OFF GRID

Helpful tips for living without electricity, without municipal water supply and sanitation services.

How To Harvest And Preserve Wild Onions

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wild onion

Wild onions by any other name are still just as tasty and good for you. Depending upon where you live, wild onions may also be called: wild garlic, leeks, field garlic, scallions, and crow garlic. There are more than 100 different varieties of wild onions and garlic (wild alliums) that grow in fields and pastures … Read more

Your Guide to Temperate Fall Foraging

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temperate fall foraging cover

As a homesteader, you need to understand what the world has to offer on its abundant plate. As ignorant tourists on the planet, it seems that we turn our noses up at the good free food the Earth has to provide; instead opting for sawdust-filled hamburgers and uranium-colored candy bars. As a seasoned forager, you … Read more

The Art of Foraging: 54 Wild Edibles You Can Eat

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Foraging should be an essential part of any homesteader’s and prepper’s plan to grow his or her own groceries. Learning how to identify, find, harvest, and prepare wild edibles will vastly increase the family’s healthy food supply both today and during a long-term disaster. Foraged food can be preserved just like the fruits, vegetables, and … Read more

How to Safely Forage for Mushrooms

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mushroom foraging logo

Disclaimer: neither the author nor www.newlifeonahomestead.com are responsible for the side effects resulted from applying the advice given in this article. The advice in this article is for information purposes only. Mushroom foraging is one of my favorite hobbies. In addition to providing me with delicious treats, the experience of searching for mushrooms deepens my relationship … Read more

Solar: Installing A Power Transfer Switch

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Connecting a transfer switch to our breaker panel was one more thing we had to do before we could disconnect from the grid. It enables us to run our home on either a generator or solar power, alternating between the two forms of power as necessary.

Testing Out The New Hand Pump on Our Well

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Jerry using hand pump on well

simple pump hand pump

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it here yet, but a few months ago we were finally able to afford to get a hand pump installed on our well. We went with a Simple Pump, because as I’ve mentioned in the past, they’re the only pump that would work on our deep well and deliver pressurized water to our house. So far we’re very pleased with our investment.

We hired a plumber to install the pump, since we really didn’t know what we were doing. He’s a local guy who we’ve worked with before, and who is totally into our off-grid project, so it was fun working with him. He was excited to see how the pump worked- having never installed a Simple Pump before.

Although the hand pump has been on our well for a while now, we haven’t had much time to mess with it since the winter weather has come in. It sits alongside our submersible electric pump. This week the weather has been warm, so we’ve taken advantage of the opportunity to turn our electric pump off and see how the hand pump works.

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Vacuuming Off The Grid

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The ideal off-grid home will have hard flooring throughout. Unfortunately for us, we’ll likely be stuck with carpet for a few more years. Here’s how we plan on keeping our floors clean, even without electricity to run a vacuum.