Category: homesteading

Most OFF-GRID Homesteaders Get This Wrong




Someone I live with at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage calls off-grid homesteading a Ponzi scheme. I’ve often thought the same thing. Because our crazy consumer society is so destructive both personally and environmentally, because we are made to feel like just numbers working our lives away until we die, a lot of people are understandably attracted to this way of life that we’re told involves disconnecting, living off the land, living a peaceful, easier life in the country away from the hustle and bustle of society and the city.

And most of what we see in the advertising and propaganda about off-grid homesteading is praising a life of rugged individualism, making do by yourself, free from grid dependence, producing your own electricity, heat, water, and food.

But is it real? Can it really be done? Or do the majority of people fail at this or live miserable lives because they can’t produce all these things for themselves? Do they actually end up disconnecting from the grid, or do they just connect to the grid in a slightly different way? Are they being made to feel like failures if they can’t make it alone in the wilderness, or is this an unrealistic expectation set for them by the propaganda that attracts them to the life in the first place?

I think off grid homesteading is very possible, and a lot more of those who take the plunge into this lifestyle would succeed if they just stop listening to this one bit of the propaganda, if they stopped making this same mistake that is based on one major aspect of the romance of off-grid homesteading.

Incredible Rusty Wood Stove Transformation and Renewal

Throughout last summer, my wood stove was inexplicably getting rustier and rustier. It was only about 4 years old, but it was starting to look like it was 20. I decided to make it a late summer project and with a little elbow grease the rusty wood stove underwent a transformation and renewal to almost like new. Here’s how I did it. #woodstove #woodheat #castironstove

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A TRICK to Get HUGE Second Broccoli Heads

Gardeners who love broccoli wait months to get that big delicious head. And broccoli plants take up a LOT of space in the garden for what they produce if you are only going to harvest one head. But once you’ve harvested that first head, you don’t have to pull out the plants, and you don’t have to be relegated to tiny little side shoot florets that are mostly leaf. In this video, I show you a trick to getting HUGE second, third, fourth, etc, heads throughout the season off the same broccoli plant.

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Permaculture in an Organic Vineyard at a Radical Ecovillage

I live in what is probably North America’s most radical ecovillage, Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. I moved here over 15 years ago to live in the country closer to the land, and to devote my life to reducing my impact on the planet.

Spring is the time for getting the garden in. Part of my garden is in my organic vineyard. I don’t just grow grapes. I grow cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, and melons between my grape vines. And in the past few years I’ve also been growing perennial flowers to provide an additional cash crop from the space. I use comfrey within the rows of grapes to smother the grasses and other weeds that would otherwise rob the grapevines of water and nutrients. Most vineyards would just spray herbicide to control the weeds. Permaculture is possible even in a vineyard.

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Early Spring Self Sufficiency On an Ecovillage Homestead

Living sustainably and self sufficiently is a lot of hard work. You have to take the opportunities to get work done when the weather allows, but you also have to take time to appreciate the natural world around you when you have the chance. This is early spring for me in the ecovillage where I live.

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Where Do Lettuce Seeds Come From? And How to Save Them

Some vegetables can be baffling when we think about where their seeds come from because we only see the part we eat. Sometimes that part is a seed and but most of the time it’s a completely different part of the plant. But the seeds are the key to the existence of the vegetable we are eating, so every vegetable must have seeds somewhere. But where are the seeds on a head of lettuce?

This video will not only show where the seeds are, but how to grow them and save them so you can grow your own lettuce year to year without buying seed.

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