The Off Grid living thread (Dropping out the rat race)

[One Man Banned]

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[misteraven]

I was planning bees myself, mostly to do my part in helping recover the bee population and also to help pollinate all the stuff I've been growing. Figured fresh honey would be a bonus even though I'm not supposed to be eating carbs anymore.

 

Trail cam shots are fresh!

[Europe]

@Europe

Do you guys also have lots of super poisonous mushrooms out there? If so, how do you navigate through that and make sure you don't pick something that'll have you shitting water for a day or potentially killing you?

 

Yes we have many different mushrooms, ones that will make you sick, some that will get you really sick and a few that will kill you. But, its pretty easy to tell them apart. Its not like you just go pick any mushrooms you see. There are about 4 different ones that are eatable in the areas I go to, and 100's that are not, they just looks nice and they are all different in size, color, stem, where they grow etc. Its really not hard or dangerous at all, as long as you stick to picking ones you know are all safe. There are many good books on the subject (and probably also online sources) and its not hard at all to navigate around that subject. Stick to the ones you know, they are build in the same way and easy to tell apart.

[misteraven]

@Europe its pretty amazing to realize that despite the vastness of the modern internet, how much info is still somewhat underground. I was actually looking for a foraging book that was localized to the general area where I live (or at least the states around me) and was unable to find anything that specific. Honestly, even the gardening and stuff I've been doing has been a huge challenge, which is saying a lot considering I have nearly 3 decades under my belt of setting up servers and building websites and stuff. What I thought to be basic stuff like what stuff you should plant together to naturally repel pests and encourage / optimize symbiotic plant growth, how to rotate crops to keep the soil as fertile as it can be, etc. I guess there might be an obscure forum or perhaps subreddit on the subject but I wasn't able to find it (suppose that can be a future thread, HA!). There's literally a ton of knowledge that is still hidden, especially regarding stuff that is a throwback to the age before the internet even though a lot of it is working its way back into popularity.

 

As this thread kicked off with, seems like so many more people are struggling with the fatigue of modern life and I think our generation seems to be the first in a long, long time that appears to have inherited a world worst than the previous generation. Its scary to think what the next generation (our kids) will have to contend with when we see how divided and difficult the world has become. I knew people back in NYC that literally make 6 figure salaries and still struggle with rent in apartments that could rightfully be criticized as crap. These are college graduates, sometimes with advanced degrees, earning well over $100k that will never likely be able to afford to buy an apartment they presently rent, with that apartment not even being anything particularly impressive.

 

Anyhow, not to turn the thread all negative but seeing as how that's what sort of inspired this thread, I figured I'd bring it back around. I know there's a ton of people on the fence and a bunch more that are just miserable but havent quite connected the dots and understand why.

[misteraven]

Almost past the last frost day of winter and weather has been nuts. iPhone photos from earlier today...

 

 

[misteraven]

Bored at 6:30am on a Saturday so got to work on some farm chores. Nice change of pace after a week at a desk of heavy computer usage.

 

By the way, posting off a phone definitely works, but working on some new, new shit that’ll vastly improve that experience. Will never be as good as desktop with a nice big display and actual keyboard but will be a lot better than it is now.

 

All organic, non-GMO / Heirloom... #organicasfuck

 

Egyptian Beets

 

Black Zucchini

 

Lettuce Merlot bordered by young Kale Blue

 

Scarlet Kale bordered by some Arugula

Edited June 2, 2018 by Guest

[misteraven]

Just finished the start of what will be a fair sized strawberry patch, bordered on one side by blueberry and raspberries.

 

In case you’re wondering, the straw on it serves a few purposes. Being in a really extreme climate, a bed of straw helps insulate the plant by keeping the temperature a little more even. It helps keep the soil beneath moist as well. It also helps suppress the growth of weeds in between by blocking out exposure to sun while also protecting the strawberry plants themselves to a small degree should one end up with a disease. In this case, the straw is old bedding from the ducks so it’s saturated in duck shit, which happens to be exceptionally nutrient dense and also doesn’t have the ammonia that chicken shit has. As such, it doesn’t need to be composted to keep from burning the plants like most manure does. So as it rains or as we water, it seeps into the roots to help fertilize it organically.

 

I kind of nerd out with the concept of function stacking where one effort has a sort of trickle down effect to have multiple benefits. Kind of like the practical implementation of killing two birds with one stone. In any case, I’ve been looking at various function stacking techniques as it makes managing a homestead / farm / ranch a bit easier.

 

[misteraven]

Spent 4 hours weeding an old raspberry patch that had been neglected since last year. Last year we go so many we literally couldn’t eat them all. Wish I’d been better about picking and freezing some, but there’s always next time.

