Stacy Witscher

Our off-grid solar is/was very expensive, but our property doesn't have grid access. Once you get used to it, it's fairly easy to manage. We have a well-pump that is on a timer so that it only pumps during daytime hours. It pumps up to 2 tanks totaling 5000 gallons that are then gravity fed to the houses. There are things that I like about being off-grid. It forces you to be hyperaware of your energy usage. But you are also going to have times where just nothing works properly and you have to wait for parts or help, etc.

While I don't know if it's used for roofing, lime plasters like tadalakt are waterproof.

My favorite are Muncher. They work well for a slicer or pickling. They have always been productive for me. One year I was so inundated that I harvested a lot at the cornichon size for pickling as well.

I'm not a minimalist. I like my home to feel lived in, but not cluttered. Too much stuff stresses me out, I feel like I can't think, so I'm very organized. I find it helpful to view organization as an ongoing practice. I'm constantly tweaking it. For open shelving and bookcases, baskets and decorative, but functional boxes are very helpful.

I agree with you that examining how and where you use things is important for making your spaces more useful, inside the house and outside for gardening, animal keeping etc.

While suburban architecture may leave a lot of be desired in some areas, the post WWII housing that I grew up in and raised my kids in seemed very reasonable, small useful rooms. And kitchen design has improved over the years. While I love the look of old farmhouse kitchens, I've never seen one with a good work triangle.

Hi Triton,
I'm also in zone 8 and have been redoing a hoop house style greenhouse that was here on the property when we bought it. When we bought the property it had no ventilation, and contained just three raised beds. I removed them, adding a couple of automatic vents, added some thermal mass. I'm growing in large containers at this point. We have very bad ground squirrel problems here, so I lined the floor with hardware cloth so as to keep them out. The ventilation was still not enough for our hot summers so I added secondary doors covered in hardware cloth. Even still, the only things that I can grow in the greenhouse during the summer is sweet potatoes and okra.

The summers here continue into the fall, so the greenhouse doesn't really help much in the fall. I do grow lettuce all winter long, fennel and beets do well also. And it's great for a spring crop. I can plant seedling in March in the greenhouse for early crops of zucchini, peas, cucumbers and probably a few other things that I'm forgetting.

I live off-grid, so the greenhouse has no electricity. I don't actively heat or cool it. And I have no intention to do so. I really find it useful in this climate.

A big one for us has been making our own cleaning products. And I make my own body products. While they do produce some garbage, it is significantly less than wholly store bought products.

Our biggest struggle is cat litter, but we are moving most of the cats outside anyway, so that will take care of itself. Other than that, it's mostly other people not thinking about the plastic beverage containers that they bring over.

Last year when I was hand pollinating in my greenhouse, I labeled paintbrushes with each plant type and would just brush all of the flowers of each plant with it every time I was out there dealing with the plants. It worked just fine.

For me, I get to decide if I'm living a permaculture lifestyle in general. If I were putting myself out as a teacher maybe I would feel differently but I don't much like hierarchy. I prefer sharing.

I use oak leaves over a dirt floor and I love it. We don't get very much rain so the coop getting wet isn't a problem but the run gets wet. I'm going to half to figure out how to store enough dry leaves to be able to keep adding more but I feel like it isn't going to be easy. I have been adding more leaves when we have a few dry days, but these days are few and far between. I really only thoroughly clean out the coop and run once a year. I think that all the ventilation in our coop helps.

Our favorite soups are:
Broccoli Cheddar
Clam Chowder
Posole
Minestrone
Chicken Noodle
Matzo Ball
Pasta E Fagioli
Pistou with Lentils
Loaded Potato
Chicken Tortilla

The posole and chicken tortilla wouldn't be served with bread, but the others would or could be.

Breads that I serve with soup are:
Sourdough
Foccacia
and lately I've been making a new pull-apart rolls that are like Parker House rolls, but it uses the tangzhong technigue and copious amounts of sour cream and chives. They are to die for. It's a Bon Apetit recipe.

If you would like any recipes, just let me know.