Living With The Threat of Wildfires…

 7:30pm – 53 degrees – scattered clouds…

A few years after we moved up here, Tony had a DNR (Department of Natural Resources) Fire Forester come out to look at our place and let us know how we would fare if a wildfire came through.  The outcome of that visit was the knowledge that we would be on our own.  We were told that ground fire crews would not be sent out due to the steepness and inaccessibility of the mountain ridge we live on.  They may send out an aircraft to drop some fire retardant on our house but that’s about it.  On the positive side, the DNR guy did say that we had a great start on the defensible space around our home and had the right to stay and protect it.  Before he left, he gave us some information on how to make the defensible space around our home even better.

If you are not sure what ‘defensible space’ means…it is an area around a structure where fuels and vegetation are treated, cleared or reduced to slow the spread of wildfire towards the structure.  It also reduces the chance of a structure fire moving from the building to the surrounding forest.

We are very aware of the danger from wildfires, and so far, we have only been in various levels of ‘evacuation zones’ a handful of times – several times we had our rigs all packed and ready to go, and we have actually evacuated twice when the fires have gotten a little too close for comfort.

This wildfire last fall was less than two miles away from our house and we did end up evacuating.

Over the years, we have had a few wildfires that were very visible from our house.  During the day we could watch as water and fire retardant was being dropped from airplanes and helicopters, and during the night we could see the glow of the raging fire, on the next ridge line over from us.

Last night we had another scare with a fire that was about 3/4 of a mile from our house. Usually when there is a fire, or visible smoke within 5-7 miles of us, our phones blow up with calls and texts. However, yesterday it had been raining hard all day, and it was foggy with low clouds, so no one saw the smoke or fire. It wasn’t until it got dark, the rain stopped, the clouds lifted a little, and then you could see the orange glow from the burning trees.

When we first saw the hillside on the ridge across from us ablaze, and we hadn’t heard anything about it, we went with assumption that no one knew about it yet and went into evacuation mode – sent a group message to our neighbors to inform them of the fire that was in close proximity, called 911, and started packing our rigs in case we needed to leave.

Within a half hour, Tony and Jack had their fire equipment pack and went to inspect the fire, we had our rigs packed and ready to go, and another neighbor had contacted DNR. That’s when we found out that the fire had started out as a planned controlled slash burn that had gotten out of control when the wind unexpectedly picked up to 30+ mph wind gusts which caused the burning slash piles to jump to the surround trees.

Thankfully they got the fire back under control, and no structures or people were hurt. But it was still a bit of a stressful night as this has been the closest fire to our house to date.

Winter Prep | Car Emergency Kit...

1:50 pm - 49 degrees - drizzling...

When my siblings and I started driving, our parents made sure we all had emergency kits in our cars, and we have all continued with that habit. Now that our kids are at that stage in their lives, we make sure they also have emergency kits.

Really everyone should have some basic emergency kit in their car - they come in very handy when on road trips and even in daily life.  Anything is better than nothing, and it's always good to be prepared.

Now that fall is here, we're starting to do our winter prep because snow is right around the corner... which for us means winter storms, and possibly getting stuck in the snow until we can get dug out. So I'm checking what I have stored in my SUV and restocking as needed.

Love that my Telluride has this storage compartment where I can keep everything out of the way and organized. 

The black bag is for random tools and misc. items - zip ties, fire starter, knife, matches, compass, mirror, handwarmers, duct tape, etc.

The red bag is for first aid related items - band aides, gloves, tweezers, gauze, pain killers, etc.

Between the back to chairs, I have a basket full of snacks, that gets regularly refilled. (Please excuse the dirty car - we live the mountains, and it is impossible to keep a clean car!)

Here's a list of what I have in my car...

Acetaminophen (Tylenol), Benadryl, Ibuprophen (Advil)

Bottled water

Car Safety Tool

Emergency Mylar Blanket

First Aid bag

Hand Warmers

Hand sanitizer

Hats, gloves, warm socks 

LifeStraw Water Filter

Nylon Rope

Outdoor Edge Knife Set

Snacks

Storage Bag

Portable Solar Wireless Charger

Rechargeable Flashlight 

Rechargeable LED Emergency Road Flares

Roadside Assistance Emergency Kit

Wipes

Zip ties

Harsh Truths About Homesteading and Off-Grid Living...

