Tag Archives: homestead

My Move to the Country

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Planting a Squash Seedling

Planting a Squash Seedling

When I first started Greenimalist, I began with lifestyle changes that were compatible with life in the modern city. On one hand, I am amazed at how far I have come towards lowering my impact while living in the city. At the same time, however, I have always felt stifled by life in the urban jungle. Without land of my own, I could never take Greenimalist to the next level. In a small apartment, it can be a challenge to make compost, start a vegetable garden, or even test out a solar oven (we didn’t have a sunny patio for the cooker to sit on). Hsinya and I have wanted to raise poultry for several months now, but we have always hesitated to raise them indoors. A lack of space, combined with uncooperative neighbors and landlords, has made it difficult to experiment with Greenimalist living. For this reason, I had been planning to buy land of my own someday. In the meantime, however, I had little recourse but to watch other homesteaders with envy.

All this changed last week when my aunt offered me a chance to start a garden in her vacant country-house. Located in a rural farming town, this unoccupied house has a backyard over half an acre in size — plenty of undeveloped land for experiments in self-sufficiency. I was essentially given free reign to experiment with any project related to homesteading, such as organic gardening, setting up off-grid solar panels, collecting rainwater in barrels, and composting chicken poop. I could hardly contain my excitement.

Hauling Compost to the Garden

Hauling Compost to the Garden

I had very few expectations for the house itself. In fact, I was fully expecting to live in a low-tech, off-grid primitive shelter, more resembling a log cabin than a house. In a strange way, the idea of roughing it in the countryside seemed almost enjoyable. To my surprise, the country house was modern and luxurious for a homestead — it had electricity, refrigeration, natural gas, and indoor plumbing. I could, in fact, sign up for broadband Internet at any time — so much for roughing it. After a quick reflection, however, I concluded this was probably better anyhow. I should be concentrating my efforts on gardening for now, not on how to build an off-grid shelter.

The backyard also far exceeded my expectations. There was plenty of fertile land for subsistence farming. Having never been sprayed with pesticides, the soil was teeming with a healthy ecosystem of insects and microbial life. (In fact, some pests from this ecosystem ate my pumpkin seedlings last night.) Trees dotted the backyard, and underneath the leaf litter, there were rich layers of humus perfect for gardening. The land was definitely excellent for gardening.

Without hesitation, I knew I wanted to stay. Sure, there were minor flaws — hordes of virulent mosquitoes, the lingering smell of cow manure — but I couldn’t pass up the offer. That very night, I packed all my minimalist possessions, took the bus to the countryside, picked up the house keys, and became the new tenant.

This is a big step forward for me in my journey towards a more sustainable and natural lifestyle. As always, Greenimalist will still be about simple, green living: shopping less, owning fewer possessions, conserving natural resources, and protecting the environment. Since many of us will continue to live in the city or suburbs, I’ll definitely keep writing tips for green living in the cities. However, I’m excited about the latest saga of my Greenimalist adventure: low-impact self-sufficiency on a country homestead.

Coconut Palms on the Frontyard

Coconut Palms on the Frontyard

Why I Want to Homestead

Homesteading is the most ecologically-sound lifestyle possible. Unlike the modern, consumer lifestyle, homesteading is gentle on the land, good for your health, low on stress, and very cheap. It does require plenty of patience and hard work, but that’s a small price for sustainability, independence, and a healthier way of living.

A More Wholesome Life

Healthy food is difficult to find nowadays. Most supermarkets are filled with junky, processed food. Even the fresh food section is contaminated with the poisonous pesticides used by conventional farms. These toxins harm the earth, the farmer, and your health. Only unprocessed, organic food is truly wholesome. Growing my own food is one way to ensure that I will have plenty of fresh and nutritious food year-round, even in towns that don’t sell organic food.

Ultimately, I want my home to be the nucleus of a sustainable family life. A good homestead provides a retreat from all the unhealthy stressors of modernity. It’s a place to get away from traffic, smog, cigarette smoking, pesticides, and synthetic food. When we have kids, we want them to have a wholesome childhood — free from potato chips and video games.

Financial Independence

By homesteading, I also plan to save money. Not only does growing my own food help save thousands of dollars each year, but a house in the woods represents a huge savings compared to a house in the suburbs or city. Undeveloped rural land is much cheaper than urban land; I can buy acres of land for just a few thousand dollars. If I learn how to build my own house, I can also save on housing construction costs. My goal is to continue working online while ruthlessly cutting expenses to build up savings.

Homegrown Papayas, Set to Ripen In a Few Weeks

Homegrown Papayas, Set to Ripen In A Few Weeks

My Goals

I don’t expect to be totally self-sufficient this year. Instead, I plan to use this opportunity as more of a learning experience. This country house will be a sandbox for self-sufficiency experiments, including organic farming, permaculture, country living skills, and alternative energy.

