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Is there an intro thread?

2K views 34 replies 26 participants last post by  simcon 
#1 ·
If not, can we start one here and sticky it?

Just tell us anything you want about your life living off the grid/homesteading/etc!

I'm Erin and have been married for 5 years and have 3 kids, who are 3.5, 2.5, and 8 months old. My husband has always been very intrigued by eco-housing and owning land. I'm getting more and more into it as we go along, but I would ultimately like to pretty much self-sustain ourselves in the country. We're looking for land to buy right now and plan on building our own house. I look forward to being able to have a clothesline and lots of room for farming, eventually a barn and some animals for it, and lots of country air!
 
#2 ·
An intro thread is a great idea.


MDC doesn't sticky intro threads anymore.

I have a 4 year old daughter. I live in the suburbs. My daughter has some special needs so we need to stay where are for now so we can get help for her. We have a garden at home where we have a variety of fruit trees, herbs, and vegetables but we still go to the grocery store for produce. We have a lot of tropical plants in the front yard. I've raised rabbits in the past but all I have now are cats and an aging dog. We compost, recycle, and reuse as much as possible. We have a clothesline. My Dh is very intrigued by living off the grid but we're going to have to do that in baby steps. We're looking into solar heating and solar panels.
 
#3 ·
Great idea for this forum-thanks! I hope others will chime in as well.

Where to start?.....we live in a rural area, on several acres, on a dirt road. DH and I are half way through (fingers crossed) a five year plan to renovate a big, old farmhouse and rehabilitate our land. We use animal power to help us in this endeavor-goats to trim back bushy areas, sheep to be "lawnmowers", etc. We raise chickens, and garden and have dogs. We yearn for horses, but I think that's a year away, so we use a local barn for riding. We are trying to move toward self sufficiency, but the reality is that we're tied to the grid for the foreseeable future, and I'm Ok with that.

I am familiar with generators, know how to drive a tractor, and love making our house a home bit by bit w/dh. Our kids are country kids, and I love and value the knowledge of this life, and our earth, that they have. I hope this experience lives deeply in them for a long time.

I love this forum because I love to hear what other women are doing or strive to do. I'm awed by the accomplishments of "real" farmers, or off-grid families. I just love it all!
 
#4 ·


i'm lacy, married for 5 years, with 2 kids, 3 1/2 dd and 1 1/2 ds.

right now, we're renting a house on 2 1/2 acres in the sierra nevada mtns. we garden, scratch cook, wild food forage, barter.

in november, our lease is up, and our plan is to simplify, and live in a small motorhome, while traveling the coast for a couple months, until we arrive at our future property in oregon. there is property for about $5,000/acre, and we don't want to be too far from family in california and oregon, or the ocean for that matter.


our plan from there is getting a water tank/drilling a well, planting fruit/nut trees & large garden, digging a root cellar, putting up a t-post fence, getting some heritage breed chickens and guineas, building an outdoor kitchen and setting up tipis. a 26-foot one for us, a smaller one to act as a guest/kids tipi and a "bathroom".

dh has big plans for a small wood cabin, solar power, but tbh, he is disabled and cannot do much physically, so we are making our plans "easy", so i can do much of the work and day-to-day chores myself.

and i don't want to live in a building. i much prefer the outdoors! actually, i've been very interested in yurt living since i was about 14, but dh is not keen on the idea. he is all for tipis though!

so there you have it! i look forward to learning more about how you mamas are living and doing!
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#5 ·
Hi! I'm Lisa. We live off road and off grid in Alaska. We've been using solar for about 15 years now, and are just now putting up a wind tower. We've been married 8 years and our little girl just turned 2.

We have a goat who's currently milking a TON and her two cute kids, and 98 chickens and guineas, plus 4 dogs and 2 cats. Our garden is huge and we pick mountains of wild blueberries, raspberries, currants, cranberries and mushrooms.

We just got back from fishing for our years worth of salmon and I'm busy freezing/canning it right now. Then I'll start butchering meat birds and building some new chick pens. My husband is gearing up for hunting season (we run a big game guiding outfit and an air taxi in bush Alaska) and that will fill out our freezer for winter with moose, wild sheep, mountain goat and black bear meat.

