Fall Edition · October 2026Practical self-reliance, built before it's written

OFF Grid Journal

Off-grid and emergency preparedness guides for the American household: water, power, heat, food and readiness

In a hardware store parking lot at night, an older woman hands a thick worn book to another woman Reader story · Heat & Water "We just didn't think you could handle it on your own." Eight months after Ray died, the whole street got ready for winter without Janet. Then the ice took out the county for four days, and her neighbor knocked on the back door holding two empty jugs. Read Janet's story →

Water

A gray clapboard farmhouse in winter with a rain barrel at the downspout, a covered woodpile and a ground-mounted solar array beside a fenced garden Water Does water work during a power outage? City taps, wells and the first hour Whether your taps keep running depends on where your water comes from, and the first twenty minutes decide how much of it you keep. A blue 55-gallon rain barrel on two concrete blocks under a white downspout, with a metal watering can on the gravel beside it Water How to set up a rain barrel: blocks, spigot, diverter and overflow One barrel, one spigot, two concrete blocks: the setup takes under an hour, and the most common mistake costs nothing to avoid. A first flush diverter made of white PVC pipe teed into a gray downspout, feeding a black rain barrel on concrete blocks through a hose Water First flush diverter: how it works, how to size it and how to build one The first water off a roof carries the worst of what sits on it. A length of PVC pipe and a floating ball keep it out of your barrel. Three black rain barrels on a row of concrete blocks along a wooden fence, joined by black pipe near their base, with a hose running off across the yard Water How to connect rain barrels together so they fill and drain as one tank One barrel proves the system. A chain of three, linked the right way, turns it into a 165-gallon tank with one tap. A white two-bucket gravity water filter with a plastic spigot on a kitchen counter, next to a glass of clear filtered water Water DIY water filter for drinking: the two-bucket ceramic build and its limits Two stacked buckets and a ceramic element turn stored or harvested water into clear water with nothing but gravity. It is half of the job. A blue plastic drum labeled Water Filter - Biosand in a garage, with clear outlet tubing running from its top into a bucket on the floor Water Biosand filter: how it works, how to build one, and what it cannot do A column of washed sand and gravel, kept wet, grows its own filter. It needs weeks to start and daily feeding, and it rewards both.

All 13 water guides →

Power

At night, a woman pulls the starter cord of a portable generator on open gravel, far from a dark farmhouse in the background Power Running a generator in the garage with the door open: why it is never safe Where a portable generator belongs, how far from the house, and the only safe way to connect it to your circuits. A plug-in energy meter in a wall outlet above a wooden desk, with a spiral notebook titled Energy Audit, a pen and hand tools Power What size solar generator do I need? Start with a one-hour watt-hour audit Before you compare boxes, spend one honest hour with a plug-in meter and find the number every backup power decision starts with. A pure sine wave inverter mounted on pegboard in a dim garage, red and black cables running to a 12 V battery on the floor, a lit table lamp plugged in beside it Power What size inverter do I need? Your largest load plus 25%, in pure sine wave Most households need a smaller inverter than they expect, mounted closer to the battery than they expect. A solar charge controller with a blue display mounted on a plywood board on a workbench, red and black cables clipped neatly beneath it Power MPPT vs PWM charge controller: which one your solar setup needs The traffic cop between panel and battery, chosen in one paragraph and sized so it never becomes a fire question. A translucent plastic battery box on a garage workbench, its lid fitted with a fuse block, a round voltmeter and USB and 12 V outlets, red cables along the side Power DIY LiFePO4 battery box: a 12 V power box you can build in an afternoon The reservoir of a home backup power system, built in a sealed box with every circuit on its own fuse. Two 12 V batteries joined with red and black cables on a shelf under a garage workbench, a conduit above them labeled Auxiliary Power, Parallel 12V Power How to connect batteries in parallel without building in a weak link Parallel banks add capacity; sloppy parallel banks add failure modes.

All 12 power guides →

The Off-Grid Handbook by Garrett Dalton

The book behind the Journal

The Off-Grid Handbook

Every guide in the Journal is built on one project from a single printed book: 75 projects across water, power, food, heat and readiness, each one built, tested and photographed by hand by Garrett Dalton, former U.S. Navy SEAL, before it earned a page.

Cost, time and difficulty at the top of every project. A photograph for every step.

