The Book That Makes The Grocery Store, The Pharmacy, And The Utility Company Optional

By Greg W, August 15, 2025

How ordinary families on ordinary land are quietly walking away from the systems they were told they couldn't live without

There is a word that the grocery store, the pharmacy, and the utility company all depend on you never feeling.

Optional.

Not optional as in extreme. Not optional as in dramatic. Not optional as in move-to-the-country-and-disappear.

Optional as in: still there if you want it. Just no longer necessary if you don't.
That word — that single quiet shift in how a family thinks about the systems it depends on — is the difference between the families who panicked when the shelves went empty and the families who didn't notice.

Between the families who watched their pharmacy run out and the families who walked outside and picked what they needed.

Between the families who opened their heating bill every winter with dread and the families who hadn't paid one in decades.

The difference was never money. Never land. Never some special advantage the rest of us don't have.

It was knowledge.

Knowledge that made the grocery store optional. The pharmacy optional. The utility company optional.

Knowledge that has existed for generations. Knowledge that is documented in plain easy-to-follow steps inside one book.

Simple Living.
 

Let Me Be Honest With You

I was born and raised in the city. The closest I ever got to growing food was buying it at the grocery store. The closest I ever got to building anything was assembling flat-pack furniture.
I am nothing special. No superior knowledge. No amazing skills. No background in farming, building, or self-sufficiency of any kind.

And none of that mattered.

Because Simple Living was not built for experts. It was built for people exactly like me — people who had the desire but not the experience, the willingness but not the knowledge, the dream of independence but no idea where to begin.

You do not need special skills to start. You do not need farming experience, building experience, or any prior knowledge of any kind. Every single project inside was designed to be built by someone who has never done anything like it before.

The knowledge is already inside the book. The instructions are already written. The materials are already listed. The insider details that make each project work the first time are already documented.

The only thing that cannot be provided is the one thing nobody can give you.

The desire to start.

If you have that — Simple Living provides everything else.

What Most Families Don't Realize Until It Is Too Late

Think about what happens the moment a real disruption hits.

The grocery store empties within hours. Not days. Hours. The pharmacy runs low within a week. The utility grid — the one thing most families never think about until it stops working — becomes the single most important system in their lives the moment it fails.

Most families have four days of food and no plan.

Some families don't even notice.

Not because they were lucky. Not because they had more money or more land or more preparation time than everyone else.

Because they had built something the disruption couldn't touch.

A root cellar packed with fourteen months of food they grew and preserved themselves. A backyard medicinal garden producing real remedies for every ailment their family faces. A water system that needs no pump, no electricity, and never runs dry. A heating method that keeps their home warm all winter on three logs a day.

One small project at a time. Built over weekends. On ordinary land. With ordinary materials.

Using knowledge that self-sufficient families have passed down for generations.

Knowledge that is now — for the first time — inside one book any family can start using this weekend.

The Knowledge That Was Never Supposed To Leave The Community

Yoder was born and raised inside one of America's most self-sufficient communities.

His family has never depended on a grocery store. Never needed a pharmacy within reach. Never paid a heating bill. Never worried about the water utility.

Not because they are wealthy. Not because they have vast amounts of land. They have less than two acres.

Because they have knowledge passed down through six generations that made every outside system genuinely optional.

It started in 1961 when Yoder's grandfather watched his neighbor's family go hungry during a regional food shortage. His neighbor had trusted the store, the pharmacy, the utility company. The moment those systems failed — which they did — his neighbor had nothing left to reach for.

Yoder's grandfather's family didn't notice.
Because they had built the alternative. One small project at a time. Until the systems everyone else depended on were things they simply didn't need.

He spent the next thirty years writing every method down.

Yoder spent three years turning those handwritten pages into a book any family could follow — in plain language, with clear steps, starting any weekend, on any property, in any country.

The result is Simple Living.

What Optional Actually Looks Like In Practice

Three families. Three countries. Three completely different starting points.

Sandra — Columbus, Ohio
Quarter-acre suburban lot. Regular backyard.

Two kids. A job she goes to every day.
She built Yoder's root cellar in a single weekend from salvaged timber and two old barrels. Cost her under forty dollars. Now it keeps fourteen months of food at perfect storage temperature with zero electricity. Her grocery runs dropped from twice a week to once every three weeks.

The grocery store is still there. She just doesn't need it the way she used to.


Frank — Rural Tennessee
Retired electrician. 67 years old. Two acres he had owned for thirty years and never grown a single thing on.

