Now I’ve gone and done it, (a Texas phrase), this is such a rare thing to happen to me, I am sick. There I said it. About 4 days ago I could feel my throat getting sore, this does happen from time to time, but usually it lasts 3 days and is very mild. Not so this time, I  have been coughing so much that it feels like someone is punching me in the chest. I haven’t had a fever though, just this miserable cough. Now is as good a time as any to try out some herbal remedies.
>>Keep reading “Off-grid medicine - horehound”

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”

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”

Ahhh, if only I had a camera that would/could capture the beautiful colors I am seeing right now. I am usually sleeping at this time, I am not a morning person, really never have been, I am very much a night owl. I awoke sometime during the night and couldn’t go back to sleep. I didn’t do a marathon session on the computer yesterday or last night because of the rain we have been having, it has really put a damper on the solar panels, so not much power=not much computer time. Oh well, it’s OK, I have found other ways to entertain myself.
>>Keep reading “Bittersweet sunrise”

Today I made another batch of laundry soap. I had ran out about a month ago, I was using the leftover powdered store bought soap, wow is there a difference! When I use the commercial soap, I often need to run a second rinse cycle, especially if I look at the rinse water, it’s nearly as soapy as the wash cycle, I know that is just being dried into my clothes, that can’t be good for my skin. When I use my homemade laundry soap, I use so much less, and it gets my clothes just as clean if not cleaner, and I don’t see that residue of suds in the rinse water.
>>Keep reading “DIY laundry soap - video”

In the process of becoming more and more independent, we grow much of our own foods. But there is still one thing that is still expensive and is becoming more expensive to purchase. Tobacco. The government is taxing tobacco to death (no pun intended). With the high cost of buying cigarettes, it has occurred to me that we can be growing our own tobacco. I have decided that now is the time to give it a try. I took the plunge and ordered a set of 4 different types of tobacco seeds from eBay. If smoking or the use of tobacco offends you in any way, then you probably should not read this.

>>Keep reading “DIY tobacco / video”

You’ve seen the advertisements, “Build your own solar panels”, you’ve seen the kits, now you wonder, just how hard is it to do?  Well, that depends, mostly on your skills and patience. It would seem that the solar cells that are sold for this purpose is very delicate, they break very easily. I always see on eBay, lots of listings for broken solar cells, they still work, but they obviously do not put out as much juice as it did when it was unbroken. It is possible to piece together broken cells and get a perfectly good working solar panel, again, it takes skills and patience.
>>Keep reading “DIY build your own solar panels video”

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”