One Year On the Off-Grid Homestead!
Our fall friend, Hillary, stands watch for us
Today marks one year since we moved out to our 20 acre homestead on our journey to a sustainable lifestyle. It’s hard to believe it’s gone so fast. Today we looked over all of our goals for the past year and set new ones for the coming year. Our goal was to be relatively sustainable by this fall. We have not accomplished all that we had hoped, but fall isn’t over yet.
We are so thankful to the Lord for all He provided and brought us through this year. He taught us a lot of lessons and we have seen His faithfulness many times. Last summer God graciously answered prayer by providing this property that met our precise requests. We made a very low offer with all the funds available, and the seller (bank) accepted. Amazing! That was enough confirmation that this was God’s place for us. In spite of moving ahead slowly when time and finances were tight this year, we have been so blessed to live debt free on our own homestead, and are living completely disconnected from the power grid.
Before moving we cleared enough palmettos for our living area and for a long 1/3-mile lane back to it. It was hot and rainy and miserable some days, but it finally got done. In the meantime we simplified our lives by selling and giving away many of our possessions we could do well without. We also set up a small shed that Silver Oak built during the summer with repurposed metal given to us by a customer. This was the first mini building to be placed. Close to it we placed a much larger shed that needed to be remodeled before it was usable, and a camper to live in until our tiny house was ready. Our dryer was installed (clothesline), the septic done, and a tank for storing water.
Endless clearing of stubborn palmettos
There was excavating for everyone!
And plenty of grunt work.
Clearing the long lane
The first building in place...Silver Oak's little shed
The camper waits for us to move in
Digging out palmettos to make way for the big shed
The big old shed is added
The dismantled chicken coop and milking parlor is loaded and ready
The mess waits to be organized
I’ll be back in the coming days to share more memories and photos of our move off-grid and our first year!
Blessings,
Linked w/Morris Tribe, Natural Living Mama, Chicken Chick, Growing Home, Backyard Farming Connection, Frugally Sustainable, My Simple Country Living, Natural Living, Homemaking, Live Renewed, A Rural Journal, Simple Lives Thur., LHITS DYI Linky, Farm Girl Fri. Fest, Farmgirl Fri., Ole’ Sat. Homesteading Trading Post, and Seasonal Celebration.
Been a little while since I popped in to see what’s happening on your homefront. Can’t believe it’s been a year either! Wonderful to see all the progress and to hear the wonderful ways the Lord has met your needs and provided so. Continued blessings as you begin this next year : )
Thank you for checking in, Lynda. Hope all is well with you!
You are such a blessing! I check this often to read up on what you are doing.
Thank you for your encouragement, Susan. Glad you introduced yourself.
Hey, Wow oh wow!! One year, what a reason to celebrate… we almost joined you for a late weekend. There’s a load to M but Dan’s week was too scheduled for us to be able to visit
so we said maybe next time and please give us more notice. Just got Lincoln’s birth announcement please give them my congrats!! Would have loved to see them as well! so long
Awww. Too bad. Maybe next time!
I will pass on the congrats. I’ll post more about the past year soon…
What a wonderful journey. I enjoyed reading this!We are also trying to wean from all those excess items and sometimes purging is hard (but rewarding). We just rid ourselves of the toaster oven a few weeks back (even little items like this can be so liberating) and I love the extra space it afforded us as well! Have a wonderful week!
Thank you so much for stopping by. One thing I love about getting rid of extras is the dependency on the Lord that goes with it, and seeing Him provide just what we need so many times. It’s hard to let go, but, as you said, it is rewarding.
Congrats on the first year. You’ve had so many adventures!
Thanks for being “there” with us!
Wow! bravo to you and your family ~ you definitely work very hard ~ wishing you well ~ ( Creative Harbor) ^_^
Thank you, Carol.
amazing – you inspire people to NOT collect so much Stuff!
Now I find myself collecting a whole different set of stuff…like repurposed building materials and other things that can save lots of money developing a homestead. Thanks for stopping by!
A year goes by so fast! By this time next year, maybe you’ll be totally off grid:)
As far as electrical power, we’ve never been connected to the grid here on this homestead. If you mean being totally independent of anything such as cell phones and computers, I’m not sure. But hopefully by next year we’ll be producing most of our food here ourselves. Thanks for the encouragement.
Wow, Congratulations. I just found your blog on Rural Thursday. I am looking forward to reading more of your adventure. I am sure I can learn alot from your writing.
So glad we could connect, and I’m blessed if you gain anything by reading our blog!
Hi, I’m Anne from Life on the Funny Farm (http://annesfunnyfarm.blogspot.com), and I’m visiting from Farmgirl Friday.
This is fscinating! So much work, but so rewarding. Thanks for sharing the pictures!
Anyway, it’s nice to “meet” you! Hope you can pop by my blog sometime to say hi…
I will certainly check out your blog as soon as I get a chance. Thank you so much for introducing yourself!
You are an inspiration to us all, Petal. I’m happy to have gotten to know you. xo
You’ve been a great encouragement this year, Nancy, and I thank you again for making the opportunity to connect with others.
Just read your blog and we are going move on our own property come Feb. or March.I adore reading about people who are making a difference in their life by doing what you are doing.We decided because of the economy and our health.Please post updates.
I am so happy for you! I will definitely post updates and I hope you keep us posted on your progress as well. It is soooo encouraging to know of others doing something similar to what we are doing.
That looks like a lot of hard work! I am glad it is paying off for you!
Congratulations! You are one of the featured posts on Natural Living Mondays! I am excited to see what you have to share this week. http://www.naturallivingmamma.com/2012/10/28/natural-living-mondays-blog-hop-8/
Thank you for the honor, Amanda!
Congratulations Rose Petal and Silver Oak… on one amazing year!
Your post was the most read on last weeks Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop!
Thank you for all you share each week and keep up the good work!
Deb
That’s amazing! Thanks for the honor and the opportunity to link up. We have felt very blessed by the Lord this year.
Unbelievable! The journey you have been on is inspiring and shows that it can truly be done! I just told my husband today you have to read their blog from the very beginning! So glad we met somehow
Yeah, I can’t quite remember how we met either, but glad we learned to know each other! This internet does have some good parts.