk at the local co-op
51. 2:05so that there's no packaging.
52. 2:07I brew my own Kombucha,
53. 2:08sprout a lot on my own things,
54. 2:10and then I do lentils things like that.
55. 2:12Got my fresh vegetables
56. 2:14The amazing thing is this stays cool.
57. 2:17Even the coconut oil doesn't melt
58. 2:22on a warm day.
59. 2:24So this thing is natural refrigeration
60. 2:27with the air that is in the doors.
61. 2:29A kitchen wouldn't be complete without a stove.
62. 2:32This isn't your typical American stove,
63. 2:34this is a rocket stove
64. 2:35built out of a couple dozen bricks
65. 2:38that I found in an alley
66. 2:39And I just use wood
67. 2:41that's fallen from local trees.
68. 2:43And use it to cook up
69. 2:46whatever I want, in my simple pot and pan.
70. 2:48I pretty have oatmeal for breakfast almost
71. 2:51every day. And then lots of things like
72. 2:53veggies, fruits, and grains.
73. 2:56One of my favorite parts about
74. 2:59living off the grid is drinking rainwater.
75. 3:01This is pure water straight from the sky
76. 3:04No chemicals like chlorine or fluoride
77. 3:08This simple Berkey filter that uses
78. 3:12a very natural filtration system.
79. 3:15You simply fill this with a 5-gallon jug
80. 3:21and you don't have to worry about chemicals,
81. 3:25bacteria, protozoa, viruses or anything like
82. 3:28that. But you're probably wondering well
83. 3:29how do I get the rain from out of the sky
84. 3:33into my Berkey? I'll show you
85. 3:35the rainwater harvesting system.
86. 3:38So rainwater harvesting is very simple.
87. 3:41Those are some old 55-gallon drums
88. 3:44that used to have applesauce in them.
89. 3:46Those are some simple gutters that I built.
90. 3:49It’s as simple as channeling the rainwater
91. 3:53from the roof into the gutters and
92. 3:54into the barrels.
93. 3:55There was a huge storm about 2 weeks ago
94. 3:58I managed to collect 200 gallons of water
95. 4:00which for me using
96. 4:01only 2 gallons of water per day
97. 4:03will last me about 100 days.
98. 4:05This is my only source of water.
99. 4:07The average American uses a mind-boggling
100. 4:1080 to 100 gallons of water each day.
101. 4:13For me that's a 1 to 2 months
102. 4:15supply of water for everything I need.
103. 4:18200 gallons is what I have now in May
104. 4:22and that's going to last me
105. 4:24probably till the next time it rains
106. 4:25towards the end of the summer.
107. 4:27So for me it's important to use water wisely.
108. 4:30That 200 gallons is used
109. 4:32like more than 200 gallons of water though
110. 4:35because I use every bit 2 to 3 times
111. 4:38For example first I wash my hands with it,
112. 4:42then wash dishes with it, and then
113. 4:44it goes down into this 5-gallon bucket
114. 4:47which I will then use
115. 4:49to the water the plants or put in the compost.
116. 4:52Behind me you'll see my bathroom which cost me about
117. 4:55$50-$60 to put together.
118. 4:58Again, very simple
119. 5:00So this is a simple compost toilet.
120. 5:04When you have to go, you just sit down, you go.
121. 5:08It goes into a 5 gallon bucket
122. 5:11which then after you go,
123. 5:13you just cover it with leaves.
124. 5:15Amazingly the leaves take care of the smell.
125. 5:19Then once this bucket is full,
126. 5:22you take it and you put it in the compost.
127. 5:26In the bathroom, we have the sink area
128. 5:30which is just simply a pitcher with water.
129. 5:33You can use here to freshen up, wash your hands.
130. 5:35And here are my simple bathroom items
131. 5:39which isn't much.
132. 5:41A mirror, toilet paper from a CVS dumpster
133. 5:45because they throw away all sorts of stuff.
134. 5:48And that’s the simple bathroom.
135. 5:51So, let’s head to the compost.
136. 5:53So this is the compost
137. 5:55which is fundamental part of living
138. 5:57an earth friendly lifestyle.
139. 5:58Rather than sending stuff to the landfill
140. 6:00or to the treatment facilities.
141. 6:02I'm taking care of it right here on the spot
142. 6:05and turning things back into soil.
143. 6:07The black tarp is to keep the moisture in
144. 6:09since this is a dry area.
145. 6:11What you see here
146. 6:14was originally food waste,
147. 6:17human waste, and yard waste.
148. 6:19The amazing thing, there's no foul smell
149. 6:23and if you are doing compost right
150. 6:25even with humanure, there won't be a smell.
151. 6:27This is new to me but I'm amazed at
152. 6:31just how fine it is.
153. 6:34Smell’s like Earth!
154. 6:35For the last 4 months living here
155. 6:37I’ve been buying food at the farmers market,
156. 6:40the co-op, and doing dumpster diving.
157. 6:44Especially for my fruits and veggies,
158. 6:47but soon i'll be growing my own food.
159. 6:50These are called wicking bed gardens.
160. 6:52And their great for drought tolerant gardening.
161. 6:56I live here in San Diego where
162. 6:58we don't have a ton of water.
163. 6:59So basically how this works
164. 7:01is you water through this little pipe here on top
165. 7:04and that fills a reservoir below.
166. 7:07That's basically rocks like this
167. 7:09and burlap over that.
168. 7:11The water wicks up through the burlap
169. 7:14into the soil and then waters the plants.
170. 7:17I have a couple a basils growing right now.
171. 7:20I'll be starting to grow food probably this weekend
172. 7:24and soon this will be covered
173. 7:27in high quality organic greens mostly.
174. 7:32You’ll notice that there's not many things
175. 7:35around the yard I need electricity for.
176. 7:38I've got my computer, bike lights, headlamp,
177. 7:43and the light inside the house
178. 7:45and maybe a few other small things but
179. 7:47I just don't use much electricity.
180. 7:49I just use good old fashioned manpower and
181. 7:52nature to a large extent.
182. 7:55But I do a couple a solar panels to charge
183. 7:57the things that I am using.
184. 8:00These are two solar panels
185. 8:02and they charge simple batteries
186. 8:04that I then use to charge what I need.
187. 8:07My computer, my bike lights, my headlamp, and my light inside.
188. 8:11And one of my favorite parts of the day
189. 8:14is sitting in my birds nest.
190. 8:15I just sit up here and read my book or
191. 8:17eat my oatmeal, do some writing,
192. 8:22and just sit and take in the beautiful ocean view.
193. 8:25Life is pretty simple. Life is pretty good.
194. 8:32I don't have a cell phone.
195. 8:33I got rid of that 4 or 5 months ago
196. 8:35and I don't have internet here by choice.
197. 8:37The reason being is that when I’m right here
198. 8:40I'm extremely connected to my surroundings
199. 8:42And disconnected from the computer
200. 8:44and the phone and all the stresses of life.
201. 8:48So when I do need to use the Internet
202. 8:50or get in touch with people
203. 8:52I hop on my bike, open my gate
204. 8:55and I head out to a cafe or to the library
205. 8:59and I can choose when to be connected
206. 9:03and when not to.
207. 9:15For Inspiration to live
208. 9:18Happy Healthy and Free
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