 

Anyhow, thought I’d share and keep this thread moving.

 

[misteraven]

More shot of the garden, taken this morning...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Europe]

When I collect more mushrooms than I can eat, we use a dehydrator machine to preserve them and it makes them last pretty much forever (if you store them in a airtight container afterwards). You can use a dehydrator for so many different things and its a great way to preserve so many different things you can grow.

Edited June 4, 2018 by Guest

[misteraven]

A dehydrator has been on my wish list for a minute now. I can imagine that rehydrating mushrooms is great for soups and stuff like that. I was actually looking into preserving all the fruit and vegetables we cant eat as an alternative to canning it. Also, I learned this winter that our birds mostly stop laying so there isnt enough eggs to go around after having way too much to go around during spring / summer / fall. Was told you can easily measure scrambled eggs, dehydrate and blend to powder. Then quickly rehydrate using the volume missing from what was scrambled to what remains as powder. Was told they keep almost forever when sealed air tight as you mentioned and that they actually taste almost exact to fresh eggs and still far better than fresh store bought eggs.

 

Not for nothing, but part of how I got caught up withe egg thing is that living in NYC, I loved egg / bagel sandwiches. The best ones were fresh boiled bagels from Murrays using free range farm fresh chicken eggs bought at the Union Square Farmers Market. They actually charged $1 per egg for those and I rarely ever saw duck eggs at all. Now I have a near limitless supply fo fresh eggs (duck and chicken) and besides eating them anytime I want, I use the extra to get to be extra cool with some of the neighbors since few keep ducks and some only raise beef or pork instead of birds.

[misteraven]

More glimpses of life in the mountains of NW Montana...

 

Sunrise.

 

Another shot of the same road with my son riding his bike down it.

 

Work in progress... Chicken / duck coop and a fenced in area that makes up the fruit tree orchard and the raised beds for the vegetable garden.

 

Posted the pole barn a few times, but here's another angle. Generally used to keep hay dry and to store shit like tractors, we're actually using it as a covered outdoor living room. I have a nice smoker out there and we're hanging up string lights and stuff so we can chill outside and eat nice meals out in the open while still being in out of rain and sun.

 

View over my computer to the front yard. Caught a flock of wild turkeys out there, which is pretty common in addition to deer and coyotes and all kids of other wild life.

 

My dog Otis not too psyched by the afore mentioned wildlife that frequently hangs out around the house.

 

Good friend of mine that lives close by is a breeder / trainer of military and private security K9's (Dutch Shepards and Belgian Malinois). This is a pup out of his last litter named Mr Nobody that I really bonded with. He now belongs to another friend of mine.

 

Old pickup from up the road that I thought was cool. Love the patina on these old farm trucks.

 

Fresh trout straight out the stream. Butter, olive oil and sea salt in an old cast iron pan is a hell of a meal.

[One Man Banned]

Not sure I'd want to clean up after farm animals but if I did something like that I've always said I'd do goats. Their milk makes great cheese and they are tasty fuckers too.

Warmer weather has brought snakes out to sun themselves, assume you see the same. Mainly non-poisonous here, but one fucker got aggressive toward me the other day.

[misteraven]

Havent seen snakes at all here. Interesting fact is that MT doesn't have any poisonous snakes or spiders natively.

 

Been thinking about doing goats. I know that's what @abysmal is focusing on right now. Definitely would do it for the diary, both milk and cheese. Don't think I'd do it for meat though. Only had goat once and was okay, but nothing I like enough to bother with.

 

Cleanup is actually pretty easy if you have your stuff planned and built properly. Especially now that they're all free roaming, feed is next to nothing and there's far less mess since they spend the whole day wandering. At this time of year and because I'm so far North, sunrise is 5:30 and its still light out at 10:00pm so that means most of the day they're all out roaming around.

[simon sandleshit]

@misteraven i think that montana does have rattlers though, but thats the only venomous species out here...good looks planting those berries and using the straw as a soil cover..im battling weeds everyday in my garden. i only have veggies currently but im thinking of just getting a rasberry bush or two to plant in my yard since they will return next year..

[misteraven]

@simon sandleshit Oh shit, you're right. Was told there were no poisonous snakes in Montana at all, but just took the time to look that up.

 

http://fwp.mt.gov/recreation/safety/wildlife/snakes/

 

"Of the ten snake species that live in Montana, only the prairie rattle-snake is venomous. Also known as the western rattlesnake, the prairie rattler is found in open, arid country and ponderosa pine savannahs. It often dens on south-facing slopes in areas with rock outcrops."

