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12 YEARS Living Off-Grid on a Sustainable Homestead in a Self-Built Cob Home

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Published on 02 Jul 2021 / In How-to & Style

Bryce and Misty have spent the last 12 years building a cob home, homesteading, living off the grid, and homeschooling their two daughters. They live without a car, so for transportation, they use taxis and bicycles, and they eventually hope to have a cart that their two horses can pull. For food production, they have a permaculture food forest for fruits and vegetables, chinampa-inspired wetland gardens, a cow and a bull for milk, ducks and chickens for eggs, bees for honey, and they also forage and cultivate feral crops.

You can find out more about Bryce and Misty here:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channe....l/UCPYCD5SzWer5TWta3
Blog: https://mistyariens.wixsite.com/ultimathule
Email: ontariopermaculture@hotmail.com

These two have put in an impressive amount of work setting up their homestead. The house is built with clay that they collected from the wetland area of their property, their well was dug by hand, and everything from the fences to the staircase was made with wood from within a 20km radius of their home.

The cost to build the house was approximately $1,000 CAD. Most of the building materials (the sand, clay, straw, and wood) came from the land, and things like roofing, lumber, and windows they sourced from secondhand and reclaimed sources. Interestingly, they used several different natural building techniques in the home with each new addition. They usually start with a timber frame, and they have used cob, straw bales and wattle and daub, to fill in the spaces between the beams. And they've also explored using green roofs and earth floors.

Since moving to the land, they had two lovely daughters that they homeschool using unschooling and life immersion methods. They learn about food production, natural building, nature, math, reading, and more!

To earn an income, they do a variety of odd jobs including catering, seasonal farm work, a roadside plant stand, and they also receive the childcare benefit that all families in their province receive. Their primary focus is not how to earn more money but rather how to spend less and have more time. They try to produce as much of what they need on the farm.

For electricity, they have solar panels on the roof and a wind turbine (currently non-operational), for water they have a hand-dug well and rainwater collection barrels, for heat they have wood stoves, they have two composting toilets, and a rocket stove to heat water for their bathtub.

You can find out more about Bryce and Misty here:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channe....l/UCPYCD5SzWer5TWta3
Blog: https://mistyariens.wixsite.com/ultimathule
Email: ontariopermaculture@hotmail.com

Thanks for watching!

Mat & Danielle

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Blog: www.exploringalternatives.ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/exploringalternativesblog
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exploringalternatives/

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CREDITS
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Music & Song Credits:
All music in this video was composed, performed, and recorded by Mat of Exploring Alternatives.

Editing Credits:
Mat and Danielle of Exploring Alternatives

Filming Credits:
Mat of Exploring Alternatives

#homestead #offgrid #selfsufficient #greenbuilding

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KEEPER
KEEPER 3 years ago  

i don't like this style a whole lot for myself, but it is interesting to know about it as i find it kind of cool. maybe it's a bit too low tech for me, but it's a really creative way to live and it uses some of the many design principles as an earthship would.

they have just a little to much of an reliance on the wood burners for my taste, which is why i like the idea of using the tire wall passive heat and the underground aspects of the earthship over this idea.

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KEEPER
KEEPER 3 years ago

the government doesn't like what they cannot control, and that's the major force in why they don't want ppl living free like these ppl have chosen to do.

which is why there are so many laws in why you can't live like this in most places near a city, so you have to pick a place that's somewhere out of their greedy government hands to build what you want with little to limited rules.

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Life_N_Times_of_Shane_T_Hanson

Too a point... but a lot of people do things - whether they are simply inexperienced, ignorant, lazy or delusional... and they do some apalling work... and they get themselves or others killed... or the place falls down / blows over / burns down....

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Life_N_Times_of_Shane_T_Hanson

Some times YOU NEED building codes on structural things, electrical, water, etc... Because these things STOP people from being killed...

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KEEPER
KEEPER 8 months ago

@Life_N_Times_of_Shane_T_Hanson: i agree, you do need some logical knowledge in building, it's why the whole earthship community exists because the founder himself had prior knowledge in building, so he was able to go the direction he did because he had that prior knowledge, without it, it probably wouldn't have worked at all.

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Life_N_Times_of_Shane_T_Hanson

@KEEPER: Naaaaa not good enough.... Things must be done to codes and standards... there are too many stupid people, too many lazy people, too many people who are willing to cut corners or save money etc... Scrimp and save on materials and costs etc...

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Life_N_Times_of_Shane_T_Hanson

@KEEPER: There are drug fuked idiots who wire up 600A second hand car batteries, using speaker wire... ... House burns down with the $20 solar system.

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Mustang
Mustang 3 years ago

I guess to each his own but not my cup of tea.

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KEEPER
KEEPER 3 years ago

i'm the same, this style is way too much work. this one is going back in time a bit too far for me.

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sauger1001
sauger1001 3 years ago

@KEEPER: I'm sure some globalist snitch is watching, with envy.

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KEEPER
KEEPER 3 years ago

@sauger1001: huh?

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sauger1001
sauger1001 3 years ago

@KEEPER: Just speculation on my part... no proof, but I wonder if those 5G towers are for more than just "data", but for monitoring the culling of the population.

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sauger1001
sauger1001 3 years ago

@sauger1001: Satan isn't exactly a fan of knowledgeable, self sufficient people. He wants us as slaves, depending on his corrupt governments while wasting away, instead of God's.

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