10:12 am - 65 degrees - clear sky, 24+ mph wind gusts...

First things first - you need to realize that the "simple life" isn't so simple. Too many new homesteaders fail to realize that a simpler life does not mean an easier life. In many ways, you will be working harder than you ever have before.

With that being said, if this lifestyle is the right choice for you and your family, all your hard work will be more than worth it!

Here are a few harsh truths that we have learned along the way...

A lot of family members and friends will think you are nuts. -- Get used to it. Some people just will not understand or embrace your lifestyle choice. They may even try to talk you out of it. That's okay, just keep doing what you are doing.

Instead of getting defensive, or frustrated, try to stay focused and positive. Try to surround yourself with supportive people who can help you achieve your goals.

Homesteading is unpredictable. -- Often times you are dealing with the whim of Mother Nature and she cannot be controlled. Not enough rain, and your garden or crops suffer, or the threat of a wildfire gets high. Too much rain, and it ruins your garden or crops, or your road washes out. Crazy howling wind (which is a normal thing here) causes its own damage. And snow... trying to keep our driveway/road open is a full-time job and makes all the chores 10 times harder.

Forest fire about 1.5 miles from our home.

Besides Mother Nature, you also have to deal with whatever Life throws at you. Every year is different. Every year has its own difficulties, hardships, and rewards.

Homesteading and off-grid living is year-round, long hours, and hard work. -- Homesteading is 365 days a year... in sickness and in health... sunshine, rain, howling wind, and snow... and often involves long hours with hard work. 

It is also hard to get away. Want to go on vacation for a week... a weekend... or even an overnight trip? Who is going to take care of the animals?

The Rules Of 3. -- Everything takes 3 times longer than expected. You think building the chicken coop will take 1 week to build - wrong it will take 3 weeks to build.  

3 regularly used items will break within a week of each other. The washing machine will die, then the next day the power inverter just stops working, then a several days later something breaks on one of the cars.

And finally, the top 3 - time, money, and healthy - one always seems to be missing when you're getting ready for a big project.

Both Homesteading and off-grid living cost money. -- Some people may choose to develop a sustainable income from this lifestyle, and some may choose to continue working their traditional jobs. Either way is great, just choose whatever works best for you and your family. 

Just keep in mind... you will still need some sort of steady income. This lifestyle is not free, in fact, sometimes it is quite costly. You will need financial resources to pay taxes, insurance, purchase equipment, medical expenses when they occur, and any other supplies you may need. Just try to take things one step at a time.

This lifestyle is not for dummies. -- In reality, there is a drastic learning curve for beginners. Unless you grew up with this lifestyle, you will find yourself looking up how to (fill in the blank) quite often. 

If you want to grow your own food, you will need to learn how to garden, and how to properly preserve that food. You will need to learn construction, plumbing, and electrical work. You will need to know how to build a chicken coop, or raised garden beds, or how to build a fence, or how to build a shed or barn, or how to wire your off-grid power system, or how to plumb your garden's irrigation system.

The vast amount of knowledge, over a wide spectrum, that you will need is sometimes daunting, and much of your education will be in the form of on-the-job training, and learning as you go.

You won't always be able to do everything yourself. -- Regardless of how hard you try to do it all yourself, sometimes you will need help. Whether that help is in the form of barter, trade, paid help, or simply getting advice from someone with more experience - it is nice to have a network of like-minded people who you can look to when needed.

You are going to fail at some things. -- Some of your failures may not be pretty. And some may result in should of, could of, would of moments.

This lifestyle is going to have its major ups and downs. Your farming equipment may fail. Your snow removal equipment may break during a snowstorm. You may run through your savings more quickly than you thought you would.

But if you try to prepare for the worst and hope for the best, you will hopefully maintain a healthy attitude.

Windstorm broke our first set of solar panels.

You may occasionally have a love / hate relationship with this lifestyle. -- You are going to have times of frustration, disappointment, failure, and ask yourself "what the heck are we doing?" "Why isn't anything going as planned?" "What have we gotten ourselves into?".

You will also have feelings of accomplishment, appreciation, and sometimes awe - which, at the end of the day, somehow makes all of the chaos worth it.