He built Yoder's eleven-plant medicinal garden in an afternoon. Used the natural pain remedy instead of the prescription that had tripled in price. Got through an entire winter without a single pharmacy visit for the first time in eleven years.

The pharmacy is still there. He just doesn't depend on it anymore.


Margaret — Regional England
Terrace house. Backyard the size of a large living room. Twelve feet wide.

She built the gravity-fed water system from two salvaged barrels and fourteen feet of garden hose. No pump. No electricity. No filter cartridges to replace. Clean safe water completely independent of the utility company.

The water utility is still there. She just doesn't need it the way she used to.

Three ordinary families. Three ordinary properties. 

One book. 
One word. 
Optional.

What Is Actually Inside Simple Living

Simple Living is not a philosophy book. It is not a manifesto. It is a complete practical blueprint for moving any family one step at a time away from the systems they depend on and toward a life that takes care of itself.

265 pages. 100+ step-by-step projects. Six generations of real-world knowledge written in plain language anyone can follow.

Unlike anything else available on this subject, Simple Living was written by someone who lived every single project inside it before he ever thought to write them down. Every method comes with clear step-by-step instructions, a complete materials list, full color illustrations, and the kind of insider detail that only someone raised inside a self-sufficient community for generations would ever know to include.

The shortcuts that save hours. The mistakes that cost weeks. The small things that make the difference between a project that works the first time and one that doesn't work at all.

This is not researched knowledge. It is lived knowledge. And that difference shows on every single page.

🌱 Food & Garden — 25 Projects

For most of human history families fed themselves entirely from their own land. No grocery store. No supply chain. No depending on anyone else to put food on the table.

The first thing Simple Living will show you is that complete food self-sufficiency for one person requires just 1,020 square feet. Less than 10% of a standard backyard.

From there the book walks you through everything a family needs to make that possible. 

The exact planting schedule that produces fresh food every single month of the year including winter. The preservation methods that keep a harvest fresh for 14 months without refrigeration. The seed-saving system that means never buying seeds again. The natural pest control method that doubles as a pollinator garden. And the complete food rotation system that means the pantry is never empty — no matter what happens outside.

📌 Featured Project: The Trash Can Root Cellar — Build It This Weekend For Under $40

Most people think building a root cellar means excavating their entire backyard. Yoder's version fits in any corner of any property and costs almost nothing to build. Using a single salvaged trash can, four wooden boards, and a bag of gravel, any family can build a root cellar that maintains a near-perfect 38-42°F year-round with zero electricity. No digging. No construction experience. No special materials.

Simple Living provides the exact dimensions, the precise positioning that makes the temperature regulation work, and the one thing most people get wrong that causes their version to warm up in summer — the detail that makes the difference between a root cellar that works for decades and one that fails by July.

📌 Bonus Project: How To Grow Potatoes In Thin Air

You do not need soil to grow potatoes. You do not need a garden bed. You do not need any ground space at all. Yoder's community grows potatoes and root vegetables in spaces most gardeners walk past every day — fence lines, bare walls, unused corners, balconies, patios —

Using a layering technique that creates everything these crops need to thrive without touching the ground beneath them. From this day forward every empty space on any property is a hidden food growing area waiting to be used.

💊 Health & Medicine — 15 Projects

Long before pharmacies existed, self-sufficient communities treated pain, infection, fever, and illness with remedies grown right outside their back door. Not as a last resort. As a first choice. Because they worked.

For six generations Yoder's family has stayed completely free from pharmaceutical dependency using a small backyard medicinal garden that produces real effective remedies for every common ailment a family faces — the same ailments that send most modern families straight to a pharmacy that may not always be open, stocked, or within reach.

Inside this section families will find the complete 11-plant medicinal garden layout anyone can grow in a single raised bed. The preparation guide for every remedy. The preservation methods that keep each one at full potency from summer harvest through February use.

📌 Featured Project: The 3-Plant Pain & Infection Remedy — Growing Wild In Most Backyards Right Now

Before ibuprofen existed, self-sufficient communities treated pain, infection, and fever with a remedy made from three plants growing wild in most backyards right now. Not as a last resort. As a first choice. Because it worked.

One of the three is Usnea — a strange-looking lichen hanging from old and dying trees. Most herbalists use it as a poultice. Yoder's community prepares it completely differently. And that difference is everything.

Simple Living provides the exact three plants, where to find each one, the precise preparation method, the correct dosage, and the one mistake that destroys the remedy's effectiveness entirely — the mistake every other natural health guide makes without knowing it.

