Off Grid Living in 2025

Where is Off Grid Living heading in 2025 and into the next few years.

In 2025, off-grid living is seeing advancements in energy management, sustainable building practices, and community-focused initiatives. The Australian government is offering rebates on home batteries through the Cheaper Home Batteries Program, encouraging off-grid solar system adoption. New technologies like perovskite solar cells offer more efficient and affordable solar power solutions. Also, community developments are emerging with micro-grids and shared resources, promoting collaborative living.

Many of us started our juorney towqards an off grid life style a few years back and are now at the next stage of living more sustainablely, a term ofetn refered to as homesteading.

Homesteading is a lifestyle focused on self-sufficiency, often involving subsistence agriculture, food preservation, and creating goods for personal use or sale. It emphasizes a closer connection to food production, reducing reliance on external sources, and living a more sustainable and intentional life.

Growing gardens to feed us is another area that requires lots of reseach. Soil types, plants that thrive together, while others that have the opposite effect. The most important information I lerant was to plant native bush tucker trees, especially those which the birds and other native animals on your property prefer. By doing thidds they have a food source and will leave your fruit and nuts trees alone. Example: The parrots that visit our place love pigeon pea, which is easy to grow and adds excellent nutrients to the soil. They have stopped going after my apples now as they prefer the pigeon pea.

Avocado trees were another pain for me. I planted so many before I stopped following any advice and just put them in a hole in ground at a few different locations. I found the location they like and they are growing great now.

So 10 years down the track I now grow only what we eat as well as chicken food and bush tucker for the animals. We have well established fruit, citrus and nuts trees producing well every year. As herbs are important to us for culinary and medicinal purposes we have invested a lot of time growing these as well.

My point is put your energy where it is most usseful.

This next stage looks different for each of us depending on our needs, property size and finances. I tried keeping animals too early without enough knowledge and that was not a successful venture. Expensive and I choose the wrong animals for my property, and without enough fencing.

Some animals are easier to look after and some require specialised services. Chickens are a popular choice as a first animal. There are so many varieties and once again some are designed for egg laying and others to be fluffy and pretty. I choose the easy egg layers, isa browns and we have had amazing success with no disease. They are still laying 4 years later and all year round.

Keeping goats can be a rewarding experience, offering benefits like weed control and milk, cheese  or meat, depending on breeds, but it also requires careful planning and commitment. Goats are social animals, requiring at least one companion, and need secure fencing to prevent escapes and protect them from predators. They also require a dry, weatherproof shelter, proper nutrition, and regular hoof trimming.

Other animals people often have are alpacas, cows or pigs. Each animal needs a different environment to call home along with different food sources.