# Forest Breath



## TechAdmin (Oct 1, 2008)

I would love to know more about your homestead.

What do you do about electricity and Internet access?


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## Forest Breath (Oct 21, 2008)

I just found this thread right before I am preparing to leave work today. What I don't answer today, I will try to get to tomorrow. 

I live in Southeast Tennessee. I was approached by the elderly neighbor couple early this year. They have no children or grandchildren. Initially they wanted to leave us their 22 acre farm when they passed with several agreements made and I pay them a set amount of money each month. Sadly the man died as the papers were being drawn up and it is likely we will only end up with 5-10 acres. This will be enough to sustain us however, so we are not going to fret over it. 

We began checking into costd for septic permits, utility lines, and on and one, wells and such and it was going to cost us almost $12,000 just to get the chosen site ready to begin a home. I had always had a dream ofa one room home with no electric or plumbing. Not because I think the world is coming to an end really, but just because I wanted to live that way. It is no secret the world is headed for bad times, but my heart just was pulled to the old ways of things and so me and my fiance' decided, hey...live the dream for awhile. If we cannot do it, we go back on the grid, if we can...yay for us. 

So I talked to Jimmy and I told him what I wanted in a house. EVERYONE said there was no way to build us a house for less than $10,000. I was shocked as I was thinking $5000 sounded better. So we began. 

We chose the site up on the back hill. We searched for salvagable items for a home. Me (46), my fiance (35), my youngest daughter (27), Jimmy (71) and my 3 year old grandson set out to build us a home. We had never built anything before (except for Jimmy). We had no electric, so we nailed everythign by hand, sawed all the wood with a chainsaw and hand saw. It was interestingm exciting, tiring and a learning experience. Sadly Jimmy found out he had cancer 3 weeks into the project. Terminal cancer. We were so clueless when he went into the hospital and somehow managed to figure out how to get a roof on and move in. Jimmy got to sit inside the house oen time before he died just a few weeks later. We built the home in a month, well...to a livable level in a month and moved in. We finsihed the walls, insulation, porch and more after we moved into the home. We currently have a little over $5000 in the home, we only like the inside walls and siding on the outside. 

We are completely off the grid. We have no electricity at ALL. We use oil lamps for light, we cook on a propane grill outside and a propane stove at times. We heat with wood and got the heater off of Freecyle. We cut all our own wood. I wash clothes by hand. We can and dry all of our food and are now in the process of building the root cellar. Future plans are a Spring House, smokehouse, small barn, workshop, muscadine vineyard, large garden, pigs for meat, we already have chickens. We forage for some foods and I get several deer a year to process for our meat. 

As for water, I designed the house in my head to be as self sufficient and able to utilize the seasons and weather to our advantage. Most windows are in the east and west side. Few in the north and south side. During the summer, with the home facing west and the porch on with a roof, we get a good breeze flowing through and it stays cool. In the winter it stays warm. I also wanted to roof to provide us with all the water we needed. It is a total slant style roof, the home is 28'x28'. We have a gutter in the back with 2 downspouts. We collect the water in containers, several have spigots on them. 1/2 inch of water gives us over 200 gallons. 200 gallons will last us a month is used wisely. It is just me and my fiance' living there with our grandson there 9 hours a day and the other 2 grandkids stay some on weekends. We carry water in for the dishes, heat it as needed for baths inside in the winter and during the summer we take baths just off the back porch. I do all laundyr by hand and recycle water as much as possible. 

I will see what pics I can find and post them in another post. 

I access the internet at work before and after work when I wait on my daughter to pick me up on the way home. We have one solar lamp we use for the outhouse and it works well. We have no TV, music or anything like that. I quilt, read, write, paint, crochet when I have time. Most of our time is spent working on the house and getting ready for winter.


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## Forest Breath (Oct 21, 2008)

the back porch area where we take baths and collect water









wood shed and outhouse









front porch









one of the water collection systems in action, we have the overflow that runs into a molded pond


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## Forest Breath (Oct 21, 2008)

solar food fryer (apples and blueberries)









kitchen sink, we recycle the water

I will post more pics and tell you more tomorrow. I will be heading home in a few minutes, but will try to get back here while at work tomorrow.


