Self-Sufficiency Archives - Page 6 of 24 - Living Off the Grid: Free Yourself

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Freezing week

Snow in the Mountains

A great deal of the USA went through a major deep freeze, we were not spared here in far west Texas. We got dumped on with snow, it snowed as far south as Presidio, an area where one rarely needs more than a light jacket in winter. There were road closures from highway 10 all the way down to Presdio. Fortunately it happened over a weekend, and a holiday weekend as well. We had plenty of notice, and for me it was a payday weekend, I was able to stock up on some comfort food (soups, chili and the such), we were also able to stock up on some extra fire wood, we went through a LOT of firewood over those icy, snowy days and nights.

It’s funny because the Friday and Saturday before, the temps were getting up into the 70s F, T-shirt weather, but halfway through the day on Saturday, the wind changed direction and the temps dropped like a rock. PB and I were out by the road talking to a friend when the first few snow drops fell, yes I said drops, not flakes. These were marble sized, rounded snow drops, heavy, wet and hitting hard. The rest of the night and the following day, it snowed pretty much non-stop, we ended up with 6-8 inches of heavy, wet snow.

Normally our snow out here is powdery, dry and light, not this time. But all in all, it wasn’t a bad long weekend. My boss, who lives in Lubbock and got nearly a foot of snow, emailed everyone in the district to let us know we shouldn’t try to go out on the roads if it wasn’t safe, I didn’t even try to venture out until Tuesday afternoon. By then, the snow had pretty much melted off the roads and our dirt roads were dry enough to drive on without slipping and sliding.

Today, over a week later, there are still some patches of snow in the protected nooks and crannies out here, I am a little disappointed that I didn’t venture out and snap some pictures, but it was just too cold for me, too cold and too wet, I much prefer the powdery stuff that doesn’t stick to you and taps off of your boots. Yes, I’m getting to be a bit of a wimp, but with PB keeping the SkyCastle warm, the good food I cooked and warm dogs to snuggle with, I really had no interest in going outside during this snow event.

Fortunately, PB snapped a few pix.

Snow on the solar panels

Depth of the snow in a chair

SkyCastle

Lots of snow

SkyCastle in snow

View from the bedroom

Break time

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January 2, 2016 No Comments

Self-Sufficiency

Chopping and stacking wood

Chopping and stacking wood is a pastime where the world makes sense once more. Because our relationship to fire is so ancient, so universal, in learning about wood, you also learn about life. And beyond the philosophy, are a host of practical issues.

Assuming you have access to a source of wood – your own or someone else’s – some basic questions you should ask yourself before cutting are:

. Which trees should I cut?

. When is a good time to cut the trees?

. Should I dry, then split, or split the wood first?

. Will I ruin my woods/lot by cutting out trees for firewood?

Before you begin the firewood process, think about all you want from your woods/lot. Cutting firewood works for most owners, but where some trees might be good choices to cut for firewood, others might be left for use by wildlife, or to keep for landscaping or property value reasons.

When you inspect your trees for firewood, you should look for trees with evidence of disease, like cankers, bleeding lesions, and dieback in the crown. Crooked or densely arranged hardwoods often benefit by thinning, and make good firewood.

The trees selected to remain standing, should be clearly marked as “keepers” to help you monitor your progress as a property owner. You might want to take a closer look at trees that are acting as a wind-break, or as a stream or hillside soil retainer. Consult with a forester or arborist to determine if certain trees have a greater value left standing than as firewood.

Plan your firewood removal process to maximize chainsaw safety by planning out which trees to cut first, and to provide room to fell other trees afterward. If you decide to do this yourself, you should work with a partner and keep each other in clear communication and visual contact, to prevent accidents.

Trees with crown dieback may drop major limbs during the cutting process. It is also advised to check and mark trees in the late spring where you can easily see the dead branches against the green emerging leaves.

Also, before you start, you should consult with the city, county or subdivision codes/regulations to make sure that you are not on a variance or there is some other restriction. Checking with utility companies if any poles or lines are in the area is also a highly advisable.

Remember to look up first before you cut. Many trees grown close to, or may fall on electrical or telephone wires and cause serious damage to your property or neighbors. Along these same lines, check and make sure a tree will not fall on fences, water tanks/troughs, outbuildings, etc. before you cut. If any of these situations are present, you should consult or hire a professional.

