A Tour of Our 5 Acre OFF GRID Property
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2015
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We purchased five acres of land in the Pacific Northwest in September of 2015 where we will be living off the grid and developing our off grid property 100% from scratch!
Many of you requested that we make a video giving a tour of our property. We barely squeezed it in because just a day or two after this video, we took an excavator to the flat spot to move stuff around and pave our driveway! Be sure to check out our channel to see what we've been up to!
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What a difference two years make!!! Would love to see a redo of this video with the drone... So much has changed!!!
For those having trouble visualizing what 5 acres is, just think of a 217,800 square foot building (Walmart Supercenter or Home Depot/Lowes) with a large portion of it angled like the slope. If the hill was cut into it would reduce the size (area and usable space) of the property.
I saw so many comments that this is not off grid??? Huh?? What?? Off grid means disconnected from the grid....power and water. I think Jesse and Alyssa are doing a great job doing just that. And if you fast forward in time from this video, you can see that they have accomplished so much.
Haters gonna hate.
Many years ago, I lived in Wyoming for 7-ish years. That's what your terrain reminds me of. I ended up buying raw land in Oklahoma (in the mountains) because it was cheaper, there's a longer growing season, less heating is needed, and it's closer to my current home (Indiana). But I still love and miss the Rockies.
I would definitely be digging into that hill side and putting in a large root cellar. Not just for a storm shelter, but for long term food storage.
+HWhit9000 I agree!!!
+HWhit9000 - Actually I'd dig into the hill and bury 3 or 4 large shipping containers for the house. Could do the same thing for a barn. Shipping containers are CHEAP and near indestructable. An earth house like that would cut down on heating and cooling immensely. Save ALL of the flat ground for gardening. Plus once the containers are in and the dirt id filled back on the top, the roof could be kept flat for another garden area!
I used to really like the idea of a shipping container house as well for the some reasons but found that I had some misunderstandings. Turns out that the containers are only virtually indestructible if they are stacked in the correct way. They can't take much lateral pressure and if you bury them without additional reinforcements you'll soon have problems with rust or caving in of the sheet metal. They also weaken considerably if your start cutting into them for anything like windows or doors. They're good for storing things or living in (assuming you insulate them to protect against heat loss or gain.) short terms but not most other things.
Corten steel (the corrosion resistant steel used in shipping containers) is an amazing material, but it doesn't do well buried in an area like this. It would be fine buried in a desert, but moist soil with hillside runoff would reactivate its passivated corrosion properties. They're also not terribly strong on the side walls and roof. The strength is on the corners. and rails, where the containers lock together.
Awesome! Thanks for including all of us on this great adventure!
the way the hill is there, you could build the house back in to the hill. if you set it back in the hill enough to have dirt against 3 walls that could help keep the house warm and cool.
awesome guys! we are going to be starting our adventure in two months, so it is great to see how things could progress for us by watching your adventures.
You guys give off good energy! I really like what your doing and I'm heading in that direction but on a smaller scale. All the best.
Long term viewer / follower of the channel, started to watch this video when it was released but never finished interesting to watch after all this time - would love a property tour again
Keep up the great work!!
I think this video would be good for Jesse and Alyssa to re-watch(especially Jesse). There fun & joy has seemed to run out and the property has become the "JOB!" Maybe a little reflection on why they took on this project is needed. I enjoyed seeing the progress. Hope you guys find your happy place again.
I mentioned on another post that I had built a house 25 years ago. I'll offer you something to think about based on my experience. I paid a contractor to build my driveway...I paid a contractor to dig my basement, I paid a contractor to dig my septic system and then I paid two contractors to do the final grading (had to fire one for drinking while operating a dozer...for real) At the end of all this , I said I really should have bought a loader myself ( I could have gotten a price break for the septic system install having one onsite already). A reasonably priced skid loader can be a solid investment...I am on my third one now. I had to sell the second one due to an unexpected layoff...it sold for what I paid in 3 days on the market) My house is built and I use it for logging,firewood ,driveway maintenance,plowing snow, and lifting things up to 1000 pounds . All three skid loaders were bought for less than 8500 bucks each. With a skid loader you can do small amounts of terracing by yourself. With a small boom,you could even use it for loading the asphalt shingles to roof edge. Just something to think about.