These harsh truths are not to discourage you, but to hopefully help you. With some advance planning and forethought, and by learning from other homesteader and off-griders' mistakes, you will be able to weather through the initial rough periods. With each passing year, you will gain more experience, more knowledge, and more confidence to handle the inevitable problems that come with the territory. You will also gain the satisfaction of living out a rewarding lifestyle that you and your family enjoy.

Self Reliant Living...

6:35pm - 56 degrees - scattered clouds...

Here's the thing... I'm a bit of a worrier. I find that when I'm worried about something, being able to take a positive, substantive action, makes me feel like I'm a bit more in control. This is true when preparing for the harsh upcoming Winter season. This is true when preparing for natural disasters - both small and large. It's true when dealing with any medial issues. And it's true when fretting about the economy. With the world in a bit of a turmoil these days, it seems that there's a lot of worrying going on, and not just in my own head.

With the rising costs (which everyone is feeling the pinch) I started wondering about the people who survived the Great Depression. My grandparents were teenagers during that time, and I've listened to their stories. But I still wonder... in hindsight, how would they have prepared themselves for such a tough time. If their parents, my great-grandparents, had known what was coming, what would they have done differently? What did they wish for in the midst of their survival efforts? What would they have deemed mandatory survival needs?

I'm a voracious reader... and once I'm interested in something I seek out every resource I can find to learn everything I can about a topic. And maybe I've been reading too many apocalyptic novels lately, but these are questions that are concerning to me.

These days, we're so conditioned to jump in the car and run to the store whenever we need (or want!) something. What would our world look like if you weren't able to do that as often, or possibly not at all? 

In this day and age, we also heavily rely on the internet. During a power outage, or when the internet is down, you can't Google, or ask Alexa, how to do something, or look something up. That's why it is essential to have physical resources to turn to when digital isn't an option. 

Being prepared for when times are tough is an exercise in self-reliant living. Getting through tough times - whether it is nature related or man-made related - will be easier if you have skills. Knowledge is power, especially when the unexpected happens.

Here are some invaluable books you'll want on your shelf to get you started... 

Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

Bushcraft 101: A Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival

Field Guide to Wilderness Medicine

Pacific Northwest Medicinal Plants: Identify, Harvest, and Use 

SAS Survival Handbook, Third Edition

The Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual

The Survival Medicine Handbook

The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, 2nd Edition

Ultimate Guide: Wiring, 9th Edition

When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need To Survive When Disaster Strikes

Where There Is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook

...then you can continue to add to your collection - cook books, gardening and wild edibles specific to the region you live in, bread making books, animal husbandry, general food preservation, herbalism books - really the list could go on and on.

I would absolutely love book recommendations, and I encourage you to let me know your favorites in the comments below. 

Meat. It’s What’s For Dinner...

9:09 am - 52 degrees outside - overcast, low clouds...

It’s that time of year again... hunting season. 

Hunting wild animals for food used to be a part of everyday life – for some it still is.  Hunting may not be for everyone, but it’s a part of our lives.  Hunting is simply harvesting wild food, and we only harvest what our family will eat.

my great-grandmother in the early 1900s

Tony hunts for deer and elk every year – one deer and one elk will put enough meat in the freezer to feed our family for a whole year and be able to share some with family and friends. 

A few years ago, our daughter took and passed a hunters education class to get her hunting license.  Last year she got her first buck (male deer), and this year she got her first bull (male elk).  We are very proud of her, and she is helping to provide for our family.  We are also very proud that our children know and understand where their food comes from.

Caitlyn's first bull elk. Shot 2nd day of rifle elk season.

Hunting for our own food also gives us peace of mind that the meat in our freezer has not been tainted by antibiotics, artificial hormones, pesticides, herbicides, or unnatural feeds that are not needed and are possibly harmful.

Elk tastes similar to beef (no gamey flavor).
Compared to beef, elk meat is lower in fat and higher in protein.

There are a lot of shocking things about meat.  Sometimes I find that the most shocking thing about meat to some people, is that meat is actually made of dead animals!  Crazy right?  Sorry for my sarcasm, but I do seriously think we maintain a cognitive dissonance between the animals we see and the meat we eat.

