The other evening I
watched some video's on Turtle Island Preserve. I think that place
is amazing, personally I would love to live like that with 99% of
“modern amenities” gone from my life. I sit and think on it a
bit and you know what aside from needing a well here most of my power
usage is the kids watching tv or our fridge/freezer running. We also
have electric stoves and water heater. Now when we first got here we
heated our water on a simple wood cook stove and only had power in a
little box of 4 outlets. (granted this was 4 months after we got
here)
I would not mind
going back to not using power for the most part and being outside in
the shade when working on things that do not require me out in the
sunlight. Part of this will be getting my outdoor kitchen built...
-soon-. This will be a big plus for us as I could get most of our
meals cooked there instead of in the house and heating the house up.
Not to mention outside I wouldn't really need to much in the way of
artificial light. What little we might need we have discovered solar
garden lights work nice. This would mean more wood chopping, but to
me that isn't a real big deal really. I can easily cut enough wood
in a day for just cooking. It's doing the wood chopping for our
winter heat that is a bit tedious.
Our new building
that me and Silver are living out of is getting a sawdust toilet, so
I will be back to having to take it out and finding a good place to
compost it. I cannot use it like the humanure book suggests in my
veggie beds as Silver is on a good deal of medications (blood sugar
and thyroid), however I could use it to mulch my non-edible flower
beds.
When we get around
to building other home structures on the property they will be tucked
into the woods (in the hopes of something like an eco village small
scaled), however I am thinking of making them all sawdust toilets, so
I need to plan a good composting spot for all of that.
Starting tomorrow I
am going to be starting the work on expanding my vegetable garden.
Hopefully I will get some actual help on the project verses someone
who just sits there and stares blankly at me while I am just trying
to get the work done all the while asking ever minute what they
should be doing. I swear some younger people don't know how to take
ques on how to do things by just watching others.
Silver made a
chicken feeder the other day. He took a plastic pan about the size
of one of those large rubber feed bowls and attached it to a 5 gallon
bucket he drilled holes in for the feed to flow out of. It works
well and I have been able to gauge better how much they are eating
now. This batch of chickens just got their first straw bale to tear
apart. Now they got it 3 days ago and they are still tearing it up.
We have a minor
hangup on building the rabbittry, Silver's toe has opened back up
again and the podiatrist has him on a major antibiotic and has his
foot in a “boot” to prevent pressure on his toe. Good for the
toe but bad for projects that need to be done by this time next week.
Especially since the meds sometimes knock him out if he's really not
feeling well. Hopefully in the next few days we can get to work on
it. This weekend we won't be able to do any building as we're due
some rain then (YEAH RAIN!), think it falls under the heading of
-FINALLY- we get some rain here that might last more than an hour
(yesterday). The dogwood trees here are dieing due to heat and lack
of rain. I hope they produce next year.
Unfortunately due to
that bad rain deficit, my elderberry trees gave up. I hope they make
it to next year. We'll see though, they were going to be major
covered with berries too!
Be Well, Be Safe,
and Blessed Be...