What is Security?
This post is coming in late because we are right in the middle of moving again and I’ve had to prioritize other things. Today is moving day so I’m going to keep this short and sweet. By the end of the day our family will be living full time off the grid! Our only power will come from a few solar panels and a portable generator. It feels a little bit strange! Although this move has been easier in some regards, it is still very difficult.
Why Off Grid?
Chances are you’ve seen romanticized pictures of a nice cabin with a pristine wood stove in a peaceful setting in the woods. Everything is rustic but tidy and clean. It looks dreamy! “Off grid life” has become a catch phrase for the younger generation. Chances are, most of the images you’ve seen are from Instagram influencers or even fake images generated by AI. The term, “off grid” is one of those things that seems to mean something different to everyone. Some imagine a hut in the woods with no contact with the outside world, living like the Amish with no electricity or running water. Others may imagine very expensive and high solar power systems that run a home just like you would if you were connected to the grid. The truth is
It’s Crunch Time!
Hello Friends! My schedule has become unpredictable as I've been taking trips to go to our property to begin preparations for our move to full time, off grid life. We will be moving soon and there is a lot that needs to be done. It’s getting to be crunch time so I’m going to cut back to posting once per week. Here is a look at some of the things I’ve been up to, adventures had, and lessons learned!
An Explosion!
We all had some good rest this winter, but winter is over and it is time for our lives to shift… again. We are looking forward to moving onto our own property full time but I’d be lying if there wasn’t some anxiety associated with it! We will be living fully off grid in a camp trailer while we work on a more permanent (but still temporary) shelter for our family. Something I have realized is that because our property is so remote and wild, it takes more time to do some things, including getting set up for basic living. So with that in mind, my son and I loaded a bunch of stuff in our truck and took a load of things to our property and started getting the trailer ready for full time living.
Although we have mouse traps set, without someone there the mice want to move in.
You Haven’t Heard this Version of the 3 Little Pigs!
“I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your misconceptions down!”
Once upon a time there were three little pigs. These little pigs all set out to build themselves a home. One little pig decided to build with sticks, or dimensional lumber. He mostly just did it this way because it was the normal way to build. It’s just how it’s done. The second little pig thought he wanted something more substantial, so he decided to build a brick house. The third little pig, was something of a rebel. He felt like he wanted to explore some alternative options. He learned that there are many different ways to build that are often overlooked because they are more difficult to manufacture quickly and are not as easily defined into building codes. He learned about adobe, cob (like adobe but built wet into a monolithic structure), rammed earth, rock built, straw bale, and even hempcrete! These were interesting to this little rebel pig. After a lot of research, he decided that he liked straw best. The reason was because he could build a home with more natural materials with fewer harmful chemicals, have massive amounts of insulation, breathable walls, and it looked really fun! Unfortunately, when he told his other pig friends what he was thinking, they were concerned.
Stop Throwing Away Bones After Making Broth!
Meat can be a controversial subject. Some people claim that humans were never meant to eat meat and that they are healthier now that they only eat a plant based diet, others swear by the carnivore diet. Most homesteaders raise some kind of meat animal but there are some vegan homesteaders. I can respect whatever food decisions you make! We choose to eat meat, but we do eat it in moderation. We prefer to eat meat that we know where it comes from and had a good, fulfilling life. Lastly, we try to use as much of the animal as we can. That can be difficult! One part of the animal that I grew up throwing away is the bone. However, bone broth has made a come back, and for good reason! Bone broth is one of those super foods that not only gives you a ton of nutrients, but also ads good flavor to foods. We like soup, especially in the winter so it’s nice to have a lot of bone broth on hand. In fact, chicken isn’t my favorite type of meat, but we plan to raise meat chickens mostly so we can have their bones for broth! We have struggled a bit with making bone broth in the past and have only made it when we have enough bones to make a good batch. However, we’ve developed a good system that works well for us and I want to share how we get multiple uses out of those bones instead of just tossing them!
Unraveling the mystery of Cistus Tea
This post is the 2nd in a two part series about Cistus Incanus tea. If you haven’t read that, I recommend starting there. The first post was focused on the benefits of Cistus tea and why it is so amazing. This post is going to be more focused on how to make it. When I first looked into how to make Cistus tea, I expected the usual tea brewing methods but I found several different vague references to a “labor intensive” three brew method. These posts all had some kind of easier alternative brewing method but none of them actually described what the three brew method, why was traditionally done that way, and why their method was acceptable. I had to dig a little bit more to figure it out. Here is what I discovered!