One of the problems with our current food system is that there is this real disconnect with where our food comes from.  The same person who would squeal if they saw a farmer shoot a cow can easily buy packages of ground beef at the grocery store...or a package of skinless, boneless chicken breasts...or fish fillets.  While we understand what meat is in a cerebral way, we don’t really understand what that means.  We don’t equate a dead, bleeding animal with this delicious looking meal on our plate.  We literally and figuratively remove the life from our food.

To hunt and butcher an animal is to recognize that meat is not some abstract form of protein that springs into existence at the grocery store tightly wrapped in cellophane and styrofoam.  Meat is life.  It still astounds me how many people actually believe that the meat they buy at the grocery store...is just meat at the grocery store.  They forget or choose to forget where it really came from – a living breathing animal.  In order to appreciate that slice of steak on your plate, I think you need to also know and appreciate where it came from.

Surf Fishing...

2:31 pm - 60 degrees - mostly cloudy, on and off showers...

This past weekend we took a road trip to the Long Beach Peninsula to get away for a couple days, meet up with family and do some surf fishing for Perch.

 

The first day, the weather was cold, raining and windy but that didn’t stop Tony and Jack from surf fishing for sea perch off the sandy beach where the kids and I had been clam digging last month.  When Tony told me they were going to go surf fishing this trip, I wasn’t really expecting much, so you can imagine my surprise when Jack reeled in a huge Red Tailed Surf Perch on their second cast out!

Standing on the sandy shores of the Pacific Ocean, surf fishing.

Second cast out, and caught a huge Red Tailed Perch!

 

Heading back out to catch some more Perch.

Sea perch are abundant in the waters off the coast of Washington and Oregon year round, so a sunny day during the winter, or a cold and rainy day during late spring, you can still catch perch.

In between the changing of the tides, which is when you want to go surf fishing, we ran around town, drove on the beach and enjoyed time with family.

Did our good deed for the day and helped out a
couple girls who got their car stuck in the sand.

Saw a cute little seal pup in the surf.  Don't worry, we didn't
bother or touch the little seal pup.

During our short two-day getaway, the guys went fishing several times and caught quite a few Red Tailed Perch... none of which made it to the freezer.

That's a 12-inch cutting board!  Those are some big perch!

The morning catch.

The weather definitely wasn’t the best, but everyone still had a great time.

Slipform Stone Walls...

1:33 pm - 50 degrees - raining...

I have mentioned before how we are kind of doing everything backwards, with a lot of shoulda’, coulda’, woulda’s being learned along the way.  That was not intentional, that is just how it has turned out. 

What do I mean by ‘doing everything backwards’?  Well, the second floor is further along than the first floor.  More accurately, the first floor doesn’t really exist yet... our home kind of looks like a one level on stilts – I currently park my rig under the house, in what will one day be the foyer.  Now you understand what I mean by doing stuff backwards.  Instead of building from the floor up, we are building from the roof down.  Once again, that was not intentional, that is just how it has turned out.

The other day Tony jokingly said that my summer project could be to slipform the downstairs exterior walls.  I had no clue what that was, so after a quick Google search, I said “YES!  That is going to be my summer project!”  I don’t think that is the response he was expecting.

Slipform stone construction has been used for over 100 years.  It is a method for making a reinforced concrete wall with stone facing in which stones and mortar are built up in courses within reusable slipforms. 

Slipforms are short forms, up to 2 feet high that are placed wall thickness apart, these forms serve as a guide for the stone work.  The flat-faced stones are placed inside the forms with the good faces against the form work.  Any stone with a flat face on at least one side can be used, and they don’t have to be very thick to cover a fair amount of wall.  Concrete is poured in behind the rocks, filling in the concrete with what are called “uglies”, or stones without a flat face, to use less concrete.  Rebar is added for strength, to make a wall that is approximately half reinforced concrete and half stonework. 

(photo source: Pinterest)

(photo source: Pinterest)

The slipformed walls can be faced with stone on one side or both sides.  After the concrete sets enough to hold the wall together, the forms are “slipped” up to pour the next level.  With slipforms it is easy for a novice to build free-standing stone walls.

