We are a young, child-free by choice couple. We live totally debt-free, including our home. Nothing was given to us, we worked and paid for it all. We lived well within our income, but have still traveled and enjoyed rich lives. For refrence, our household income is less than $70,000 annually.

We have a large 20' x 25' victory garden that we work 4 seasons (Yes, we have winter here) and raise chickens and ducks for eggs and meat. We can and store everything that we do not eat at time of harvest, giving us at least a few months of food security.

We recently began purchasing beef by the 1/2. This lead us to think about freezer and refrigeration reliability in relation to power outages. What started out as a search for a DC freezer and a single panel & inverter system quickly morphed into us buying a fully home sustaining (minus HVAC) off-grid solar system. It can accept grid power, should our system go down, but it does not "sell" excess power down line to the electric company as a "grid-tied" system would. It has a battery bank and it can store power for up to 72 hours of use in case of panel issues. We plan to expand it to 5000w capability within the next 6 months, possibly within the next 3 months.

We are not doomsdayers. We are not nutty preppers. We like being self reliant, prepared, knowing where our food comes from and most importantly, we enjoy the homestead lifestyle as a hobby that keeps us active, involved and working together.

We don't live way out in the boonies, or far out in the countryside. Most people who meet us would never even know that we have these tendencies.

We are well armed, but of course, no one would know or suspect that.

Not sure why I'm posting this, but we are proud of what we have accomplished, and we don't do any other online communities or social media, so I guess I just wanted to share with some people I respect, and perhaps, do just a little bit of bragging.

Carry on, fellow centipedes.