Devin Lavign

pollinator

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933 Posts 41 Threads 234 Apples

since May 01, 2015

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uggg...I hate trying to describe myself. * last updated spring 2019 *
I moved to 40 acres of raw land with an existing pond in the WA Okanogan Highlands 3 yrs ago. I have been busy observing and making trails.
I am planning to start building a house this year. Though I am probably going to hold off on planting anything until I finish building a house and just work on infrastructure.
I am looking forward to finally put into practice the ideas I have without having to compromise due to it being someone else's land.
Some history and background about me.
I have traveled and lived most of the continental US. So have a decent grasp of the different areas of the US. As a kid I preferred going into the woods to play over going to a park or friend's house. Still I will almost always pick nature if given the choice.
I worked trail maintenance in the Cascades and that was likely my most favorite job ever. I lived, worked, and played in the forests of the Pac NWet. I learned a massive respect for pack goats during this. As they hauled the majority of our gear up the trail every day. Amazing smart animals and I can't wait to get my own goats to enjoy.
I lived and worked at Arcosanti for 4 yrs in AZ. Including managing their 15 1/2 acres of edible and medicinal landscaping. A fun place to meet lots of wonderful people and pick up skills. I have spotted at least one other Arco alum here who I know. Who lived there previous to my time, but who I did meet and hang out with several times both at Arco and to go see him in Prescott.

Pac Northwest, east of the Cascades

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Recent posts by Devin Lavign

Survival and Prepping or Homesteading

Gail Jardin wrote:For those of you who already have your homestead established, do you feel that you are prepped enough to survive a major catastrophe?
Could you feed your livestock without feed stores and only outside feed from close neighbors and friends?
Do you own your homestead outright or would you loose it to the bank?
What medical supplies do you have on hand if you can not get to a doctors or vets?
What would you do when you run out of basic amenities like batteries, toilet paper etc?

1st off I am building infrastructure before I get animals and plants to tie me down. I bought the land out right, but it is raw land so a lot needs to be done to get it in shape.

2nd could the homestead provide the necessities? Well there is a lot of game and veggies growing wild. Including lots of quail, grouse, pheasant, and turkey.

3rd could I feed things from my land. That is part of why I am working on infrastructure, so I have thing set up to be as sustainable as I can.

4th I have some pet meds stocked up, but part of why I am looking at heritage breeds of animals is so they are less dependent on doctors.

5th I live off grid, and if I lost all amenities, it would not change my life much.

12 hours ago

homestead

Cookbook for homesteading and pre-homesteading

Kate Downham wrote:I think in some ways the kitchen is the most important place to start,

I am designing a house around a kitchen. The house design I am working on starts with a kitchen, then the pantry and everything else is just sort of what fit in the space. But the kitchen and pantry are all important, at least to me.

13 hours ago

homestead

Drying Cherries? Is that a thing ?

Yep people do it, and charge lot of money for them

For example $9 for this

So pull out those pits and dry as many as you can. Those cherries are better dried than doing nothing with them. Winter will be much better with some dried cherries in it.

1 day ago

cooking

What do you do in the Winter?

Travis Johnson wrote:Sleds are great.
I like snowshoeing

When my folk got me snowshoes I actually looked forward to getting enough snow to use them. When a got a snow machine again I looked forward to getting enough snow to use it. Getting out to explore is key to realizing winter is not bad, but fun.

I will leave ya with some hot tent fun with Wintertrekker https://www.youtube.com/user/Wintertrekker/videos I highly suggest checking his other stuff out he has some great videos

2 days ago

great white north

composting vs. flushing toilet: tradeoffs

In my area the result of removing black water out weighs everything else.

So for me I am working on designing my home with dry toilets, and grey water. With no black water life on top of a mountain is a lot easier.

2 days ago

composting toilet

Can you live rural without a vehicle?

Multiple people in my area have no vehicle, including my neighbor.

Now do they rely on others for rides? Yep they sure do. But They survive without are vehicle of their own. My neighbor has a large dog and is able to get food for him.

So you can do it.

Do you want to is anther story.

3 days ago

transportation

How can I use this land? *pics included

I actually see and talk with Skeeter at least once a year (often more) at the Barter Faire. In fact I went on a nature walk with him at one of the faires I saw him at. If you get a chance to go to a Barter Faire, he is a lot of fun to hang out with.

4 days ago

gardening for beginners

SMOOTH Cast iron frypans made in the USA!

Caroline LaVin wrote:SMOOTH cast iron pan made in America.

Cowboy Kent did a decent cook off with pans for different US companies then reviewed each

He also does a separate vid on each, but I will just include the Finex vid (ps Lodge just bought Finex Aug last year)

4 days ago

cooking

SMOOTH Cast iron frypans made in the USA!

Gerry Parent wrote:Don't know if this is old news to the cast iron pan lovers out there but found this tidbit on instructables.com that may be of interest: Resurfacing-Cast-Iron-Pans

If you also want a video Cowboy Kent has one

4 days ago

cooking

What is the most fuel efficient car?

David Fraleigh wrote:Many people in this thread have spoken of having to have both a car and a truck to cover their needs. What really bugs me about that is that the insurers want to charge you double as if you can drive them both at the same time... I am a firm believer in having a good roof rack and a good small trailer. I built a house hauling the majoritiy of the building supplies behind a Ford Escort using just those two items.

My insurance is for the driver not the vehicle, so it works in what ever I get in.

The 3 vehicles I own are for a reason. Each are very popular and easy to find spare parts. Just where I live there is a lot of '92 Chevy 2500 Silverado, '01 Honda CRV, and '84 Suburu's. They are some of the most common because they work in this area. The reason I got the Suburu was everything else broke down and I wanted something cheap while I waited. $400 is not a lot to get a functional vehicle. My road is rough, so it became my mountain transport, some I am not worried about hurting.

5 days ago

transportation