Can Herbal Tea Repel Ticks AND Treat Lyme? Part 1
As I meet people here in Southern Missouri, they often ask me how we like it out here. The truth is, I like it very much! Of course, there are things I miss about Utah, and I look forward to going back to visit, but so far, I love it here in the Ozarks! There is so much life here!
However, there is one thing that I hate about this place! I hate the ticks! I hate that they carry serious disease. I hate that they have painful bites that irritate you for so long. I hate that they crawl up you’re clothes and latch on in the most awkward places! I hate that they are parasites and suck your blood! I hate that they are difficult to kill! I hate how they discourage us from enjoying the outdoors! I could go on…
You Don’t Choose the Hammer, the Hammer Chooses You!
This is a just for fun story of how my big yellow hammer came into my life. I like telling this story so I thought I might as well post it for your enjoyment!
I’ve never been the type of person who insists on having the best tools. I’ve never been able to afford that! In fact, I grew up making due with whatever I could find. However, there are times when having a good tool is well worth the cost! In my opinion, knives fall into that category! But a hammer? I wouldn’t ever spend extra money to buy a good quality hammer. A hammer is a hammer right? Well, I admit that some hammers are better than others and if I were using one every single day for a living, I might consider it, but that isn’t me at all. My big yellow hammer is a more expensive one. So… why did I get it? How much did I pay for it? Well... I almost paid my life for it!
I’m Lichen This Beard!
They are fluffy, bushy, a little bit bristly, fun to play with, a little bit wild, and… very beneficial for your health! While my beard is most those things, that isn’t what I’m talking about. I’m talking about a fun lichen that grows in the forest that is called Usnea, or commonly called “Old Man’s Beard”. This is another one of those things similar to Turkey Tail that I’ve heard about but haven’t had the chance to harvest until recently. I was super excited to find it after moving to Missouri. Then, it didn’t take long to realize it’s literally everywhere in the forest! Usnea is a very potent herb that can do a lot of things but it does need to be used sparingly. Too much of it can cause liver damage. I am new to this herb and haven’t used it much at all, so I was going to wait and write about it when I have more experience with it but I thought it would be interesting to write about it now and then do a follow up later when I’ve had a chance to use it a little bit more. I have a few particular uses that I’m excited to use Usnea for, but before I get into that, I want to just introduce you to this herbal lichen.
Off Grid Fight!
Our plans are shifting… again. If you’re new here, we have recently moved from our home in Southern Utah and are temporarily house sitting in Southern Missouri for the winter. We will be moving onto our own off grid property in May. We purchased raw land more than a year ago. It had no home, no water, no electricity. We even had to build an access road! We had plans for a temporary shelter while we built a home, but those plans got shattered. We shifted and found the opportunity to live in the home we are in now. It has been a blessing! A gnarly car crash during our move made us shift gears again. Recently, storm system moved through the East/Midwest and Missouri had several tornadoes touch down and cause significant damage. We were safely out of the path, but it was too close for comfort. This was honestly one of our fears before moving hear but we looked at the data and it appeared that while there are plenty of tornado warnings, actual damage causing tornadoes were not super common in the Ozark region. This storm system is supposedly a 100 year event. However, in Southern Utah we had a 100 year flood. It caused lots of damage. Then it happened again several years later, then again not too long after that! Natural disasters seem to be increasing all over. Our long term home plans include plans for this, but not our temporary shelter. So, here we are. Shifting our plans again. I am not going to tell you what we are planning exactly, because nothing has solidified yet, and honestly, it might change again! This whole process reminds me of what it feels like to fight. Let me explain:
How to Slaughter an Animal When it’s Difficult
For me, one of the most difficult parts of homesteading has been slaughtering and butchering our own animals. I was certainly not raised as a vegan, or vegetarian. In fact I grew up eating meat quite often. However, I was taught to value life. Hunting was very common and normal in the culture I grew up in. My grandparents and some of my aunts/uncles hunted for deer and elk and used venison for a large portion of their food source. However, I didn’t ever have that experience growing up. With the exception of fish, I had never killed an animal until I was an adult. At this point in my life I have I have both hunted, and slaughtered many animals for food. Now we are veggie lovers in my family and don’t eat a ton of meat, but we do value good quality meat. Also, I can’t forget bone broth! We LOVE having bone broth on hand! Meat can be a very valuable food source and we don’t ignore that.
