Off Grid Homesteading Autumn Update! Firewood, Fall Seed Starting & Food Forest Planting
Hey everyone! It’s been a second since we’ve done a seasonal update from our off grid homestead.
Seasonal shifts are more than just cold weather coming in and the retreat of the sun, they entail the necessity of putting away firewood, food and relating to the land in a different way.
Ini collecting and burning brush to clear land for a future Edible Forest. Fall is a great time to clear!
Fall is actually a great time to plant trees and it’s the perfect time to grow an abundance of crops in the high tunnels!
This season equals land prep, Wood gathering and chopping and seed starting!
High Tunnel
Seed Starting
Figs and spineless cacti looking great! We’ll plant the figs in our large High Tunnel!
Seed Starting in the small High Tunnel; Fall crops like kale, chard, leeks and more!
Summer into Fall
Much of the summer it was too hot to grow much food in here. The peppers, cacti and Figs thrived while most other things showed signs of heat strain.
This is a good lesson for us in what does well during the hot months. Most days it was unbearable to enter the High Tunnel as temps surpassed 100 degrees.
We are looking forward to fall and winter tk grow greens that we love!
We’ve cleared a lot of the summer crops out, but the Jalapeños are still going strong!
Firewood
It is such a blessing to live in a part of the world with abundant forests and so much firewood!
It’s basically a sustainable crop around here and with our 15 acres of forest, we can sustainably manange this our entire lives and have enough firewood to help us stay warm through the winter.
Thank you trees!
Here Ini chops some post oak which can be hard to split, but it burns so hot!
Ini is a boss at chopping wood! We gather it from our land and cut it up into chopping sized chunks. I enjoy chopping it too!
Mushrooms
Shiitakes
As the temps shift, it’s the perfect time for the shiitake logs we prepared last spring (2017) to fruit! We are loving these in our morning omelets! (More on this in an upcoming post!)
Seasonal Transition
Clothes on the line
As the temps change, so do our clothing choices!
It’s time to wash and put away summer clothes and take out the Fall bins. As I’m doing this, I like to give away some clothes so I organized a clothing swap with my lady friends last night and we traded clothes.
It’s good to let go of some things that no longer bring us joy so we have more room for the New! It is a great reminder of Fall as everything prepares for the hibernation of winter.. we can do this too... like the trees lose their leaves, we can let go as well...
Thanks for joining us for this cursory update! Stay tuned as we dig into some of the things we’ve mentioned here today! Off grid homesteading is a lot of work, but it’s also very satisfying to be so intimately connected to our needs and survival.
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Love seasonal change. Damn WISH we had oak.. our equivalent is red gum. Nothing more satisfying than a good woodpile!!!
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No oak.. I couldn't fathom a home without oak. I guess I have a lot to learn about Australian botany :) A woodpile is indeed a wholesome proposition.
Funny...I have been swapping clothes too! Getting rid of excess and exchanging with friends. We hope to have some cooler temps soon. We have had a very strange year weather-wise. We have just planted our third crop of the year and hopefully, weather cooperating we will have some more fruits and veggies soon.
Getting rid of things is alway cathartic. Planting is always so dicey, but always worth putting seeds in the ground. Best of luck!
Yes, we've been doing a lot of this same thing over the last few weeks. October is the month I dedicate to these annual chores.
yes! it's that time of year. a lot of them are very satisfying and necessary chores so it all really aint that bad ;)
Nice woodpile. Nothing as rewarding as the immediate gratification of putting up wood. I'm surprised to see you burning off brush. But I guess maybe you mentioned one time you don't have a chipper?
thanks! a lot of it is leftover from last year. agreed that it is so deeply satisfying!
yes we don't have a chipper and burning is a great way to clear the small plants and brush before we do a planting. it's also good for the soil as well - if you don't do it too much. last year we burned the entire area!
mountainjewel sure is looking good you two, I can imagine all the hard work you have put in and continue to put in but what an amazing home you both have created. Looking forward to the future updates. keep inspiring us xxx much love xxx
thanks so much trucklife - much love to you too and thanks for the kind words. happy that fall is here so we can cozy up a bit and dream <3
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