One of the most exciting projects we have completed on our homestead this summer was building an outdoor pizza oven. Years ago in Oregon, my husband Brian built an amazing brick bread oven, following Alan Scott's plans detailed in the book The Bread Builders. The oven was huge - he could bake 20+ loaves of bread at a time - and it was so well insulated that it held heat for days. Brian ran a "Community Supported Bakery" for almost 9 years, selling organic, artisan sourdough bread baked that he baked in his wood-fired oven to friends and neighbors. When we began creating our off the grid homestead, we knew that we wanted to include an outdoor bread and pizza oven. … [Read more...]
Remodeling our Outdoor Kitchen
Our outdoor kitchen got a bit of a facelift recently, and we've been really pleased with its improved functionality and comfort. For the past two years, the outdoor kitchen looked like this: The tarp did a great job protecting us from light rain, but the space was not big enough to both prepare meals and dine. As a result, our picnic table stood in the middle of our lawn, under a shade canopy. That worked fine, unless the sun was setting, in which case the shade was in a different location than the picnic table! Brian loves to move earth and rock. It's one of his homesteading superpowers. So he envisioned a terraced space in which we could place the picnic table and the full … [Read more...]
A Homestead Outdoor Kitchen
Yesterday we did something we've kind of been putting off for a few weeks: We moved our entire indoor kitchen to our outdoor kitchen set-up, in anticipation of the plastering and flooring work that needs to happen this season. If you do a quick Google or Pinterest search for images of "Outdoor Kitchens," you'll find some rather inspiring, attractive, and no doubt, expensive arrangements of stainless steel appliances and grills. Many are centered around warm-season cooking and entertaining and provide space for seating, cooking, and shade. Our outdoor kitchen's shade comes from a large tarp, there is no seating, and we cook over a rocket stove and a two-burner propane stove, but the … [Read more...]
Living Outdoors: A Day in the Life
I bet you're wondering how a family of four lives on their homestead while they're building a house, right? I'd be curious too. Where do we sleep? Where do we eat? Where do we poop? Come with me today, on a little adventure - A Day in the Life... We sleep in a borrowed pop-up tent trailer. Circa 1980, it is literally falling apart at the seams, but has kept us warm and dry (mostly). We each have a Rubbermaid bin of clothes, and our personal belongings that are not stored at the red shop are tucked into various cracks and crevices. The chickens greet the day with some pecking and scratching around our picnic table. One morning, a few weeks ago, I went off to teach … [Read more...]
Setting Up: An Outdoor Kitchen
Week One of living on the land. It has been so wonderful. Truly, just so lovely to fall asleep here each night, listening to the sounds of owls, crickets, frogs, and birds. So nice to stay late after dinner without worrying about rushing back to town to get the kids fed and put to bed. So easy to wake up in the morning and jump right into the tasks at hand. The biggest task this week has been setting up our outdoor kitchen. Imagine trying to fit the contents of your home kitchen into an outdoor space, in a neat, organized, weather-proof, and critter-proof way. Imagine cooking all your meals almost entirely from scratch without hot running water, refrigeration, or the type of cook stove … [Read more...]
A Sneak Peek
Well, here we are, back from cake land, and once again firmly rooted in the reality of building a homestead. Unfortunately, we have been rained out of our big moving day, which was supposed to be today. We will wait at the cozy town house until things dry up enough to move heavy furniture across wet ground. While I've been sharing endless photos of cakes and decadent icing, we've actually been hard at work creating a rustic camping situation that will be comfortable enough to live with for three or four more months, or until we finish the house. So here is a little sneak peek of our soon-to-be home! The garden is really coming along. I still have peppers, basil, and some okra and … [Read more...]