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Truck garden

Growing up I had heard of truck farms, usually small family farms, when the produce is ready, the farmer takes the produce to a farmer’s market in a truck, thus the name “truck farm”… but this is a different concept, this is actually a garden that is contained in a box truck!

This truck came to Nick Runkle and Justin Cutter in a roundabout way, large windows had been placed in the box part of the truck when it had been a mobile art gallery in its former life. The windows made it a perfect greenhouse, which is exactly what it became. Getting their funding from a Kickstarter program, they reinvented the truck to make it a fully functioning greenhouse on wheels.

As part of the renovation, the truck was converted to run on waste vegetable oil, making it even more sustainable. Where is it legal and upon getting permission, they are able to pull up behind a restaurant, they pop a hose into a barrel of waste cooking/frying oil, they hand crank the oil into a tank where it is filtered 2 times before being used as fuel. The truck comes complete with rain water catchment and its own composting box, so nothing goes to waste.

Not only are tasty veg grown inside of this truck, it is used as a teaching tool, going around to schools, spending the day teaching the kids all about sustainable gardening, from kindergarten to universities, they travel all over the USA, spreading their knowledge and wisdom.

https://youtu.be/h-g74F-U9yU



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May 13, 2017 No Comments
rattlesnake
Communities

When snakes attack

Earlier this evening, the sun had gone down just far enough to be called dark, but we could still see. PB and I (and the dogs) were down at my neighbor’s property doing some maintenance on my truck. We had gathered up all of our stuff to carry up to the SkyCastle, we started up the trail when we heard the sound that will make your blood freeze, it was a rock rattler. PB was within one step of stepping on it and it wasn’t happy about any of it.

Honestly, I had heard it about five minutes earlier but thought it was a cicada, a large insect that buzzes just like a rattler, I have yet to hear a rattlesnake that sounds like they do in the movies, they sound like an insect buzzing.

PB was about to step on this rattlesnake, the only thing he had in his hand right then was a small propane tank, he slammed the base of it down on the snake pinning and injuring it enough to keep it in one spot. We didn’t have a flashlight so I had to move my truck around so that my headlights would illuminate the scene while PB lifted the propane tank and cut off the snake’s head with a shovel.

A few weeks ago we encountered another snake in front of the SkyCastle, that time it was Zoe who discovered it, fortunately she was faster than the snake and didn’t get bit. We think this might be a sibling of the snake we dispatched today as they were the same size, but no guarantees on that, it’s just speculation.

We have been out here 9 years now and unfortunately have to kill several rattlesnakes each summer, we don’t enjoy doing it, but if they are near the SkyCastle or around the areas where we or the dogs walk or congregate, then they have to go, they are just too risky to leave around.

Rattlesnakes, like any other snake, they don’t really attack, they will defend themselves though, it’s all too easy to walk up upon one or startle one where you don’t expect to see one, they are quite capable of taking care of themselves and aren’t really out to bother us, but since we live where they do, it’s inevitable that we will encounter each other, I do my best to make that as little as possible.

I recently found a good article about what to do if you are bitten by a rattlesnake, especially if you are in a remote place. The article said you shouldn’t cut and suck the venom, you shouldn’t use a tourniquet either, both of those methods are more risky than the venom. The main thing was to remain calm and walk out to get help if you can’t make a phone call.

Personally I don’t want to have …

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May 7, 2017 No Comments
Communities

Bug season!

Duck season! Wabbit season! Does that bring back memories of the old Bugs Bunny and Daffy (along with Elmer Fudd)? I grew up watching that, now I am adding my own responses to it in Elmer’s voice, today I add “Hehehehe, it’s bug season!”

Spring has sprung, except for the last two days of our last(?) cold snap, we have been having warm, even hot days and more importantly, warm nights, which brings out the bugs. Tonight as I sit in my fuzzy PJs and thick robe for probably the last time until next fall, I don’t worry about insects as it’s too cold for them. But rest assured, the bugs are coming.

We had a relatively mild winter, PB really didn’t even have to cut wood, we survived off of what we had leftover from the previous winter, as a result, I suspect the bugs will be prolific this year. Some of the bugs are interesting and fun, others are merely annoying, still others are a pain in more than one way.

I have gotten quite used to the bugs, though I still don’t like them coming inside the SkyCastle unless they are well behaved. Most aren’t, but right now we have a largish spider, a funnel web of some sort that has taken up residence in and around our solar stuff on the inside. She (all spiders are “she” until proven otherwise) has stayed put pretty well, but I noticed her web is getting pretty dusty and filled with moth carcasses, it’s going to have to go, probably sometime tomorrow or the next day we will encourage her to vacate, hopefully without having to dispatch her, I’d much rather have her out on the front porch growing fat on the myriad of moths and other light loving insects that are attracted to our glass door.