See the Handbook

Free shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee

Heat

A small room at night lit by a camping lantern on a stool, with a quilt hung across the doorway, a rug on the floor, a sleeping pad and sleeping bag along the wall and an alarm on the wall by the door Heat How to stay warm without power: heat one room, not the whole house When the furnace quits in an ice storm, the households that stay comfortable are the ones that stop trying to heat the whole house. A basement with gray foam sleeves on the water pipes, a yellow tag hanging from the brass main shutoff valve, a work light on an orange cord and a thin stream dripping from a utility sink faucet Heat How to keep pipes from freezing when the power is out A burst pipe turns a power outage into a flood in the same week. Most of the protection costs about $30 and an afternoon in the fall. A round smoke alarm on a textured hallway ceiling and a rectangular carbon monoxide alarm mounted on the wall beside a wooden door frame Heat Carbon monoxide detector placement: where CO and smoke alarms go, and why battery backup matters The alarm grid is the cheapest life-saving project in the house, and it has to work exactly when the grid doesn't. A dry-stacked red brick rocket stove on a backyard patio with a steaming saucepan on top, flames under the pot, a bundle of thin sticks in the round feed opening, work gloves and a metal bucket nearby Heat DIY rocket stove: how to build one from bricks in an afternoon A pot of water boiling on a double handful of sticks, from a stove you can stack in an afternoon. It is an outdoor appliance, every time. A black wood stove with a fire behind its glass door on a stone hearth pad in front of a brick wall, with a thermometer on the stovepipe, a rack of split logs and a moisture meter resting on a log Heat Wood stove safety: dry firewood, a clean chimney and the 3-foot rule A code-installed wood stove is the gold standard for heat without the grid. The stove itself is safe; the shortcuts around it are not. A red ABC fire extinguisher on a wall bracket beside a kitchen window, next to a fabric pouch labeled Fire Blanket hanging under the range hood above an electric stove Heat The best fire extinguisher for home use, and where to put it Outages pile up flames, fuel, cords and distraction all at once. A mounted extinguisher and a rehearsed plan beat any improvisation.

All 12 heat guides →

Food

A clay pot holding apples, onions and leafy greens under a damp cloth, next to an open cooler packed with frozen water bottles Food How long does food last in the fridge without power? Four hours, and here is what comes after Four hours for the fridge, two days for a full freezer, and a plan for every hour after that. Wooden pantry shelves stocked with bags of rice and beans, boxes of pasta, rows of canned vegetables and beans, and bottles of cooking oil Food A 30-day food supply list built from meals your family already eats Ordinary groceries, in the amounts your household needs, bought a little at a time on normal shopping trips. Wooden crates of potatoes and apples on slatted shelves in a cold concrete basement corner, with a bin of carrots in sand and a wall thermometer Food How to build a root cellar in a basement corner, or in a buried barrel A vented corner of an unheated basement holds potatoes, carrots and apples all winter at 32 to 40°F, and it never draws a watt. A large aluminum stock pot on a wooden kitchen counter beside sealed jars of red and orange jam, a jar lifter and a canning funnel on a towel over a cooling rack Food Water bath canning for beginners: what you can can, and the steps that keep it safe A deep pot, a rack and a tested recipe turn high-acid food into jars that keep on an unpowered shelf. A stovetop pressure canner with a dial gauge on a white gas range, beside sealed jars of green beans and carrots and a handwritten process time and PSI card Food Pressure canning for beginners: low-acid food, the 10-minute vent, and a gauge you can trust The pressure canner is what puts green beans, broth and chili on the storage shelf, and it runs on a short list of rules that never bend. An electric food dehydrator with trays of sliced zucchini and apple rings on a kitchen counter, next to labeled glass jars of dried apple rings and dried green beans Food Dehydrating food for beginners: the right temperatures, oven drying, and storage that keeps Thin slices, steady 140°F air and a one-week check in a glass jar are most of what there is to know.

All 14 food guides →

Readiness

A handwritten first-hour checklist in a plastic sleeve on a kitchen counter, beside a lit camping lantern, a marker and a battery radio Readiness What to do when the power goes out: the first 20 minutes, the first hour, the first days Most of what decides an outage happens before anyone knows how long it will last. Here is the order to do things in. A walk-in pantry with its door open, shelves of canned and boxed food, a kitchen scale on a shelf, and a butcher-block table in front Readiness How much food and water to store for an emergency: a calculator for people, pets and days Every number below comes from one stocking table that fits inside a pantry door. Put in your household and the math is done. A spiral notebook open to a pencil sketch of a neighborhood block with handwritten notes, next to a pencil and a coffee mug by a window Readiness How to make a neighborhood emergency plan in one evening The houses within a hundred yards of yours are the closest help you have in a long outage. Most people have never written down who lives in them. Laminated contact cards with names, phone numbers and a reunion point on a wooden table, beside a red emergency radio and a smartphone Readiness How to make a family emergency communication plan that works when the phones don't In a regional emergency, the call across the country often connects when the call across town cannot. Plan around that. An open zippered binder of documents in clear sheet protectors on a workbench, with a black USB drive lying in front of it Readiness Emergency binder checklist: the documents to copy before you need them After the storm comes the paperwork. A binder of copies that leaves the house in ninety seconds turns weeks of rebuilding records into an afternoon. Two clear plastic tubs labeled 72-Hour Kit on a closet shelf, holding bottled water, cans, flashlights, a radio, a first aid kit, blankets and cash Readiness 72-hour kit checklist: what goes in a three-day emergency kit at home Most of a three-day kit is already in your house. The work is pulling it into two labeled tubs and leaving it alone.

All 13 readiness guides →