A Homesteading Family Lives Off Grid in This Renovated Earthship
Written by: Arron J. Staff writer @ Hyggehous.com
Photo Gallery
This Earthship lived in by a homesteading family is like nothing you've seen before.
The inspiring off-grid homesteading family lives in the renovated stone Earthship. The family grows their food, use solar power, collect rainwater, have composting toilets, and they have a pond that filters all of their grey water. On top of living off-grid and an eco-friendly lifestyle, they dedicate their work to eco-friendly projects such as urban gardening and promoting industrial hemp as Hempbassadors. Shop Tiny Homes You'll want to take a look inside this incredible off grid home design, it is sure to surprise you.
During the winter, the homesteading family typically take two to four months off to travel, which possible for the family because they don't have a big mortgage to worry about.
The Earthship house only cost them $15,000 when they bought it. Their youngest daughter, Emma, is in the first grade, and they take her out of school while they travel the two to four months a year and homeschool her on the road. The couple has dreamt of being self-sufficient for a long time. For eight years they worked together and renovated their Earthship off-grid home, planted their permaculture gardens, and prepared for the day that they would be able to live their dream full-time. For over two years now the family has been living on their off-grid dream homestead. They grow berries, apples, and other fruits which they preserve for winter. The family also grows their vegetables and collect eggs from their chickens. In the summer, the family has a grocery bill that can be as low as $30/week because they produce so much of their food.
Much of the harvest for this off-grid family is kept cool in their root cellar although they would also like to have a fridge.
The off-grid home is a passive solar home design with a greenhouse in the front. The off-grid home can stay above zero degrees on its own, but they also have a wood stove, an Amish Pioneer Princess, to help heat the off-grid home to cook, and to heat their hot water.
For rainwater, the off-grid homesteaders have three water collection systems.
One water collection system is a tank in front of the off-grid home that collects the water from the greenhouse, and they use a solar powered water pump to transfer it into an underground cistern. Another of the water collection systems is a tank that collects rainwater from the roof, and a third that collects rainwater from their shed. In total, the off-grid family can have 10,000 litres of fresh water when all of the tanks are full. The off-grid family doesn't have a well yet, so they get all of their drinking water from a cabin building they have access to down the road. The off-grid family have a small solar power system for their lights, the water pump, and also for the internet. They would eventually like to invest in a bigger solar power system, but for now, it works well.