Our first goal is to produce all of our own vegetables by the end of this year. I’ll also experiment with growing quickly maturing fruits like melons and strawberries, as well as rice and beans by the end of the year.

Our second goal is related to the first: we will try to process all the food we eat on the homestead. Hsinya will make everything we eat (e.g. soymilk, cheese, bread, and soy sauce) right on the country house. We experimented with some of these ideas before, but having more space allows us to process on a larger scale.

Our Homesteading Principles

Organic Gardening

Obviously, we’re not going to be using toxic pesticides and chemical fertilizers on our homestead. Not only do these poisons harm the soil, they also poison the farmers that use them. Organic agriculture, however, means much more than just abstaining from chemicals. Growing food organically is also about cultivating a richer ecosystem for the farm through building fertile soil.

As I homestead, I hope to strengthen the ecosystem in our backyard. Unlike modern farms, which destroy the soil over time with chemicals, I’m hoping to actually increase the amount of topsoil over time. I plan to compost kitchen scraps, mulch the soil, practice companion planting, sow cover crops, plant fruit and fodder trees, and encourage beneficial insects. Farming organically is like buying carbon offsets, only better: instead of paying someone to plant a tree for me, I’ll plant my own apple tree and harvest the literal fruits of my labor. It actually pays financially to make a positive impact on the environment, because it improves the fertility of each year’s harvest.

Self-Sufficiency

I will try to avoid shopping — not even for farming supplies. Whenever possible, I want to live off the land and be totally self-sufficient. My main motivation is to save money: it’s expensive to rent rotary tillers, import compost, and buy lumber. Many aspiring homesteaders fail because they waste too much money buying expensive farm mansions loaded with fancy appliances and equipment. Such a facade is not true self-sufficiency; even worse, it is outrageously expensive.

Appropriate Technology

Whenever possible, I will opt for low-tech, simple tools on my homestead. So far, all my gardening tools require human labor rather than gasoline or electricity. It may be tempting to use high-tech machines for homesteading, but there are often cheaper, more sustainable solutions. When I lived in the city, for example, I discovered that bicycling was more cost-effective than driving. This homestead will give more opportunities to explore appropriate technology for self-sufficient living.

We’ll keep you updated on our homesteading as we learn from our mistakes. I hope these articles help provide a candid look at one ordinary couple’s journey towards self-sufficiency. Until then, our homestead awaits.

Harness the Sun, Cheaply

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The photovoltaic panel isn’t the only hot technology under the sun. The solar cooker, a fuel-free alternative to the traditional stove, is another invention that can harness solar energy. While not as sophisticated as its photovoltaic cousin, the humble solar cooker is an important tool in sustainable development. It heats food by concentrating light onto a black pot using aluminum foil. Unlike a photovoltaic cell, a solar cooker requires neither rare earth metals nor integrated circuits. Its elegant simplicity makes it incredibly cheap to build. In fact, hand-made solar cookers are often made of ordinary junk lying around the house. But don’t let its modest, low-cost practicality fool you: solar cookers can reduce carbon emissions, protect forests, and enrich the poor.

To understand the value of the solar cooker, it’s important to grasp the drawbacks of a conventional stove. Every stove, whether it burns natural gas or firewood, requires fuel. Even an electric stove burns fuel, since electricity from the power grid comes from coal power plants. When fuel is burned, it generates carbon dioxide gas, which aggravates global warming. What’s worse, fuel often doesn’t burn cleanly. Incomplete combustion leads to smoke, which is made of particles that can irritate the lungs and eventually cause disease. The effects are worst for poor people cooking over fires with poor ventilation.

The price of the charcoal in the center is roughly the same price as any of the groups of food around it.

Overuse of cooking fuel leads to scarcity. Burning too much coal and natural gas depletes limited reserves, while burning too much firewood leads to deforestation. Fuel is also expensive, with the heaviest burden falling on the world’s ultra-poor. As much as half of a family’s income may be wasted on firewood alone. That income could have otherwise been invested in nutritious food, clean water, immunizations, and education. The world’s poor don’t have much money to burn.

The solar cooker provides an attractive solution. It runs entirely on clean, renewable solar energy. It produces no carbon emissions, requires no fuel, and saves one hundred percent of operating costs. Unlike with modern stoves, solar cookers can be built with common household items like cardboard, aluminum foil, glue, and a pair of scissors. A do-it-yourself version can be assembled in under an hour.

Solar cookers are based on simple principles. Light rays from the sun are not strong enough by themselves to cook food. Rays collected from a broad region, however, can be focused onto a small pot using reflective metal sheets to increase the delivered power. Pigments on a black pot absorb these light rays effectively to convert them into heat. On a hot day, a solar cooker can reach temperatures up to 165°C (330°F) — hot enough to boil, cook, and bake food.

