Living well and saving money, even on a teacher’s salary, isn’t impossible if you know how to spend your money well. In this post, I’ll show you how WE live on half our income and save the other half for our building project. Update: This post applied to our budget BEFORE I decided to quit…
Prepping for In-Slab Rough-In Plumbing
In this post, we’ll take a look at how we’re prepping the foundation area on our off-grid home for the rough-in plumbing, including waste drainage and radiant heat. As school winds down for me and my responsibilities are getting fewer, I have much more time to devote to the inner workings of our homestead project….
BMR Update – Concrete Piers and a “Home” Tour
Finally! We’ve had a very unusual stretch of dry weather that has turned our mud into dust and allowed some wonderful guys to drill and pour our concrete piers! (SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO!) 19 holes. 4 feet deep. 24 inches wide. And our land is all clay and rocks! Fortunately for me, one of my…
Declutter: How We Dumped Half Our Stuff to Live Smaller
We live in a world that tells us we need to consume. Get a bigger house and fill it up with stuff. Get a better job with more money so you can afford more stuff. STUFF! Here, we’ll discuss the steps we took to downsize all of our belongings by HALF and how you too…
Accidental Update – House Plans and Prep!
Hello, dear friends! It has been entirely too long since I’ve posted an update, but as usual it was all because of exciting things happening for my students at school. I finished a very long project AND hosted a multi-school concert in celebration of Music In Our Schools Month. It was the eighth time I’ve…
Throwback Thursday -1935
As it seems to be going in our neck of the woods, IT WON’T QUIT RAINING/SNOWING/SLEETING/BEING CRAPPY… So today I’m taking a short break from the house project and modern sustainability to share a cool look at how our great-grandparents really used to do it. Facebook friends will remember a few weeks back how my awesome…
Homestead Update – Concrete and Timber at the Big Muddy Rock
Hello, dear readers! I figured I’d take a break from all the diaper talk to give you an update on the property (which Anthony has named Big Muddy Rock). We’re continuing to use the winter months to save up our pennies for the big build in the spring and summer. Not that we haven’t gotten…
Nighttime Cloth Diaper Solutions
One issue I’ve seen brought up more than once is how to use cloth diapers at night without leaks. If you’re looking for solutions, then you’ve either experienced a great deal of leakage trying to use your daytime system or you’re worried that it just simply can’t handle as much as a disposable can. Fear…
The Real Scoop on Diaper Laundry
I have so many friends who are prepping to be first-time mamas, and so many questions coming in about cloth from those who are interested but a bit hesitant. The one thing everyone always wants to know is: How the heck do you wash your diapers? What do you do with the poop?! Isn’t it…
Winding Down 2015, Big Things Ahead
Hello, dear readers! I realize that I have taken quite the hiatus from writing, but it’s all in the name of doing good things for my students and my family. Here’s what we’ve been up to! Since the last post, our little boy was the world’s most adorable Charlie Brown with his Snoopy for Halloween……