First, Congratulations on your new teaching position. It will be so good to be all back together again. I have been homesteading vicariously by watching folks like you. But now we have our own place... So seeing how you improve self-reliance on smaller city properties is actually going to be very helpful for me, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Looking forward to how you work out this transition unique to your own family, and also gleaning some ideas for mine.
What big news! It's wonderful that you listened to that whisper, and knew it was what was being said. Keeping the family together and teaching others are both important callings. I really enjoy the knowledge you share /have shared, but also just the calm ways you teach. I'll keep watching your channel regardless if you do post. Perhaps you can share how you adapt your sustainability into a city existence again and certainly any projects you get into in the summers. Since you still have young ones, this could be a long sidestep, but your future may bring you and some of your children back here, but only the Lord knows what that path looks like, and what other twists may come. I hope you can find peace in the city.
This is big news. I think this a great idea and I support it. So glad to hear Grace has a good home. I am a city boy and would love to hear how you manage the small property with some chickens and garden. I had a small garden this year and wondering how to grow more with a full time job and afraid of the obligations involved. Dan
I just found your videos yesterday. I'm interested in doing a similar kind of project being semi-off grid and using passive solar as much as possible to heat the unconditioned spaces of the house. In my case, this would be a retirement home that I want to build in Michigan to stay at in the summer, and then we would live in Florida in the winter. If I understand correctly you might be in Florida with summers in Illinois. Having a video about winterizing the homestead for when away, could be helpful information for me. Just some details on the Michigan house. I'm thinking of doing a "barndo-minium" which faces south for winter sun. The entire south side would be unconditioned (maybe semi-conditioned) space to buffer the conditioned space from the outside. I'd definitely want a "mud-room", "air-lock" area to be the transitions from the inside to the outside. One difference is I might do a pole-barn-based "shop-house" which combines that garage/shop/living space under one roof. All the best, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
I hope the new season is going well! I'm looking at potentially building on a property, similar to you all--any chance you'd be willing to make a blog post, video, etc about how much it cost to build your home while doing a number of things yourself, and any chance you'd ever sell your blueprints? Thanks! Blessings on the new season.
We’ve been reluctant to include cost because of the incredible variation of material and labor cost throughout the country and world. Even within our little neck of the woods, we would sometimes get quotes on things that were vastly different. For example, I don’t feel as confident with major plumbing projects so I wanted to hire a plumber to help out. One quoted $15,000 the other quoted $6000. It was estimated $40-$60,000 for a fully installed solar power system with battery bank and I did it for $15,000 myself. As far as the plans, we’ve considered that, but we can’t get a hold of the individual who drafted our plans to make sure it’s appropriate for us to sell them.
I have only seen a few of your things but this new time in the city could give the opportunity to look at some of your broadcast and insert your new prospective on them …..