When the pharmacy runs out — any family with this knowledge simply walks outside and picks what they need.

💧 Water & Storage — 12 Projects

Most families never think about where their water comes from — until the day the tap runs dry and there is nothing left to reach for.
Yoder's family has never had that problem.

 Not once. In six generations.

Inside this section families will find the complete water independence system his community has used for sixty years. Natural filtration that removes bacteria, parasites, and harmful chemicals without a single replaceable component. Water storage that stays safe for years without bleach or chemicals. Underground solutions that stay hidden year-round. 

And the one mistake most families storing emergency water are making right now — the blue barrel problem that is slowly contaminating the water they are counting on.

📌 Featured Project: The Two-Barrel Gravity Water System — Clean Water Forever With No Pump, No Filter, No Electricity

Built in 1961 from two salvaged barrels, fourteen feet of garden hose, and a window screen from the scrap pile. Still supplying clean water to Yoder's family today. No pump. No electricity. No filter cartridges. No maintenance. 

Just gravity, a simple natural filtration layer, and one modification that prevents stagnation without chemicals — the detail that makes this system work indefinitely while every other version fails within a season.

🔥 Home & Heat — 20 Projects

Most families pay a heating bill every winter without ever questioning whether they have to.

Yoder's family hasn't paid one in six generations. Three logs a day keeps their entire home warm from the first cold night of autumn through the last frost of spring.

Inside this section families will find off-grid heating systems that work in any climate. DIY projects from the 1900s that still outperform every modern replacement. Insulation methods that keep heat in without expensive retrofitting. And the seasonal maintenance calendar that keeps every system running without surprises or outside help.

📌 Featured Project: The Rocket Mass Heater — Heat Your Entire Home All Winter On Three Logs A Day

A combustion chamber so efficient it extracts nearly all available heat from every piece of wood — then stores it in a clay thermal mass that radiates warmth for hours after the fire has gone out.

The fire gets lit at 6pm. The house stays warm until morning. Every night. All winter.

Simple Living provides the original blueprints fully updated, the complete materials list, the one modification that doubled the heater's efficiency, and the clay mixture ratio that prevents most homemade versions from cracking within a season.

Also💰 Independence & Resilience — 20 Projects

📌 Featured Project: The Community Barter System — Get Everything Your Land Cannot Produce Without Spending A Dollar

See all 20 independence projects inside Simple Living 

Who This Is For

This book works for suburban families with regular backyards and zero prior experience. For rural homeowners with unused land they have never known how to use. For older adults who want independence without physical strain. For renters with balconies, windowsills, and small outdoor spaces. For families anywhere in the world — every method has been tested across climates and property sizes. For anyone tired of depending on systems they don't control for the most basic things their family needs.

This does not require moving to the country. Does not require quitting a job. Does not require going all in overnight.

No special skills. No prior experience. No special land or budget.
Just the desire to start — and a book that provides everything else.

60-Day Money Back Guarantee

Build one project. Try it. See what happens.

If the grocery bill doesn't drop. If the medicine cabinet doesn't start looking less necessary. If the utility bill doesn't begin to move in the right direction.

Full refund. No questions asked. Keep the book.

But here is what actually happens.

Families build one project. See it work. And cannot stop.

The root cellar leads to the medicinal garden. The medicinal garden leads to the water system.

The water system leads to the heating project. Until one day they look up and realize — quietly, without drama — that the systems they used to need completely have become exactly what Yoder's family has always called them.

Optional.

Simple Living.

The grocery store, optional.
The pharmacy, optional.
The utility company, optional.
Starting this weekend. In any backyard. On any property. In any country.

265 pages. 100+ projects. Six generations of proof.

🚨 Limited copies available — Don't miss out.

Click here to get Simple Living and start making the system optional today ➡️

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You don’t need any special skills or knowledge

P.S. — Sandra in Ohio made the grocery store optional on a quarter-acre suburban lot starting with one raised bed. Frank in Tennessee made the pharmacy optional at age 67 starting with eleven plants in an afternoon. Margaret in England made the water utility optional in a twelve-foot backyard starting with two salvaged barrels. None of them had special skills. None of them had prior experience. All of them had Simple Living. The only thing standing between any family and the same result is one weekend and one decision to start.

P.P.S. — Yoder's family has never needed to worry about what happens when the store runs out, the pharmacy closes, or the heating bill arrives. Not once. Not in six generations. Simple Living is the complete documented record of exactly how they built that life — and exactly how any family can build it too. Starting this weekend. One small project at a time. Until optional stops being a goal and starts being simply how the family lives.