Jane Mulberry

Oh no! What's happened?

Rico, nice idea about a small hydro system on the river.

Or maybe for a homesteader like Kaarina with a woodstove burning much of the time in winter, a little thermoelectric generator might work to generate enough power to charge a mobile phone at least enough for emergency use.  

I bought but haven't yet tested an old never-used PowerPot, basically a TEG in a cooking pot. The cooling comes from water in the pot. It doesn't generate much power, 5 watts an hour at best, but it's the back-up to my backup for if when the mains electric is out. It could trickle power into a phone (or a power bank that could then charge the phone) and be no extra work apart from topping up the water in the pot during a cloudy winter period where the woodstove will be burning all day but solar panels won't work.

The basic concept was good but it was a commercial failure, mainly because they marketed it to backpackers not homesteaders and it needs the heat source burning too long to be useful for backpackers, affordable lithium battery banks went on sale much the same time, and the next generation of mobile phones needed higher wattage input so wouldn't charge directly from the pot.

I intend to test it when I'm at the house next week.

It's a great idea, however my suspicion is that the amount of energy needed to dry and pelletise the grass might make it far from free fuel, unfortunately. If you start with 60-90 kg of grass to end up with 17-18 kg of finished pellets, that's a lot of water to evaporate off. If there was some way to utilise solar drying kiln technology for that, or somehow air dry the grass like hay without it fermenting it, the idea could be feasible. I checked a few different sources to find out the likely heat required, and it looks like doing it all inside a machine like your illustration would require approximately 35 kW of energy per 50kg of water removed.

I'd also be concerned about chemicals used on lawns being in the grass -- various herbicides and pesticides they many conventionally gardening homeowners use.

M Ljin wrote:
There is no destination or center, you are where you are and community is built around that. Community is the most natural thing.

So true, a beautiful reply! It's like the story about the old guy sitting at a town entrance, watching travellers come and go. Sometimes people stop and ask him what the town is like, is it a good place to live. He asks each what the last town they lived in was like, then no matter what they answer, his reply is "You'll find this town much the same."

Real community is mostly invisible, and we are always the centre of our own community. It's the networks we form, patterns of giving and receiving. Like mycelium around a tree root.

All of that, plus a sense of community. Shared events, like in Nancy's photo. Knowing who you can call on for whatever problem. And being willing to help others if they're the ones dealing with challenges.

Without that, it's just houses close together.

You had books and an environment where the old ways hadn't been forgotten (one of the many things I love about our patch of Bulgaria). And you also had the courage to step out and do it!

Judith Browning wrote:
I suppose the biggest all encompassing 'misconception' was that we could do this with no money or very little.
I mean very little cash flow.

The author of the web post says he spent $20,000 on his system. There's a big difference between that type of off grid and pioneer-style off-grid.

All respect to you for living so many years on a low-cash flow the way our great-grandparents did, Judith. They would have grown up learning the necessary skills and had a community to support them, you would have had to learn it all for yourselves.

I'll start by saying up front we're not off grid and don't ever intend to be, so my opinion is just that, my opinion, not based on actually living off grid. We are however in a situation with our Bulgarian house where utilities are unreliable and we need to have robust backups. I do completely agree with that part of what he says -- back-ups are essential, and back-ups to the back-ups!

To me, the bulk of the post is what works for the author, in his particular situation living in a tiny house, working off site, and wanting to have as much leisure time as possible. What he's saying is accurate for him, but it's not all going to be the best choices for everyone, especially his heavy dependence on propane for back-ups. Also, someone with a homestead on some land is going to have a different set of options to someone in a tiny home, as he is.

I'd rather launder my clothes at home than pay someone to do it, and between a clothesline, an undercover drying area, and a clothes rack, I'm sure we'll succeed in getting our clothes dry. As we've managed that in the UK for over twenty years without a clothes dryer, I'm sure we'll manage it in a semi-off-grid house, too. I can see the issues living in a tiny house are different.

I'm surprised at his level of negativity toward wood heat, though it's probably not all that practical with a tiny house. For our situation, I'd far rather put in the work of managing wood heat and cooking than be dependent on buying in propane. We can provide at least some of our own firewood (cut from our own coppice using a rechargeable battery chainsaw) and easily get wood delivered, but without a vehicle have no way to access propane. Cutting wood is good exercise and also comes with a degree of satisfaction. His set of assumptions here again are based on his own situation, presumably needing to go out to work a "day job" and wanting to maximise his leisure time when he's at home. Personally I love the quality of heat from a wood stove, and watching the flames is far more enjoyable than TV!

Seems to me the author has made the choices that are right for him, but are far from right for many homesteaders.

I find they get tough quite early in my dry hot Bulgarian garden, and so like many wild greens I prefer the texture cooked to raw. But unlike so many other wild greens they never get bitter.

Judy, in Bulgarian summers where temperatures are regularly over 40c in summer, everyone puts shadecloth over their greenhouses. It's still hot in there, but with good ventilation plants seem to keep producing. It's also possible to get lighter coloured shadecloth, what I bought was a sandy beige colour.