All of our buildings are hand built with trees off our place, and our water comes from a hand dug spring. We feel blessed to be able to live this way and I'm thankful for this forum to chat with like-minded folks.
 
#6 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by mtn.mama View Post
Hi! I'm Lisa. We live off road and off grid in Alaska. We've been using solar for about 15 years now, and are just now putting up a wind tower. We've been married 8 years and our little girl just turned 2.

We have a goat who's currently milking a TON and her two cute kids, and 98 chickens and guineas, plus 4 dogs and 2 cats. Our garden is huge and we pick mountains of wild blueberries, raspberries, currants, cranberries and mushrooms.

We just got back from fishing for our years worth of salmon and I'm busy freezing/canning it right now. Then I'll start butchering meat birds and building some new chick pens. My husband is gearing up for hunting season (we run a big game guiding outfit and an air taxi in bush Alaska) and that will fill out our freezer for winter with moose, wild sheep, mountain goat and black bear meat.

All of our buildings are hand built with trees off our place, and our water comes from a hand dug spring. We feel blessed to be able to live this way and I'm thankful for this forum to chat with like-minded folks.
I think I love you! That's awesome.

I'm April Married 11 years today! Two kids, 10 and 4. We are not off grid yet but are trying to make it happen.
 
#7 ·
My dh and I are married 11 years. We have ds (8) and dd (5), and we have been on our little farm for 2 years. Our 10-acre place is just a couple miles out of town--there are subdivisions farther out than our place. We're also located on a highway. Dh works a FT job and I work a PT job with a lot of hours, and I will be transitioning to SAHM this month.

I have a small flock of sheep, a few goats (meat and dairy, and hope to be milking next spring), layer hens and emus year-round. In summer, we raise meat chickens, two gardens and bees. We fill our freezers in summer and fall, and this year is my first really serious attempt at getting all we can off our place. I still work off-farm, so it's tough to keep up, but we're doing our best. I'm freezing vegetables almost daily, anything beyond our daily cooking needs. I will make pickles this month, too, but I don't know how/have the stuff to do anything more technical than water bath canning. I also dehydrate herbs. We'll have put about 60 or so chickens, two lambs and some locally raised beef in the freezers, along with the vegetables I'm stashing. We'll extract honey in another week or so, too.

We're still so new on our place, it's as much planning as progress these days. We have choices to make, especially if I am staying home. I am thinking looking for a way to market and sell our farm products. It's a lot to think about.

We also started planting fruit trees this summer. We have 7 trees in, and hope to plant at least 5 each year until we have a full orchard. At some point, we'll also add our own cattle, either minis or Jersey steers. We'll also be adding flowers. We're in the process of rehabbing our fields, which have been left fallow for many years before we moved here, and are filled with weeds. The first year, we raised mustard, burdock and thistle.
Now, we're down to thistles. In two more years, we hope to have about 7 acres of good hay, which will allow us to raise a decent flock of sheep and goats.

It looks like a lot when I put it all down like that. It's a lot of work, and hard work, and we're definitely not rich, but I love it.
 
#8 ·
Hi, I am Shannon. Living with DH, DD(4 1/2)and DS(1 1/2) on 20 acres in WNY. We moved here from CO about a year and a half ago to buy our beautiful property (which we love) and be closer to DH's family (which wasn't quite what we expected, lol)
We have 11 chickens and 26 chicks. We are planning on getting bees next summer and have been thinking about dairy goats or mini dairy cows. While we have planted a garden the last two years it isn't our best garden. I do see it improving every year though.

While, like I said, we love our property, we have dreams of moving to Oregon one day and going off grid completely. We are using this place to practice on
 
#9 ·
I'm Allison and I currently live in a yurt in the Sonoran Desert in southeastern Arizona which is great for 8 months and a horror show in summer. (at 93 degrees outside, it's 113 inside) I live at a Buddhist retreat center as a full-time volunteer. The yurt has a small solar array but only runs a 12 volt light and an inverter can charge my computer. I have a small tin chamber pot which I empty every morning because I'm too lazy to walk across campus to the bathroom in the middle of the night. We have a well on the property and running water in the communal kitchen yurt and flush toilets in the Temple building.

