Fantasizing about leaving the city rat race and moving home. But doing it my way.
My cousin, Bernie, recently took a walk across the land and sent over a video of the tour. Watching it here from my room in Nova Scotia, it felt like…
Energy harvesting systems, backup grids, and thermal reserve setups.
It takes a lot of back and forths and note-taking before you finally pull the trigger on an off-grid power setup. As we look at clearing a small patch of…
The poles run right through the property, but paying standard service hookups and monthly base fees for a cabin we’ll only occupy two to four weeks a year makes no…
Poetic, chronological accounts of building on the rock.
My cousin, Bernie, recently took a walk across the land and sent over a video of the tour. Watching it here from my room in Nova Scotia, it felt like…
Sometimes, sitting here in Nova Scotia, my mind wanders back across the Cabot Strait to Random Island. I remember walking past the small, weathered one-room schoolhouses and the quiet rural…
While a driveway isn’t even done yet, nor the Bell wires fixed (at least that I know of), my thoughts keep wandering to all the corners of the process and…
Simple, low-budget tools that make off-grid life work.
When you are planning an off-grid shelter, it is easy to get caught up in the big builds. We spend hours researching solar panels, charge controllers, and waterless toilets. But…
Sourcing, foraging, and preserving food on the Rock.
Every year, right around late June or early July, the damp, foggy weather rolls in off Trinity Bay. Around home, we call it caplin weather. It’s the time when millions…
The settlement clearing and coastal wooden structures.
While a driveway isn’t even done yet, nor the Bell wires fixed (at least that I know of), my thoughts keep wandering to all the corners of the process and…
In my mind, I was standing on the hill this morning, watching the fog roll in off Smith Sound. I could still hear Uncle Lionel’s old make-and-break engine putt-putting out…
Auxiliary systems supporting clean living: plumbing, water, and sanitation.
I was thinking back to the old outhouses we used to have around Apsey Brook and Snook’s Harbour when we were boys. There was always a certain smell to them—a…