Good idea!, I purchased a Terex TX-650 full sized tractor for around 13K cash and I made my money back the first year that I offered grading as a side job to my tree work business, Terex is a quality brand of heavy equipment, my tractor has a 4 in 1 front end loader bucket and easily picks up well over a ton. I move 12 and 16 foot long logs to my mill and then put on the forks to make the bucket a fork lift and stack all my lumber onto it for movement and storage. A tractor and a mill combined with a tree business has been a gold mine in itself!.
Thank you for taking time to give such a comprehensive tour. Stunning views.
Thank you Ms Alissa for the tour of yr property.
beautiful property , I can't wait to see you build the main house
It's funny watching this after seeing where you guys are now. What a change a couple years makes.
Thanks for the tour. Looks like you have a lot of work ahead. I too documented the three years of buying and developing my homestead. Good luck. If your in my neck of the woods, I have a bunch of windows you can have for your home.
Jerry of Pine Meadows Hobby Farm.
It is really nice to see someone going after and achieving their dream. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the tour. I just found your channel from Mother Earth News and have been working my way through your videos. My wife and I are wanting to do the same thing but not ready to make the leap just yet.
good job < the biggest thing is your thoughts are in the right direction!! the video is good and you will get better, the biggest thing again is that you are paying attention to all that.. I feel the excitement in your voice , and thats great for you and your husband, with you two working in the same path you will be so happy in many ways .. good luck and keep up the ideas of living off grid!! and your dreams..
The more and more I watch of your videos the more and more jealous I become:-) next year is my target start for my own homestead. Loving all of the videos!
That's very exciting Jason! Glad we can be an inspiration. There's never a right time to take the plunge but gladly as humans we are gifted the ability to think through problems and thrive under hardship. Look forward to hearing you've made the leap!
Great video you two, my father has a nice cabin in running springs and the view out there is beautiful relaxing also breathtaking
Thank you for sharing your journey! Keep the video updates coming!
It's our pleasure, and we will definitely continue to post videos of our progress!
Missed this the first time around. That opening scene is AMAZING !
Thanks Allysa for the tour. We are hoping to do something like this at some point. Living on the property for a while helps for making the best plans and wishes to come to fruition. You should be tired, you made it up that hill pretty fast :D
I really enjoy your videos, you give me great ideas. And you have amazing work ethic, and a great can-do attitude.
Just discovered you and your channel. Great info and very inspiring. I just subscribed as well. Cheers from Canada
Thanks for the tour and good luck with the homesteading.
I am sure you will have a lot of fun and a lot of hard physical work which is a lot better than 9 to 5 in front of a computer
Just came onto this channel and I'm loving it so far
I bought raw land in 1988 when I was 25. I had no clue what I was doing, I made it up and learned as I went along. I bought the land when I was 25 but my wife never did anything with the property and we split in 1990 before anything at all had been done to improve it so I did it all by myself and towards the end with volunteers from WWOOF, Help X and more. One recommendation I have for you in a mulberry should be your first fruit tree followed by apples and almonds. Do you have your own well? Luckily I became a UA-cam icon so my lifestyle has been funded by my one viral video.
You kids have come a long ways since then... GOD has really blessed you kids... One thing that can be said for sure you kids have worked hard and earned your blessings... been watching y'all for a long time now and I've seen one blessing right after another... God sure is smiling down on you...
Just found you. Enjoying watching your videos. We like compost toilets and have been using them for twenty years, but we had to put in a septic tank as a requirement to live on our property(French red tape !) but it is appreciated by my mother in law! Good luck with your future build.
