This is what I've learned this year. Suit it to taste/#climate.
Fava beans, lentils and/or Scarlet runners depending on the temperatures.
Swiss chard, figs and blackberries, woodland or alpine strawberries depending on climate.
Mulberry trees, hazelnuts, and chives. There is also something called tree kale or purple tree collard.
Amaranth grows where it's very hot. Use the beans and #composting to nurture the soil.
3-4 Kilowatt hour incoming #solar charge, and about 9 to 10 KW hours of lithium phosphorus batteries.
Run nothing but 48 volt systems or you're wasting your time.
This radiant installation pictured below has given me a 20° variance between external and internal temperatures.
I use the lights from some cloning chambers I built into the house to stabilize the temperatures through the winter. Vent heat from LED light fixtures into the house. If you need more heat, use a wood burning stove.
It gets a little chilly but it can drop below 20° f and it stays habitable inside.
This is one layer of the insulation, my math called for two. Halfway done I will still make it through this winter.
I use the water storage to further stabilize the temperature.
I made it 80% of the year with just this pitiful water catchment system I installed in a hurry.
It is two small tarps going into a shady 30 gallon water bucket.
The upgrade will be an 8x8 tarp headed into a 50 gallon rain barrel.
The gardens take more water than humans. For months sometimes it's simply will refuse to rain.
When it does rain, the power takes a hit thus of the batteries.
Expect to put the farm ahead of everything else.
Cut down invasive trees. Use them for firewood and to hide you from the outside.
Do not bulldoze Fern Gully. Any clearing you create will then have to be managed.
A composting toilet that separates the liquid is essential.
Be mindful of bugs at all times in all places or eventually they will remind you forcefully that they exist.
An #ecosystem of dragonflies, lizards, and bats has sprung up to deal with endless swarms of insects.
Yellow jackets live nearby and outnumber the bees 50 to one. The yellow jackets and wasp do most of the pollinating as unfortunate as that is.
In this new world you have forbidden bees or nothing.
Birds are a double-edged sword, but there is nothing worse than an unchecked bug swarm being your existence for the rest of your life.
Squirrels, chipmunks, woodchucks, All manner of groundhog, hedgehogs, larger animals such as deer join the crows.
Work something out with the birds, work something out with a yellow jackets, work something out with the animals and the trees.
You are building an ecosystem, a small world.
The condensation from the leaves creates a rain every morning.
I'm not sure what tipping point stops this, but I have no plans to find out.
This kind of depends on going #vegan, I'm not going to lie. Supplement it with textured vegetable protein, nutritional yeast, and multivitamins.
A simple thing is to glob peanut butter into a bowl of course cut oats, then sprinkle with cinnamon.
You should plan on some sort of internet connection, recreation, and a shower or two at least every week, or you will quickly go mad.
Time your heavy labor for shower days. That way you won't be stuck gross.
Keep peroxide, witch hazel, creams, and health and beauty aides of course on hand.
Wash your clothes in a bustub and rinse them out in the storms.
Learn to build fences and barriers both living and material. Grow blackberry up a deer fence made of t-post, these posts can be driven to anchor a row of cinder blocks to the ground. This will also deter vehicles. A layer of barbed wire deters humans.
Create walls of hazel and figs. Learn to work the #hedge.
#ClimateDiary #Permaculture #Homestead #Anarchy #SolarPunk
