first, thanks to main1
the wife and I have been living offgrid for about four years
we have been using a variation of square foot gardening
for food storage we just vacuum seal and can from the garden, and store in cold storage
we just started our orchard last year, which will hopefully add to our canned supply
also attempting tobacco this year, which if successful, will be another cost savings
if I can help in any way in these areas, I gladly will
as my knowledge of silver is not vast, hopefully I can contribute in other ways

a little more info
we heat with wood
we did a simple passive solar design (-20C/-4F and sunny no need for a fire)
compost toilet (very important, many of the big names are horrible, ask me how I know)
start all our veggies from seed, use no animal by-products or chemicals in our garden
went through this winter without having to mechanically top off batteries

Looks very nice - especially the garden. Couple questions:
What is that field in the background (black plastic)?
How do you integrate your PV and Wind? What type of inverter and storage bank are you rolling?
Do you have tracking on the PV (even though it sounds like you don't need it)?

Hi skinnervic,
the black plastic is to kill off the weeds
this year it will be my comfrey patch, for compost, foliar sprays, mulch
it sends down a real deep tap root and brings up nutrients from there
the pv power, which is DC, goes to an mx-60 charge controller,then the batteries
the turbine is AC, and goes to its own controller, which changes it to DC, then to the batteries
the batteries are 2 Volts each, and I have 12, wired for a 12V system (1400 amp/hrs)
I had the frame for the panels welded locally, and allows me to manually track both horizontally and vertically

That is an awsome looking garden and greenhouse Offgrid, show's alot of hard work and a real dedication to getting it done. My hats off to you. Your family should do quit well no matter what happens your way.

Good job offgrid, It'll take us a couple more yrs. to get up to that speed. We had "it" going on just outside Portland but moved last yr. We just planted.....

12 fruit trees
15 rasberry bushes
12 blueberry bushes
200 sq. ft. of asparagus
46 tomato plants
....etc.

We are glad to have canned up 65 qts. of tomatoes in '07, the move was unexpected we are still eating from the pantry thanks to my paranoia of wanting "too" much. Not sorry now.

I love coming in from the garden with dirt under my fingernails while carrying food for dinner , a very whole feeling.

Longhaul,
you touched on an important facet of gardening
it's more than just growing food,
it's a sense of independence

First garden is going to be this year. Also getting fruit trees. Chickens come next week.

It's time to stop hoping things will change and make the change ourselves.

So maybe Obama was right, "YES WE CAN".

These changes are based on absolute disgust at the mockery that these criminals are making of this country. I know its been going on for years, but its "live" now and I'm not buying into it anymore. One day at a time, more independent and more focused on the Lord. I'll eat grass if I have to... and we have plenty of llama feed too. (Its actually not that bad.. oats, grains..with milk and honey you wouldn't know it from whole grain cereal)

-fnw

Faithj you just summed it all up. It is time for folks to take the bull by the horns and make the changes themselves because Uncle Sam is not going to be able to help us out of this mess, it is up to us to get it done on our own!

here is a little about comfrey
as a tea, it can really cut down on fertilizer costs
and from the standpoint of having a sell/barter item
this may be something that others may need, but not have

http://www.the-organic-gardener.com/Comfrey.html
http://www.overthegardengate.net/garden/herbs/comfrey.asp

Holy Crap Man!

Offgrid, you are now my new hero! What an awesome set-up.

Everyone has their own idea of what their homestead should look like......and yours is how I pictured mine!

I'm not there yet, but we're getting there!

UPDATED PHOTOS OF GARDEN

no more windscreen, flower bed around perimeter, lattice and grape bed on south side

There's no relaxing in gardening!! Get those chairs and rests out ASAP!

Looks very nice - I take it you were having a "rodent" issue with all the screening.

wind and deer/coyotes eating our strawberries

i like skinner's sassy pic

That is an Obama styled Candace from Phineas and Ferb (an in-house fav of the youngins).

Sakata,
thanks for the photos, was interesting to see how you overcame the slope
i had more photos in here, but they were lost when i closed out a photo-hosting site
so i added a shot of my 3 panels (200 watt each, may add one 185 watt, for our new freezer)
and my 500 watt wind turbine, just as a storm front was coming from the west
when you mentioned your wonderful soil, i wept for you, my soil is the same
silty-clay with rocks (concrete), with some texas pea gravel mixed in for fun
all our soil is hand mixed, including the fruit garden
which is the last shot, looks like a nephilim graveyard
take care

my wife says you're us, only better
we are like mini sakata

no i don't have any hoops
i built a small unheated sunroom off the house
we will have beds in there for early spring/late fall
we do put reemay (or is it remay) fabric on late fall,
as we seem to get a few frost nights then 3 more weeks of good weather
i have had enough digging and soil making for awhile
my back is broke (i will extol the healing properties of apple cider vinegar, for bad backs)

Here's a shot of a tomatoe plant from your seeds
just now starting to get some flowers on them. there either Mr. stripey,
Eva purple ball or Evergreen I just threw some different seeds down after my
fiasco with my first seeds hoping some would come up.
Hope they don't drown, were suppose to have rain for the next week off and on

i'll guess evergreen

looks a little muddy
better get some galoshes

Alright a few update pics
This is what the tabasco hot pepper company fields look like down in Louisiana
only they have a few more acres than I do

Her's a shot of a couple of honey dews

Alright, Alright I have to confess me and my wifes cucumber sales business
went bankrupt after only 5 hours.
Last saturday I made up a sign for our cuc's (our advertising) and placed it in the front yard near the road, but after 5 hour's she decided that we had a failed business no customers were coming, so she told me to take it down,
I think it was the location since where it was placed on a cul-de-sac with
only 14 housing units. Not to good of a location, huh!
Hey I made the sign myself, pretty good for a guy that failed art class.
This is last friday's cucumber score, she got almost twice as much this morning
plus a bunch during the week

Wait I'm not done
So she decided to sell cucumber kimchi out where I work through some of her
old connections. sold seven half gallon jars but ran out of cuc's
rebuilt inventory. looks like a thriving business.
The moral of this story don't ever give up.

A few pics, cucumbers still producing good, egg plants so-so still waiting on tomatoes but there showing signs, hot peppers starting to kick in. Honey dews
some 7-8 inches across maybe 10 to 15 of them