My husband and I recently purchased a house on 20 acres of land with a view toward eventually becoming as self-sufficient as we are able -- solar / wind power, garden, bees, chickens, pigs, cows, the whole 9 yards. We're still in the unpacking and discovery stage, and he has about 3 more years of a REALLY long commute before he retires and has time to actually spend working on these things, but meanwhile we're trying to move in the right direction. Life derailed our plans for me to find a paying job after we moved, so my job of managing the household became paramount. I'm getting serious about couponing, making my own cleaners, and anything else that can save a little bit of money.
A few cool things about this house already....
The house has a Hardy Heater. For those that don't know, that's a wood boiler in the back yard that runs hot water into the house to heat the air. It's supposed to be very effective (we haven't fired it up yet, but it's getting about that time), can decrease the load on the hot water heater, and even if we have to buy firewood, it's still a lot cheaper than propane. All of these things are great, but do you know why I'm excited about it? I'm excited that it will be producing hardwood ash all winter, which means I can make my own lye for soaps. I'll still have to buy the oils and such, at least at first, but by Christmas I should be able to make lye. How cool is that?
There is a wild grape vine almost overtaking a tree in the corner of the yard. The grapes are small and tart, with more seeds than flesh, but they're there for me to find a use for (this year it'll be jelly). There is also a pear tree along the edge of the yard that's producing really well this year. So we have fruit from our own land even before we get a garden planted.
There is also about an acre or so of woods spread along the back of the land. I haven't explored it yet, but we're hoping for enough maples to make at least a bit of syrup.
So, why a blog?
Primarily this will be a place that I can document my journey from relying on convenience foods and expensive chemical cleaners to growing / making as many of my own consumables as possible. I hope to get to a point where I am posting regularly, but for now it will be mostly when I learn / do something new. Some days, I will post links to cool stuff I found on the web, some days it will just be a summary of what I've learned about a particular topic, and some days it'll be showing off something I've done for the first time, or finally perfected. Whatever it takes to make this household run on less money and more creativity.
