The most recent national climate assessment predicts a warmer and wetter climate for the Northeast US in the next 100 years, and we’re already seeing and preparing for the effects on our homestead. Rainfall has increased by 10% annually in the past 100 years, and the next hundred could see as much as a 20% […]
Free Raised Beds Using Cord Wood
Learn how to build free raised beds using cord wood. Softwood logs are not suitable for using in indoor wood stoves due to creosote buildup issues. Unless you have an external boiler or a portable sawmill, one of the best uses for them is in raised beds. Cord wood raised beds are free to build […]
Pork From Hoof to Plate: How Does Live Weight Compare to Cooked Yield?
How did our 350 lbs one year old gilt end up as only 100 lbs of cooked meat on the plate? Live weight transitions to hanging weight, then cut weight and finally to cooked yield. At each stage in the process a little bit comes out, leaving you with only a small portion of the […]
Off Grid Problems: Generating Too Much Power
When we moved off grid 3 years ago we never dreamed that too much power would be a problem. We tested each of our appliances for electricity usage with a Kill-A-Watt electricity monitor and donated all the high usage appliances believing that we’d never be able to use them off grid. Waffle maker? Food dehydrator? […]
Winter Rodent Damage in the Orchard
We learned a lesson about rodents and fruit trees the hard way this winter. We’d never had this problem before, but apparently we’d never had the right conditions for it before. Deep, persistent snow cover creates the ideal conditions for rodents to attack tree bark because they can do so without worrying about predators. This […]
Homestead Harvested Pork
After nearly a full year on the hoof, this past week we harvested Blackberry the pig. Read the full write up on harvest day.