The CooKit

The two essential components of a solar cooker are the pot and the reflective sheet metal. The ideal pot is black, since dark pigments work best for converting light rays into heat. White pots, or pots with shiny metal surfaces, do not work well because they reflect incoming light. The second component, the reflective sheet metal, is often aluminum foil because foil is cheap and widely available. The foil is glued onto a scaffold (often cardboard, sometimes an umbrella) so that it can help concentrate light rays onto the pot. Variations in design center around the arrangement of aluminum foil and the type of insulation the solar cooker uses.

Two styles of solar cookers are very popular: a box-style solar oven and a panel-style cooker. In a solar oven, the pot is insulated by durable oven walls lined with a reflective aluminum interior. Any heat-resistant scrap material, like bricks or fodder, can be used for insulation. By trapping in heat, a solar oven can maintain a uniform temperature and continue cooking for a few hours after sunset. A panel-style cooker, on the other hand, resembles a traditional stove. It only uses a thin plastic bag for insulation, but it has a large reflective surface that can capture plenty of light. Design plans for both styles are available free online. You can either buy one professionally made, or build one from scratch at no cost. Anyone up for a fun weekend project?

A box-style cooker (left) and a panel-style solar cooker (right)

One drawback of the solar cooker is that it heats more slowly than a conventional stove. With a solar cooker, meals take longer to cook and require advance preparation. The CooKit model, for example, requires double the heating time and has a maximum temperature of 120°C. This minor nuisance, however, actually provides unintended benefits. A steady, low-heat simplifies cooking since food cannot burn at 120°C. Once set up, cooking a meal requires no extra stirring or monitoring. There’s also less chance to start a fire.

Alas, there is another caveat: a solar cooker will not work in the dark. Extra insulation can help on overcast days, but don’t expect it to work during a blizzard. Because of this limitation, a solar cooker cannot fully substitute for a conventional stove. On sunny days, however, solar cookers are still the most cost-effective, light-impact cooking technology available.

Solar cookers have much to offer to the world’s poor. Solar Cookers International, the non-profit organization behind the CooKit, has distributed over 30,000 solar cookers in Africa. To help Darfuri women, it donated 10,000 CooKits to a refugee camp in Chad. Not only did these cookers help save fuel expenses, they also allowed women to prepare food without the need to venture outside camp, which reduced their risk of assault while attempting to gather firewood.

An umbrella solar cooker

Solar cookers, however, have been largely ignored in the West. It’s a pity — they are a must-have for the ultralight Greenimalist. They can be built from leftover scrap (cardboard and aluminum) and they use free sunlight as fuel. Panel-style cookers also fold well for easy traveling. What’s more, solar cookers work off-grid, making them useful in campgrounds and homesteads.

One final note: solar cooker operators should wear sunglasses to protect themselves from UV damage. All those concentrating beams aren’t so good for your eyes when you stare at them directly. Then again, wearing a stylish pair of shades might not be such a bad thing, especially if corrugated cardboard and aluminum foil isn’t your idea of green chic.

  1. Photo credits: Tom Sponheim, public domain. Tom Sponheim, CC BY-SA. Tom Sponheim, public domain. Xuaxo, CC BY-SA. rangorang, CC BY-NC-ND. Meganhelms, CC BY-SA.

Becoming Self Sufficient

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Self-sufficiency is about taking care of your basic needs all by yourself. As with any lifestyle, there’s a broad spectrum of what it means to be self-sufficient. Some people are content to simply grow their own vegetables and cook their meals from scratch. Others generate their own electricity, collect their own rainwater, and live without gasoline. The totally self-sufficient person, however, can survive entirely apart from human civilization. He does everything himself, from building his own shelter to making his own furniture to growing his own wheat.

The path to self-sufficiency can be broken down into five major categories:

  1. Shelter — Shelter can range anywhere from a primitive teepee to a rustic log cabin to a two-story house to a luxury mansion. Most homesteaders buy land to construct their house on. Some will build their own houses with local materials such as wood or clay, whereas others contract the work out to professionals. Ultimately, the luxury and comfort-level of your shelter depends on your expertise, effort, and budget.
  2. Energy — This includes all the energy you’ll need for cooking, heating water, lighting, powering appliances, and heating and cooling. Energy solutions range from high-tech photovoltaic cells and biodiesel-powered electric generators to low-tech solar-cookers and firewood (1).
  3. Food — You can forage, hunt, or grow your own food (2). If you don’t own any land, community gardens are a great way to start your first vegetable garden (3). However, for those who desire total self-sufficiency, there’s no substitute for owning your own property. With your own land, you can grow fruit trees and staple crops like wheat, potatoes, and rice. You could even raise your own livestock for meat and milk (4).
  4. Water — You’ll need to collect your own water for drinking, cooking, hygiene, and possibly irrigation. In moist climates, rain catchment systems can provide enough drinking water for the entire year (5). You can also drill wells to tap into groundwater. You’ll probably need a water purification system and a system to treat sewage. Your set-up can include luxurious indoor plumbing for sinks, showers, and toilets; or, you can build a sustainable composting toilet and collect rainwater with a simple barrel.
  5. Transportation — Self-sufficiency does not imply isolation. You’ll still want to meet with other people, so consider walking, riding a bike, taking public transit, or producing biodiesel for your car (1).

