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 …

Advertisement

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 …

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 …

Laundry, moving through life’s cycles

How do we do a simple task like laundry? Is there a bucket and washboard involved? No, we are off grid, not in the 1800s. We purposely bought an older electric Kenmore washing machine with no computer, just plain old knobs and dials. At first that was not our intention, we went shopping for a …

Electricity, making the choice to be off grid.

For us the choice was purely economical and a desire to be self-sufficient. The choice to live off grid is not a desire of most people, and I am not trying to convert anyone to the idea. However, if you like to save money, which most of us do, many of our off grid tips …

How to brew that cup of coffee in the morning.

To brew our morning tea or coffee, we use our Le Creuset ceramic French press. We just toss in the loose leaf herbal tea blend of chamomile, peppermint, lavender, and some raspberry leaf, or our favorite coffee from the local coffee roaster, Evans Brothers' Timber blend. Add boiling hot water, let steep for 4 minutes …