[EvW]

I wish I had the strength and the sunlight (shady yard) to at least have a solar “generator” for short term outages. Sounds like it was a cold 4 days!

[soma_farms]

It could have been a lot worse. This was mostly water and wind damage in 30-40 degree weather so the temperature wasn’t too much of the issue – it was the rain and wind. I lost one greenhouse 😭 and our driveway was completely damaged.

[potpourri_of_life]

😢 yet still a loss. Remain optimistic. It in trials we grow and thrive.

[ElderStatesman]

[Freesteading]: Discussion in Off-Grid Living Group

Good Morning ‘Taking Steps’,

• Just viewed your post in the above forum. Currently am on the road and thought about offering some suggestion in reflecting ‘steps’ taken’ on our ‘freestead’ here.
Starting out: Thinking a quantitative list of the desired intentions would be an effective format to address goal approaches— of which is largely evident in your post.
Soon will be returning home from holiday and then would convey associated measures taken on our site here in the Sangre de Cristo Mts. done to achieve something of ‘independent competence’.

Merry Times,
‘ElderStatesman’

[Redcap]

We are also not off-grid, although I have lived off-grid, but we live a lot like we are also. You can get a fan for the top of the wood stove that is non-electric. We use the inexpensive Tomersun 3 blade and for the price have a spare. But we’ve used it 3 years and it’s still going strong. It’s less expensive now than when we bought it.

A solar shower bag filled with water warmed on top of the wood stove should make showering much easier on you.

I have always hung up my laundry on a line because I wear only cotton and wool and they would shrink in a dryer.

We just scored this 30″ potbelly stove that we’re going to put in the back of the house where our wood stove doesn’t heat well. Not only can we warm the back of the house for VERY little wood, we can have boiling water for tea and coffee and ditch the electric kettle. Because the stove is small, we could disconnect it and move it easily to the back patio and use it all summer. The local Amish sometimes move their giant cookstoves out to a porch for summer.

I dehydrate most of the food I preserve and store and I do that almost exclusively by the wood stove, but I do have a Nesco dehydrator (used) for spring and summer things that can’t wait. I also made a couple of hanging dehydrators out of racks from old free jerky dehydrators that I use to air dry greens in summer.

It’s okay if you’re still on-grid for your husband. It’s the way you give love to him because that’s what he wants. 😘 But you can still do all these other things to live more off-grid if that’s what you enjoy. And maybe during a power outage or something, you’ll have things in place and he’ll have to use them and he might like some of them.

[soma_farms]

These are all great ideas – especially the shower bag! Thank you 😊

[MartHale7]

I went off the power grid about 2 years ago….

I also love my hot showers. The first thing I did was goto a propane shower device, this helped greatly.

The second thing I did was I Boiled about 2 1/2 gal of water with my rocket stove, then I poured this into a 5 gal bucket mixing in cold water for a good shower, then I used this device ->

Mine looks a bit different than this, but it does the job and works great for me. I like to have backup means to primary.

Past this I installed a direct line from my solar panels to my hot water heater, when my battery is full charging, the remaining power goes to the hot water heater…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho-unCdP-DY

[Njorun38]

There are electrical versions of the same thing, in-line shower heaters, if you want a hot shower while you’re living on solar panels. There are always options, you just gotta do your research for what works for your living situation

[soma_farms]

I am shying away from solar things because I think, here in Maine and especially in the long winter months, it will not work as well.

[Njorun38]

That’s totally valid! Different solutions will work for different people. Was mostly suggesting it for the benefit of the community and anyone leafing through the comments, because I know plenty of homesteaders do go solar when they go off-grid. That’s definitely valid if you’re not interested in solar, I kinda figured you would come to your own conclusions about what works best for you. Your idea is also a terrific option!

[soma_farms]

Yes, that’s true, many go solar and it’s a great option for them! I’m not against it. I have a solar light in my chickens coop (don’t work to much in the dead of winter even if the snow is off it) and I tried several solar grow lights for the greenhouse but they didn’t work (China cheaply made garbage). I would not mind trying solar or charging generator or anything that gives you a second option if there’s no sun.

[Njorun38]

That’s a good point. A back-up generator that stores charge for *any* energy source you use is a good idea, but especially so when it comes to solar. I personally wanna built a home that relies on electricity as little as possible (wood heater and biomass, cob housing with tadelakt plaster, above ground rain water cistern with an above-ground water pump, electrical option but also manual option, and many gravity filters, wood stove and clay oven, etc). And then just have a solar / wind or other renewable option, plus maybe a backup gas powered generator, to have for optional electricity for things. My idea is make the home as easy to live in if SHTF and electricity becomes scarce— so not reliant on electricity— but is compatible with electricity when times are reasonably stable (“reasonably”— the egg hasn’t cracked wide open yet but it has a few hairline fractures and it’s leaking man 😂)

[Njorun38]

And yes, I’ve lived in the super snowy regions of the US, and more desert areas— so I understand you, solar doesn’t work well in snowy regions. Looking to move to a happy medium that doesn’t have extreme temperatures and extremes of wet or dry, that’s up to my partner too though, we’re working that out together— We have a place we’ve been looking at, I keep getting impatient, he keeps focusing on work stuff, I keep telling him if he’s paying attention to the world we do NOT have the kind of time he seems to think we have 🤦🏻‍♀️ Sooner or later the spots we’re looking at are gonna all be snatched up if he doesn’t sh!t or get off the pot

• This reply was modified 11 months, 4 weeks ago by  Njorun38.

[soma_farms]

I’m going to definitely look into these different shower options! 😊