camping

When I moved off-grid, learning how to bake in a wood cook stove was a little tricky for me in the beginning. I learned that there is a whole process to baking you don’t get to experience with modern day stoves.

There are a few different ways you can bake using fire. You can even bake without an oven as long as you have a good bed of hot coals. Today I am going to share with you 4 different ways to bake using fire that I have had personal experience with.

It is always funny to me how old new age technology is. Hand-cranked gadgets go back a long time -- in fact, they predate electricity. However, there have been several new technologies made available that provide more modern hand-cranked, solar, and wind-powered products.

Off-grid living can take some getting used to, but there are all sorts of products, tools, and equipment to make the transition smoother.

Here are some of my favorite hand-cranked products.

If you seek internal answers, nature can help. Whether you believe it or not, nature can help extract internal messages from us when we consciously make the decision to open up and set the intention to listen. It can make us aware of things in regards to ourselves as well as circumstances in our lives we may need assistance with. There are also times when it can give us inner-encouragement as well. Nature can point out to us internal messages in many ways, and I am here to share my own personal example with you.

As winter approaches there is a lot of work that has to be done in order to prepare. I usually start with the garden.

There is a myth surrounding acorns that states Acorns are poisonous and can’t be eaten! Acorns can be eaten, but you wouldn’t want to just pick one up and eat it. There’s a leaching process that must be done in order to make the acorns edible.

One of my favorite parts about living on a farm or off of the grid is getting to work with the animals. Chickens are usually the first animal people get on a farm – or sometimes even in a backyard.

There are literally hundreds of chicken breeds out there. You could look at pictures and decide which ones you want to raise according to looks but I recommend looking into some things. Important factors to consider when choosing a chicken:

The Autumn Equinox is one of my favorite seasonal transitions to experience. Don’t get me wrong – I love all of the seasons and I appreciate the changes, but Autumn is just the bee’s knees.

I never thought I would say this, but when I was a kid, summers were spent playing outdoors. There were no smartphones, iPads, laptops, or any other fancy technology to distract us. And vacations? Well, we spent those camping.

Nature is good for me because it shows me a different, more expansive side of life that people too often do not expose themselves to in the cubicles of their minds' eye, from the limited contours of the concrete jungle.

Living off the grid provided me with several encounters with nature in many forms – whether it was the weather, creature critters or the growing forest. Some of my favorite encounters were with animals and I love them all. I was far enough out in the woods that spotting wildlife was as easy as finding a game on ESPN. I have so many experiences but today I will share with you a few of my favorites.

The Big Bear