Beat the Heat: Purchase a fan that will last

Over the years, my wife and I have started to see a rapid decline in quality made goods.  During a heat wave, we did not want to be looking for a fan to replace one that shorted out, rattled apart, or melted all due to it being plastic. One hot summer, my wife and I …

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How to protect your memories… Use a Free External Hard Drive Case

What is an easy way to protect your external hard drive? Give it a case. However, most cases are designed to store your drive not to protect it while in use.  In the video below, I teach you how to create your own external hard drive case for free.  All you need is an ice …

Whether to buy a Snow Plow or Not. (Saving Money when it doesn’t feel like it.)

When living in snow country, snow removal becomes a real issue.  If snow is left to sit, it eventually becomes impassable even with the best 4 x 4 vehicle.  Over the past 4 years, I invested in a "good" deal plow truck that has been nothing but repairs and headaches. This "good" deal has cost …

Math in the Real World: Pythagorean Theorem

When are we ever going to use a2 + b2 = c2 in the real world? I asked this question in math class. I am unsure if I ever received an answer until I began building my off grid paradise. Recently, I plotted the footprint for my shop’s foundation. My math teacher should have handed …

Honest Companies Do Exist… Tractor Chain Success

Sometimes it seems everyone is so busy trying to make a dollar, that integrity is the first decent thing sacrificed to get it.  Even in the blogging world, the temptation to create ad revenue before speaking a company's name is a real thing.  When looking for tractor chains after this winter storm, I discovered two …

Tractor + Generator = Power

Before we even bought our land and were planning our off grid homestead, we wanted a diesel generator as our backup power system for those endless cloudy days.  Why? Because, the cost of dyed diesel is cheaper, and, most importantly, I don't have to worry about the fuel going bad after a few months of …

Free Shipping? How could we forget?

Sorry about the late notice, but if any of you are fans of my wife's candles, she is ending her free shipping promotional today. She has amazing scents this year, especially, for the Christmas/Holiday Collection.  Shop Today, for free shipping If you have a faux Christmas tree and want the smell of a fresh cut …

Why a Tractor Shed?

Sometime this summer I had an idea that changed my perspective on the type of back up generator we needed.    See the past post from whence we came.  When we were first in the planning and designing stage of our off grid home, we realized the sun could be blocked for days even weeks during …

Determining Off Grid Power Needs

When we started planning our off grid solar system for our home, we began planning what electrical appliances we wanted and weighing that against what we could afford.  The following video are our non-negotiables.  We determined what we wanted for our home and planned the size or our solar system and battery bank accordingly. My …

Why Live Off the Grid?

The two main reasons we began to consider living off the grid were the constant rise in the cost of electricity and the storms that seemed to knock out our service each year. Living off grid didn't start to become an option until we lived on the Oregon Coast and lived through the Great Coastal …