Budgeting for a Homestead Tractor

Ever since we bought our property back in 2010, we desired to have a tractor.  We wanted a tractor with a backhoe attachment, and we should have bought it back then, but I was stubborn about not wanting to go back in debt. If we had done this seven years ago, our tractor would have …

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Easy to fix snow blower, all is not lost.

My snow thrower was the easiest fix I have had since being on the property.  It was so easy that I was shocked by it,  especially after working on the generator.  After attempting to fix our Ridgid generator, I was beginning to lose confidence in after market parts.  Until, I had to fix the snow …

“Generating” Repairs: Winter requires more than just solar.

Living off the grid and relying totally on solar power is not a great idea.  There are days and even a month or two in the winter in which only a few sunny days will appear.  If we only had solar to rely on for electricity, it would become very unnerving seeing our battery bank’s …

Tales from the Coop

This past Thanksgiving Break we finally dispatched one of our three roosters.  Currently, we have twenty-seven ladies and two roosters.  For weeks we have put off killing our extra rooster and had him in the isolation chamber, so he couldn't stress out the ladies.  He was the last rooster to begin crowing and he was …

Our heavenly [security] gate

Our little slice of heaven has now become a gated community, north Idaho style.  We bought a 12 foot cattle panel during the Labor Day Sale at our local farm ranch store.  Over the course of weeks, being busy with other projects or just plane worn out after a day's worth of teaching,  I finally …

Our family room, the back yard…

One day I hope to build a covered deck in the back yard, but it is low on the priority list. That being said, our backyard's landscaping  is mostly sand and weeds.  We try to keep our eyes off the ground and just look at the beautiful trees surrounding us.  On nice mornings or evenings, …

What to do? The race to meet a deadline.

What deadline could I possibly have?  The summer is rapidly coming to a close, and I am about to re-enter the classroom again this fall for my 16th year of teaching.  Each summer I have a to do list that I try to complete before I am inundated with lesson planning, orchestrating projects, grading papers, …

A “berry” good summer…Saskatoon style

For the first time since we moved onto our property, we have never realized we were surrounded by wild berries.  Out our front window, we watched for years the humming birds fight over a large series of bushes that bloomed each spring, but we have never spied any fruit upon it, until now.  The bushes …

Road Warriors: The Last Battle Against Mud Season

For the past few years, we have been coping with our dirt road.  Anyone who has lived on a dirt road may possibly relate to this.  In north Idaho the local joke is there are 5 seasons, summer, fall, winter, mud, and spring.  During the time between winter and spring we have what we call …

Reality Check… we live off grid (part 1: of our transition period)

Sometimes my wife and I have to remind ourselves that we live off the grid.  We do not receive any electricity from the power company. We make our own electricity using our solar panels and sometimes back up gas generator in a pinch. During evenings, I like to unwind by watching Youtube on the television.  …