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Some days he'd work 12 hours, 16 if there were a lot of births all at once; but most days it was around 4 hours and the rest of the day he'd just tinker about. I think that tinkering might be considered work by some, but Pop-Pop loved to tinker with things and didn't consider it work.
Having time to tinker and to think, results in beautiful creative things.
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Originally Posted by MissingAll4Seasons
I think that people who need to work a full-time city job in addition to their farm get the short-end of both sticks because that full-time job keeps them at a frantic pace.
When I try to imagine what it would mean for my family and kids if I were to run around commuting and leaving them for extended periods of time, plus working my garden after all that work and commute, I would surely have hated it.
MissingAll4Seasons, when are you planning to start your building, and which part of Alaska are you moving to? You may have explained it somewhere, I just haven't seen it. This all sounds so COOL. Though we are going to build just plain traditional shingles-covered house, I guess the tradition of Nova Scotian fisherman house has strong hold .
We haven't started building yet, but are (fingers crossed) hoping to get up this winter to fell trees and clear land so we can begin building next spring. We're moving to the Interior of Alaska, west of Fairbanks, right about at the junction of the Yukon and Tanana Rivers. After building and living in a "normal" house, we just want something more organic this time around!
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Originally Posted by nuala
Now this is super-cool. Is there info on this or are you invenitng?? We are clearing forest before we can have any fields - we have so much tree and brush waste, it would be nice if they went into something as useful as fuel.
Tons of stuff online about using anearobic digesters to turn waste (mostly poop) in methane biogas which is a lot like propane. Also tons of info on distilling crop waste to ethanol or gasifying wood into methanol as a replacement for gasoline. There are a number of different designs for each system, as well as info about which waste product works best... but I think I'll be doing a bit of studying and a bit of invention to get any of it to work so close to the Arctic Circle LOL! That's pretty much how everything is going to go on this project... a little listening to local advice, a little researching in books and online, a little tinkering and inventing, and a whole lot of divine intervention
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread as I do live as much of a self sufficient life as I possibly can. We made the choice to cut the cord to the grid almost a year ago now. Sadly, we did not get paperwork in order in time when we bought the farm we built on and the man who sold it to us passed away. It has been a lengthy legal process, but as it stands now, we will be moving soon. Putting that all aside the reason I decided to post in this thread is because I do and have lived the lifestyle by choice and when we realized we had to move, we had to make the decision of continuing as we are or going back to our life with electricity.
Right now, we have no electric, no solar, wind or any power. We colect rain water for use for animals, dishes, laundry, baths, etc. We have an outhouse. We use wood heat and I cook with wood mostly, with propane once in awhile. we process 95% of our own foods, including meat. We use oil lamps for light, I do laundry by hand, we cut our own wood, we forage for berries, nuts, etc. My fiance' is 35 and babysits out 3 year old grandson all day while he gets things done at home. I work a full time salary job as a social worker for mentally retarded adults. Things I have learned:
You have little time to read much but certain books on living this way are invaluable.
It is not an EASY life by no means, but the rewards are MANY
It has been wonderful for our grandchildren
You make a lot of mistakes and hopefully learn from them
Never think you know everything
Have a sense of humour, because something is ALWAYS going to go wrong
Cool baths on the back porch on a hot summer night well....they are amazing!
Enjoy shade in the summer and if you think you have enough wood for winter...cut more
You can never have too much water
Laugh....even at yourself....it makes life easier
Always thank your other half and the children for all they do
You get up at daylight or before and go to bed early, it just becomes a part of life
Keep your matches in the exact same place all the time
Don't dwell on how tired you are, think about how good you will sleep that night
Enjoy life
And to answer the question....what have we decided to so with our new choice of how we will live in the future? Well, I never want electricity again as ling as I am physically able to live like I do. It is hard, it is exhausting, it is constant planning and preparing, but I love this life and have no desire to plug in a cord or flip a light switch again...at this time in my life...and I am soon to be 47. It is by far NOT for everyone and I truly mean that. BUT.....aside from my mistakes on buying the farm, the lifestyle has been my dream come true and I love it 100%.
Forest Breath - the last sentence of your post sums it all up. As long as you are living your dream, what else one needs in his or her lifetime?
You went back to the ways our predecessors lived before the lightbulb was invented. When our power goes off (sometimes for days, there is something wrong with our power company as a small storm may knock it all off) (we still live in a traditionally powered house while we are building an off-grid hose a couple of miles away) - we do all things the non-powered household would. Warming water on the stove for dishwashing and bathing, living with candles, going to bed at dusk... We don't have a well here large enough for watering garden in summer, so I use rain water, too. Our predecessors before the light bulb invention did this for eons of years, so why should it be so bad, as long as it suits you?
We'll have an off-grid power, but I do applaud you for living life regardless of what mainstream is used to. Just to think of not having a lot of expenses
MissingAll4Seasons, why do I have a feeling you are going to write a book?
I wish we had a website with all the planned, in-construction or finished off-grid and eco-buildings, and self-sustained living. I know there are individual websites but something as an umbrella of them...
I have been considering documenting our efforts, whether a book or a website. I've been able to find so much information in a million different places, and lots of things that won't work the same in a subarctic region. I think it would be nice to pass on some of that practical information in one place. Plus I think it would be a good way to share what did and didn't work, and how we got thinks to work that we shouldn't have been able to.
I totally agree, you have to be able to share your failures, too. Who knows, maybe someone will be able to figure out a way to make it work that you didn't try! I'm constantly running into stories and methods that worked, but no one discloses why they worked or what they tried that didn't work. I know that I'm likely to have a bunch of things that didn't work, even though they should... at which point, I want to spend some time figuring out why it didn't so I can share that with other people so they don't make the same mistakes. Even though I know that an anaerobic digester probably won't work where I'm at because it's too cold, I'm going to try anyway so I can add facts to the feeling... and I just might be able to figure a way to make it work in the process, and other people can go from there. That's one of the big reasons why I listen to advice, but don't get completely dedicated to it... some people never deviate from "proven" methods because they're too proud to risk failing.
Well I lived for 40 years without Electric,Phone,Running water,never figured I needed it.Well a woman moved in here from out of state,said we was getting electric if we wanted it or not.So she had it run back here.I paid her back by doing work for her.
This and my Health changed my life around.Got Electric with all the Goodies,Got Phones,Running water.Done got spoiled,I considerd giving up Satellite T.V. but decided I enjoy it too much.Was in an area for three days my Cell Phone wouldn't get out,I was disappointed I couldn't talk with my wife
Some things we will not change.I thought it would be nice to let a Mechanic work on a Pickup instead of my wife.Dang fool messed up more than he fixed.Wife says she will never have a Mechanic work on a vehical again.We still do all our Butchering.
Thing is we know we can live off the Land,wouldn't cost us but couple hundred a year most that would be Property Taxes.But in truth we don't want to.
hillman
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