Off-grid yurt living in Vermont
Because our yurt is located in a small clearing surrounded by woods, we only get about 5.5 hours of sun even at the height of the growing season. We’re still able to grow plenty of vegetables, but without “full sun” the yields aren’t enormous. So we got to thinking about
Read More Get Started Growing Mushrooms on Logs with Plug Spawn
After two years of living in our yurt, two years of cold showers and lengthy considerations for a hot water off-grid shower solution, we finally decided to pull the trigger and build an outdoor shower, off-grid and powered by a propane on-demand water heater. TLDR: We use the Camplux 1.32
Here’s our problem: We spend all of March making maple syrup, and then have so much we don’t know what to do with it. We give away as much as we can, but still we fill an entire shelf with little bottles of our many syrup batches. I know, I
If you’re wondering how to tap birch trees to evaporate the sap into birch syrup, it’s probably best to ask the Alaskans. (Free podcast idea: “Ask the Alaskans.”) They don’t have many maples, but they’ve got plenty of birch trees, and the birch syrup industry is booming. If you’re looking
We’re so happy to have finally finished the first version of our PDF Yurt Guide. We wanted to make this guide as the sort of resource we wish we had when we were first investigating yurts. It can serve as an introduction to yurt living options and also as a
A small-scale maple sugaring operation like ours—basically, backyard maple sugaring—doesn’t use vacuum pressure to collect maple sap. Good old-fashioned gravity is our method of choice. There’s two methods to consider when deciding how you want to collect sap from your maple trees. First, there’s the picture postcard method: tap a
Read More Backyard Sugaring: Collect Maple Sap with Five-Gallon Buckets
After hours and hours of building the yurt platform, and slightly fewer hours setting up the yurt itself, we had a big, round, empty space to make our own. I think this fact is often understated and underrated when considering what yurt life might be like—when you move into a
Read More What to Consider When Designing a Yurt Interior (or Tiny Home)
We made this basic and cheap DIY maple syrup evaporator for less than $50, and it took less than an afternoon to put together. So you can file it under “cheap” and “easy” — but you can also file it under “effective.” We used it to boil down a season’s
Read More How To Make a Cheap Maple Syrup Evaporator for Under $50
Our approach to learning new things — like, say, making maple syrup — could fairly be called a “Learning-Based Approach,” and could perhaps more honestly be described as “slightly willy-nilly.” It goes generally like this: Get interested in new hobby or skill Read just a little bit online Buy the
I’ve now built two rustic standing desks for a couple of Annie’s colleagues. There are supposedly health benefits to a standing desk and there are plenty of “hacks” to give yourself a standing desk equivalent. But shouldn’t it look good, too? This simple rustic standing desk design is easy and
Read More Rustic Standing Desk Design — Under $100 and Easy to Build
