Off Grid electricity is NOT free.

I believe I am guilty of promoting free energy on the off grid homestead, and during the summer months it appears that way.  However, during the winter months cloudy skies make solar energy creation improbable, and it's the battery bank that keeps the home's electricity going from day to day.  When the fog and inversion …

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Easy Do-it-Yourself Mousetrap (Very Effective)

Our battle with the chicken coop seems to be unending.  When the mice moved in and discovered the chickens had a bountiful supply of food, the battle began.  First, we removed our chickens' food at night to prevent the mice' thievery.  But, they still seemed to propagate.  I began setting mouse traps and competed with …

Man vs. Snowplow (Season 3, Episode 2)

For those who have watched the war wage on between me and my used snowplow, this is perhaps the armistice between us.  This year, I did not mess around with the motor and pump assembly.  I purchased a “new” rebuilt Meyer E47 standard assembly.  This has made a world of difference.  The plow system is …

Working alone on the homestead

Today, I am spending much of the day alone.  I decided what a perfect time to write a post about working on the homestead alone.  During the rush to build our tractor shed, I did much of the prep work by myself.  My wife and son went to the local farmers’ market while I began …

Welcome to YouTube…

Brief Background I started the Living a Sustainable Dream YouTube channel back in the beginning of 2015.  I had an iPod Nano and our Nikon Cool Pix and filmed a couple segments about how to clean our wood cook stove, making a waffle on the wood cook stove, and troubleshooting our electric log splitter (our …

Unboxing our new off grid water heater

This past week I have been busy installing our new off grid tankless propane water heater.  The tankless propane water heater we had before was only a temporary fix that lasted 5 years.  I never intended on using it for so long, but other needs on the homestead kept taking priority.   We are finally …

Homestead Tractor Walk Around

In this quick video, I am doing a walk around our tractor.   I even added some scenes of the tractor in use as I describe each function and implement we have. The school year is coming to a close and my schedule has become a challenge.  My wife has done an excellent job stepping in …

10 Tips for Building Your Off Grid or On Grid Home

Here are some energy saving tips to think about when starting to build off grid or on grid.  You can Click Here to be able to download your copy of our 10 Tips.  Enjoy! Tip 1: Face as many windows as possible South to optimize solar gain. This will help in two main areas. Heat …

A simple trick to improve gear shaft and axle performance: Snow Thrower Maintenance

Thank you for joining us at Living a Sustainable Dream, I hope this post will assist you if you have a snow thrower.  If you have no interest in ever owning one, let alone have a snowy enough climate to justify its purchase, that's okay.  If there is one thing everyone can take from this …

The Tractor has Arrived

Our new tractor has arrived and we've already made some use of it by moving several dead rooted up stumps and a large burned up log left by the previous owner.  What would have taken days and several weeks of back and knee recovery was done in a matter of a few minutes.  Just yesterday …