With bug season upon us, it’s time to re-evaluate the tightness of the SkyCastle. That means checking windows and doors to make sure they close securely, checking for new and widening cracks in the floors, walls and ceiling, anyplace that has an opening wide enough to push a credit card through is wide enough for spiders, scorpions and centipedes to enter.

I will also be going outside in the evening, just after dark and hunting scorpions. I haven’t had to do it much the last few years so I’ve become lax, it’s time to get out there in the warmer evenings and actively hunt the scorpions. Normally I’m a live and let live kind of gal, but a few years back, we had a rash of scorpions inside the SkyCastle, one got me good on the finger, we were killing one and two each night INSIDE the house, that’s when I declared war on them, or at least the ones within a 10-15 foot diameter around the outside of the SkyCastle.

I use …

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April 30, 2017 No Comments
Communities

Another brick in the wall

Another brick in the wall

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update on the SkyCastle. This is going on our 9th summer out here, we started out with raw land, just under 6 acres on the side of a mountain in far west Texas (yes, Texas has mountains).

box on stiltsWe went from a box on stilts with 2 out of the 4 walls being builder’s plastic and wire. Now things are quite a bit more advanced now, growing almost organically over the last few years.

So now, the newest thing PB is building is a wall. We were gifted a large load of papercrete blocks (https://off-grid.net/what-are-we-going-to-do/) almost a year ago, we debated as to what to do with them… my idea being a keyhole garden, PB wasn’t as on board for that as I was. We had even started to regret getting them.

PB had been wanting to put up a wall around the sitting area in front of the SkyCastle, to protect us from the wind, to delineate the sitting area, he wanted to put it up closer to the sitting area, I thought we should make it bigger, following the walkway/path that we take around the front. Last week when I came home from work, PB had placed a line of papercrete bricks around the outer perimeter of our sitting area, where I wanted it to go, it looked pretty good there.

For now he just has the blocks laid out and some wire around the whole thing, he will ultimately use concrete to encase the blocks and make it more permanent. We will also have to clean up quite a bit of brush and tree limbs that litter the ground out there, it’s really a snake haven. Last week a small rock rattler almost got Zoe, our terrier mix dog, fortunately she was faster than the snake and it didn’t get her, but it was close, that was right out there where we sit.

Here are some pictures of how things look for now, I’ll post more updates as they happen.



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April 29, 2017 No Comments
Tiny home like a boat
Communities

Build your tiny home like a boat

It’s a funny thing, I had always thought people who built tiny homes, especially the portable ones did build their homes like a boat, water tight, flexible, but I suppose I was wrong about that assumption.

Tiny home like a boat
There are different approaches to building, it’s like the old saying, everything looks like a nail if you are a hammer… so if you are a carpenter, you will build as a carpenter does, which is not the same way you would build for a marine environment.

Building a home that is also your vehicle, you need something that will flex without cracking or breaking, no nails were used, it is all mortised, glued and screwed. This tiny home built on a truck is a one of a kind, it’s filled with unique beautiful and useful items, I really love their stove! It does seem tight and cramped, maybe it’s the table that sticks out in the middle, I think I’d shrink that down or make it where it folds out of the way, just my personal observation, obviously they live with it just fine.

He mentions gypsies, this does have a gypsy feel and look to it. Watch and enjoy, let me know what you think below :)

https://youtu.be/iAusQYscQZ8



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April 24, 2017 No Comments
frugal
Communities

Frugal noodle

frugal

Let’s use our frugal noodle to come up with some frugal ideas. For me personally, I’ve grown up frugally, I didn’t know or even understand it when I was younger, I just knew we didn’t throw things away until they were used up, worn out and even then it was probably saved for parts. We didn’t call a repairman when things broke, my dad fixed it, we didn’t go out to eat, my mother cooked, and she cooked from scratch. For us, it was just a way of life, we didn’t have the money to pay someone else to do the things we could do for ourselves. I suspect that even if we had been wealthier, my family would have still been the same way, frugal.

Being frugal is about saving money, but it’s also a mindset, here are some of the ways to be frugal, I suspect it will remind you of your grandparents :)

1. Save jars. Frugal people never throw away good glass (or even plastic) jars or containers, especially if they have a good lid and a wide mouth. When we moved off-grid, I remember bringing out a few boxes of empty jars.

2. Buttons, did you grow up with a button jar? I did. Every button was saved, even if it was just one button, they are infinitely useful. If you have a shirt that is going into the trash, be sure to cut off all the buttons and save them.

