We have always lived as if we would need to go off the grid. When we built the first phase of our house it was built with Y2K in mind…I’m dating myself.
We actually moved in on Dec. 31st of 1999…..”waiting for the world to end as we knew it”.
Obviously we are still here and not much happened. However, we decided that we would always want to be ready for any kind of national catastrophe. So, we equipped our home with the ability to live without modern technology.
We have a bicycle generated battery situation for power, 2 wood cook stoves for heat and cooking food, ample storage for housing others, a root cellar, ability to heat water without propane, fresh running water in a river, optimal land to grow our own food, trading heirloom seeds with friends, and the list goes on.
Recently we have been talking about attaching a green house to our walkout basement and heating it with the wood stove that is only a few feet away. We can then grow veggies that we so love in the winter time.
We are also in the lookout for a larger wood cooking stove….something like this:
Ain’t she a beauty?
Every time we go to my Aunt’s house I drool over hers…..its somewhat similar to this. She also has an antique bakers oven that is the bomb!
We have been staking out our property for horses, goats and chickens as well.
Living on the grid is comfortable, but can lull us to sleep of the world’s current condition. These luxuries will not always be ours for the taking.
What are you doing to become more self sufficient?
The Coop would love to hear from you!
Farmhouse Chicks
2 comments:
Hi Sandy, good to read down & get caught up on your latest. So nice to see that Grandma could come up and pay you a visit. Will you be going to FL this winter?
In response to your comment at my place...we have had chickens for several years. Our favorites are Barred Rocks (the black & white speckeled ones). They are very doscile (important) and reliable layers. They just love being with us and will come when I call them. We use to have Angora goats (they are not milk goats...just good for their mohair). We got rid of them a couple of years ago when gain prices started to rise. If I were to get milk goats, I'd get the Nubians, their milk tastes the closest to cow's milk. Oh, and don't get any males unless you really want to breed at your farm...males are very smelly (VERY!). We don't milk any cows or goats, although Anna would love too. We get our milk at a local farm. And are into preparedness too. We grind our own grain & have lots of grain & rice in store, plus can our own produce. Next year I'm going to expand our garden. And will be drafting up our greenhouse this winter. Our sauna haus was suppose to be a root cellar & garden shed, but somehow it ended up being a sauna with play loft. ??? Hopefully we will build a greenhouse/garden shed this coming summer. I'd love to be 100% able to go off grid and keep working toward that end...I think I'm more gung-ho on it then Jeff, and he is our preparedness expert. We have the river & land...and we do have a woodburning sauna for emergency heat...just want another in-the-house heat source (wood burning stove & would like a composting toilet) - I'm not a lover of outhouses, esp. in MN winters.
Let's see, healthwise, the biggest change has just been our eating choices... no pork of course, trying to eliminate all high fructose corn syrup, eating mostly God-made, organic food, low carbs - more raw veggies. Grind our own gain, growing more of our own food from heirloom seeds. I guess that's about it. Oh, and I have no desire to ever go to our local medical center again...just natural doctors. We don't do vaccines of any kind....or floride...or unnecessary x-rays. I think that about covers it. lol.
Do you have a certain greenhouse look in mind?
Hi Jane...we are currently working on research of a greenhouse. It will attach to the house at the walkout basement window area...we will knock out the window and make it a door then attach from there. We are looking at around an 8x10. Do you have any resources that you have already looked into?
Goats: I would like goats so we can get milk...even though we drink walnut milk. Not so sure walnuts will keep well over time, but goat milk we can get everyday. We even had the idea to bring them into the heated garage for milking...our northern winters don't make for very much fun for milking.
Chickens: I will look into the Barred Rocks. Right now everything is on paper...chickens, goats, pens, horses, fencing, barn, etc.
We have incorporated all this in educating our children. They are enjoying learning about "real world" stuff.
We are ready in some ways for preparedness and in other ways not. Feeling a little bit of urgency. Wish we had all this now so I could be practicing up instead of dreaming it up!
After this post my Aunt wrote me and told me I could have her stove! "Swoon"! We already have a place for it!
Glad to hear you are on the road to health. If you are ever looking for some great help through awesome products let me know. We have something called the 24 Day Challenge that people are getting the average of 10#s and 10 inches lost, increased energy and feel great!
Thanks for stopping by...it's always good to catch up!
And yes, south for us this winter!
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