Years ago I lived in Alaska in a quanset hut with 2 small children and no running water (I did have a well though). It was the greatest place I ever lived.

My kids are grown (barely) and live in Tucson but my 22 year old son is moving out here next month with his girlfriend.

We don't have livestock and are a vegetarian center. We are planning a traditional three year silent retreat and just now building the off-grid cabins for the individuals from various materials including earthbag (which has not proven to be very viable), strawbale, adobe, and wood frame. I have decided not to enter the retreat myself upon the advice of my Lamas so I can serve the retreat as a main caretaker so I'm starting to work with retreaters on how to live simply, with no disposables, off-grid, gardening for their fresh food, water catchment, etc. Several of the retreaters are vegan.

I make yogurt and yogurt cheese from dry milk, sprouting, hanging salad baskets, solar cooking, and am looking toward building a solar food dehydrator as we get pallets of veggies from a local food bank (on their request because they have so much that doesn't get picked up).

BTW, prickly pear pads taste like cr*p unless you bread them before you fry them!
 
#10 ·
Hi, it's so interesting to read everyone's situations and country living goals! My DH and I have been married 4 years and have a 15 month old DD. We live in a rural area between a few small towns. We conventially (non-organic) farm full time, our main crop is corn and soybeans. We farm with DH's family, supporting 5 1/2 households. I raise baby bull calves from 2 days old up to slaughter. Although I'm young, I think I'm more like a lot of the old farmer's wives around here in that I like doing things the old fashioned way (but I still like my laptop!). We butcher almost all of our own meat. I have a garden that I try to freeze and can a lot out of. I desperatly want to be better at gardening and preserve enough to cut back on grocery store buying. I think I may try getting laying hens next summer (we currently get our eggs from DH's cousin). I'm also in the market for a few cows to have calf next spring and eat down our pasture, as the horses can't keep up...anyone selling herfords near MN?
 
#11 ·
Such a lovely idea. I grew up on six acres in Amish country and I'm dying to go home. We're currently living in Portland (get me out of the city) and waiting for my husband's contract to be up to go home to the midwest by May. We're definately going to get a bit of space when we get home for a nice big garden, chickens, and a cow. Just now the best I can do is practice my country skill so they don't get rusty before we get home and stock up on things I can do like knitting and sewing. I can't even can all that much because we could move at anytime, grant money being what it is these days. We're hopeing to move somewhere in WI since its between my husband's and my families. I love reading about all your adventures in the country. We'll be joining you soon.
 
#12 ·
great thread

we live in a 20 x 40 off the grid cabin right now in NY state- we ran out of money at this stage and dont have any heat insulation so looking for winter grounds/or a job.

Right now we have 28 chickens, 5 roosters, 1 dog, 2 cats, and 7 goats (miling 2 right now). our garden did ok this year, still coming, but a little to wet. the berries were great though!

dd is one at the end of the month. DH just got his green card
:
: and we are looking for a long term place to call home, right now he works as a pedicab driver
 
#13 ·
I'm Sheila and we are just starting out.
My dh, almost 4 year old and 1.5 year old and I live in a mobile home on an 8 acre organic farm. It's owned by a great couple who live in Vancouver, and they grow potatoes here. There are several acres currently used for hay that our animals will be able to graze on once we get some. We have been planning to get chickens and a milk animal or two for a while but it hasn't happened yet. We'll have chickens by the end of the summer (just 6 or 8) and hopefully a dexter cow in the fall, but that is all depending on $$. I'm hoping to find someone to share it with. We originally thought goats would be a better plan, but with the cost of fencing and the preference others have for cow's milk, we are thinking it might be wiser to get a cow. It's already fenced for cows, and we have a good barn for them.

So far we have a veggie garden which is doing alright but not great, but it's my first time having a house and garden so we are learning as we go along!
 
#14 ·
How did I miss this thread?

I'm Ann. I live with my DH and our 4 kids (ages 5-9) on 4+ acres. We've been in the country for about 2 years, and it still feels like an adventure. Prior to this I had lived in the suburbs my entire life, and I've had to readjust my expections and plans several times since we moved here. There are things that I love about country living, and things I miss about the city. But for the most part I am happy where I am
I am however, supremely disappointed to learn that I'm just as lazy now as I was before I moved here
But I am who I am, not much I can do about that.

