Karee Freeland

L Cho wrote:

Karee Freeland wrote:

Kim Avery wrote:I live in tiny duplex style apartments. I would like to know how to route the exhaust without damaging the wall or ceiling. Board in window with hole?

Kim, depending upon how discreet you'd like it to be, I wonder if it's worth disguising it as a dryer vent?  It might go unnoticed/ignored since dryer vents are commonly seen on the sides of buildings.

Wouldn't the dryer vent as an exhaust be subject to back pressure problems if the wind is blowing toward the wall it is protruding from? A dryer runs as a forced air exhaust system, and usually has a flap that acts as a check valve, and a RMH is kind of running that way part of the time, with the heat riser acting in place of a blower, but for the times it is not providing much force, back pressure could cause problems. Close the check valve for too long, and you have exhaust backing up through your system.  One of the reasons chimneys stick up above the roofline, is to remove the possibility of back pressure.

I imagine if your vent extended far enough from the wall, it could be out of the pressure zone created by wind against a wall, but then that adds to your tubing length. Maybe if you were at the corner of the building...

Agreed.  I'm hoping anyone who has done enough research to build a RMH would know how to modify the dryer vent to make it safe, if it would even work in their situation at all.  Ianto Evans' design seemed to have factored in such things as wind direction, etc., before venting out a wall at all.  

Kim Avery wrote:I live in tiny duplex style apartments. I would like to know how to route the exhaust without damaging the wall or ceiling. Board in window with hole?

Kim, depending upon how discreet you'd like it to be, I wonder if it's worth disguising it as a dryer vent?  It might go unnoticed/ignored since dryer vents are commonly seen on the sides of buildings.

Whoa--I hadn't realized this post was still out there.  What a great response from so many interesting people!  I ended up finding a great partner on here right after posting this original post, and we're still going strong.  I originally had been looking for another female roommate (I had no desire for a "significant other"--just a farming partner) but ended up hearing from a Permie guy I'd kinda been following on the forums because he seemed to really know what he was talking about.  We ended up moving the whole operation to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan because it's just too dang hot for us in Southern Virginia--we both prefer cold weather to hot.  When he had first arrived in Virginia, he moved into another house on the farm, right next door to mine, so we were neighbors, farm partners, and best friends, and a couple years in, we got married.  We're still farming together, still going strong.  Never dreamed I'd find that on Permies.com!  Turns out, if you meet somebody on here, they share the same life goals and interests as you, so that's already half the battle in meeting a soulmate.  I should take this post down now, but I'll leave it up long enough for everyone who asked about the arrangement to see the answer.  Thanks everyone for your interest, and happy farming!

Karee

Hi, Meghan! The opportunities listed here for you sound wonderful! However, if you need something a little closer to home, you can take a look at my other posts here on permies.com to see if you'd be interested in partnering with me (short-term or long-term, your choice) on my farm in Virginia. You can check out one of them here: https://permies.com/t/33990/homestead/Mature-Female-Seeks-Homesteading-Partner

I've kept dairy goats (Nubians) in the past and loved the experience! I'm in the process of fencing in a new pasture now, and hope to have them again very soon! Good luck on your search!

Wow. She makes me ashamed of myself. I need to suck it up! Part of me feels so very sorry for her, and I want to fly over there and take her more supplies--things that would make her life so much easier. The other part of me respects her and is maybe even a little envious of her simple life (not easy--simple--big difference!), and understands why she'd probably reject all the supplies I'd send. This was so encouraging to me; if she can survive there, I can surely survive anything southern Virginia throws at me! I just lost all my rights to complain ever again.

Homestead Housemate Wanted

In order to homestead, I moved from the beautiful-but-desert-dry landscape of West Texas to the fertile and beautiful rolling green hills of the "Olde Dominion," a.k.a., southern Virginia. The farm is all I'd hoped for and more, and now I'm looking for a homesteader roommate. I've found that not only is this place too big for one person, but quite honestly, growing one's own food works better when it's a team effort.

If you've dreamed of becoming a homesteader, instead of buying or renting a farm of your own, you could share this one with me for a fraction of the cost and without long-term commitment. No experience is necessary--in fact, this could give you the chance to come and try out the lifestyle on a short-term basis to see if it's right for you. This would make an excellent sabbatical for someone who needs a change of pace for a while. Who knows? You might like it so well, you'll never want to go back!

