Tag Archives: self sufficiency

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

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Off Grid Refrigeration

Update January 2019… We lugged the refrigerator to the local repairman who confirmed it is leaking refrigerant. He traced it to the refrigerator compartment that is inaccessible. It can’t be fixed and we were told to take our extremely expensive … Continue reading

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Final Wrap Up on the Basics of ICF Construction

This is the final wrap up on the basics of ICF construction we used on our new off grid home. In my last post, I shared a ha ha sign “Somewhat Precise Home Builders” which is my tongue in cheek … Continue reading

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Christmas Update on Our Nova Scotia Homestead

With the approach of Christmas and Holidays, I figured I’d give everybody a quick update and then resume normal posts after the first of the year. Here’s our Christmas update on our Nova Scotia homestead. We made a valiant effort … Continue reading

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Floor Plan for the Perfect Homestead Dwelling Part 1

Designing the floor plan for the perfect homestead dwelling, whether it be on or off the grid requires careful thought and consideration. Let’s face it. You’ll be engaging in activities most people have never dreamed of doing. Certainly modern houses … Continue reading

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Homestead Road Building

Busting a road through the woods is an expensive proposition. You may have to pay a logger to drop trees. You will have to hire a bulldozer to clear the roadway. Then you will need to pay for load after … Continue reading

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