If you put your house and barn in the bank partial under ground u get more level ground to use plus energy savings the rocks on your property would make nice wall s for terraces and runoff control direct water to a pond
Gorgeous... I am so jealous! Good Luck with your plans!
Love what you guys are doing. I live in a rural area and hope to go off grid soon!
Beautiful property. I suggest you dig a drainage ditch at the foot of the hill to prevent erosion of the flat area.
I see that you two have a very good ideal of the setup you want, and lots of projects. Thanks for the tour, now I have a better view of what area you are talking about. Job well done!!!
Thanks for the tour. Beautiful views.
Our properties have a lot in common, about 5 acres, poor soil, a steep incline, and a gorgeous view. Wish you luck! Subscribed.
Great Video! Nice property tour! I think you guuys have some great ideas. I'm gonna watch more!
This is all really good information, thanks for the tour.
+Mary Renner You're welcome... our property already looks totally different! Will have to do another one soon.
I subscribed to your channel. I most admire you and your husband's willingness to go with what your gut tells you to do rather than conventional wisdom. Keep your enthusiasm in order and you wil find success with this journey. NEVER contemplate that you made the wrong decision.
Thanks for the kind words and motivation Dennis. We feel that our hearts and logic never lead us astray, so even if this journey doesn't work out the way we plan, we know it's the right decision and we will learn a lot. Conventional wisdom doesn't jive with us in many ways hence the desire to do something different. Hope you enjoy the channel, we hope to continue producing videos about our journey!
+Pure Living for Life I should be taking the time to document my own journey like you two. I have a country home (with a mortgage) and am renovating a 19th century one room school house. Though my job pays a lucrative salary, in less than 19 months, it is adios to the "career" and selling my house with a mortgage and moving debt free to my then completed school house. I am 49 and regret not doing what I am doing now when I was your ages. So, keep at it...if your heart tells you that you are on the right track, you are.
+Dennis M That sounds awesome! I'd love to see some pix of the school house. Documenting is very time consuming although you could always do it to the extent you wish. You have plenty of spunk left I'm sure at 49! We wish we started earlier than we have yet but we didn't know what we didn't know. If only people knew about this more simple, DIY way of life... imagine if kids took this path from 16 or 18 years old where they would be by 25 or 30? Gosh I could rant on forever about what "the system" does and does not teach.
Love your space to garden.. I would recommend finding some free mulch and manure and start layering it for the best garden soils..getting it layered now will save you a ton of work later.. also research back to eden gardening...
When you put rock down, 3/4" will sink quick without #4 & #2 base. We're not off grid most of the time. However it takes 45 minutes to buy groceries & such.
Their soil is rocky enough they do not really need to lay a top sub-base layer, plus they got 3/4 and tailings so...
Awesome!! Congrats on your homestead.
Great video what a energetic people good to see people like you .
Wow! I watched this a LONG time ago when I first found your channel.
Just realized this could be me narrating on our land in Maine.
Steep? check, Rocky? check. No Trespassing signs? yes! Timber-indeed.privacy - of course. Wierd furniture and camping sites all over? uh huh. Off Grid? You bet. Small flat area. bear poop. Dead Deer. Yup -all of that and weeds too. we won't be homesteading or full time living there, but the yurt idea is on our list too and I have to thank you for the Septic first plan. That's topping our list now.
i am most happy for you both and i have only batteries for my solar panels to go and a water bore to go to complete my homestead/rural living.
Really enjoy the videos with the two of you!!!
Glad I just found you guys, this is the first vid I've seen yet. My wife and I are planning our off grid movement in the PNW as well!!
+kchase82nd1 Oh goody! The PNW is a beautiful place to be!
What's pnw?
Your video's are already great with the camera you are using now. Also the views you make are great.
First the obvious. Alyssa!!! You are a stunning BEAUTY!!!!!!! Great video,well done! God Bless and good luck!!!
