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Tag Archives: homesteading
Spring 2018 Update On Our Off Grid Homestead
It’s been quite some time since we gave everybody an update on our progress or lack thereof. Let me give you the spring 2018 update on our off grid homestead. We made it through the winter in the tent just … Continue reading
Posted in Homesteading/Prepping
Tagged homesteading, off grid, prepping, self sufficiency, self-reliance
8 Comments
Forest Fires and How We Survived Them – Part 2
Imagine if you will, being outdoors and hearing a chugging sound in the distance and realizing that chugging is not a choo choo train coming. When you run down to the lake’s shoreline, four miles in the distance, you fix … Continue reading
Posted in Homesteading/Prepping
Tagged homesteading, prepping, self sufficiency, self-reliance, wilderness living
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Forest Fires and How We Survived Them – Part 1
You never want to look out your window or step outdoors and see a column of black/gray smoke rising from the nearby forest. That happened several times to us when we lived out in the Saskatchewan wilderness. Those experiences give … Continue reading
Posted in Homesteading/Prepping, Uncategorized
Tagged homesteading, prepping, self sufficiency, self-reliance
6 Comments
Roof Trusses and Exterior Roofing on Our New Off-Grid ICF Home
We’ve worked hard to build our new home’s foundation, walls, and floor and we need to cap this all off with a roof to protect our investment of time and money. Our homesteads in Maine and Saskatchewan had a standard … Continue reading
Posted in Homestead Building
Tagged Homestead Building, homesteading, off grid, self-reliance
6 Comments
Order Now For Spring Planting
Building a new homestead from scratch means establishing new gardens. Not just a vegetable garden but an herb garden as well as an orchard. Now is the time of the year to get seed and nursery stock on order whether … Continue reading
Let’s Talk ICF For New Off-Grid Home- Part 2
In my last post “Let’s talk ICF For Our New Off-Grid Home- Part 1”, we discussed what this ICF material was about and how easy it was to build with. Although ICF is an easy, straight forward method of building, … Continue reading
Posted in Homestead Building
Tagged Homestead Building, homesteading, off grid, self sufficiency, self-reliance
6 Comments
Let’s Talk ICF For Our New Off-Grid Home – Part 1
There are any number of construction materials and methods a person can use to build their new home. The traditional method is stick frame using conventional framing lumber. That’s the method we chose for our last 2 off-grid homes. As … Continue reading
Posted in Homestead Building
Tagged homesteading, off grid, prepping, self sufficiency, self-reliance
8 Comments
Nova Scotia Fall Update
As expected, Nova Scotia weather is like the tropics compared to where we once lived. It’s all relative of course. We would generally have our first dusting of snow around this time of year back in northern Saskatchewan. (In fact, … Continue reading
Posted in Homestead Building
Tagged homesteading, off grid, self sufficiency, self-reliance
9 Comments
Campfire Cooking
Living in a wall tent as a temporary residence presents many challenges, one of which is meal preparation. Yet anyone who thinks camp meals are limited to burgers and hot dogs is in for a surprise. The possibilities are endless, … Continue reading
Posted in Homestead Cooking
Tagged homesteading, off grid, Off Grid Cooking, prepping, self-reliance
2 Comments
Is a foundation really that important?
Is a foundation really that important? The answer to the question is yes! As far as I’m concerned, it’s the most important part of a building to ensure its long term survival. If the foundation crumbles, shifts or isn’t square … Continue reading
Posted in Homestead Building
Tagged homesteading, off grid, prepping, self sufficiency, self-reliance
8 Comments
Hacking Our Way to Garden Prosperity
In our 37 year off–grid homesteading adventure, we’ve had the tough chore of taking woodland and converting it to gardens. We’ve never had the luxury of driving into a new homestead that had cleared land with an established garden. … Continue reading
Posted in Gardening
Tagged Gardening, homesteading, off grid, self sufficiency, self-reliance
8 Comments
Mid-Summer Homestead Update.
We wanted to take a little time to show you what we have accomplished since our last update. We’ve made some real progress. I especially, am results driven and things don’t always look like they’re progressing fast enough. But when … Continue reading
Posted in Homesteading/Prepping
Tagged homesteading, off grid, prepping, self sufficiency, self-reliance
8 Comments
Squeeze a House into a Tent
Most of us live in some form of traditional home complete with the typical layout. We probably have a living room, dining room, bathroom, kitchen and utility area. Unless a person is a tiny home enthusiast, most homes are of … Continue reading
Posted in Homesteading/Prepping
Tagged homesteading, off grid, prepping, self sufficiency, self-reliance
6 Comments
Wall Tent, Our Temporary Home
Have you ever heard of a wall tent? You may be familiar with backpacking and family camping tents put out by various companies but there is another breed of tent used by hunters as well as the mineral and oil … Continue reading
Posted in Homesteading/Prepping
Tagged homesteading, off grid, prepping, self sufficiency, self-reliance
6 Comments
Digging Our Water Well On Our New Off-grid Homestead
Gather round and let me tell you a story about magic. And water. Hard to believe they can be associated. I’m going to give you all the details on digging our water well on our new off-grid homestead. And a … Continue reading
Posted in Homestead Water
Tagged Homestead water, homesteading, off grid, prepping, self sufficiency, self-reliance
5 Comments
Road Building and Preliminary Orchard and Garden Preparation
We’ve come a long ways in a relatively short period of time. In my last update post, we had selected our property and were clearing a homestead site by manual chainsaw work. Johanna was piling all the brush into large … Continue reading
Posted in Homesteading/Prepping
Tagged homesteading, off grid, self sufficiency, self-reliance
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Our Off-Grid Refrigeration and Battery Choices
I have a more comprehensive update post coming in the next few days regarding how things are progressing on the new homestead but for now I wanted to pass on some preliminary info that others might find of use. As … Continue reading
Posted in Off Grid Electrical
Tagged homesteading, off grid, prepping, self sufficiency, self-reliance
2 Comments
Our New Off-Grid Homestead is Underway!
If you’ve been following along via facebook, you know we arrived safe and sound in Nova Scotia. We haven’t stopped since arriving. We own two properties along the coast and we had the hard decision of which one would be … Continue reading
Posted in Homesteading/Prepping
Tagged homesteading, off grid, self sufficiency, self-reliance
8 Comments
Farewell Hockley Lake!
I wanted to give an update on our life. As some of you know, we’ve been on one big, long adventure. We’ve homesteaded off-grid for the past 37 years. The last 17 have been spent alone in the wilderness of … Continue reading
Posted in Wilderness Homesteading
Tagged homesteading, off grid, self sufficiency, self-reliance, wilderness living
6 Comments
Floor Plan For The Perfect Homestead Dwelling – Part 2
Welcome back! In this part of designing the perfect homestead dwelling, I’ll discuss more factors to consider when developing your floor plan, beginning with the workshop. At the Maine homestead, the workshop was attached to the barn. This was convenient … Continue reading
Posted in Off Grid Living
Tagged homesteading, off grid, self sufficiency, self-reliance, wilderness living
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