Now that I have I have slaughtered and butchered my own animals for several years, I would like to share some thoughts and experience to hopefully help
The Goat Milk Rodeo!
In the last post, I wrote about a great system for keeping the goats from stepping in, or spilling their milk when I’m milking them. You can read it here. This system has worked well for me since I adopted it. In fact, it hasn’t failed once. However, I HAVE failed! It’s happened a few times now and while it doesn’t usually result in spilled milk, it has resulted in stress on animals and myself. Although, it has made for a very entertaining story! Ladies and gentlemen, this is the goat milk event at the Growing Freedom Homestead Rodeo!
Efficient Homestead: Goat Stand Tiedown Stystem
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been working on getting my milking routine more efficient. I’ve decided to just do a series of posts to show the changes instead of trying to cram it all in one post. The unique system I want to share today is something I came up with a few years ago. I see pictures of cows, and even some goats who will just stand still while they are milked. In all the years I’ve been doing this, I haven’t had a single goat that will do that! We put their head in a stanchion, give them treats, sing lullabies, etc., but no matter how well behaved they may be most of the time, it only takes one stamp of the foot to put their poopy, dirty hooves in the milk bucket! It usually happens close to the end of the milking session too so it ruins even more of the milk! Because of this, I’ve just decided
The Stepford Homesteads
There are two specific commitments I have made to myself regarding this blog. One is to not ever use AI to generate content. The other is to post twice a week on Monday and Thursday. I may drop down to once per week while I’m building our home but not until then. I like to have posts all written out and ready to go so that they can be scheduled ahead of time but, to be honest, I’m not always really great about that. Sometimes I’m still making changes on the day of. On Monday, my morning was busy cleaning because the real estate agent was coming to show the house we’re temporarily living in. Then I sat down to get the post finished up and Mary reminded me that I needed to go pick something up. It was an hour away and I figured I could get it and be back pretty quickly and I would have time to finish my post. What I didn’t anticipate was that
The Real Dangers of Raw Milk!
My family has been using raw goat milk for over eleven years now. I’ve heard of the “dangers” of raw milk, especially back before it was more popular. If you go to your favorite search engine and type in “dangers of raw milk” you’ll see all kinds of scary germs and diseases associated with raw milk. In all the time we’ve been milking goats, we’ve never had any kind of adverse health problem or disease from using it. That being said, in my experience, there are some real dangers of raw milk that we have noticed.
Efficient Homestead: A More Efficient Milking Routine
Today I want to talk about efficiency. Efficiency is something that I can geek out over! It is something that is becoming a bigger part of our homestead and will be a common topic on this blog. While I was working on making my shoe business more efficient in order to compete with much larger companies, I had to really focus in on getting my process as efficient as possible. I found that the areas that you can really save time and energy are the things that you do every day, over and over. If you decide to get dairy animals of any kind, you will find that it is a daily commitment.
Turning Mushrooms into Medicine!
Today I want to show you how we made medicine out of something that grows wild all over the forest. We love to forage! The idea of food growing wild that can be harvested and used right away is really interesting and exciting for our family. It seems like the more I learn about foraging, the more I think we as society are really missing the mark. Often, the most beneficial plants are very prolific, wide spread, and grow even in poor conditions. Because of that, most people call them weeds and try their best to kill them! Maybe they were designed to be resilient so that they would always be there to help us?
Since we’ve moved to Missouri, we have access to more than a few plants that we’ve heard of but never been able to use. One of those things is Turkey Tail mushrooms.
Into the Fire
One of the things we’re learning the hard way is that if you heat your home with wood, it is very important to get it cut and drying long before cold weather hits. This is not new information for us, but unfortunately, we didn’t really have that opportunity because we moved in the late fall/early winter. The weather was nice here but it had been cool and the house needed heating. There was a little bit of wood available but we needed to obtain more wood. We’re farm sitting for the winter and this property is mostly pasture. There isn’t a lot of dead wood available. Luckily there is public land close by and I’ve been able to get a permit to cut dead wood there.
How to turn EVERYTHING into an Educational Opportunity
When it comes to homeschooling, I often hear concerns about how parents have a hard time getting their kids (boys especially) to work on certain subjects. I get it! The struggle is real! Boys tend to dig in their heels when you try to make them do something they haven’t chosen themselves. However, it doesn’t always have to be a struggle…