Indoor wood stoves/fireplaces should be supplied with only fully seasoned hardwoods like sugar and red …

December 26, 2015 No Comments

Heat my Homestead

There are many ways of staying warm in your off-grid home without the aid of the sun. Here are some tips on how to keep toasty during the frosty winter months.
Clothing: Warm yoursefl and not the room!!

Two great websites for buying your essential winter clothing are:

https://www.offgridclothing.co.uk/

https://www.smartwool.com/

Woollen, insulating socks, gloves and hats are a must to keep your extremities warm. Waterproof
jackets and trousers will mean that you are both cosy and dry when working outdoors collecting
wood or tending to your livestock. Army surplus stores are also great for buying durable and warm
clothing that will be dependable for many years. A friend spent some time in northern Sweden as a musher. With an average temperature of -25 degrees Celsius he needed the correct clothing and bought the majority of it via army surplus stores

https://www.armysurplusworld.com/sitemap.asp

Layers of lighter clothing for outdoor work are ideal as they will allow body heat to travel easily
through the various items of clothing, providing you with a jacket of circulating heat. Steel-capped boots, goggles (with a UV protection lens) and face masks will also make the outdoor hours more
comfortable.

Firewood: Wood, wood and more wood is the order for the winter. Stocking up on firewood in the months leading up to winter will mean that you can rest easy in the knowledge that you have an abundance offuel to keep those wood-burning stoves roaring. Jamie writes in his blog
Prepping for an Off-Grid Winter https://anamericanhomestead.com/prepping-for-an-off-grid-winter/ how he buys “slab wood from a nearby mill” at a cost of “$20 for 1 ton (2000 pounds)”. Slab wood is the rounded part of the wood that goes to waste after boards are created. So on an eco-level, employing this wood for your fire puts it to good use. The bits of wood tend to be rather small so are ideal for continuous feeding of your fire. Larger logs should be used for overnight heat and off-grid blogger

Jamie collects these from fallen trees and branches in the local area. Make sure that all wood is kept in a dry storage area. Furthermore, if you have a generator or vehicles, you need to stock up on gas and petrol. This is especially important if your home is liable to being snowed in and unreachable.

Rooms: Be cautious and conservative with how much indoor space you are using at any one time.

Shut off rooms that won’t be used for prolonged periods of time. Block up the space under the door with blankets. If door and window frames have expanded and contracted, cracks and crevices will have appeared. These can be sealed with gaffer tape or plastic cling-film. By using a candle or lighter and tracing the frames, the flame will flicker where air is passing through, signifying where you need to apply a seal. Attic and loft insulation …

December 20, 2015 No Comments

Community

Replacing our 12 volt water pump

Most of the time, items are replaced when they fail, break or quit working. We decided to get a jump on replacing a critical piece of our daily life before it stopped working, I’m referring to our 12 volt water pump. I have written about our water system before, the pump is an integral part of our water system.

We had a 12 volt Shurflo pump, it came out of an old RV and has served us well. I liked having a 12 volt system because it hooks up directly to the batteries, not going through the inverter, so even if everything else is not working, as long as the batteries have juice, the pump will work.

We replaced it with a newer 12 volt Shurflo pump, but an improved model, this one has greater flow and it’s quieter. Honestly the noise factor for us isn’t such a big deal, PB has isolated the pump as much as possible from the structure of the SkyCastle, and most of the time, it’s just us here and we are used to any potential noise it might make. Also, there is a light switch type switch over the sink to cut off power to the pump should we wish it.

A day after the pump arrived, PB went to work exchanging the pumps. That went smoothly enough, we have the capability of draining the outside pipes/hoses so we don’t have to worry about it freezing and breaking. The pump needs to be able to draw the water up some 6 feet from the water tank and this one does it quite nicely, the first time. The second time we drained the water and turned the pump back on, no water.

The pump came on and make the appropriate sounds, but it was clear that it wasn’t pulling the water up. After some reading and troubleshooting, we discovered this pump has a bypass system built in, I’m not up to speed on all of this, but it has to do with the size of the pipes/hoses used, apparently if you are using smaller diameter hose/pipe on the intake side than you are using on the outgoing side, it doesn’t work. BUT after reading the info on the paperwork it came with, it turns out you can adjust the bypass part, once PB got back under there and fiddled with it, it works like a charm.

