Heating/Cooling
If you live in the south, this might not be an issue, but if you live where winter descends upon the land for four to six months of the year, then you will need to think about how you will heat your home during those cold months. If you have solar panels, you could use solar electric heat, but the ideal is a wood stove. Consider this when designing and building your home.
The opposite can also be a challenge. When you live in a hot climate, even if it is just for part of the year, you have to be able to keep your home cool, particularly if you are living off the grid and don’t have the convenience of air conditioning. Here are some things to consider when building to keep a home cool:
- Dig your basement/root cellar deeper. The best stability in terms of temperature is reached at 10 feet (3 meters) deep.
- Build with high ceilings.
- Use the right materials, such as clay, bricks, and stone.
- Orient the house so the part you want to be cooler later in the day (such as the bedroom) is facing east.
- Use wood or ceramic flooring as these materials repel heat.
- If using paint, use lighter colors.
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Growing Food[/h] Whether you already have your own homestead or you are starting from scratch and whether you live in the city or out, you will need to produce your own food to live off the land. This requires gardens and animals. Let’s take a look at a few things that you need to consider when starting out.
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Know What You’re Doing[/h] If you don’t have experience growing your own food, then take the time to learn. It takes more than sticking a seed in the ground and watering it to grow food for survival. You have to know:
- That the plants have enough sunlight, nutrients, the right kind of soil, and drainage
- How to space the seeds, thin out the plants, harvest the food, and preserve it
- What pests and diseases might attack your plants and what you can do to stop them
- Your growing zone and which plants grow in it
- Which plants do well growing near each other and which don’t