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A firefighter and a dumb blonde walk into a bar...
Actually no, Bullets~n~Beans and I have decided to shack up and test our skills in tolerating each other
: and self-reliance. We're going in stages, living in a suburban home ,combining our skills and learning new ones before going full-tilt with an offgrid homestead.
The combination of a retired Fire Captain with construction experience and an dumb blonde Architect who grew up in the woods should give us a decent foundation to work with. BnB has more hunting, fishing and firearms knowledge, and teaches me new skills daily. I have more primitive skills (cordage, bowdrills, archery...), gardening and sustainable offgrid design experience going for me. We both have extensive time in the woods and living out of a pack, preserving food and both of us have lived below our means, knowing how to conserve and preserve our resources.
We've already started discussing a program for an offgrid homestead design, and attended some workshops last weekend in eastern Oregon on PV's, solar hot water, wind turbines, and strawbale, cob and chordwood design (back in college, I served as a grunt for my professors who were at the forefront of strawbale design in the US). I'll be developing a list of goals and working on a design for a passive home over the winter as we look for suitable land to build on and establish a homestead. We'll also be taking on some new challenges at the current house in preparation.
One of the first new challenges is raising meat rabbits over the winter. BnB will build a hutch and testing a small batch to harvest. I will be learning more about hide tanning with the rabbit hides as well as what we harvest from deer and elk season. Also on tap is exploring a winter garden with hoop housing, which has been successfully done in our section of ID. Making aged cheeses is also on the list as we both have experience with fresh cheeses.
And of course we'll be refining our “known” skills: Lots of ammo reloading, indoor and outdoor hydroponics, some gun rebuilding and repair ( I'll be working on checkering), leatherwork, sewing, homebrewing/fermenting and focusing on putting it all together as a team.
Unfortunately, due to CC&R's, we cannot have chickens or livestock, so that will have to wait, but I think we have a full plate for the winter, prepping to build our offgrid home, and can focus more on the quality of our skills rather than the quantity and dialing in our self-reliance.
This should prove to be an interesting few months!
Actually no, Bullets~n~Beans and I have decided to shack up and test our skills in tolerating each other
: and self-reliance. We're going in stages, living in a suburban home ,combining our skills and learning new ones before going full-tilt with an offgrid homestead.The combination of a retired Fire Captain with construction experience and an dumb blonde Architect who grew up in the woods should give us a decent foundation to work with. BnB has more hunting, fishing and firearms knowledge, and teaches me new skills daily. I have more primitive skills (cordage, bowdrills, archery...), gardening and sustainable offgrid design experience going for me. We both have extensive time in the woods and living out of a pack, preserving food and both of us have lived below our means, knowing how to conserve and preserve our resources.
We've already started discussing a program for an offgrid homestead design, and attended some workshops last weekend in eastern Oregon on PV's, solar hot water, wind turbines, and strawbale, cob and chordwood design (back in college, I served as a grunt for my professors who were at the forefront of strawbale design in the US). I'll be developing a list of goals and working on a design for a passive home over the winter as we look for suitable land to build on and establish a homestead. We'll also be taking on some new challenges at the current house in preparation.
One of the first new challenges is raising meat rabbits over the winter. BnB will build a hutch and testing a small batch to harvest. I will be learning more about hide tanning with the rabbit hides as well as what we harvest from deer and elk season. Also on tap is exploring a winter garden with hoop housing, which has been successfully done in our section of ID. Making aged cheeses is also on the list as we both have experience with fresh cheeses.
And of course we'll be refining our “known” skills: Lots of ammo reloading, indoor and outdoor hydroponics, some gun rebuilding and repair ( I'll be working on checkering), leatherwork, sewing, homebrewing/fermenting and focusing on putting it all together as a team.
Unfortunately, due to CC&R's, we cannot have chickens or livestock, so that will have to wait, but I think we have a full plate for the winter, prepping to build our offgrid home, and can focus more on the quality of our skills rather than the quantity and dialing in our self-reliance.
This should prove to be an interesting few months!