Looks like where you are building used to be a gravel pit from when the road was built
Hey guys congratulations what an accomplishment. I am a journeyman plumber and general contractor and couldn’t help but notice the um “hot tub” I figured your 8’ diameter “Hot tub” filled with 2 feet of water is about 100.53 cubic ft. or 751.97 Gallons of water. Man that’s a SHART Ton of weight at 8.34lbs per gallon your modest hot tub will be around 6200+ lbs. just add a wood deck and fire and done. also i really like all your Consumer reviews and the Expertise keep up all the wood butchery it's really fun to watch. : ) cheers!
You's guy have a lot of work ahead. There was a time we had lots to do to have now our free house. From Brooklyn N.Y we moved to Puerto Rico, but here in the Caribbeans we made our house with pure concrete because of the hurricanes. We don't have a big property but we have all kinds of fruits and veggies. Loved and Subbed. Want to see your adventures.
Heck of a move from NY to the tropics! No kidding on the work load. Yall enjoying the fruits of your labor now? Any tips on avoiding burnout? Thats so wise building for your environment. I often wonder why so many in hurricane and tornado areas use traditional building styles. Doesn't seem the best.
excellent info, thanks for documenting! Just subscribed :)
I've been watching and enjoying many of your videos already. Love your project. Have long wanted to do something like this. I would say though, that if I only had 5 acres, I wouldn't cut down any more trees than are necessary to make room for the desired structures..
Nice spot!
I m new to this blog... the one comment I have to make to Jesse is if need to cut into the slab for any reason..try using a stud finder ,or metal detector to find the rebar that your tubing is attached to. I really like to watch uour progress.stay with it.
I wouldn't want to thin those trees too much, just in case you get mud slide problems in heavy rain.
I have seen hillsides with tree just suddenly give way from too much water saturation. They are always at a risk no matter how much rock and roots "holding" things together for the time being.
Good idea building a barn up front. We are moving towards getting our barn and house built this summer here in Chile. We found that you need a. Barn to have a place to do construction and projects. Especially when the rain comes. Very nice and we will keep watching. Jim
Yea we are in the same page 100%. We don't want to feel stressed more than necessary when building our house so the barn seems great for multiple reasons... place to live other than the RV, simple to build, a place for storage, place to build, etc. lots of people have done the same thing where we live :)
+Pure Living for Life good then you have it all in hand. Do not be afraid to modify your plans.
my plan is drive from Rhode Island to San Diego in a couple weeks alone. Im so excited hopefully I'll become a homesteader soon. 😕
Hi there. I'm glad to see both of you are agreed to move there and planning to build the homestead. Before you spend a dime on putting up a house. Please look into the shipping containers for home design to see if it is for you. Cheaper, stronger last longer and can withstand the tomato
Great video, Thanks for sharing.
With a sloop like that, building into the hillside could be an option... Three of the four wall are insulated by nature.
That's exactly what we plan on doing!
+Road Dog 50 Unfortunately not a whole lot of flat top to work with.
+Pure Living for Life Have fun. Building into a hillside requires some serious structural engineering.
No it does not. Typical 10 inch poured in place concrete walls for the foundation will easily do it. Check out my Artisan Construction channel to see how easy it is.
You are come a long way with you project since this video, and I think you are doing very well......Best to Y2 JT Denmark DK
Best of luck with the site. I am jealous as... Congrats, and enjoy!
+Tim Hurst Thanks Tim!
Great Content!!! I enjoy your videos.
lol its ok, your very excited about your new journey. heck I would of done the same. you guys are adorable. have fun! 😁
So funny about the deer. We also bought a small piece of property. We purchased in in the dead of winter and come spring we also found a dead deer. Wonderful piece of land.
Beautiful piece of land. It looks similar to ours but you've got about 3 times more flat pace! Ours is only flat for the house. Any flat spots for animal buildings and gardening have been dug by shovel. Our slope is a bit steeper and more heavily treed as well. We're working toward silvopasture. I'm jealous that your borders are marked. We have no idea yet where our upper border is.