The farm is a 10-acre section of a 30-acre family farm, with usage of the other 20 acres for pasture, water, etc. We'd be sharing a 3BR, 2BA brick ranch house, and there's a mobile home on the farm as well that I'm remodeling for WWOOFers (organic farm volunteers) who will come help out when we need them. If yurts are your thing, we could talk about putting one up on the farm somewhere, giving you more privacy.

There's a great chicken coop in place, big enough to happily sustain about 40 hens if we wanted that many, and I'm about halfway done fencing in their HUGE chicken run. There's plenty of pasture here, enough wooded land to sustain our woodstove with just the trees that fall naturally, and a couple natural springs on the farm. I'm also halfway done fencing in the garden, and there are multiple fruit and nut trees on the farm already.

Instead of renting an apartment in the noisy, polluted city, or shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars for your own farm, consider carving out a life for yourself out here in the laid-back tranquility of southern Virginia, and grow your own organic/grass-fed/cage-free food! Your part of the rent/expenses would be $300/month rent, half the utilities, your own food, transportation, etc. At this point, I've got a virtually endless supply of free pallets which make great raw material for building sheds/coops/fencing, etc., while keeping your carbon footprint on the earth a small one.

It would be up to you what type of work and how much you'd like to do and when you'd like to do it, but I do hope to find someone who desires to work together to grow our food, and possibly have extra to sell at the farmers' market. If for some reason you come and find out you don't like homesteading but like country living and just want to stay on as a roommate, we can talk about that, too.

If this sounds like something you'd like to try, reply here and let's talk about it! Feel free to ask any questions you might have.

So what have I left out? Do you have any questions? Ask away!



Summer Time on Sweet Dominion Farm



Our last snowstorm brought four inches of beautiful snow, seen here in the herb garden on the rosemary.

I'm new at using this site--I hope I do it right!

Paul Wheaton said:

I wish to prop up a fictitious person to subject to my evil thoughts.

I will (c)all this person ..... Steve.

Steve wants to be a farmer. On land. Part of a community. Steve wants long term safety and security.

One option is that Steve can buy 10 acres and be a farmer all buy himself. Maybe $50,000 for the land and $30,000 to build a home, $30,000 more to get the farm rolling. Plus $2000 per year in taxes. A lot of work and kinda lonely.

Option 2: Ecovillage. Common land, and everybody has their own house. A lot of the farm stuff is shared, and there is some connecting with others. $20,000 for the land, $30,000 to build a home, $5,000 for farm stuff. Plust $1000 per year in taxes.

Option 3: One idea that I just now thought of. Steve leases land from Bob and lives in Bob's freaky big house. Several farmer types do this. House-of-farmers. Each farmer pays a wee bit of rent for the place to stay and pays a bit to lease the land. $500 per year for the land, $3000 per year for the joint living space, $5,000 for farm stuff. And Steve needs to keep things smooth with Bob. $0 for taxes, plus big cuts in the costs of food, power, heat, etc.

I want to offer something like Paul's Option 3, in which I'm Bob, looking for Steve. Except Bob is female, so Steve needs to be female, too, if they're going to be roomies.

So basically, I have the house and the land, but I'm working full-time and then some and don't have time to grow the growies or critters by myself! If you've always wanted to homestead, but don't have the land, let's talk--we might be able to work out a deal! I'm looking for $300/mo rent plus half the utilities, and help growing the groceries! I'm listed on the WWOOF USA website, and the name of the farm is Sweet Dominion in southern Virginia. If this sounds interesting to you, reply to this post or PM me! =)

I'm looking for a roommate to share living expenses and farm work in South Central Virginia (Chatham area). If you've always wanted to homestead but didn't have the land, this may be your answer. I have the land, but not enough time to properly farm it all by myself, so I need a partner! This offer is only open to females, as everyone in the house is female. It would usually just be you and me, but my daughters occasionally come home from college to visit, plus summer break. (More farm hands!) =)

You'd pay $300/mo. rent, plus half the utilities, and either supply your own food or we could possibly split the grocery bills. It's a 10-acre section of a 30-acre family farm, and a 3-bedroom, 2 bathroom brick ranch. You'd have one of the bedrooms to yourself. The farm is organic to the best of my ability (still learning!), and is listed on the WWOOF USA website if you'd like more info. (References will be required.)

Any takers?

Thanks for the replies! I'll continue to do my homework, but things are definitely shaping up. =)

Hi, I'm in southside Virginia, extremely close to you, Chris! I've been looking into building a RMH for heat, cooking, and water heating. I'm new on permies, and so excited to see other folks from my area--I'll be watching this thread!