The Homesteader’s Favorite Big Box Store: Lehman’s Tour

While visiting family in Ohio I had the opportunity to visit Lehman’s in Kidron, an Amish retail store that sell all sorts of products that help you be more self sufficient.  I love the store because they have products that can be hard to find otherwise, unless you order them through their website.  But here you can find them all right on the shelf and see how they work in person. From cheesemaking, to wood stoves, to old timey hardware, to non electric technologies of all kinds, you can find everything here.  I don’t usually recommend buying lots of stuff, but most of these products are about self-sufficiency, so they help you reduce your dependence on buying many other products and foods.

Lake Erie’s Real Monster and the Ruins of Cleveland’s Mass Transit

Over twenty years ago a monster took over Lake Erie and has been wreaking havok on its ecosystems ever since.  In this video we take a walk along Lake Erie, , see the signs of the Lake Erie monster, and also find some ruins of an electric trolley system that was scrapped way back in 1937.  Then we visit my old stomping grounds and the patch of land that inspired my interest in grapes.

Hardcore Sustainable Goes to the Burbs: Paving of a Paradise

Before I went to Florida for the winter I spent some time with family in the burbs I grew up in.  I have a lot of nostalgia for times I never lived in, and though I know that life wasn’t easy back then, it was by far more sustainable.  In this video series I look for the signs of what used to be before everything became covered with parking lots, housing developments, and shopping malls.  There’s nothing sustainable about these places and in fact they are perfect examples of exactly what’s wrong with our economy, and why it is doomed to failure.

My Other Tiny House: Wisteria Lodge Pt 1

When I first moved to Dancing Rabbit I lived in a different tiny house, an even tinier house.  Wisteria Lodge is only 240 sq ft, but it’s a nice little two story space and its passive solar design makes it easier to heat.  Keeping with its name it does feature a wisteria vine growing on a trellis halfway up the south side. Check out this video to find out more interesting tidbits about the house and to hear the story of how it ended up at Dancing Rabbit.

 

Planting fall garlic and cartooning

I’m escaping to the garden in this video and planting my fall garlic. Garlic is one of my favorite crops because it grows well every year, it doesn’t get any disease, and it’s easy to maintain. You just drop the cloves in in the fall after most other stuff is done and it comes up first thing in the spring. By mid July it’s finished up and you can follow it with a second fall crop.

If you couldn’t tell, this footage was taken just after the election in November.