Man Living Off-Grid in a Tent on an Island

Jojo has been living off-grid in a tent for 18 months, the last 12 of which have been on an island in Sweden! He has a 5 meter (16-foot) Sibley Bell tent set up on a platform, a wood stove for heat, a multi-fuel stove for cooking, a solar panel and a car battery for charging devices, and buckets for dishes, laundry, and showers.

Over the course of the year he has added some creature comforts to the tent, like a bed platform, a small table and shelves, and even a couch!

He is not self-sufficient for food so he still goes to the grocery store each week for fresh food and to stay busy he explores the lake in his canoe, he plays music on his guitar and piano, and he films YouTube videos about his experience.

In this video, Jojo shares the ups and downs of his lifestyle experiment (spoiler: a lot of them involve wind, winter weather and loneliness) and he gives us a full tour of his tent!

Video Script:: 

one of the reasons why I came to the island was to experience life in this in its rawest form but I also would say I followed some inner calling to get back to nature out of a city out of a job routine and everything and the more time I spend here the more secure I got that this is absolutely the right thing for me to do [Music] I spent quite a bit of my spare time in tents before part of a discount organization which has been part of since I'm 7 years old I think also in leadership and organizing camps and everything and it was quite often that at the end of the camp when after two weeks in a tent you would sit at the campfire the last evening and you would talk with the friends and you will say Oh wouldn't it be nice to have a lifestyle like this for a whole year or for the whole life in general and I thought if I don't do it now I will never do it and yeah that's how I ended up here I have been living in a tent since November 2018 and the first half year I've been living next to a building in a forest somewhere and since May 2019 I am on the island now so the idea was to take away all all things that we as humans created for our comfort but also on a on a social level to see how it feels to really be alone for some time in the beginning I just had the the basic things and all my stuff in in different places in the tent but throughout the year I built more items I built a bed a table shelves now I have a couch as well and and all these things have a purpose and I have it there for a specific reason and and every small change changed quite a lot in my lifestyle in my daily routine I know how beautiful it is to have a bucket of hot water to wash yourself with and the same how beautiful it is to have a friend somewhere and when you talk to that friend an hour or two it's something special and these emotions and everything else every thought it's just more intense out here [Music] welcome to my home it has changed quite a bit since I moved in here one year ago one changed I recently did which was a major improvement was here in the middle there used to be one center pole that holds up the tent since this is kind of the only space where you can stand upright I thought I make this tripod that holds up the tent basically now and I miss the space in the middle and in combination with this I also made a change to the chimney pipe I took this flexible aluminium thing here so that I can move to stomp around and have more space especially in summer when I don't need a stove as often I can just push it summer to the side and I can stand here in the middle and walk around which is really great I have to say one more thing that's very important in a tent I figured out especially when you are out in winter and then fall when it's raining a lot that he needs something to dry and with the stove it's quite comfortable and things also dry over night up here it gets quite warm up there when you spend the whole year camping I can recommend getting a proper mattress but one of these camping mattresses because they will lose air after some time so I have a normal foam mattress here and then the most important part for sleeping outside in winter reindeer skin that's the the warmest thing you can get then I have a down sleeping bag well this is my winter sleeping bag I have a winter sleeping bag for up to minus 30 degrees the coldest during this year was - and I think I use a cotton in lay and then also a blanket I use inside the sleeping bag just to regulate the temperature more more easily and of course also serves as a storage space underneath the couch is probably the most life-changing thing in here before I hide the couch I used this Boulder crash pad on the floor as a cushion to sit on this interesting light improvisation by the way you can use over at the bed or here on the couch the main thing in the tent here is the stove that's really necessary the stove is made as a stove for tents you can carry it around it can dismantle it quite easily and what I really like about this stove is that it has three big glass windows so you don't only get the heat but you get the lights and the feeling of the fire the tent has no insulation basically so when there is no fire inside it gets cold quite fast and in the mornings it always has to temperature as it has outside as well so I don't get up during night to reload the stove I prefer to sleep and with the proper sleeping bags I've had no problem when you talk about the weather because humans like to talk about whether it's definitely has an influence for example now today in this very windless day it's quite unique haven't experienced this in the last weeks or months whenever there is winds I have a hard time sleeping because it's loud in the tent when there's rain you hear it when it's it's cold you have to behave differently it's it's dictates what you can do outside so everything I do is depending on the weather there have been some some rough times especially November December it was quite dark it was rainy wet stormy a lot of wind also days were busy just went out to pee and spent the rest of the day in the tent trying to distract myself but I never had the thought of of leaving sometimes even if it's just one day where there's no wind where it's calm and maybe even if you have to Sun down as well or a starry night just makes up for all the hardship one of the most asked questions what are you doing in winter when the lake starts to freeze