Homesteading 101
Hey ya'll,
Many of you who follow me on Facebook know I live on a farm. Well, what you might not know is that Matthew and I are converting our farm to a bonafide HOMESTEAD!
Yes, with all this going on with the coronavirus, we are converting things in our home and on our land that will take us OFF-GRID, as much a possible. Now, by off-grid, I mean free electricity and water, via solar usage. No house payments, growing our own food, raising animals, and pretty much living off the land. Luckily, we already have a well so we don't pay for water. We will be hooking up a water purifying system, and I will keep the internet because of my writing, naturally.
A little background info here: We bought our farm in 2003. For 17 years we've little by little made improvements, but never full-on off-grid. We mostly had to just get the house livable, to be honest! Raccoons were living in it when we first bought it! Once we evicted them, we cleaned it up and moved in. We didn't have any working plumbing at that time and bailed water from a hand-dug well until we could afford to put a new pump in the second well that ran into the house. A new water heater was next, as the one here was a 1950-ish, very small water heater that was original to the house. We have never had central heat or air, and with an all-electric house, you can imagine the electric bills we pay using electric heaters and window units -- well, maybe not. Last year our highest bill was over $650 for ONE MONTH! That was not with any balance in arrears! CRAZY!
As you can see, going off-grid is something we NEED to do, not just want to do.
We are reading as much as we can about going off-grid right now. I am researching native plants to use for medicinal purposes, food that stores well, canning and preserving, too. We are planning a garden and I am already planting seeds in containers to put out after the last frost. I love watching them grow, but I think I need to heat the soil because some of them aren't coming up as they should be. I heard about heat pads, but I don't want to have to buy anything like that (lack of funds) so I'm going to try to rig something up via good 'ol sunshine and black spray paint maybe? Not sure. I have to research it. THANK GOD FOR INTERNET AND YOUTUBE LOL
So for now, this is the update. I am still writing, of course, and will post updates here concerning my books. Stay tuned!
Please leave a comment so I know you stopped by letting me know you want to see these posts!
Til next time, YOU ARE LOVED! <3
-LP
Many of you who follow me on Facebook know I live on a farm. Well, what you might not know is that Matthew and I are converting our farm to a bonafide HOMESTEAD!
Yes, with all this going on with the coronavirus, we are converting things in our home and on our land that will take us OFF-GRID, as much a possible. Now, by off-grid, I mean free electricity and water, via solar usage. No house payments, growing our own food, raising animals, and pretty much living off the land. Luckily, we already have a well so we don't pay for water. We will be hooking up a water purifying system, and I will keep the internet because of my writing, naturally.
A little background info here: We bought our farm in 2003. For 17 years we've little by little made improvements, but never full-on off-grid. We mostly had to just get the house livable, to be honest! Raccoons were living in it when we first bought it! Once we evicted them, we cleaned it up and moved in. We didn't have any working plumbing at that time and bailed water from a hand-dug well until we could afford to put a new pump in the second well that ran into the house. A new water heater was next, as the one here was a 1950-ish, very small water heater that was original to the house. We have never had central heat or air, and with an all-electric house, you can imagine the electric bills we pay using electric heaters and window units -- well, maybe not. Last year our highest bill was over $650 for ONE MONTH! That was not with any balance in arrears! CRAZY!
As you can see, going off-grid is something we NEED to do, not just want to do.
We are reading as much as we can about going off-grid right now. I am researching native plants to use for medicinal purposes, food that stores well, canning and preserving, too. We are planning a garden and I am already planting seeds in containers to put out after the last frost. I love watching them grow, but I think I need to heat the soil because some of them aren't coming up as they should be. I heard about heat pads, but I don't want to have to buy anything like that (lack of funds) so I'm going to try to rig something up via good 'ol sunshine and black spray paint maybe? Not sure. I have to research it. THANK GOD FOR INTERNET AND YOUTUBE LOL
So for now, this is the update. I am still writing, of course, and will post updates here concerning my books. Stay tuned!
Please leave a comment so I know you stopped by letting me know you want to see these posts!
Til next time, YOU ARE LOVED! <3
-LP
I love your idea turning Medicine Hill into a homestead! What a great idea! Can't wait to read about the progress as you go from project to project. hugs and love, Ann
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