Re-Think your 24' x 36' "Barn" to a 36' x 60'---- You can thank me later
I think you're doll and your husband is very lucky. Hard worker and cute taboot!
Your Yurt rental idea is Awesome and a source of income as well. Would be really cool to vacation out there with you two. Would be a lot of fun!
On ours we have a three stage septic system and use the waste water to irrigate the yard.
Nice place can't wait to see the hot tub finished, We want to build one our homestead for my wife .
+bigbear homestead It's finished! Check it out in our other videos! Your wife would love it!
Thanks, How is your homestead coming along? We started with 5 acres also and new we have 21 and we are loving it
+bigbear homestead Its going great. We'll have work to do for many years no doubt. With summer here we are switching to food and preserving. Always something that needs some. Sounds like your setup is going well too. We have our eyes on more land but this is just to get us started. Gotta start somewhere and having it all today isn't rewarding. Hard work and perseverance makes us appreciate what we have. Surely you feel the same about your homestead!
I sure do , Please come on over and visit our channel, I would love to hear your input on things we are doing. We also do a live stream on Fridays at 8 pm est maybe we can have you guys on as a guest sometime.
Since you have poor soil and plan to garden, yall should consider starting preparation for it. Ideally filtering out rocks in the ground would be done first, but if youre willing to build ontop it you can do fine. Look into 'back to eaden gardening'. By bringing in woodchips and letting them decomp you will rebuild your topsoil to grow in. Just dump it there in piles until youre ready to garden.
Hey Guys, just came across the channel and love it! I noticed the title of this video is Living off the GIRD instead of GRID. Thought I'd let you know so you're channel isn't missed in a search. Keep up the great work!
+NCcraftsman Thanks for pointing that out, we never would have known! I don't care about misspellings in the description but it's a little more important in the title :-)
I just subscribed to your channel; great tour! One commentator suggested laying down organic matter & manure now for soil building - I think he/she was suggesting "Lasagna Gardening" which is a superb idea for thin/rocky soil. Building your garden in raised beds would be a great idea to contain the new soil AND down the road, insulate the beds to extend your growing season - I'm on tne Canadian prairies, I know all about short growing seasons! I look forward to watching your progress!
Beautiful property!
Wow! With all that beautiful South-facing hillside, I would seriously consider digging into the hillside and have at least a partly earth sheltered home.
As someone who lives off the grid myself, the long term savings in energy (especially in Idaho winters) would totally be worth it. Especially with a huge South-facing glass Atrium for massive free heat gain and winter gardening. The first step in off-grid energy production...is conservation. Plus, it leaves just that much more property space for other uses!
What I find humorous about ideas like this is that your spend $1000 to save $1. Our proposed timber frame design is made from materials we have and can grow more of on our property. It can be repaired and maintained by us from the same materials. Has high thermal mass and is energy efficient. Not concrete or engineered glass walls which we can't grow and aren't renewable BY US or easy to maintain or repair BY US.
So in the name of "passive solar energy conversation and savings" you'd spend I don't even want to know how many thousands with engineering and design to build with non-native materials and unserviceable design in the name of saving a bit of energy and heat?
This reminds me of the Toyota Pruis paradox. The car which claims to reduce carbon emissions yet the manufacture of said care and end of life waste not exceed that of normal production cars.
That said we are designing to take advantage of the south view and exposure. It's pretty rad.
+Pure Living for Life ...First off, I'm not a "Greenie". I grew up in the Australian Outback without electricity-unless we produced ourselves with homemade solar and wind production. That being said, we learned to use all the (few) natural resources around us to their maximum efficiency. While most of Progressiveism is rife with bad ideas, when you are living off the grid- building to maximum efficiency (conservation).
I lived and worked for years in Montana in the Oil Boom, and fared well in the -30F winters in my RV because I used my land resources wisely. (I spend my summers in Sandpoint, these days).
