Contents Introduction
6
Part One: Building Infrastructure
9
Chapter One: Rainwater
13
Chapter Two: Alternative Building
31
Chapter Three: Using Solar Energy
47
Part Two: Grow Your Own, Make Your Home
69
Chapter Four: Land, Soil and Plant
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Chapter Five: In the Barnyard
117
Chapter Six: The Off-Grid Home
145
Resources Acknowledgments About the Authors Index
185 186 187 188
Rainwater First-Flush Diverter A first-flush diverter is simply a way to divert all of the initial rainwater away from the water tank so that dirt and small debris from the roof get washed off a bit before the water goes into the tank. We use a simple system that fills up a 3-inch (7.6-cm) PVC pipe with the dirty water. Once this first-flush pipe fills up, a racquet ball floats up to a constriction in the pipe and blocks it off. From that point forward, all the rain goes through a different pipe and into the water tank. The general principle is fairly simple and can be modified to fit your roofline setup. For example, you may need to add some 45-degree angles so that your pipe reaches a supporting post. A larger roof may need extra capacity and therefore a longer piece of PVC pipe for holding the dirty water. Some people build garden hose valves into the bottom assembly so that they can easily let the first-flush water out. Alternatively, you could put a small hole into the bottom assembly so that water will slowly drip out in between rains.
Estimated Time: 2 to 3 hours Estimated Cost: Around $40
Simple and Inexpensive DIY Water Filter (aka the Cheap Berkey) Beyond the filter you choose for your water filter system, there is also the housing, which holds the water to be filtered and the clean water when it is done. You can’t do much about the price of the filters themselves, but you can definitely save a lot of money by building your own water filter housing. When you make the filter housing yourself, you also have a great deal of flexibility in the water capacity of your filter as well as the number of filters you put in it. For example, for two people, you could probably get away with one or two filters and some 5-gallon (19-L) buckets. For a larger family, you may need to add more filters, which is as easy as purchasing more and drilling a few more holes in your containers. You can also choose what size container is best for you within your budget.
Estimated Time: 1 hour (or more if you increase the complexity and size) Estimated Cost: As low as $25 for a small basic system. Around $120 if you want to start out with two of the highest quality filters. If you choose stainless steel instead of buckets, your price will increase.
Tools and Materials • 2 (5-gallon [19-L]) food-grade plastic buckets with lids • Drill • 5/8-inch (16-mm) drill bit • 7/8-inch (22-mm) drill bit • Gravity-fed water filter elements • 1 water spigot
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Building a Barbed Wire Fence for Goats and Cows This is a simple and inexpensive way to keep cattle in or out. It also works for goats and sheep if you pack the rows closer at the bottom. This project describes how to do a single line of fence. To fence in a complete area (e.g., to create an animal pen or fence in a garden) would require adding additional corner posts and braces that connect to this first fence line. We’ve had good success with the thinner high-tensile wire. It is lighter and fairly inexpensive. We space our T-posts 12 feet (3.6 m) apart and use 6 to 7 strands of wire, packing the rows tighter together at the bottom.
Estimated Time: 1½ days Estimated Cost: $200 for a 200-foot (60-m) fence
Tools and Materials
• Fencing pliers
• Safety glasses and leather gloves
• T-post fence clips
• Shovel and post hole digger
• Come-along cable puller and wire gripper
• 6 (7- to 8-foot [2.1- to 2.4-m]-long) treated fence posts • 6 (80-lb [36-kg]) bags ready-mix concrete • String or wire, as needed • Circular saw and chisel • 2 to 3 (8-foot [2.4-m]) treated landscape timbers • Drill and 3-inch (7.6-cm) screws (or longer) • Galvanized fence staples • Smooth high-tensile wire • 6 feet (1.8-m) of 3/8-inch (9.5-mm) rebar • 6-foot (1.8-m) T-posts • T-post pounder • 2-point (15.5-gauge) high-tensile barbed wire
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Directions Using safety glasses and leather gloves, clear the fence line of any trees or shrubs. Dig a hole at each corner of your desired area as deep as you can (at least 30 inches [76 cm]). Make the hole a few inches wider in diameter than your treated fence posts. Put a treated fence post into each corner hole. Mix and pour a bag of concrete into each hole and make sure the post is vertical while it cures. Run a piece of string from the bottom of one corner post to the other so that you have a straight line to work from. At each end of the fence line, dig another hole 4 to 8 feet (1.2 to 2.4 m) from the corner post. Then dig a third hole 4 to 8 feet (1.2 to 2.4 m) from the second to create a straight
Real-Life Power Usage Data So how does this actually work in the real world? It is hard to find out real-life power usage for a setup like this, so we recorded some data to help put it in perspective. The following data will give you a ballpark on how a setup like this might work for you. We leave 2½ gallons (9.5 L) of water in jugs at the bottom of the freezer to help stabilize temperature. Other than that, we have regular items in the fridge, and we use it to cool down between 1 to 2 gallons (3.8 to 7.6 L) of milk a day after milking. The internal temperature was set to between 32 and 40°F (0 and 4°C). The temperature statistics in the following table are based on official airport recordings from an airport about 12 miles (19 km) away from us. They are intended as ballpark figures only. Average Air High Temperature
Average Air Low Temperature
Average Air Temperature
Power Used
74˚F (23˚C)
63˚F (17˚C)
68˚F (20˚C)
305 watt-hours/ day
82˚F (27˚C)
68˚F (20˚C)
76˚F (24˚C)
360 watt-hours/ day
96˚F (35˚C)
70˚F (21˚C)
82˚F (27˚C)
512 watt-hours/ day
How to Make Hugelkultur Beds The beauty of many homesteading projects is their simplicity. The part we generally lack today is a basic understanding of what people used to know. Once we have the knowledge, actually doing the work can be fairly straightforward. Enter one of the easiest long-term garden beds you can make: the hugelkultur bed. Don’t worry if you can’t pronounce it—I’m not sure we can either. If you have scrap branches, rotting wood or old logs around, this project is pretty straightforward. Any other wood material will work as long as it isn’t a variety that is rot-resistant. The idea is to bury this material underground or on the surface of the ground and then cover it with dirt. The wood that you bury will break down slowly over time and become a sponge for water.
Estimated Time: Varies depending on the size of your bed, but you can make a small one in 1 to 2 hours Estimated Cost: Free
Directions Tools and Materials • Shovel • Dirt • Sticks, branches, logs or other wood debris • Urine, optional
Dig a hole with the shovel. Keep the dirt, because you will be putting it back on top in the end. Fill the hole with sticks, branches and logs of varying sizes. Break them up as needed. You don’t need to stack them too neatly, and gaps between for dirt to fall into are fine.
• Mulch
Optionally, if you want to help provide some nutrients to start the process of breaking down the wood, you can pour urine over the wood.
Note: Hugelkultur beds do better the
Pile the dirt on top of the wood and mix in any other organic material you want to improve the soil. Keep in mind that the dirt will sink down over time, so you may want to add some extra to compensate.
longer they sit. The first year, the plants may lack nitrogen as the process of the wood starting to break down will consume it. Add nitrogen as needed via diluted urine or other natural fertilizer.
Cover the hugelkultur with some type of mulch to help keep in the moisture. Plant something (or wait a few years for it to break down).
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