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## TechAdmin (Oct 1, 2008)

Amazing! Very inspiring story, thanks for sharing all that.

It seems like a huge jump to move to a life without electricity. Do you often find yourself wanting it or has life been just fine without it.


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## Forest Breath (Oct 21, 2008)

I have a lovely story to tell you about that but the answer is.....

I never want it again. I miss NOTHING about it and would just cry if someone told me I had to have it again. I am loving life at 46 years old. My fiance's missed his music, so for his birthday I got him an MP3 player. But in reality....we miss nothing at all about having electricity. I even tried to shower at my daughter's last week and was so confused and felt like I was smothering. LOL....I gave up and finsihed at home.

More later, have a great evening.

more pics are here....

BushwhackerJohn/Home Site - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting


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## Washkeeton (Oct 18, 2008)

I love the front porch, and really love the slide off the back porch... that is a great idea. 
Curious do you have a loft in this house or any part of it underground as in a celler?

When in the bush cabin we use to run rain water off the roof into a 300 gal barrel then would pump it into the house with a small 12 volt pump that ran off the generator... This gave us the ability to have running water in the sink and shower water. The hot ran through an on demand propane water heater. We had 5 gal buckets that we caught the water under the kitchen sink with and then poured them into the toilet (until the pipes froze in December at 50 or so below) We then started using the outhouse and tossing the sink water out the side of the house. 

The trailer we lived in we had to haul the water for everything and just heat it on the stove. We poured enough into a solar shower bag to take a shower. The drain system that the guy that owned the place created was for the gray water to go into a 3 barrel system underground.. he dug out a hole and connected 3 metal barrels together and drilled numerous holes in them, more in the last than in the first 2... covered them over top with a piece of plastic and burried them in rocks and covered in the hole... he then brought his travel trailer up and hooked the water drains to this. It only froze once at 60 below and was easy to unfreeze by running hot water over the drain hole in the sauna area. 

I have often thought about dropping a drain off the roof into a 1000 gal cistern burried in the yard. Using a hand pump or small 12 volt pump as needed. There by I have back up water to water gardens, greenhouse, wash dishes, wash cloths, etc. Setting up a composting toilet (sawdust actually to be specific) and then off the greenhouse to set up the same as by the house...with a deep cistern that is burried. To alieviate water worries. Where I am now I have a 50 foot well that is in an underground stream. The water in it is the second best flavored water in the world... Still havent found any better than at the Fox Spring out of Fairbanks. 

I have thought about running all the gray water from the house into a cystern also there by having that to use to water my garden and greenhouse area. 

There are a few options for satalite internet... Some are better than others. My friends that are out 80 miles from the nearest road system have a satalite system set up. I dont know enough about this new wireless set up to be able to say anything about it at this time. Dean if your interested I can pm you some web sites and let you know who to talk to. 

As far as elec, generator, solar, wind and hydro if you have a creek somewhere... that would be about it.

Great pictures on your site there Forest Breath... enjoyed seeing the project from begining to end... Great job... I know how you feel about going back to the grid. I came back only cause my daughter wanted running water... Im now sorry I did... Wanting to go back to living like you are... Thanks for the inspiration.


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## lisat (Oct 22, 2008)

Oh how wonderful! If you haven't already you should start a blog and write your daily life there. I would read it every day! Would love to hear your trials and tribulations. We may build a cabin in our woods for future use and just to have the experience in building it. I know my 4 boys would never forget the experience.


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## Ridgerunner (Oct 27, 2008)

I understand the need to be able to support your self like this. but I would only do it if I had to. not by Choice. I would always be headed back to the way life was before if at all possible. But that is just me. you house looks great and I am glad your happy with your life as it is.


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## solaceofwinter (Oct 29, 2008)

i think that is the absolute coolest thing ever.
How do you recycle the water exactly?
what if you get no rain for a month?


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## Forest Breath (Oct 21, 2008)

I do have a blog, a live journal here Unci

Thanks for the replies and I apologize that it has taken me awhile to get back here. With Winter arriving, we have been extra busy with things.

