Food, it’s one of the things we can’t live without. It’s a necessity to be sure, but it is so much more than that. It can bring families together, it can bring a smile to your face when you remember a special meal, food or recipe and the memories associated with it. Food is often regional too, to my fondest memories are of chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy (lots of gravy), fried okra and biscuits (with lots of butter, and no, I’m not talking about cookies). If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m proudly from Texas.
>>Keep reading “Food-recipes-memories”

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s River Cottage in Dorset, UK has announced it is now completely off-grid ready.

River Cottage is the HQ of Fearnley Whittingstall’s (pictured, right) food and lifestyle empire, and has been featured in several series on UK’s Channel 4 TV. River Cottage has changed the way the British think about food, and it is likely they’ll do the same for the way the UK thinks about energy and water.

In a recent episode River Cottage HQ installed a wind turbine which now provides most of its electricity requirements. Together with its water recycling arrangements (see below) the River Cottage is now off-grid ready, thought still connected to the Grid and selling surplus energy back to it. Fearnley Whittingstall said that in moving towards going off-grid he was pleased to “support this pioneering community.”
>>Keep reading “River Cottage off-grid ready”

Everybody loves Polytunnels

Polytunnels are amazing structures that allow you to have an off-grid vegetable garden literally anywhere. The technology is constantly improving and the best polytunnels can now even withstand hurricane-force winds.

The see through plastic (oil based of course) allows the sun in, keeps the moisture and warmth in and keeps the bugs out.  Some folks use them as a garden shed with plants in.  They are cheap and easy to install.
>>Keep reading “Polyamorous Polytunnels”

The other day I was talking to a friend and we touched on the subject of the Pump-n-Seal gadget , I have had mine for a while, but I must admit that I haven’t been using it as much as I should. So I pulled it out and waited for an opportunity to use it.  I didn’t have to wait long.

Yesterday, I was cutting up an apple and only ate half of it, I needed a way to store the other half. You know what happens to apples, without chemical intervention (an acid, lemon juice, vitamin C…), apples quickly begin to turn brown, they oxidize.
>>Keep reading “More “as seen on TV””

Here’s an update on what has been going on with us. Things have been going pretty well, we have been living here, 100% off grid for a year and a half. We have fallen into a regular routine, I cook, clean, garden, work at the Country Store and other miscellaneous things, Mountain Man Bob works on the sky castle and the various things that make our lives better and easier.  We have gone from living in a 1 room cabin, with 2 out of the 4 walls being 2 layers of building plastic, with no heat or running water, actually we slept in a tent inside the cabin because the cabin would not keep out insects. When we first got here, it was December, and it was cooooold! I know it got down to at least 14 degrees F, overnight, with the winds blowing a gale, we didn’t have our wood stove installed yet, we put all of our canned goods inside the tent in hopes that our body heat would keep the cans from freezing. We have come a long way baby!
>>Keep reading “Updates and the new shed”

Rocket stoves, have you heard about them? If you have then I’m preaching to the choir, if you haven’t, then it’s high time you learned about how great these little (and sometimes big) stoves can be.

Basically a rocket stove is a very efficient heater that can be used to cook/heat food, heat water, heat spaces… It typically uses much less fuel (wood) to create heat, and it’s often made from recycled materials.
>>Keep reading “Rocket Stove Video”

Old gardeners don’t die…. One of the up sides to our current global economic crisis is indicators pointing to a dramatic increase in people’s interest in growing their own food – an important aspect of Off-Grid living.

Many first-time gardeners are purchasing seeds and regulars at playing in the dirt are expanding their efforts to grow their own vegetables. There is, however, another opportunity for people to help others while helping themselves.

>>Keep reading “Companion Gardening - with a twist”

We do live in extreme times and it seems to be getting worse. Today I received an email contained a link to a Fort Worth (Texas) newspaper, they wrote an article about modern day survivalists, it included a blurb about Bruce Hopkins, the owner of http://www.internet-grocer.net/. Of course the article contained more, and I am conflicted about its contents. http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1299768.html
>>Keep reading “Preppers in the paper”

It seems that "someone" is trying to prove that free range chickens are no better or possibly worse than caged chickens.
>>Keep reading “Well Duh!”