Self-sufficiency is simply a guiding principle, so your own execution will vary depending on what best fits you. Most modern homesteaders aren’t totally self-sufficient: many of them own cars, shop for clothes, and use satellite internet. You can include modern technology if it makes the transition more enjoyable. Homesteaders today often own laptops, refrigerators, and photovoltaic solar panels. Many of them even hold regular jobs while living full-time in the woods.

Why have so many people opted to live the self-sufficient life? Besides enjoying the romantic, pastoral lifestyle, there are plenty of practical benefits for being self-sufficient. Here are just a few:

  • You’ll pollute less. By being self-sufficient, you’ll learn to compost food scraps, grow your own organic food, build with local materials, generate renewable energy, and avoid shopping. Each step makes a difference towards lowering your environmental impact.

  • You’ll save lots of money. Imagine if you didn’t have any more expenses: no more car payments, no more auto insurance, no more utility bills, and free food and housing. If you practice extreme self-sufficiency, you could literally live without any money.

    You don’t need to do everything yourself, nor do you need to quit your job. If gardening is too much hassle, for example, you could always buy produce from the farmers market. Likewise, it may be prudent to keep your job to help build savings. However, the more self-sufficient you become, the more you’ll save, and the fewer financial obligations you’ll have. Every little bit of self-sufficient frugality can increase your freedom.

  • You’ll pay off your debts quickly. If you work full-time in addition to homesteading, you’ll have an income with virtually no expenses. Undeveloped land is cheap, so you can often purchase it without a mortgage. After a few short years of hard work, you’ll own a house debt-free. A self-sufficient homestead can provide freedom from the turbulent state of the economy. After all, wouldn’t you rather spend your mornings gathering firewood than worrying about loan payments?

  • You’ll be more independent. Once you learn self-sufficiency skills, you’ll no longer depend on modern conveniences like restaurants, department stores, and gas stations. You’ll also no longer need the utilities company for water and power. Not only is self-sufficiency convenient, it could save your life during an emergency. During a serious crisis, such as a hurricane, earthquake, or a terrorist attack, you might be left stranded for weeks without basic necessities. By being self-sufficient today, your family will be much better prepared for future emergencies.

  • You’ll learn to be more resourceful. Many of us today can’t survive without cappuccinos and WiFi internet, let alone life in the rural countryside. But if you’ve ever wanted to explore different parts of the world or buy back-country property, it helps to learn self-sufficiency skills. As a benefit, the cost of living will be far cheaper. You can combine this with a telecommuting job to build savings.

  • You’ll enjoy the learning experience (hopefully). As you become self-sufficient, you’ll acquire practical skills that teach you about the environment and sustainable development. Up until the last century, these primitive skills were mostly common knowledge; we’re merely re-learning them today. This knowledge can help us better understand both historical cultures and the world around us.

Self-sufficiency is a fusion of many related ideas. It’s half low-cost lifestyle and part do-it-yourself ingenuity, mixed in with sustainable development and a touch of emergency preparedness. Really, it can be a lot of fun.

There are plenty of books available on self-sufficient living online, with much of it totally free. Not surprisingly, self-sufficient living hasn’t changed much in the last two hundred years. As a result, there are many useful books that have fallen into the public domain. There are also many e-books that have been donated by governments and NGOs to help the developing world. Today, we literally have thousands of books at our very fingertips.

Here are some books that have made it into my summer reading list:

Paid:

Free:

  1. Learn to make your own biodiesel and build your own solar cooker. Biodiesel is only green if you grow your own crops using no outside energy inputs. Biodiesel produced from biomass raised in conventional farms might be worse than gasoline.
  2. The US Army Survival Handbook teaches you how to hunt and forage wild foods. Just make sure to follow your community’s local laws!
  3. Search for a community garden near you!
  4. The Backyard Homestead provides a gentle introduction for newcomers. You’ll learn to grow and cooking your own food.
  5. Catching rainwater is quite simple, really.
  6. Photo credits: anoldent, CC BY-SA. Hardworkinghippy, CC BY-SA.