If we get no water for over a month we carry water from the spring on the other side of the property. So far, even in the worst part of summer, we never ran out of water. We really conserve it and use only what is needed.

As for recycling. I use very earth friendly detergents. I have two buckets under the sink. One for rinse water, one for wash. When the rinse water bucket gets full, I recycle that water into wash water. When the wash bucket gets full, we use it to water things needed outside (like all of the plants we put out this Summer). We have learned to take a bath with less than 2 gallons of water each. When I think about all that is needed for a good bath, I cringe at the way I wasted water before when I filled the tub with hot water.

Right now we are focusing on making sure we have everything ready for winter. We are insulating our water collection system, cutting more wood, finishing up the floor and such.

There is a bear hanging out in the area now, black bear. It somes through of a night. That makes trips to the outhouse of a night very interesting, so I am considering a night time pot inside that can be emptied each morning.


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## TechAdmin (Oct 1, 2008)

What detergents do you use?


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## highwayman (Nov 4, 2008)

What do you do if the black bear attacks?


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## northernontario (Oct 29, 2008)

highwayman said:


> What do you do if the black bear attacks?


fight back.
carry bear pepper-spray.
kill it before it can kill you.

Recently heard a story about a man sitting on his dock enjoying a cold beer. Hears some rustling in the woods, then a blackbear comes out of the woods, attacks him, and drags him back into the woods. He is able to get out his knife and start attacking the bear... thought he had cut it's ear off. Bear let him go and he got back to his house.

Couple days later, after some of the locals had heard about it, someone shot a blackbear... with one ear half fallen off.

While you may not be allowed to legally hunt bear in your area because of restrictions on season or whatever... typically, local authorities look the other way during situations like this.


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## Washkeeton (Oct 18, 2008)

Actually I hear they are kinda tasty...at least the ones up here in AK are.


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## StevieBean (Nov 11, 2008)

Ridgerunner said:


> I understand the need to be able to support your self like this. but I would only do it if I had to. not by Choice. I would always be headed back to the way life was before if at all possible. But that is just me. you house looks great and I am glad your happy with your life as it is.


I agree with ya, Ridgerunner.....but hey, that's us. To each his own! Very cool though, ForestBreath!


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## StevieBean (Nov 11, 2008)

Oh also, I bet night trips to the outhouse are a bit scary! Do you walk your son out there if he has to go at night? I think you should definitly consider putting a pot of some sort inside , at least for the harsh winter months...or as long as the black bear stays around!


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## Forest Breath (Oct 21, 2008)

The bear does not actually concern me too much. I taught wilderness survival skills for years in this area and I see the bear as nothing more than a nuisance right now. 

Speaking of bear, I am getting one for free next week. So I am excited about that. 

The middle of the night outhouse trips have actually been enjoyable. I love cold weather and the only thing I have found annoying is the extremely cold seat. LOL While my fiance' is gone, I may use a chamber pot at night. Not because of the bear, but the tons of coyotes that are around the place. 

I got 2 deer Monday, so this week will be spent making jerky and canning the meat. Considering it takes an hour and a half to process one load in the pressure cooker, it will take me a lot of time to get all of the deer canned. I am looking forward to the smell of the jerky drying over the wood stove however. 

As for detergent, I will get the info from the bottle when I get home and post it in the next day or so.


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## Washkeeton (Oct 18, 2008)

Stirofoam seats... never have to worry about a cold out house again. We had it up here at 70 below and it was warmer than any in house seat I have sat on, except the batterie opperated heated ones.


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## Blissness (Nov 13, 2008)

Damn, 70 below....shoot, I'm glad I live in the South.
So you are getting a bear for free? As a pet? What will the bear do for you around your homestead?


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## Washkeeton (Oct 18, 2008)

Blissness I moved from the desert south west with the 100+ summer temps to out of Fairbanks, in the bush, with its 70 below winters by choice..... I hate heat. You can only get so naked but you can keep adding clothing in the cold. Besides 70 below up in fairbanks is warmer than the 70 below here wind chill. Now I have to admit that is cold. The wind sucks the heat out of your body and really no amount of clothing keeps me warm enough.... 

