Teresa Starting seeds indoors is one of the best ways to get a strong, healthy garden—especially if you’re living off-grid or dealing with a shorter growing season like we do. One spring, I couldn’t find peat pots anywhere locally, which forced me to rethink my seed-starting setup. It turned out to be a blessing, because I … Read more
Learn How to Extend Your Growing Season Learning how to extend your vegetable growing season can make the difference between a successful harvest and crops that never fully mature—especially in cooler or northern climates. Where I live, extending the growing season isn’t optional. Without some form of protection, many crops simply wouldn’t make it to … Read more
Yesterday I went to the grocery store only to find out due to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) the shelves in the super market where not only sold our of toilet paper and flour among other things, but there was not a container of yeast to be found.
Mini Fridge for Off Grid Living off-grid, I didn’t think I needed a fridge at first… but once summer hit and we started spending more time at the cabin, that changed pretty quickly. Keeping a few drinks cold, storing leftovers, or even just having milk on hand makes a big difference in day-to-day comfort. So … Read more
Off Grid Solar System
This has been great! We put up a 200 watt solar panel and attached that to a 200 watt inverter with two plug ins. Now we have power!
Solar panel kits have come down in price and many great ones can now be purchased on Amazon. Here is an example of one from Amazon
This year has been a really bad year for mice and rats, we have mice where they have never been before and it appears most of the neighborhood is experiencing the same problem.
Why do we have such an increase in rodent activity? I suspect it has something to do with the weather, we have had an unusually cool summer with much more rain than usual. Here is an article I found that talks about how weather can affect rodents. Home owners over run by mice
I don’t like to use poison as we are out in the country and who know what is going to eat that poisoned rat or mouse, so we are careful with how we get rid of these critters.
This year I found these new traps and I just love them! They are way better than the old Victors (that’s the old wooden ones grandma used) The Catchmaster traps I think are the best, they are so easy to set and to take the mouse or rat out of. They come in three sizes. I have them all!
Catchmaster 2-Pack Snapper Easy Set Mouse Trap
In the past we have tried all kinds of makes and models of mouse and rat traps, some works OK and others not at all. These are by far the best, and very easy to set and very easy to remove the mice as well. The trap is built well, not flimsy at all.
Rodents eat mostly nuts and seeds – I think the majority of people use peanut butter to bait the traps.
I have used peanut butter before, but I found if I put two or three pumpkin seeds in the well of these new traps works very well.
Chaga from the Birch Trees Chaga Tea is a great way to get all the wonderful nutrients from the Birch Tree Tao Chaga Wild Harvest Canadian Chaga Mushroom (Inonotus obliquus) Chunk – 1 lb (454 g) Read about all the many benefits and healing properties of Chaga here
Last May the Dandelions were out and with so man we figured we would try our hand at making Dandelion Wine. This was a first, but I had come across an old recipe in my Grandmothers book, so thought I’d give it a try.
Dandelions are the first flowers to be seen in the spring, we often add the tender young greens to our salads because of the healthy benefits this plant has. Making wine with the dandelion flower gave us a wonderful tonic, we would occasionally have a glass for its medicinal benefits.
Every spring, when the snow starts to melt and the days begin to warm up, something incredible happens—birch trees start running with sap. Not far from our property, we have a grove of birch trees, and this year we decided to tap them for fresh birch water and try making birch syrup. For my husband, … Read more
Garlic Scapes I started growing Garlic several years ago, but never really knew what to do with the Scapes, to be honest I didn’t even know I was supposed to cut them off the Garlic Plant……that might have had something to do with the poor crops I was producing. Garlic is one of the easiest … Read more