but it's not thick enough yet the ice to work on this winter it's didn't freeze that I could walk on it so when it froze only a little bit it was still ok to break through with the canoe so there were some days where it was freezing where I had a channel that was open were a pedalled once a day to keep it open but in this warm winter I think the longest time when there was ice on the lake continuously was three-four days that it melted again then the froze again melted again so it was it was not a proper winter was a disappointment because I really like winter and I really would have liked to be able to just step out of the tent and walk on the flat surface of the lake to get to the mainland I used to canoe a pedal around the island maybe 10 15 minutes depending on the wind and waves and then I walk another 15 to 20 minutes forest and there I have the car I'm not living in self-sufficient here so I buy food I go to the next city once a week twice a week sometimes and buy groceries there on these trips also I have to water canisters that I I feel up for just just for the drinking water because it tastes better than the water from the lake whenever I go shopping in the cities I have contact with people but also I have quite a few people around the lake here that I got to know where I can just stop by for a cup of tea or something but in general it is lonely here on the island it's something I was aware of that it will be like this it's something I don't enjoy I also have to say but just the trade-off the opposite side of this beautiful life here but humans are made to be social beings so I don't think it's healthy to live like this for too long here we have two kitchen with a solid stone plate it it was quite heavy to get here I got it from the shore of the lake quite a bit away the base of the table is just these wood planks that are also used for the bed and the shelf to prepare food I have a multi fuel stove here during the winter I was mainly using the the wood stove because I had a fire going basically the whole time I was in a tent anyway but during summer and now in spring I notice it already it's better to use the fuel stove to cook because with wood stove it would just get too hot in here it's a little bit tricky because you shouldn't use those in the tent because you have quite a high flame when you start it and you can make mistakes that you get a real big flame so you need to know what you're doing with these in general when you make a fire in the tent or have a stove in the tent you need to be very careful because for ventilation the DeLongpre nor the oxygen inside the tent that you need to breathe so that's something you need to be careful with when you make fire in a tent underneath here I have basically all my food stored I eat very simple things very simple meals I have to say I eat mostly twice a day also one big meal in the morning and one big in the evening I use a lot of canned food I have fresh vegetables I go at least once a week to a shop somewhere I stopped using oil because when you don't use oil dishwashing is much easier I'm a matheran since 10 years maybe even longer always with the addition that I said I would eat what I fish or hunt myself now I have the lake here I have two fishing rods but I haven't used them yet I still need to figure out if I am able to eat an animal if I don't need it but maybe I should try that I know how to do it in case I really would need it one day I don't have a proper fridge because the bigger problem that in keeping things fresh in summer is in the winter to prevent things from freezing so I made an improvisation I took a plastic pipe they sealed it under on the bottom mounted it to a stone and put put it in in the lake and the idea was to put things in the tube and they would then have the temperature of the water on there so if it freezes it would have four degrees down there it was a very warm winter this year I have used it not often I have used it but diameter is a bit small so for next year I need to think of something similar but a bit more practical maybe and and here in the in the front part of the contest just dirt area where I put clothes the shoes that I use outside my trash I also have you go every once in a while I take it with me to the mainland and sort it there this what I use just for drinking basically for everything else for cooking I just use the water from the lake so I use the lake for everything basically I tried to when I wash myself or whenever I wash clothes that I don't put a water straight back into the lake but have it on the land so it gets filtered through the soil and I only use biodegradable soap one more thing here temperature indoors and outdoors because the weather kind of dictates everything I'm doing here so this here is kind of the workshop area after tent where I have some basic tools the safety equipment fuel for stoves cruise ropes like all the things you need to improvise so back here is the electrical department here the cable from the 150 watt solar panel is coming into the charging controller I have a old car battery connected which is not as good anymore I mean I should get a different one especially in cold temperatures in winter I had problems with it I also have a five hundredth power inverter which are used for the piano mainly and to charge the batteries for the for the power drill I also have a splitter for the 12-volt power outlets and from there I charge on different USB devices [Music] when I was still living in Austria I have been working in film and television industry for 10 years almost and also the reason why I came to Sweden was because of a job opportunity in television but then I quit and now I just make DVDs from a youtube channel that I want to do and not what someone else is telling me so that's a nice addition to this whole year I don't have a computer in the tent I have a computer for editing set up at a friend's place close to the lake where I go to to edit the videos and also have fast internet connection my goal would be to have a laptop in the tent to be able to do some work in the evenings for just 1 2 hours that I don't have to always use a full day to go there I do have internet connectivity here in the tent with the phone it's enough to watch YouTube videos in the lowest resolution I also have a guitar in the piano in the tent so I spend also some time making music and actually also