I had huge self-sufficiency plans when I moved here, and I've only managed to meet a few of my goals. But that just means I have things to work for, which keeps me from being bored
I keep chickens for eggs and meat, I've learned how to butcher, I have a garden that keeps getting bigger each year, I'm learning how to forage for food, we've started an orchard, I cook from scratch (sometimes more than others), and I love throwing parties and building community
OTOH, I also enjoy ordering out for pizza, I splurge by driving to the city to shop and go to the nice library too often, and I like camping/vacationing too much to keep a milk animal.

This fall I'll be going back to work part-time, which will give us a little more money to invest in our property. My short term goals are:
1. continue to preserve food from my garden, farmers markets, and foraging
2. plant more fruit trees in our orchard this fall.
3. plant a cover crop in the garden before fall- I have really poor soil in my garden right now.
4. acquire equipment needed to keep bees starting next spring

Medium term goals:
1. use above mentioned $ to finish the basement of our home, including buying a wood stove for supplemental heat in the winter.
2. begin the process of converting part of our "yard" into prairie grass
3. Learn how to fish/hunt
 
#15 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by annethcz View Post
How did I miss this thread?
:

I'm Steph, married for 4 years with a 19mo ds. We bought our A-frame on 3 acres almost exactly one year ago and have been living here 11 months. We moved from a one-bedroom apartment in the suburbs so we're taking things very slowly! For now, we just have a dozen chickens for eggs, though they aren't laying yet, and a little square foot garden up on our deck to keep it away from the deer.

We have a five-year-plan to gradually build up to the level of animals and plants we want to have. Next year we plan on getting ~18 more laying hens, a batch or two of meat chickens for the freezer, and the beginnings of a meat rabbit colony. In the years following we plan to get sheep and a cow/calf pair.

We want to figure out how to move our garden to ground level without it getting eaten by deer, rabbits, and other wildlife, then expand it quite a bit. We would also like to expand the little orchard that was already here (we have a pear tree, an apple tree, and a crabapple tree). We want to have grapes and a berry patch and are interested in exploring permaculture for whatever parts of the property we don't use for something else.
 
#16 ·
I'll join the thread. Currently living in a suburb in a big house with dh, 2 kids, my MIL and my sister.

We're in the process of looking for land. We'd like some acreage, though we can't afford more than 2-5 acres in the area we're interested in. Everything we're looking at is off-grid. We're talking about building a straw bale house to begin with - just a small cabin. If we can swing it, we'll move out there permanently. We'd like to use solar, have a grey water system, raise some animals, and have a big garden and an orchard.

I love reading about what everyone else is doing!
 
#17 ·
hi! we're on grid but out there in vt. dh and i have been married 5 years and homesteaders for 4 summers so far on 10+ wooded acres. every year we add something new to the farm, this year it was a couple more fruit trees, many more broilers on pasture, and a lovely baby girl.
next on the drawing board are a new pasture in the highlands, sheep, goats, tapping maples, bees, a pond, and restoring an old spring. whew!
since we have so much forest and water on our land i'd love to learn more about forestscaping and permaculture techniques like mushroom growing and raising trout.
what we don't raise, grow or forage ourselves we barter for. i'm a big supporter of local food systems and alternatives to capitalism.
when i'm not doing all this stuff i'm drooling over livestock and farm equiptment on craigslist.
 
#20 ·
fun to read everyone's posts!
I am married to DH (almost 30 years now) 5 children,
ds-27y, in college-m- with 3 children-8-5-4;
ds-25-m with 2 children,2 and 11 months,
dd 23, m,
dd-20, in college to become a specialist at study of head injuries dr. or along that line,
ds-18, m away at college with his new bride.
I am a midwife-doing home births or birth center births only-, part time photographer, artist and work with growing and doing herbs and tinctures. I also make our own soap. I sew, knit and crochet...when I have time.

We have 10A, live in the middle of Amish land, and corn.

We have fruit trees (some very newly planted) a large veg and a large herb garden, with some large garden boxes. (so as we get older and do not bend as well-the plan is to continue to add boards so we do not have to bend so much!)