3. Fabric, even small fabric scraps are handy, from patching things to quilts, fabric scraps are very handy to have around. I even save the legs of jeans I cut off for shorts.

4. Newspaper, it has so many uses after it’s been read, from wrapping gifts, crafts, cleaning glass, filler in boxes for moving or shipping…

5. Bread ties, this so reminds me of my dad, we had this junk drawer (don’t laugh, you have one too), it was full of straightened bread ties, they are great for tying other things together.

6. Rubber bands, this was one of the other things in the junk drawer, all sorts of rubber bands, they are so useful, and if nothing else, you can make a rubber band ball to keep you amused. Of course, rubber bands have a limited life, especially out here where we live, it’s so dry that the rubber becomes brittle, so they have to be used quickly…

7. Hardware, drawer pulls, hinges, screws, nails, anything that you could take off of anything that would be tossed in the trash, again this was stored and found in that junk drawer, or perhaps in a small glass jar.

8. String, I have fond memories of this piece of wood with a long length of string wrapped around it, it belonged to my dad, he would dole out a length of string to use …

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April 21, 2017 No Comments

Planting by the moon, hype or help?

I was born in 1965 so I grew up less than one generation removed from those in my family who really farmed and those who went through the Great Depression. We saved everything, we didn’t throw anything into the trash until it was used up, worn out, reused and even then, it would be more likely put aside for parts…

I remember hearing my dad talking about “planting by the moon” as I grew up, one summer he decided it was all nonsense and would just plant whenever, with no regard to what the moon cycle was doing. Well, that year our garden wasn’t as good as it usually was, after that, we went back to planting by the moon.

What does that mean? Well, to simplify it, anything that is harvested from underground (root vegetables, carrots, onions, potatoes) need to be planted by the “dark of the moon”, when the moon is past full going toward the new moon. Anything that is harvested above ground, (corn, tomatoes and the such) should be planted by the “light of the moon”, meaning after the new moon going toward the full moon. If you get an “Old Farmer’s Almanac” it will get even more detailed as to the specific dates when you should plant based on the moon phases.

There is science behind this, it’s not hocus pocus, the moon affects water on earth, just look at what it does to the tides. Here is a video explaining how all of this works.

https://youtu.be/kYtnZPuP4zk

What about you? Do you plant by the moon? Do you believe in it or do you think it’s nonsense? Let me know below!



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April 20, 2017 No Comments
Communities

Is it healthier to live off-grid?

Are there health benefits to living off-grid? I’d say yes, for me there definitely are. First, I find living in a more simple manner is much less stressful, of course I’ve been a more laid back type of person to begin with, something that I believe has helped keep me in a healthier state of mind.

Having fewer and smaller bills tends to keep the stress levels down as well. Since I have fewer and smaller bills, I am able to work fewer hours outside of my home, giving me more time to spend at home, another stress buster.

What about more physical health benefits? In my case, living on a mountain side without a way to drive up the hill to my house means I am hoofing it, walking, hiking up and down, usually carrying something uphill, things like groceries and packages. I know that has kept my more fit. It’s something I don’t even notice anymore, until I’m walking up with a guest and they are complaining about how hard the walk up is while I’m in front of them breathing pretty normally.

Now to the less tangible, something that perhaps can’t be measured but is something I feel is just as important. In this modern world, we are surrounded by electronic pollution, that is caused by electronic appliances, faulty wiring, radio waves, bluetooth, wifi, I could go on… living off-grid, having fewer appliances around and not having them powered on all the time, having fewer radio waves because of the very rural area, cell phones don’t work out here, neighbors are few and far between so there is much less wifi going through the air. There are some who don’t believe this can cause health problems, there are others who do believe it causes health problems, that is up to you to decide, but true or not, I have much less of it around me. I can actually turn everything off, wifi, radios, every electronic item and have the barest minimum of electromagnetic pollution, it’s really nice to know I can cut everything off at the flip of a switch.

So yes, I do believe there are health benefits to living off-grid, there definitely is for me, what about you? What is your opinion of this? Please let me know below.



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April 12, 2017 3 Comments
no go shopping
Communities

No go shopping

no go shopping

Are you ready for no go shopping? What is no go shopping you ask? It’s when you live out in the boonies and there isn’t a place to go shopping within a reasonable distance. Where I live, it’s 20+ miles into the nearest town, takes about a half hour if everything is going right, of course there is the stopping to chat with a neighbor on the road, then the stopping to chat with a neighbor at the mailboxes… then when you get to town, you are likely to find someone to chat with, and at the store, no getting around the fact that you will most likely find someone to chat with there, so going to town for a quick trip to the grocery store isn’t going to be quick after all.