[One Man Banned]

I figured you would have rattlers.  Did some more off grid adventuring while the oontz was away, will add some photos soon.

Still seeing a lot of snakes.  This one was non-poisonous, but aggressive.

 

[misteraven]

Yeah man, have a bunch of stuff to post myself, but too busy scrambling with getting this relaunch fully sorted out.

[misteraven]

Today...

 

[One Man Banned]

When I first saw this thread's title I thought it was a reference to some past conversations on the Oontz about trying to reduce reliance on the utility grid, fuck the utility companies, etc.  Wonder if you're doing any of that or considering?  

I don't have the cash to put into solar right now, nor the land space since I wouldn't put it on my home.  Would do a shed or greenhouse or something with it though.

I'm figuring you're not connected to any public water supply since you're on a big stretch of land?  I am connected, but would like to eventually do something with collecting rainwater and using that for irrigation or simply watering with a hose attachment. 

[One Man Banned]

More recent adventures

[One Man Banned]

[One Man Banned]

[misteraven]

38 minutes ago, One Man Banned said:

When I first saw this thread's title I thought it was a reference to some past conversations on the Oontz about trying to reduce reliance on the utility grid, fuck the utility companies, etc.  Wonder if you're doing any of that or considering?  

I don't have the cash to put into solar right now, nor the land space since I wouldn't put it on my home.  Would do a shed or greenhouse or something with it though.

I'm figuring you're not connected to any public water supply since you're on a big stretch of land?  I am connected, but would like to eventually do something with collecting rainwater and using that for irrigation or simply watering with a hose attachment. 

 

Reality is my place isn’t entirely off the grid. We have our own water well, we use wood stoves for heat (and can cook off them as well), and use propane for the oven. Electric is on the grid, but electric in Montana is dumb cheap so there’s not a lot of incentive to use other means for power. Solar is rare because in the winter, we’re too far north to have much day light (sunrise is around 9:30am, sunset is around 4:30pm and days are usually snowy and cloudy). We do get a lot of wind, so I’ve considered a small windmill, but again, electric is so cheap. Obviously we have a ton of flashlights and a couple gas lanterns so if the grid dropped, my only real issue is the water pump. As such, I’m already planning to cap it with a hand pump and run a small solar setup, deep cycle batteries and switch that to solar. Was also planning to get a few generators.  A large capacity, modern Honda. An old school, large capacity generator that’s dumb simple and when I can afford it, a propane driven large capacity generator wired into our house that can take over instantly if the power goes out. Then install two over sized tanks underground so I only need to fill them every 12 - 18 months if need be. 

 

I do hope to have a few good productive years still and if I can manage, hoping to buy as much land as I can way deep in the mountains. Something like a couple hundred acres that sits like an hour from a gas station and a few hours to the closest small town. If I get that, I’ll put in something nicer than a hunters cabin, but it’ll be totally off grid. 

[misteraven]

Oh yeah, collecting rain water is easy. Literally a matter of pressure washing your roof to get the build up of pollution off and running the drains into barrels. That’s a grey water system, but you could make it drinkable with a good filter like a Burkey. It’s better to use real rain catch barrels to avoid chemical leaching or algae build up but truth is that most things will work, especially if it’s non potable water for washing or gardening. 

 

I was actually planning to put a drain system on our pole barn running into two 500 gallon stock tanks that are set high. Then using gravity to allow the water for gardening (drip irrigation to the raised garden beds) and to keep livestock watered. I looked up the annual rain fall in our area and multiplied it by the roof size and it’s something like 20,000 gallons a year, which is more than I need. Problem is winters hit -20 so a lot has to go into making sure you can either heat it or totally drain it. That opens up a bunch more I need to figure out so I haven’t done it yet. 

 

In your case, a well would likely be the primary source, but they’re costly. Often 7 - 10 a linear foot to dig. The pipes and electric pump will be another $2.5 - $4k depending on depth and pump size. Then another $300 - $500 for a manual well pump head. Our well sits just shy of 300ft and we live on a river. You’ll need to start with a hydro geology survey to identify an aquifer on your land and tap into that. Then lastly, your pump has to run to your plumbing system, often by way of a mechanical room so you can manage your water (tweak shit, filtering, softening, etc). It’s a big commitment man. Probably $30k on the low side and can easily run $70k or more. Definitely one of those things you throw on your mortgage, but also adds big equity to your property. 

[One Man Banned]

[One Man Banned]

[One Man Banned]

[One Man Banned]

[misteraven]

@One Man BannedNot that it matters all that much, but you can put all your images into a single post rather than post each individually. Not that it matters much, but just saying in case you didn't know.

 

That said, your photos have me kinda nostalgic for life in the South. Nice captures man.