Living Off The Grid

Admittedly, The Omlet is a very cool-looking, functional, ingenious design for an urban chicken coop and run. Of course I want one, but that’s besides the point. I only “want” one if it’s free because when you do the math paying for one just doesn’t make any sense.

Yes, you read the title right. And no, this isn’t a joke. We have one of these in our basement bathroom, because there is a toilet but no sink, and it works perfectly.

Most off-grid folks, homesteaders and sustainable living devotees will tout the benefits of reusing everything and fixing up old stuff until it’s lived several lifetimes. That goes for everything from adding a new handle to an old shovel to finding throw-away windows at the dump or fixing up the old washing machine. For the most part, they’re right. The financial and environmental cost of producing something new, even if it’s more energy and cost-efficient, is usually much more than the cost of fixing something old.

I was looking for a new image to use as my computer desktop wallpaper today and found some very beautiful and inspirational homesteading pictures so I wanted to share these homestead photos and paintings with you.

Les Stroud, probably best known for his Survivorman series, talks about living off the grid and chasing the dream of a self sustaining lifestyle in his documentary Off The Grid.

These are the homesteading blogs I read. The blog owners may not know who I am, but I read their posts every day from my Bloglines account, and if you’re interested in sustainable living then you should too!

Freezing vegetables is easier than canning them, and in many cases can lead to a fresher taste. The only downside is that canned foods will keep even if the power goes out. If you want to give freezing a try before you start to learn the finer art of canning, green beans are a good place to start.

It seems to me that our population is too great for our food to be produced here in the United States, especially when farmers are subsidized in a way that encourages large-scale monocropping of corn and soy bean at the expense of the diversification of our national food supply. While homesteading to grow your own food is a great solution if you have the time, land and resources, I don’t think it’s a viable option for the hundreds of millions of people who live in apartments and urban centers in North America.

I was reading one of my favorite homesteading blogs today and was inspired by their post about our relationship with food. The post had an incredible image of a stocked pantry shelf which just struck me as one of the most beautiful, comforting things in the world.

One of our readers has sent us his account of what has become an annual family tradition of vacationing at a friend’s off-grid property in Montana. See what Clay has to say about the lessons he has learned over the years, including how the off-grid living lifestyle has spilled over into his normal grid-tied life in the city of Portland, OR.

Homesteading is difficult but don’t be discouraged. With a bit of help from people who know how to live off the land, you can avoid many of the pitfalls and greatly improve your chances of success.

If you own rural accommodation, such as cabin rentals, head over to Back to The Earth, an online directory of farm vacations, Bed and Breakfasts, Ranches, Cabins and other rural accommodation rental businesses throughout the United States.

Let’s let corporate America know how much we value environmental stewardship from the companies that provide our products and services. Be sure to vote on the Co-op America People’s Choice Award for the Greenest Business of the Year!

I don’t have experience with tractors yet, but living in Colorado has given me plenty of experience with snowblowers. Seeing as how we’re about to enter the snow season again here, I’d like to share a review of my favorite brand/model.

Those who live in more rural areas use septic systems and leach fields for the most part. But a cheaper, and more high-tech, alternative to septic systems is a composting toilet. Not only does it eliminate the high cost of installing a septic system, but it achieves the same thing in less time while producing a highly-fertile, pathogen-free, non-smelly, free fertilizer that can be used on trees and shrubs.

There is something very alluring about building your own home out of stone. Perhaps it has to do with the longevity of a stone house, or the sense of security provided by thick stone walls, or maybe it’s just the rugged, natural look of well-done stone masonry. Whatever the reason, this ancient art-form and skill has been largely lost over a few generations of “fake” stone builders who use veneers glued onto wood and metal mesh instead of full-sized stone. But I found two do-it-yourselfers named Tom who are keeping the craft alive in their own modern way using slipforms.

The first negative book review I’ve had to write goes to Five Acres and Independence: A Handbook for Small Farm Management written by Maurice Grenville Kains.

I bought my first set of mason jars made by Ball and a regular canning pot (not a pressure canner) so I can try my hand at this skill that has been largely forgotten over the course of two generations… Or so I thought, until I started checking out the Best Sellers List on Amazon.com and noticed that the Presto 23-Quart Pressure Cooker/Canner and the Back To Basics Home Canning Kit were both on the list of top-selling products on Amazon.com this month.

On a scale of 1-5 we’d give this book a 4.5. Some of the information is a bit too technical for some people, while other parts of the book are a bit too entry-level for others. The Solar Living Sourcebook seeks to strike a balance and provide a general overview of sustainable living concepts while not glossing over every topic. We think they have managed to do this quite well.

This solar power system is about 3kWH in size, but it’s all we need for our small 1940′s bungalow in sunny Colorado. The inverter is a Xantrex and we had it mounted on the North side of the garage where it would stay shaded almost 100% of the time.