Where I live, if you want to go anywhere with real shopping, I’m talking malls, big chain grocery stores, WalMart, Sam’s Club, real restaurants and the such, it’s a good 3 hour drive at highway speeds. It’s something we don’t do very often, maybe a monthly thing at best, it’s usually more a quarterly thing, well planned and executed, it’s at least a day trip and sometimes requires an overnight stay.

What do we get in return for no go shopping? Well, living where there aren’t many other people for one, it’s nice to not hear or see your closer neighbors most of the time. It’s quiet, dark at night, and private.

We have come to rely on delivery services for many of our purchases, besides groceries (I wish we could order more grocery items) we can order just about anything we could want out here. I am an Amazon Prime member, it’s paid for itself many times over, it’s something I pay for each year without fail. I know my UPS delivery driver by name, I know the FedEx drivers too, though they seem to go through many more of them than the UPS company. Of course there is also USPS, we all know our postal workers, the only problem is our mailboxes are some 6 miles from my home, so for me, it’s more convenient to order things that will come UPS or FedEx so it gets delivered directly to my home.

I don’t even mind the few day wait, I know if I were to go to the closer town to buy what I would order, first if it was even available, it would be very expensive, taxed and I’d still have to wait a day or two before I’d be able to go there. If I planned to go to the bigger farther town, it might be a week or more before I could get out there, so it’s better for me to order through Amazon Prime and get it in 2 days, delivered to my door.

I just ordered a pair of …

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April 9, 2017 No Comments
bonita domes
Communities

Bonita domes

bonita domes

I think I have always been attracted to unconventional homes (I live in a small castle after all…), when perusing my YouTube page with all the suggestions of what I might like to watch, this definitely caught my eye. I’m not sure how much was the color of the building, I do love the warm yellows and oranges, and how much was the dome shapes. As a teen, my father and I went on a short trek to Italy Texas to visit the Monolithic Dome homes factory, I fell in love with domes right then and there.

I LOVE the organic shapes on the inside as well as the outside of these structures, I wondered if the counter tops were custom cut, then on a closeup, I could see they looked like concrete, so they could be poured into any shape they could create. I like the individual separate spaces for each use, the shower dome, the kitchen area, the kiva pit. Living in the desert myself, dealing with the winds that blow, I know the importance of having a protected space if you want to have an open fire.

The shower dome looks really interesting, I want to make a separate shower space for us to use, it would be a seasonal space, used when the weather was warm, it would be away from the SkyCastle, organic in shape and using solar to heat the water, but I digress from the home I’m talking about here.

The best way for you to experience this is to watch the videos for yourself.
https://youtu.be/5SFnUjeS-AY

https://youtu.be/evsu9NOo4hQ

A dome to make me jealous!



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April 6, 2017 No Comments
dehydrated water
Communities

How to properly (and safely) dehydrate water for long term storage

dehydrated water

For those of us who live off-grid, and others who camp or are just interested in prepping for whatever may come, having a source of clean potable water is high on the list of necessary things. You can easily go out and purchase dehydrated foods of all kinds, these are commercially available, you can also dehydrate as well as can your own foods. But it’s always been a challenge to safely store clean water for drinking, cooking and cleaning, until now.

Someone has finally come up with an easy way to dehydrate AND can water so it can always be ready for you, this takes up much less space than fully hydrated water, if stored properly, it will not go bad, it cannot leak, it weighs practically nothing in the dried state and can be quickly and readily re-hydrated with nothing more than clean pure water.

I found this video with step by step instructions, that was a lifesaver for me, I have always wanted to try this but was afraid I would make a mistake and sicken everyone in my house, possibly even causing death, but this guy really laid it out, step by step, simplifying it so that even I couldn’t mess this up. Now I need to go out and buy more mason jars.
https://youtu.be/toTdiRUC1zk

I couldn’t believe this, for those of you who don’t want to go through the trouble of dehydrating your own water, or like me were afraid of making a mistake in the process, I found a company that sells dehydrated water in #10 cans, these are large enough that several would last one person a week or more (depending on how carefully you metered it out), though probably not recommended you could always add more water to stretch it out and make it last longer.

And for those who want or need a smaller amount, try this.

Now I am wondering about the difference between dehydrated and freeze dried? I suppose you could try freezing some of the dehydrated water just to see if it would convert to freeze dried, I suspect it would store even longer then…

Let me know what you think below in the comments, have you tried this? If so, would you do it again? And do you have any tips & tricks to make this even easier?
Not enough wind to go around…



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April 1, 2017 2 Comments