Our water system is fairly simple, it starts out in a tank outside, gets drawn into the SkyCastle, through the pump, next the pipe/hose is split with one line going back into the water tank, we merely have to turn a valve to drain the system for freezing weather. It goes next into the pressure tank, that keeps the pump from having to cycle every time the water is turned on.

From there it splits again into …

December 6, 2015 No Comments

Encyclopedia of homemade tools website review

I am always on the lookout for websites where you can learn about DIY, I recently found a fun site all about homemade tools, this site is a repository of links to other sites, they and their readers add more and more links. They refer to themselves as an encyclopedia of over 22,000 homemade tools.

I found it because they had linked to some of my DIY pages (with links back to the original post), I was happy enough for them to include some of our ideas, sharing the wealth (knowledge) is all good.

You can find the site here
https://www.homemadetools.net/

Give them a look around, be sure to bookmark the site so you can return later. They say:

We find homemade tools across numerous forums, and organize them in one place, always with full credit to the original builder and site. HomemadeTools.net is updated multiple times daily with new homemade tools.
Browse homemade tools by category!

See all homemade tools in over 150 different categories, including Woodworking, Metalworking, and Automotive.

If you are into DIY, then this is the place for you! Be sure to check out their other “build” sites linked from there, I think the one about 4×4’s and cabins have lots of good information.

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December 2, 2015 1 Comment

Truck follies

https://www.off-grid…

November 20, 2015 No Comments

Community

15 Security tips for off-grid homes

As the financial crunch continues, property crime is on the rise. Living off-grid you are more vulnerable to opportunist thieves – people who happen to be passing.

Here are some time-tested crime prevention secrets – countermeasures to secure your home, whether you are off-gridders, RVers, preppers, hermits, survivalists, or simply spending a few days off the beaten track wild camping .

There are lots of things we can do that are both inexpensive and do not require utility power. Many are just commonsense. The more difficult your property looks to breach the less likely that would-be thieves will select you as their target.

1. Know your neighbors

In remote areas this is the No 1 safety tip: neighbors and community members who know you by name and by face will be the ones that will watch your back in a crisis.

You do not have to become best friends with these people – but you do need to say hi once in awhile and perhaps get involved in some community activities so that they can get to know you and you them.

2. Get a dog

A dog is a great really great early warning system. Heck my little 7 kilo Terrier makes a racket if a stranger is walking around outside at night.

He might not scare an intruder once he is in the house but he certainly would give the would-be burglar reason to look elsewhere. Plus we would know that someone who should not be here is close by if not inside our home.

3. Landscape with inhospitable plants

Inhospitable doesn’t mean the plants aren’t beautiful. Thorny plants like rugosa rosebushes bougainvillea or blackberry vines make it far more difficult to sneak around outside of windows or to climb fences.

4. Consider an alarm system

We are not talking about an expensive monitored alarm system and as a matter of fact I think advertising that you have a monitored system whether it is true or not simply tells the world that you have lots of goodies that need protection.

When I say alarm system I am referring to a loud horn or blast that goes off when someone invades your territory.

This is especially effective if you have neighbors who will also hear the alarm but even in a more remote area the alarm will annoy and dissuade the burglars from sticking around.

Wireless motion sensors can be installed on doors to scare away a person trying to break in. Best of all they’re battery operated and will suprise the bejassus out of anyone who thought they were on an easy picking spree.

5. Keep your outdoor areas well lit

This does not have to be costly. Even shaded areas will benefit from inexpensive solar lighting.

Motion lights around doorways can be startling since they come on when a person walks up to the door.

6. Do …

November 15, 2015 2 Comments

Don’t get sick

It’s that time of the year when people stop spending so much time outside, between the cold weather and the sun going down so much earlier, people spend more time indoors with each other, in closed up rooms and buildings. It’s no wonder people get sick so much easier, and they expose other people to these bacteria and viruses.

I like being more proactive with natural remedies. Things that build my immune system and help my body fight off what I am exposed to when I’m out in the world. Actions such as washing my hands more often, not touching my face (especially my eyes, nose and mouth), many bacteria and virus enter our bodies through our hands touching openings in the body, these are easy entry ways. I think about this when I’m in public, touching door knobs, opening doors, shopping cart handles, gas pumps, public ink pens and the such. Any place that someone else has touched is potentially infected with nasties I’d rather not pass to myself.

