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The Cole Homestead

A little experiment or a dare

05:15, Saturday, September 15, 2007 .. 2 comments .. Link

My husband was taking to a friend the other day at work and as thing normally do one thing led to another and some how the started taking about our homestead lifestyle. This fella thought that there was no way we could go with out electricty . He thought all americans are addicted to TV and Internet even lights. I don't think so. We have been working torward that type of lifestyle for some time now. Hopefully when we decide to go completly from electricty it will be of our own choice and not some event like peak oil. Anyway, we have decided to "give it a whirl" . As of monday will will shut off the TV, Computer and all of the lights. We will continue to run the frig and icechest. (I just bought our 6 month supply of meat.) I think the hardest part is pumping water by hand and the cooking. I should say that is the hardest part for me. I think for the kids it will be the hour of the Good Nite show with nina and star.
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06:30, Saturday, September 15, 2007 .. Posted by CandyFoote
We have lived off grid for over the past 15 1/2 months. I love it! We don't go without electricity - we make our own. We have a generator (sometimes) that runs my washer. We have an inverter that runs lights, tv, vcr, and computer. We have a solar panel and batteries along with a twelve volt system that keeps me in lights. It is also big enough to run some fans. The best part of the system is that you can start out small and just keep building upon it. We have a refrigerator that is able to be run on either electricity or propane. Hot water is available, but not quickly. We heat it on the stove. We have also used one of those camper shower bags in the summer time. You just stick it in the sun and it gets really hot! Hoses work well in the summer time too. Since the wood fire is going all winter, hot water is available quicker. I heard a cute saying that Americans are the only people who keep a closet full of hot water just in case. We are so used to having things ready the moment we want them. I think its a great lesson for children (and adults) to have to work and perhaps wait a while for what we want.

Have fun,
Candy

We too live without the electric company

01:27, Tuesday, October 16, 2007 .. Posted by blessingsbaound
We have lived without the electric company for the last 13 months and LOVE it. I am always telling people that to live with out electricity has been most refreshing for our family. We use a generator for power aprox. 1-2 hours in the evening when we need to do laundry. Our water is gravity fed to the house so we don't have to worry about that. We are in the process of making a "wood' water heater for the hot water in the house.. right now I just use the wood cookstove. I LOVE not getting that electric bill each month! What a blessing it has been to our family!!!