Today at NOON MST, step away from the fluorescent lights, emails, and reheated leftovers and join us for a relaxed mid-day livestream — Off-Grid Talk with Melodious.
Broadcasting straight from the New Mexico desert at Plateau Hame de Colquhoun, this isn’t a podcast, and it isn’t a lecture. It’s more like sitting outside with friends while solar panels hum, coffee brews, and dogs supervise absolutely everything.
We’ll be talking about: • real off-grid living • solar life and daily challenges • RV and desert living • weird stories from the middle of nowhere • whatever the dogs decide is important
Bring your lunch. Bring your coffee. Or just bring your need to mentally escape work for a little while.
**Living Off-Grid: Answering Common Questions About Water, Showers, and Life in the Desert**
One of the most common questions we receive is, *”How do you get water?”* The answer is simple: we haul it. Typically, we fill up four 5-gallon water jugs at Twice the Ice in town. In the winter, this lasts us about four days; in the summer, we refill every other day, depending on usage and the season.
During summer, water usage increases due to higher temperatures and more outdoor activities. While we’ve hauled up to 300 gallons at a time before, it’s tough on our 1984 F250 truck. With its 7.0L diesel engine, the truck can handle the weight, but the wear and tear on suspension over rugged roads make it impractical. The cost of repairs would outweigh the convenience, especially since most of that water would go toward showers.
### Why Not Install a Well? Drilling a well is far beyond our budget. Wells in this area are incredibly expensive due to the depth required. One neighbor drilled 1,000 feet, faced multiple priming issues, and spent a small fortune on the project.
### What About Water Catchment? In theory, water catchment sounds great. In practice, living in the desert makes it less feasible. Rainfall here is sparse and unreliable. One of our neighbors installed a catchment system on their Earthship but eventually uninstalled and sold it because it wasn’t worth the effort.
Many in the area use cisterns to store hauled water, which is something we’ve considered. We currently have the capacity to store up to 1,000 gallons using IBC totes, which is sufficient for our needs for now.
### How Do We Handle Dishes? We wash dishes much like anyone else: heating water on the stove, using dish soap, and scrubbing in the sink. Some people in off-grid setups use baking soda for “dry washing,” but that doesn’t feel effective to us. We’ve also tried products like Dawn’s dry wash soap, but it was expensive and didn’t leave the dishes feeling clean. We prefer the tried-and-true method of hot water and soap.
### Why Don’t We Show More of Ourselves in Videos? While these posts and videos share insights into our life, we try to keep certain aspects of our personal lives private. Our content focuses on the campground, the desert lifestyle, and our experiences. We’ve tried featuring ourselves more, but honestly, we lead a simple life. Like everyone else, we have ups and downs—fighting, laughing, getting sick, and loving. We find the beauty of nature around us to be far more captivating than our day-to-day routines.
### How Do We Shower? We’ve shared a video about where we shower, which is usually every other day. While some people stretch it to once a week, we find that even every other day is pushing it. As soon as we figure out a better way to haul water, we plan to complete our off-grid shower setup.
### Staying Warm in the Desert Winter Another frequent question is, *”How do you stay warm?”* We use a large Buddy Heater connected to a 20lb propane tank. For safety reasons, we don’t run it while we sleep. Instead, we use it in the evenings before bed and for a few hours in the morning to cut the chill. At night, we stay cozy under blankets, with the added warmth of our dogs. We’ve also installed smoke and CO2 detectors for safety.
### Have More Questions? We hope this blog answers some of the most common questions about living off-grid in the desert. If you’re curious about something else, feel free to leave a comment or send us a message. We’re always happy to share more about our unique lifestyle.
Thought I’d share a quick video of the cattle paying us a visit this morning and having to chase them away from the RVs. Watch how “difficult” it is to drive them off (said sarcastically)!
Ka-Hoon Campground and Event Center 