One more thing I actively consider is another persons’ airstream, the space where they were breathing, coughing, sneezing, if I hear someone cough of sneeze ahead of me, I will do my utmost best not to walk through the air where they just expelled millions of droplets of potential infection. Might sound silly, but I don’t get sick as a general rule, not saying I am 100% on this, but it’s a rare thing for me to get sick.

One of the proactive things I do when I know I’m going to be exposed to more people is to take elderberry, I prefer taking it in pill form, but you can also get it as a syrup. It’s said to work by keeping the virus from attaching itself in your body, if it can’t attach to one of your cells, then it can’t infect you.

I also take other supplements to boost my immune system, things like turmeric (curcumin), cayenne powder, ginkgo biloba, of course vitamin C, zinc, vitamin D, and a myriad of other supplements. I prefer to fill my own capsules when I can, using a capsule filling machine, buying many of my supplements in bulk powder form. It’s cheaper that way, and I know what is going in the capsules, no fillers, no binders, nothing that I didn’t put in it.

Right now I am able to buy these supplements, but that may not be true in the future, between the government trying to keep us from healing ourselves and big pharma worried about their bottom line, it’s always a good idea to have a general knowledge of your local plant life to know what you can use for medicine.

When I first moved to my west Texas off-grid home, I looked around this high desert and couldn’t imagine what I could use for medicine, …

November 13, 2015 No Comments

Tiny home documentary

I really appreciate how tiny homes are becoming more and more mainstream as well as legal, though many still have to “get around” codes and rules by making their tiny homes on wheels, to make them mobile or portable. I worry that some more restrictive locations might catch on and create even more rules or laws against tiny homes.

Meanwhile, Kirsten Dirksen, a filmmaker has traveled around all over the world shooting videos old and new tiny homes, showing us the way different folk live. This documentary is a wonderful eye opening look into just how tiny some people have gone, one lady lives in a 90 square foot apartment and has gotten quite a lot of attention from the press, but there is a man who lives in an even smaller footprint, measuring in at 78 square feet, his apartment in Manhattan is not much more than a space for a couch and bed that folds up behind the couch, most of us have larger closets.

Watch and enjoy.

https://youtu.be/lDcVrVA4bSQ

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November 6, 2015 No Comments

Community

Stuck in for 3 days

Earlier this week, I only worked Monday and Tuesday, I had an unexpected “vacation” after that. On my way home Tuesday, I passed through a storm, a heavy storm with lots of lightning, hail and rain. I was able to get ahead of the storm and got home safely. About an hour later, the skies opened up, it poured in buckets, the hail, some as big as golf balls bashed everything in sight. I went out on the covered porch and moved the solar panels, I tilted them away from the prevailing wind, it’s not 100% guarantee of protection, but it’s better than nothing. The other bank of solar panels that are fixed in place, we have placed heavy concrete wire over the top and weaved 2 layers of bird netting through the concrete wire. It does create the tiniest bit of shade over the panels, but it has also protected them from damage from hail on more than one occasion.

The creek at the bottom of the property was flowing at flood stage, the water was coming over my neighbor’s bridge by a good foot and a half. We had wave after wave of heavy rain fronts passing through at half hour intervals. We had already had 4 days of good rain so the ground was saturated and the water had no where to soak in.

The rain eventually stopped during the night, we mopped up as best we could and went to bed. The following morning was really eye opening, it was clear that we weren’t going anywhere, and neither was anyone else out here. The roads were devastated, gone in some areas. We have over 70 miles of unpaved roads in mountainous terrain in the neighborhood, we have many many low water crossings. The creek, which is dry much of the year, meanders across the road as you go out. Most of the time when it rains, you might have to drive through a few inches of water, this time, the roads were washed out, large basketball sized rocks (some larger) were left in the way, there were places where you couldn’t see what was below the water, whether it was more rocks or a hole that might bury your vehicle.

We were stuck in for 3 days, some of our neighbor’s farther down the road from us were stuck in 4 days. Other neighbors were stuck out, they had gone out and couldn’t get back in. Fortunately my little community pulls together in a crisis and 30+ volunteers came out to work on the roads, some with heavy equipment, others with hand tools. My road was hit the worst so they worked our road first.