While a timber frame house in the North will have some Thermal mass, unless you have 12 inch+ walls (mine were 24" hay bales with IR reflective foil wrap) it will not keep nearly as much heat as a earth-bermed style house with a South-facing edifice...which will maintain the average regional soil temp within 10 degrees. The near-to-moderate term cost of your energy in fuel will be far more than an efficient south facing facade. I built a 10x30 Atrium for under $500 in glass. That will easily be one winter's worth of propane. (A wood stove would clear your entire hillside in a season).
The $1000-1 ratio isn't even in the realm of reality. This is from someone who has built & lives in off-grid homesteads for 30 years.
Efficient building (especially with 90% of your materials being sourced on property) is not expensive. As a Libertarian, Few people are more anti-government intrusion than me... Progressives are known for knee-jerk responses to issues-often rejecting good ideas just because the other side promotes them. We should not be the same when it comes to being self-sufficient. The Laws Of Thermodynamics doesn't care about politics. Follow them and you will fare well.
You have stated on your video that you are still learning about off-grid homesteading. Please take the time to learn from those of us who have done it...
Nice plan from the beginning :-)
I love your lifestyle and all the two of you do. If you feel comfortable with it, could you discuss finances? How you got to where you are and how you keep moving ahead, financially speaking. Thanks for all the great videos too.
I applaud your geography awareness. As an Okie, I'd guess I live just about where your hottub is.
Beautiful land
Looks very relaxing.....
I would have start by a fence around the whole property, for safety reasons:)
Nice piece of property. If you could buy some of the abutting land on the ridge and clear the underbrush you would reduce the fire risk and if you had a field rake and disc harrow you could build a few pasture for animals. Likewise on the downside of your driveway opening, but far enough back, you could increase your privacy. With cisterns you put in, you might want to add too more for fire protection.
You two are inspiring....
Things will grow much better in large containers on Your land. Because it's so rocky, I love rocks, and boulders, though they are hard to garden in. You can use the rocks to make retainer walls for Your garden beds, and tree circles that You just fill with good loose organic soil. Fruit trees grow amazingly well in large open bottom containers. You have made wise choices, thanks for Your work. Respect.......Seven Thunders....... Oh Yeah ! and get one of them Iron digging bars with the chisel point, it's good for digging in rocky soil.
Very beautiful!
I love the Idea of what you are doing, but I would like to let you know about something eals you can do with all of your fallen would and that is Hugalculcher. A wood pile garden bed.
thanks for the tour.
+LoneWolfYoitsu You're welcome!
Looks great! Loads of potential in my opinion. The vast amount of rock you all have should make a fine wall and exterior walls.
great vidio !!! have fun !! . I really like it ...
nice tour thanks !!!
A second look at the property: Your placement of the barn looks really nice, but now that I have seen you put in the concrete forms for your house I wonder if you will be blocking your view. On that hillside, I would be seriously tempted to have a professional come in with a bulldozer and terrace it and enlarge the area you are looking at for a garden. Early on, I would put a foot of hay over the garden area followed by some manure (if you can get it) and then a good six inches of wood chips and just leave it while you finish out your house. Till it ONCE and you are set to go. You can just grass out the terraces and slopes. A few rain storms and your driveway should settle down and the dust will be a memory. Given the cost of good photographic equipment, I would also put and inexpensive polarizing lens on the end of your zoom lens. If it gets scratched or pitted pitch it.
Sure are a lot of changes from September 2015 to January 2017, so much snow here in the Winter!!! Wonder if your neighbors on the hill top have electric power?
We purchased almost 14 acres in western Oregon in late 2014. Nice and secluded out here in the PNW. We are originally from Iowa so this is quite a change for us.
+Owen Johnson how much did it cost?
+killuminati63 The land was bare when we bought it. Land alone was $105,000. But, the original owners paid for the well and the septic system as it was advertised as having them.
1, building at the bottom of a slope seems risky in rain or snow
2. consider building the house (and barn) into the hill side. the ground will provide some insulation. you can have a garage at the base and the house on top of it. the view will be even better.