We moved out of the city. I've spent the last decade working towards full time telecommute roles. It took a bit, and some company-hopping, but I'm now in a position to work anywhere. At the same...
We moved out of the city.
I've spent the last decade working towards full time telecommute roles. It took a bit, and some company-hopping, but I'm now in a position to work anywhere.
At the same time, my partner has been focused on learning small scale market gardening techniques.
About 4 years ago, we moved away from the city, selling our condo and buying 12 acres.
The community we're in is geographically isolated, on a peninsula. Garbage, and what happens to it, is a major concern - everything must be shipped out of the area. It costs $2.50/bag in the municipality, and the fee is by weight for us. Recycling is free, so we recycle and compost everything we can.
With our property, the previous owner was a logger, and took down most of the large trees. We're sustainably harvesting the smaller trees, letting them regrow while we use them for firewood in the winter. Currently, we'll go through 2-3 cords of wood, which is way better (and cheaper) than using hydrocarbons. The specific microclimate we're in (valley, with tall trees around our property) means that most of the wood smoke settles on our land vs spreading to the surrounding forest.
We had to do some renovations on the house when we purchased it, and we went for a 25 year metal roof (vs asphalt shingles) and double-pane windows for better insulation. Unfortunately, we could not afford to reinsulate the entire house to a higher standard, so it does leak a bit of heat in spots. In the next few years we'll re-insulate the attic, replace the front door, and replace the extra fireplace with an insert - our three biggest sources of heat loss.
We're growing as much of our food as we can, on our own property. Everything is produced as sustainably as possible - currently we need extra feed for the chickens & ducks, but they forage for almost all of their food in the summer. We've found commercial clients looking to purchase our fowl, and are expanding our produce offerings each year - because of the geographical situation, any food that's not locally grown must be trucked in via ferry from up to several hundred miles away.
We moved out of the city.
I've spent the last decade working towards full time telecommute roles. It took a bit, and some company-hopping, but I'm now in a position to work anywhere.
At the same time, my partner has been focused on learning small scale market gardening techniques.
About 4 years ago, we moved away from the city, selling our condo and buying 12 acres.
The community we're in is geographically isolated, on a peninsula. Garbage, and what happens to it, is a major concern - everything must be shipped out of the area. It costs $2.50/bag in the municipality, and the fee is by weight for us. Recycling is free, so we recycle and compost everything we can.
With our property, the previous owner was a logger, and took down most of the large trees. We're sustainably harvesting the smaller trees, letting them regrow while we use them for firewood in the winter. Currently, we'll go through 2-3 cords of wood, which is way better (and cheaper) than using hydrocarbons. The specific microclimate we're in (valley, with tall trees around our property) means that most of the wood smoke settles on our land vs spreading to the surrounding forest.
We had to do some renovations on the house when we purchased it, and we went for a 25 year metal roof (vs asphalt shingles) and double-pane windows for better insulation. Unfortunately, we could not afford to reinsulate the entire house to a higher standard, so it does leak a bit of heat in spots. In the next few years we'll re-insulate the attic, replace the front door, and replace the extra fireplace with an insert - our three biggest sources of heat loss.
We're growing as much of our food as we can, on our own property. Everything is produced as sustainably as possible - currently we need extra feed for the chickens & ducks, but they forage for almost all of their food in the summer. We've found commercial clients looking to purchase our fowl, and are expanding our produce offerings each year - because of the geographical situation, any food that's not locally grown must be trucked in via ferry from up to several hundred miles away.