Part V – The Myth of Self-Reliance Eventually I had to burst the bubble, right? While a person can do a lot of things for themselves,, true self-reliance isn’t real … or, at least, it is very, very rare. Individually, we are amazing creatures capable of so much. But it is when we connect with others that the truly miraculous begins to happen. Partnerships can create families or companies. Groups can create emotional support or raise buildings. And hundreds of us together can change the world. The whole reason why the internet works is because we crave connection. We use…
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Part IV – What to do with all that food Along with growing all this food comes the question of what to do with it. Harvests normally last a few weeks with all that glorious fruit ripening at once. Even if you share, sell and eat fresh, there will likely be too much at once, so you’ll need a plan. We’re lucky. The old ways are alive and well in our circles, so we drag out the stock pots, pressure canners, and insta-pots and get to work. The go-to preservation technique for most people starting out is water-bath canning. It…
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Part III – For the Birds! Deciding to keep chickens is a decision akin to getting married. One must never make the decision lightly. All of those vows you take … they’ll come back to haunt you! I didn’t want them. I was adamant. I had been responsible for chickens as a kid, and was sour as a lemon at the prospect of doing it again. I told Gary he was on his own, and he was OK with that. A glorious chicken coop was built and branded Cluckingham Palace. Seven tiny, yellow chicks were purchased along with all the…
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Part II – What we’re Planting Planting isn’t a new thing for us. We have always had gardens of some kind or other. Even when we were dirt poor, that dirt was put to use growing tomatoes, broccoli, and eggplants. When our daughter was young, we thought we had failed spectacularly at growing cherry tomatoes until we realized she was eating them every day as soon as she got off the school bus. While others may spend discretionary funds on movies, bangles, and cute shoes, ours is always spent on trees, flowers, and vegetables. And so it’s fitting that “Off…
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I’ve decided to end 2025 in such a way that beginning 2026 can be a true start to this blog, even though we’ve been moving forward with many things for the past two years. The Blog part always seems to be a low priority. That needs to change. So, this is the first of five (maybe six) weekly posts that aim to summarize and outline parts of our current lifestyle so it all starts to make more sense. I hope. Part I – What we’re Building Building covers the whole bubble. It makes the most sense to start here. After…
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Things are always growing at Off The Rails Homestead. This week we’ve eliminated massive amounts of Japanese Privet and random viny things to make room for new fruit trees. This place already has mature pecan, oak, and pine trees that we don’t want to get get rid of. They provide a beautiful high canopy for the backyard and the side nearest the railroad tracks. Privet, however, is fast growing, invasive, and useless. Not to mention, it repels bees and butterflies. Not good. We’ve been chasing it back for six years. Time’s up. With backyard space already being crowded by two…
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You wouldn’t think a lot could be done with a suburban 1/2 acre homestead. You’d be wrong. Here, we fully embrace the philosophy of “do what you can with what you’ve got”. Six years ago, we landed in Sumter, SC and bought a little place beside the railroad tracks. We cleared out overgrowth and removed strangled trees, we fenced the backyard for our little dogs, and we set about making a plan. That plan outlined a beautiful raised bed garden, hexagon shaped, with spaces for vegetables, herbs, and strawberries. While year one was growing in the backyard, we added floor…