Well, we are officially Off-Grid. I have been talking about moving, for many months on steemit. But this has been a long dream coming... It's been in my head for over 10 years!
In one post, I tell you how we are Prepping to Build a Homestead... thanks to @Goldendawne for making me think about how we'de been getting ready and putting it into words.
In another, I show you how we Cleared an Area by Hand to make room for the delivery of our Off Grid Mansion.
Now we are Officially, full time homesteaders and our dream of building a Multi-family Homestead with Anarchist Tendencies is finally HERE!
Here's to our stories...!
We had been packing for a couple of weeks and yesterday marked out FIRST DAY living off the grid!
On our first day out here (out of that god forsaken concrete jungle), after unloading yet another load from Brooklyn, Jessi-K set out to make sence of our boxes and mess, I put on a pair of rubber boots and hit the ground running with a weed wacker!
Before
After
Everything has grown so fast over the last few weeks... it's crazy!
There is Mugwart all over the place and it's getting tall fast. I cut down a lot of it around the playground and the fire pit, I even uncovered a few boulders and started to widen our driveway. There are always certain plants I don't want to cut down, but right now it all seems like it could perhaps be edible!
I want to learn all about what the wild foods we have on the property. Everyday I try to learn something new, and these days it's been all about wild edibles in the New York region or identifying trees!
Here's a Red Clover flower, it reminds me of when I was little. Everyone knew how to eat this flower because of how sweet it is!
Not sure why this photo is sideways... too bad it's a pretty one!
You can find lots of info on this flower that grows accross mamy continents here on earth. Try it one day, you will be surprused how sweet it is.
Than we have an abundance of black rasberry bushes...but I am having a hard time cutting any of them down. Especially when I see these little beauties starting to make their appearance:
And then there is this surprise.... I thought we were in the clear for this Tree of Heaven, but we're not!
This invasive weed or tree has but very few perks, it grows to 80 ft tall but it grows too fast for lumber (it will twist and warp as it dries). The main problem is that it can take over quickly and the more you cut it down the more new shoots come up!
Tree of Heaven (Chinese Sumac)
Staghorn Sumac
You see the difference, the two? Staghorn sumac has serated leaf edges while the chinese sumac is mostly smooth. At some point in the season, there is no difference in color. There are other differences but we won't go into it right now. It seems the non avasive specie is more manageable!
We'll find a way to use this problem as the solution at some point...
Another thing I have been collecting along the way, are these dried up grain stalks. I do not know their names, what they are or if they are edible. I do know however that they make a great firestarter. I noticed last year that we could start fires in the rain with these little suckers!
I believe everywhere we go, we can find an excellent firestarter locally.
One of these days, I will show you what we do for electricity while we are still without a generator and saving for a solar system!
For water, se started collecting rain water from the roof of our trailer!
Thank You and Untill Next Time...
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