I would assume that she is planning on either using the hide for what ever with the blackie or eating it... It is a staple food for a lot up here. I have friends that are 80 air miles from the nearest road and there is so many black bears in their area, that is what they eat. There is no moose and very few fish. They are allowed 3 blackies each per yr.


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## Spearhead (Nov 14, 2008)

Hmm, never eaten bear before. What does it taste like? What parts are best to eat?


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## aardvark48 (Nov 14, 2008)

Sweet homestead


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## Washkeeton (Oct 18, 2008)

Spearhead I dont know what a black bear tastes like. I am still trying to find someone that hunts them to share a bit with me. Most everything I assume is edible like any other hunted game animal. Personally, for me, I wouldnt eat the organ meat, only because they are scavengers as well. 

In the fall, when they are their fattest and into the fish still, Im told that they taste horrible. If they are out of the water and into the berries their meat is sweet and real good. 

Most that hunt bears up here hunt them in the early spring. There is little fat left on them. They are still groggy from comming out of the den. They are suppose to taste great then also. 

I want one to render down the fat... bear fat was originally used in a lot of the traditional native cooking up here as is seal oil and whale blubber.


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## Forest Breath (Oct 21, 2008)

Thanks for the tip on the styrofoam seats. I will let Chris know when he returns from MI on the 25th. 

Yeah...the bear is free. LOL I get it today, a pet for my belly this Winter I suppose. What will it do for my homestead? Provide lots of good meat for many, many months! And...plenty of fat to cook with and make Wasna. LOL I get it this evening. 

I have been canning deer meat relentlessly and making jerky as fast as I can over the wood heater. 

I miss Chris...tremendously. But at least I know that if anything happened, god forbid, I could haul water, wood, take care of the homestead and provide for myself in this lfiestyle...regardless. My daughters I am sure would not be pleased, but I have no desire to change right now. We are having a blast!

As for detergent, I use Earth Friendly Products Dishmate (grapefruit scent) most of the time. 

It has turned very cold here this weekend. The wood heater keeps the house cozy. We still need to get the insulation under the floor and plan to do that when Chris returns. Until then, I am making the best of things and loving life!


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## Forest Breath (Oct 21, 2008)

Black bear to me is a bit greasy but I like it in stew. I also fix it like I do Possum. I boil it a bit and get most of the fat out, then drain it, cut into pieces, roll in flour and spices and fry it.


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## sheDaisy (Nov 17, 2008)

How long has Chris been gone? I'm curious to know how many children you have and how old they are. Do they like living on the Homestead? What are your children's biggest complaints?


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## Washkeeton (Oct 18, 2008)

I have a friend that renders down the bear fat like pork fat and uses it in her cooking vs oils and butter.. Her kids are more healthy and she said when she started using it that her blood sugars were starting to run kinda high, she said since she started replacing the fats in their cooking with bear fat that her blood sugars have since leveled off, her ADD child has calmed and is doing much better in his concentration with his homeschooling.... 

Until I can either get a bear (bear fat) or raise 2 hogs to butcher out for the fat... I will have to use bacon fat in my cooking... I did that for one yr straight and all my labs went to perfect... The Dr called me at home to tell me he was shocked that my labs were perfect...

Forest breath do you render fat and use it to make soap? Do you also by any streatch tan your hides?? Just curious..


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## marsvoltafan (Dec 8, 2008)

Cool place you got there, Forest Breath!


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## Forest Breath (Oct 21, 2008)

Things certainly can change in such a short time. We ended up in a legal battle over our home and farm, it was a horribly stressful situation that lasted over a year. It was finally settled and we ended up buying another place. We had to make a decision if we wanted to continue living without electricity or just go back to the grid. It took only a few seconds to decide we loved the life and wanted to continue. So we lucked up on a 100 year old farm in a nearby county. It has a root cellar, barn, natural spring and everything we needed. I have all of the information about the ordeal and our new place at An American Homestead

I hope that is not considered spam, I have been getting several new PM's about an update and that link is the best way to do it.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

Wow!!

A legal battle over your home? Can you share more about the battle and everything else around it - or - are you muzzle'd by the courts about the whole thing?


