It has been a busy Summer. Both R and I have been working a lot, sweet little Amelia passed away, as well as my Aunt, Archie wandered off (we’ve taken some hits), and life has just been… busy. And now, just yesterday morning, we noticed the leaves starting to change color on the oak outside of our little cabin, and we realized that Fall is here. The full Harvest Moon was just a few days ago, and that typically signals the end of Summer. It’s official.

How we celebrated our year off-the-grid-versary!

A year ago at this time, we had just gotten here. August 29th marked our first whole year off the grid in our tiny house. So this time last year we were scrambling to get ready for Winter. We didn’t have our woodstove installed, a toilet inside, or even any source of light. We barely had our walls insulated, and stairs to the loft. It’s totally crazy to think back to a year ago and see where we were. We’ve accomplished so much in a year. This building went from an empty shed to a home.

Old pallets make awesome building materials.

The rest of our firewood.

Right now, a year later, we have a comfortable house that’s mostly finished (just the bathroom is still in progress). We have all the firewood we need for the Winter already split and stacked outside; none of which we had to pay for. All of it came from a few trees that we fell ourselves here on our property. Last year we spent around $500 for three cords of wood, some of which was wet and unusable. Our “utility bill” for heat this year will be a whooping $0. Yeah, there’s the cost of the chainsaw, fuel, maintenance, day-rent for a log splitter, and our time, but all of that compared to paying someone else for wood and delivery, makes it totally worth it, and more rewarding. We’re only making ourselves that much more self-sustaining.

My sunflowers.

The watermelon, zucchini, and tomato plants are still taking over the greenhouse. The zucchini is doing awesome, we’ve gotten quite a few delicious veggies off it it. The tomatoes are slowly but surely growing fruit. The watermelon plant is seriously taking over, but not really fruiting. We get little tiny watermelons, like, the size of a peanut, but they don’t seem to get much bigger. Our swiss chard and collard greens are still growing outside, with very little care from us. My sunflowers bloomed beautifully! And now are all yellow and wilty. I still have small cilantro and thyme plants. Things are winding down in the ol’ garden. We have some serious work to do on the fencing and the raised beds themselves before planting any more.

Carrot harvest. I like the little stumpy one.

Zucchini and watermelon taking over!

We’ve been taking some conscious time to relax these days too. We have managed to accomplish SO MUCH in a year, and we have decided to give our bodies a break and take time to just sit and enjoy living in the woods. So on our days off we can sit outside in the mornings, drink coffee, fix breakfast, play with Loki, and enjoy the outdoors, without feeling like we’re avoiding some big project or wasting time before Winter. We’re planning some big projects for next Spring and Summer, so we’re resting up now in preparation.

Here’s to Fall!

Relaxin’. Or as we call it, “Loki Pose.”