Jill Redwood lives in East Gippsland, Australia where she built her house almost 30 years ago. She prefers to be really self-sufficient, having an orchard, a garden with vegetables and an animal farm which provide almost everything she needs on a daily basis, without having to frequently drive one hour and a half to the nearest town. Moreover, with regard to energy and water supply, she uses solar panels and a waterwheel.
Living entirely off-grid, on around $80 a week and surrounded only be animals, Jill happily says: „what more do I need?”
For more details on Jill’s extraordinary story, check out the video bellow:
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I love this story and Jill Redwood is living my dream life! She is very inspiring to me!! I would love to be able to just sit and talk with her about living off grid and in Australia!!! Thank you for sharing her story!
What does she need the $80 dollars a week for? Taxes??
She lives off the grid, not surviving on roots and rainwater. :]
Could be fuel.
Weed. Just weed.
There are expenses related to raising animals and growing food. Clothes, shoes and outerwear don’t last forever. Personal hygiene products..like the toilet paper in the outhouse as seen in the video. Cleaning supplies for her home and clothing. Does she have a car – those require fuel, maintenance, registration and license to drive. Items related to her health care needs? Insurance on her property? Taxes as you mentioned.She buys some food items that she mentions. Supplies for canning and preserving food.
So she is living without city power (the grid) otherwise, just another mostly self-sufficient hobby farmer.
What a wonderful life! So peaceful. I wish I could do that.
I’m in the process of building an off the grid cob house. I’m inspired by seeing another woman feeling the same way I do about the world. Thank you Jill for sharing your story.
I live on $80 per week but still on the grid living on a boat
Lovely, but where does she get the $80 a week? I get that there are always some expenses, but living in this way it might be tricky to actually earn some cash – selling products or opening up for tourism..?
I loved this story! What a smart, resourceful woman! She probably has some sort of
retirement income coming in. The place she has created was not cheap to put together
(water wheel, solar panels, etc.). My one question is about the outhouse. If it is only
for poo, then where does the liquid waste (pee) go?
She has to feed the animals and buy things she cannot grow.
Yes – have lived off grid for 21 years raising 2 kids in the process. In Maine, to provide for healthy kids and animals, alike: $80/ week is just a drop in the bucket! During the winter months, there is only about 4-5 hours each day of decent solar charge, there are wood stoves to constantly fill, to keep our log home a bit warm, and water to keep thawed out, for outdoor animals. These animals sometimes require food, that will not be grown during at least 7-8 months out of the year, and veterinarian bills, to keep them comfortably healthy and well bred, for future income. Not costing anything, unless grain is needed: there are days, during winter months, that the temp will be lucky to see the single numbers above zero, and those temps could be -20 to -35, during the night. (there is always an animal or bird, to be provided for, when they are using all and more, of their natural reserves, just to stay alive)
Besides taxes, there’s automobiles, and doctors, if we want to have our children socialized, in a relatively decent way. There is always something to spend money on, for sure, but living off the land, or at least “with” the land, as we are, has so many benefits! (Btw, on the previous outhouse question: the pee, goes into the soil/ is absorbed into the ground. Solid waste is best controlled with wood ashes, as well as wood shavings- to help keep odor down and increase speed of composting) For now, another cold time of year, and solid 5 gallon ice buckets in the horse stalls, which must be switched over to warm water, at least twice per day: is now upon us once again. Merry holidays to all.
I live in Maine and would love to learn how to live off the grid. How did you first get started? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Pee is nitrogen and then turns to ammonium after 24 hrs. So if you put water in a bucket and pee in it then in the morning you use it in the garden. Most people don’t realise this. You do not need to buy nitrogen fertiliser from garden shops, you produce it for yourself every day!
Please… is Jill Redwood safe from the fires burning in Australia?
Thank you
Thanks for asking Susan. I have only just seen this when someone posted the video again. The fires were ferocious, but i stayed to defend and thankfully, weeks of prep paid off. I lost my first home (bark hut) and a garden shed, all external fences and a few other things like the pumphouse etc. The biggest loss of course were hundreds of thousands of hectares of native forest and billions of animals.
I still have my home as pictured and all farm animals. It will take a while to repair/replace the losses, but the forests could take a hundred years to be restored – if another fire doesn’t come through…
Jill
Loving this Jill.
What more do you need. . . My spoon wind chime! When get a moment will post picture on my profile.
Plus, a visit from Ben Fogle would be good and allow us to hear more about your story.