We raise most of our veggies, and I can a lot. We raise our own beef, sheep, goats (for milk and meat), chickens and turkeys, our few chickens provide about 1-1/2-2 dozen eggs a day for us-. We even have a few peacocks (who really need to go-they eat my garden) a farm dog, and a few cats.
We have worked hard to get the pastures fenced in, and the farm as easy to maintain as we can.
we have a great play area for our grand children, including a merry go round, but they love the farm and its animals, playing in the dirt and driving their little 'play cars' and wagon.
we try to live as simple as we can, and have plans to put in solar and wind power as we can afford it. Still learning about all of that.
We live and eat as close to Kosher as we can-
we have considered moving to the south-mountain area...I would love that.
maybe some day.
 
#22 ·
Have not been on in a while, due to needing to get lots done around here.
DH and I live in South Central Alaska on one acre.
We bought a house we loved 2 years ago, and are slowly/quickly making the property fully usfull.
We have 29 chickens right now, with 10 more coming in a few days.
We will be swimmng in eggs that we will sell in a couple of months, once everyone is laying.
Dh just found local organic soy free feed for the chickens. $25 for 80 pounds!!!!
THis way we can sell soy free organic fed eggs.
There are 18 acres across the creek that we plan on seeing if we can lease and run a goat herd on.
Goat shares anyone?
Right now, I run a raw cows milk co-op for a local farmer.
Meanwhile, we will try and get a couple of little goats to supply our milk needs next summer or maybe a bit sooner.

We plan on being off grid, hopefully before certain powers that be, suck all the life out of us, by way of very high electric bills.
We have oil lamps, and plan on buying 3-4 Aladin lamps over the next year or two.
Our well is artisan, so we would only need a pump in the house to distribute water.
We heat with wood already.
We hunt for bears and moose, fish for Salmon, and raise meat birds for all out meat needs, and are working on building up a huge garden as well.
I pick as many wild berries as possible during the summer and fall.

Yesterday, I started adding an arctic entry off our kitchen, where I will be able to control a cool temp and store potatos and all the fermented veges that I will be putting up over the next few weeks.
Not feasible for us to put in a root cellar at this time.

Next year, we will fence in our acre, and then also fence in the garden, so that we can free range our chickens and the two goats we might get.

We also have a greenhouse, where I grow tomatos, cucumbers, peppers and eggplant.
And just for fun, I have quite a few orange trees as well, that I started from seed this last spring.
I plan on putting them in cute pots and selling them soon.
Our area has a new farmers/crafters market where I will take them to.
$5 per booth! Can't pass that up!

I am also our local Weston A Price foundation chapter leader, and during the winter do a fair amount of traditional foods cooking classes.

And last but not least, a friend is making us signs for our little place.
"Bubbling Brook Farm" sounds good to us, and we will also have a detachable "eggs for sale" sign and I am researching a Bible verse to add as well.
Her woodwork is lovely
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#23 ·
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Originally Posted by ScarletBegonias View Post
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actually, i bought it. dh doesn't know (we agreed on the prop though!) and he will be ecstatic when i tell him! i'm planning a sushi date night and then i'm going to show him the title.


i don't know how i'm going to contain myself for the next week!
Awesome! Whereabouts in Oregon is it? We have been researching Oregon.....look like a wonderful place!
 
#26 ·
I missed this thread too.

I'm Allyson. Dh and I have been married almost 9 years and have 2 little boys who are 3 and 7. We have 4.5 acres with lots and lots of fruit trees, lots of pasture for our cow and calf and the 3 goats that I'm trying desperately to get rid of.

We raise the cows for meat and normally raise some pigs, but we're holding off on the pigs this year so dh can hunt for a little more variety. I have a garden that I doubled in size this year, but the weather didn't do much for it so its not producing as well as I'd like it to. The fruit trees aren't either. I do freeze (and hope to can) everything I can.

We're planning on chickens next springs and definitely more pigs next year (I love pigs!). I want to start some herbs next year as well and I'm constantly learning from my garden.

I grew up on a huge ranch so I'm used to the country, but our neighbors are a little closer than I'd like. My kids only know country life so that makes me very happy.
 
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