Technically we are not Homesteaders...not yet at least. My husbands dream is one day for all of us to live in some remote location and survive completely off the land. He is my Mountain Man...and I love him! For now, we are just keeping it simple and starting off slow, doing what we can, when we can. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!!!
We have always had a wood stove and try to use it to heat the entire house all season long. John (my husband) cuts and splits all the wood we use. Recently, we had solar panels installed. It has only been three months but so far so good. We love it! Even though we have the biggest system allowed for a residential setting, we are still using some electric from off the grid. Our Electric bill for July was $15.35...not too shabby:) We have well water and a nice little garden we started this year. It's not perfect but it is something. Every little bit helps.
I would have to say that my desire to be self sufficient has grown over time. Twelve years ago, when we first moved into our house, I insisted on getting a wood stove. I had never had one before but just knew that I would love it. It was contagious! The more we used it, the more we saved and the prouder I felt. Just knowing that if the electric were to go out, we would be warm and toasty made it all worth while. Don't get me wrong, it is a lot of work tending to the fire all day, but if you learn to manage it well, it's not too bad.
Almost 2 years ago, I suddenly started thinking about Solar. I thought it would be really cool to have our electricity paid for by using the Sun. When I found out how much it was, I was really taken aback. Wow...it was a lot up front! I weighed the pro's and con's and put my application in with my $500.00 non-refundable deposit. Luckily for me, by the time I finally got my State Rebate approval letter (18mths later), President Obama had also included a 30% state tax incentive for Solar installation...yippee!!! Things were starting to look promising. Along with all of that, there are these SREC (Solar Renewable Energy Credits) available to sell and help defer the cost of your system. All utility companies are required to use a certain amount of Green energy per year. They are fined a set fee for every kWh they do not use. So they bid for and buy your credits on the open market. Some people choose not to sell them because technically, if you do, you are not actually producing your own energy, you are renting your rooftop. It is a personal decision and the SREC's will not be around forever. They say you will be able to sell them until 2016. In my opinion, this will depend on how many big utilities start producing there own Solar Power. I feel this will determine the price and time for SREC sales. This is strictly my opinion, I could be wrong.
We planted a small garden, put in 6 grape vine plants and some Blackberry and Raspberry plants this year and started a mulch pile. We also built a fire pit in the back yard that we can cook on...it's fun and the kids love it! We had always talked of planting a garden but John became much more interested in actually doing one after he started researching and reading several books on Cancer prevention and conspiracies. It all started making a lot of sense. Why is Cancer so prevalent now?... There are a lot of theories but the one that makes the most sense to us is the food or lack of foods we are eating. For instance, Millet is a grain that used to be in all of our breads and cereals. You no longer find it anywhere except for in specialty health food stores. Millet has Nitrilosides in it which is a known Cancer preventer. Nitrilosides are found in certain grains, grasses and fruit seeds. We are currently experimenting in making our own Millet bread. I'll let you know how it turns out:)! We have all started eating the seeds of apples. They are very high in Nitrilosides but be careful...only eat the amount of seeds that you would eat in an apple. They can be toxic in too large of a dose! We joke about living off the land...but little by little, we are doing it! We may even get some chickens this fall and start getting our own eggs...I'll keep you posted! Another big Cancer cause seems to be the meat we eat. No, I am not a vegetarian...I like my meat, but the more we find out about all the hormones that are put into our meats the less we want to eat it. The problem is I am just not ready to start raising and slaughtering my own livestock. Our property is not big enough and honestly, I don't know if I could raise an animal to eat! My husband does hunt and we usually have enough deer meat for hamburgers and such for the year. The deer population does seems to be getting smaller and smaller. It seems like more are getting hit on the road then killed for food. I don't feel too bad about John hunting because he only hunts what we can eat...he still feels bad when he kills one. John's dad was a butcher, so John can butcher all his own meat too.
For now, this is what we are doing...how about you? Start off small and you'll see just how fun and satisfying Homesteading can be!
I am listing a few books that you might find interesting...I know we did!
1. "The China Study" by T. Collin Campbell, PHD and Thomas m. Campbell II
2. "World Without Cancer" by G. Edward Griffin
If you really want to read something interesting and ironic read:
3. "The Creature from Jekyll Island" by G. Edward Griffin
No comments:
Post a Comment