Fortunately most of the folk living out here are aware of the possibility of being stuck in (or out) for days or even weeks at a time, it doesn’t happen often, …

October 9, 2015 No Comments

Andrew Price leads campaign to unplug in NSW

Energy

Oz The Grid – world’s first town plans to unplug

Tyalgum in Australia wants to make a name for itself by becoming the first town in the world to voluntarily disconnect from the electricity grid.

The New South Wales community is quietly working on a plan to unplug its 300 citizens from the energy grid.

Its location, about an hour’s drive north-west of Byron Bay, puts it in the perfect position to do it.

“Geographically it’s in the right location as far as networks go,” said Andrew Price from Australian Radio Towers, the company spearheading the town’s renewable energy project.

“It’s right on the end of the grid so it’s not disruptive to other communities further down the power line.”

Mr Price said the community is very receptive to the idea as there is already a huge push toward sustainability and renewable energy in the area.

“Ultimately it’s got to be a community-based decision but (because of) the size of the community and the style of the community it is, we’ve got a really good chance of doing that,” he said.

Tosh Szatow, from Energy For the People, wrote a feasibility study for the renewables project that found frustrated community members want to take back control of energy infrastructure.

“The community there is pretty frustrated with the rise in energy prices and not really seeing benefits proportionate to that — they’re not seeing more renewable energy, they’re not seeing better services and more reliable power,” he said.

Deputy Mayor Gary Bagnall has also expressed his support, but hurdles must be cleared before town can unplug

Mr Szatow said there are two approaches the community could adopt to achieve this.

“One way is that every house and every business gets their own solar system, potentially gets their own battery storage,” he said.

He said the second option would be to construct a hub somewhere in the town that individuals and businesses could source energy form.

“It means the town can be either completely off-grid or largely self-sufficient using renewable energy,” he said.

The cost of switching entirely to renewables would depend on which option is taken, but early estimates have the cost from anywhere between $4 million to just over $7 million.

And there are several hurdles that need to be cleared before the town could completely unplug from the grid.

One is that those developing the project would need to negotiate viable access, tariffs and potentially the transfer of ownership of a portion of the electricity network from the local power provider.

It will also require strong community support and legislative change from the New South Wales Government.

Organisers from Australian Radio Towers are in talks with school and community groups to discuss funding options and said they are confident the project could begin as soon as it is given the green light.

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October 8, 2015 3 Comments

OPSEC

Just how much can you divulge? How much should you divulge? You want to be more prepared, you have become more prepared, you have a good amount of food and supplies put up for emergencies, you may hear one of your co-workers or neighbors talking about prepping, you might be tempted to let them know just how ready you are… I say that isn’t a good idea. What you have just done is give other people a roadmap to your precious preps, right now they might even laugh at what you are doing, but I promise you, if things get bad, they will remember and they will show up on your doorstep looking for a handout, or to take what is yours.

Hopefully you are able to put up enough to take care of yourself, your family and those in your circle of friends for the duration, but chances are, you probably don’t have enough to share out. Even if you can take care of a small circle of friends and co-workers, how many have they told about your stash? It’s amazing how good a memory can work when you are hungry.

Next question is how far are you willing to go to protect what is yours? Are you willing to injure someone? Are you willing to take another life? This may sound extreme, and hopefully this never happens. But to keep things secure, for you, for your family, for your circle, the fewer people who know what you have and where you keep it, the better off you will be.

Yes, this is harsh, it is reality, and nothing is more real than an empty cupboard, whether it is yours or someone else. What are you doing (or not doing) to ensure your OPSEC? (look it up if you aren’t familiar)

1. Don’t tell what you have or where it is.
2. Don’t allow your family members to do #1.
3. Don’t show pictures online of your preps, I see this on a regular basis, whether it’s food, or ways to protect what is yours, keep it off the internet.
4. If all else fails, refer to #1.

You want to blend in with the other people, the ones who haven’t a clue, you can gently educate them, but not at your (or your family’s) expense or risk.

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October 7, 2015 No Comments

All you need to go off-grid

Self-Sufficiency

Freezing week

Chopping and stacking wood

Heat my Homestead

Replacing our 12 volt water pump

Encyclopedia of homemade tools website review

Truck follies

15 Security tips for off-grid homes

Don’t get sick

Tiny home documentary

Stuck in for 3 days

Oz The Grid – world’s first town plans to unplug

OPSEC

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