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## Forest Breath (Oct 21, 2008)

Well it is all on the website under the link "Where we came from"

Basically I was stupid, an elderly couple I had taken care of for years wanted me to buy their farm and take care of them til they died. I refused for awhile and then gave in, because the old man was the only father figure I ever had and they had no children to help them. He started the paperwork and we all started building the house (my huge mistake). He discovered about halfway through he had terminal cancer. I took care of him and his brother eventually stepped up to help us finish the house. The old man died and we gave his wife plenty of time to grieve, took care of her, even moved in with and helped her for weeks. Then a preacher showed up that Jimmy, the old man, had a falling out with. To make a long story short, the preacher was pissed we had the house and had bought the farm. He befriended the old lady in her grief and eventually convinced her to breech her contract with us (the paperwork was never completed and this happened when I started pressuring her a little bit to get it done and actually contacted an attorney myself to help). So we had a roller coaster of emotional breakdowns just a few months after losing Jimmy. A court battle started and it just got real nasty, she was not even intending to give me back the payments I had made on the farm, even though the receipts clearly stated it was a "farm payment" for that address. 

We "won" if you could call it that, in court, she had to give us the payments back and we had 30 days to tear the house down board by board, nail by nail and leave the land as it was before we built the house. It rained 20 out of the 30 days. We complied with the ruling, but she still would not release the money. We had to go back to court. More money for legal fees and just pure H*** for us emotionally. It finally ended last year. There is so much more about it all that would never fit in this thread, but you can read about the old place in the "where we came from" section, the building of the home and every horrible thing that happened once we fell in love with the lifestyle. 

BUT>..sometimes I guess things happen for a reason. In this process of dealing with trauma, I realized that regardless of what happened, we were going to have to find another home. We went from one option to another and then one day I stumbled upon an old, abandoned farm. Old meaning 100 years old. It had been left open and exposed to the elements and wildlife for many years. Birds were roosting in the kitchen, it was a disaster. But something made me fall in love with the place and I kept driving back down there to just sit on the porch or walk around the property. Be sure to look at the before and after pictures on the website of "Bringing the farm back to life". We got the PAPERWORK DONE and started working on the place around June last year. It was bittersweet at first. Tearing down your home that you built with your own hands and fell in love with will darn near kill you. It was hard at times to put the work and effort into the new place because our hearts had just been broken...really broken. 

But we stayed as strong as we could and made the decision to continue with no form of electricity at all. We have a functional root cellar that we restored, we get our water from the spring, we use oil lamps and a wood cook stove and well....you can see all that on the website. We have no ties to the grid and hope to continue like this as long as we are physically able. We have no fans, air conditioning and use wood for heat. We raise chickens and will be getting our first pigs in the next few weeks. I can my own meat and we are trying to do some clearing on the over grown farm so we can make some pasture land for other animals we desire. 

My grandson is 4 and he loved the house from day one like me. Because of its sad condition and not having any electricity (hence no TV, video, etc.) he kept calling it "The Broken House". Now everyone calls it that....and we love our home so very much. After what we went through....it means even more to us. 

So my advice from experience...

never ever, no matter how close you are to someone or what promises have been made, no matter how much you trust them...never do any form of land deal without getting the paperwork COMPLETED immediately! If you are ever in doubt, read our website.....and know there were many many tears falling when some of the entries were posted.


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## Von Helman (Oct 31, 2009)

Can you provide links again? 

Sorry to hear all the problems you’ve had. I love the lifestyle you live and live on similar


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## Tribal Warlord Thug (Jan 27, 2009)

An American Homestead 
Home Site pictures by BushwhackerJohn - Photobucket some good readin there Forest......and heres the links for VonHelman. and by the way...."So my advice from experience...

never ever, no matter how close you are to someone or what promises have been made, no matter how much you trust them...never do any form of land deal without getting the paperwork COMPLETED immediately! If you are ever in doubt, read our website.....and know there were many many tears falling when some of the entries were posted. "....that is probably some of the best advice i've heard on any of these Prep sites for a loooong time....Good Luck to you and yours ForestBreath.....life teaches hard lessons sometimes, it's up to us to learn from them.


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