Slipforming combines stone masonry and concrete work to form a wall that shares the attributes of both.  Slipforming lets the builder create a flat or plumb stone wall that has the beauty and strength with the reinforcement of concrete and steel, without using masonry skills, making it less expensive and more accessible to the layperson.  The final product is long-lasting, low maintenance, and virtually weather and fireproof.

(photo source: Pinterest)

I have been very adamant about wanting stone to go all the way around the house on the first level, but we have been hesitant because of the cost.  This is a perfect solution, although extremely labor intensive.  There will still be the cost for cement and rebar, but I believe we can dig up enough stones around our property to build the exterior walls, which will be a foot and a half thick.  And it will be progress!  I’m always excited when there’s progress on the house.

I have one month to research and gather supplies before the kids are out of school and I will have the time to start slipping rocks and concrete together. 

  X  Level

  X  Wheelbarrow

  X  Buckets (haul cement and small rocks)

      Shovel

      Trowel

      Cement Mix (gas or electric)

  X  Scrap lumber to build slipforms

      Stones (various sizes)

      Cement

      Rebar

  X  Used motor oil (paint faces of slipforms –easier to pull away from dried cement)
  X   Stone House by Tomm Stanley research book
  X   Our Home Made of Stone by Helen Nearing research book

My two research books just arrived from Amazon!

Digging For Razor Clams...

11:30 am - 51 degrees out - scattered clouds...

Eating locally grown food is great, but when you are able to go directly to the foods source and harvest it yourself, that’s even better!

Our last trip to the Long Beach Peninsula, (which was a couple weeks ago) just happened to coincide with clamming season.  Yea!!!

The kids and I have never been digging for clams before.  There is a stock pile of clam-digging supplies at our beach property, but we’ve never used them.  But this trip, we thought we’d give it a try.

Long Beach locals swear that clam-digging is in their blood.  But, for us newbie’s, it was a very fun (and gross) learning experience.

First, we dug out our clam-digging supplies and made sure there were enough clam guns for everyone.  Then we ran into town to get our clamming licenses at Jack’s Country Store along with a list of the clamming tides.  All clam-diggers 15 years of age or older must have an applicable clamming license to harvest razor clams on any beach.  Children don’t need a license as long as they’re with an adult who has one.

Swung by Jack's Country Store to grab a clamming license.

After not so patiently waiting for the clamming tide to come, I got all the kids (4 total) and supplies loaded into our rig and we headed for the beach – with no clue how to properly clam dig!

We dragged our clam guns and netted bags down to the wet sand, to an area that was still nice and smooth, away from all the other clam-diggers.  We were told to look for air bubbles or dimples in the sand, so we started wandering around looking.  After about a minute or so, we found a “dimple”.  I called the kids over so we could all see what would happen when I plunged the long, cylindrical tube of aluminum into the sand, plugged the tiny air hole on the handle, and pulled it back up out of the sand... and was rewarded with jumping up and down and shouts of excitement since we had just dug up our first clam!

Our first razor clam!

  

Razor Clam

Things got a little crazy after that first clam was dug up.  Kids were running back and forth shouting “I found a dimple!”, “ACK, it squirted me!”, “GOT ONE!” and so on.  It was quite amusing to watch as they ran around from dimple to dimple, placing their clam guns over the center of the dimple, and do their little squiggle dance as they plunged their gun into the wet sand.  When they pulled up all the sand contained within the gun, dumping the contents to the side, they quickly dug through that pile or dove down into the hole to grab that clam.    

We found dimples!  AKA Razor Clam Show.

Clam-digging cousins.

  

Our last razor clam of the day.

It only took about a half an hour for all of us to reach our limit of 15 razor clams each.  Being new to this, our razor clams weren’t all perfect, we did manage to cut a few in half when we plunged the clam gun into the sand, but all clam-diggers are required to keep the first 15 clams they dig up, regardless of size or if you accidentally cut them in half.

Everyone had a lot of fun digging for the clams, but the clean-up...well that wasn’t as much fun.  In fact, it was gross, but we got the job done.  If you want to clean your own clams, it’s a good idea to look up how to clean them first so you may clean them safely and correctly (click here for instructions).  Of if you don’t want to clean them yourself, you can drop them off at a local seafood store or cannery to have them professionally cleaned and vacuum-packed.

We really did luck out.  We had an absolutely perfect evening and great success for our first clam-dig.