Before we moved to Alaska, I had cooked on a wood stove once, for practice. And it wasn’t even good practice either! Our wood stove in Washington was more decorative than for heating or cooking. Coming to Alaska was a huge change, as nearly everything we cook out here is done on the wood stove. We do have a propane stove that gets used occasionally, but I’m not particularly keen on cooking outside in negative temperatures. I’m also a relatively lazy cook. I used to be the queen of ‘let’s go out!’ rather than cooking dinner. Because of that, I love any fast and easy recipes and love one-pot meals. I cook quite a few things in just a 10″ cast-iron skillet (Amazon). I thought I’d throw together some tips and tricks I use for cooking on a wood stove. Continue reading “Cooking On A Wood Stove”
Tag: self sufficient
Living The Off Grid Life As New Parents
As many of you know, Kyle and I found out I was pregnant before we gave up everything to move to Alaska.
Starting a homestead from scratch while pregnant was not easy (post here). We didn’t want to try starting from scratch with a toddler, though. Luckily for us, our daughter Bellamy is what I would call an easy baby. She slept through the night nearly from day one, doesn’t have many fussy spells and is easy to comfort. That’s not to say life with a newborn baby on the homestead hasn’t been challenging, especially as new parents.
Homestead Uses For 5 Gallon Buckets
We use a lot of 5 gallon buckets here around the homestead, and we are always coming up with ideas we need more buckets for! Buckets of any size and shape are always good on the homestead, but here are a few inventive ways we’ve used our buckets:
Emergency Preparedness
Emergency preparedness is huge when you live as far from town, and the road, as we do. We ended up snowed in for nearly a month after bringing the truck back. Unfortunately, when we bring the truck back our 4 wheeler stays at our parking spot, so we’ve been without a vehicle this whole time. We prepared for the possibility of being stuck this winter before the snow came. These are the things we considered: Continue reading “Emergency Preparedness”
Minimalist Monday
As I mentioned a few posts ago (found here), Kyle and I are going to try to go minimal electricity once a week.
So here it is! Next week we will be starting our Minimalist Monday Movement. Each Monday we unplug and unwind to be in the present. I won’t say there will be absolutely no electricity use, but I’m hoping to use this to wean myself away from so much phone use.
We decided on Minimalist Monday because Kyle and his dad have a tradition of watching the Seahawks (Amazon) play together during football season. Which means my first ideas of Simple Sunday and Solar Saturday were out. Monday was the only other day I could come up with a cool name for, because this plan needs a name, ya know?
Mondays will be reserved for nature walks, cooking, cleaning, homestead chores and family bonding. I would throw reading on that list, but I gave up most of my 400+ library when we moved out here. I’m slowly picking up books here and there, and my mom has sent a few in the mail (thanks Mom!), but mostly I use my Kindle app (Amazon link)
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