Charlie and I have become addicted to a “reality” show called Homestead Rescue, of which there are about eight seasons worth of shows on Discovery Channel streaming.
Like a lot of cable shows featuring plain folks going about their lives and dealing with life’s problems, this endeavor appears to be “real” but is actually staged for effect. Nonetheless, the stars of the show (the Raney family members)…i.e. the rescuers…are an interesting group and are very ingenious and big-hearted.
Every episode features a husband and wife, and sometimes their children, who are trying to live off the grid (e.g. no utilities, self-sustaining) in the boondocks…and are failing. Some are in dire straits and some just need some Raney know-how to solve critical issues.
Most of the rescues involve homesteaders who have made poor choices in purchasing their property. It is hard to believe that anyone would put their life savings into the purchase of land that has no water, no access, and is prone to natural disasters like floods and tornadoes and subject to predation by coyotes, mountain lions, and/or bears. It is also difficult to comprehend anyone without basic construction, agronomy, and hunting skills attempting to “live off the land”. And yet there are apparently thousands of these clueless knuckleheads attempting to scrape out an existence in the remote forests and parched badlands of America.
After watching a couple of dozen episodes, it is apparent that succeeding off-grid in the boondocks is a fruitless exercise unless one has access to donated heavy equipment and construction materials. In virtually every episode, the desperate and hapless property owners are miraculously rescued when the Raney clan magically secures the use of a quarter-million-dollar excavator or thousands of dollars of windows, 2×4’s, Conex shipping containers or other essential items needed to essentially “turn water into wine” just happen to materialize in the property’s junk pile.
Charlie likes the characters (the rescuers and the rescues) while I like the creative problem-solving that the Raneys bring to the failing homestead. Regardless of where and how the materials are sourced, the ingenious way that the Raneys solve homestead dilemmas harkens me back to lessons learned in math and earth science classes. I am certainly not mechanically-inclined or creative but, after watching the series for a while, I can envision myself McGuyvering solutions to water and power inadequacies, building cabins, hunting to provide fresh meat, and farming to put veggies on the table.
One thing that I don’t understand is WHY people would choose to live like this.
Sure, it is pretty out in the mountains (note: I’ve done it) and it is possible, with money and a lot of skills (and Raney help) to survive off grid, but it is just an existence, at best. Civilization is not advanced by living in this manner, even if “successful”. Basically, these folks are just turning the clock back a couple hundred years and, in some cases, encouraging their children to do the same.
At the end of every episode, the rescued homesteaders are elated by electricity, water, sewer, shelter, road, and security improvements engineered by the Raney rescue team.
Of course, they had all of those amenities before they chose to move to the wilderness, because mankind strived for thousands of years to create “the grid”.
What is accomplished by tossing that progress into a dumpster?