started to write songs here throughout the year about the experiences [Music] my main motivation to move from Austria to Sweden in the first place was to be able to experience nature in a different way in Sweden and in Scandinavia in general you have this everyone's right as you translate it means that you're allowed to sleep anywhere in the forest for two nights if you stay longer you need to ask permission from the landowner that's also what I did here I asked the landowner if he is okay with it and he said as long as I don't cuts down on injuries he's fine with it I [Music] have been living off my savings so now at the end of the year I'm also at the end of my savings and me to think about how to earn money again the things I had to get for this year was basic just the tent and the stove of the tent with the extra additions to the tent maybe 1200 euros the stove was I think 900 when you count in the other parts as well and actually all the other things I had already from before and throughout this year I haven't calculated it yet but I think it was between 200 and 300 euros per month that I spent and this was mainly for food and for the car those are the two expensive things however I also started to repair the car myself and it saves a lot of money before the time I have been working as a freelancer mainly so I paid my health insurance in advance already also for this year throughout the year I spent a couple of weeks not on the island here twice I was sick for a week in November and January then I went to a friend's place I slept inside I slept in the bed sometimes also when I made some trips a bit further away I spent the night at other people's place I might use the washing machine as well I did couple of times I don't have a set of rules that I have to follow yeah I don't need to prove anything to anyone it's just a different lifestyle and I like it so the tent I have is called a Sibley Bell tent Sibley was some guy in the military who invented this Bell shape type of tent with a small sidewall of the side it's five meter in diameter the height in the center is three meters and the sidewalls are 68 centimeters the entrance here is 170 the whole tent is sitting on the platform it's build up in nine separate segments because they're already belted with the intention of moving it at some point and if you would have one big platform that would be quite difficult you can unzip the sidewalls and race the sidewalls so you have some airflow and with this tent model you also have a mesh sidewall so you can have air flow through side but you don't get any mosquitoes in front of the tent I have a little tent fly here the tent is made out of cotton canvas so it is quite sturdy but I also got an additional plastic layer on top which has the same color as the main tent I have this tent set up now since November 2018 so it's been through two winters and the additional layer on top just protects the cotton canvas one thing you lose when you put a second layer on top is some airflow some breathability but the advantages were in winter is as well that you trap some air in between this manufacturer it's called canvas camp is from Belgium yeah and one of the first things I built here on the island is this door because it was in September I think it was getting cooler in the evenings and I had to make a fire and I couldn't leave the door open anymore in the evenings to look out the frame and the plexiglass door inside and it's quite nice so this is really a great great improvement I had I have to say there's also a locking mechanism here the location of the tent I chose mainly for the view of it and not so much because it's wise to put it here because that's the main wind direction coming here Southwest so when there are strong winds and there have been some some storms throughout the year it blew straight into the entrance which also resulted in this year being being ripped straight through here a couple of weeks ago yeah but I would I would choose the same spot again because this view is just can't get any better all around the platform I also have this plastic that's preventing the wind from from going through so it maybe traps the warmth a little bit and it also protects the wood underneath from the the rain and everything when I had to transport bigger things and especially also in the beginning when I brought the platform for the tent I met some people here who gave me a ride in their boat or a boat I could borrow as well so I brought quite a few things throughout the year with the motor boat for the toilet I have a shovel and the forest which is okay you could you could use to it for washing I use the lake mainly with an additional packet of hot water in summer it's it's ok to go in the lake through to wash yourself but in winter it is challenging and HISP it [Music] in the beginning when I came here I intentionally chose not to have many expectations but looking back I have to say I'm not disappointed I learned a lot about living a life - like this living in a tent throughout the whole year I learned a lot about myself in general I'm a very patient person but I I realized I need to learn more patience even so I would say the most challenging part of this whole year was wind weather and loneliness but yeah when you have a day like this today blue sky almost no wind that's okay I can live with this I will be on the island probably until June this year and after this I will continue to live in a tent but not on the island the plan at the moment is to build a raft and put the tent on the raft and spend another year going around to lake visiting different islands different parts and so with the raft I can go behind islands to some base and something so yeah it's not a hundred percent certain yet I'm still looking for the floating water barrels but once I got those I'll do this this lifestyle as I have it now here I don't think it's for everyone you really need to love the outdoors and also like cold weather so it's probably not for everyone to live throughout the whole year in a tent in Sweden in the north here but it also doesn't need to be an experience that everyone has to have I think every day spent outdoors is a good day subscribe to explore alternatives and check out our playlists for more stories like this you can also follow yo-yos adventures on his youtube channel at my northern story thanks for watching [Music]