Author: Jesse
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Sometimes the most useful homestead products aren’t being used for what the manufacturer intended. I’ve had these [stainless] steel clothesline hooks mounted on my greenhouse for about two years, where they provide simple, sturdy attachment points for lines and other greenhouse needs. Although the manufacturer does not advertise them as stainless steel, mine have shown…
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If you handed me another bare two-acre lot tomorrow and enough money to develop it, I’d do it again. Absolutely. But I wouldn’t do everything the same way. I’ve been involved with developing our property at Riverbed Ranch in Utah’s West Desert for about five years, although we’ve only lived in the house for about…
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Fiberglass window screen isn’t just for windows. In this review, I show how I’m using this fiberglass window screen along the entire east and west sides of my 48-foot greenhouse. It gives me a simple way to move plenty of air through the greenhouse while creating a barrier that helps keep rabbits and other unwanted…
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The first night we slept on our property at Riverbed Ranch, our house didn’t even have a roof. We had a crawl space, a floor, and two partial walls. We set up our cots and slept under the stars. I don’t remember seeing or hearing any mice that night. They apparently waited until we finished…
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Can a simple outdoor timer really make life around the homestead easier? We put the BN-LINK Outdoor Programmable Timer to work to find out. I use outdoor timers around the homestead anywhere I have something I want to turn on and off automatically. This BN-LINK outdoor programmable timer lets you program different on-and-off times throughout…
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Lessons from trying to turn two acres of Utah desert into a dependable food-producing homestead I Thought Two Acres Would Feed Us When we moved to Riverbed Ranch and began developing our two-acre homestead, I had a pretty ambitious goal. Eventually, I thought we could feed ourselves completely. I didn’t mean that we would somehow…
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Living off-grid means becoming your own utility company. We’ve learned when to do laundry, why some solar panels face east and west, and how one wiring mistake can become very expensive. Here are the lessons our solar system taught us.
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We expected a greenhouse and a couple dozen barrels of water to keep our plants above freezing. Our first Utah winter taught us otherwise. Here’s what we learned about thermal mass, row covers, greenhouse design, and the difference between extending the growing season and actually creating a warm winter climate.
