Prefab Homes: Passive Solar House Kits: Green Modern Kits!

Ice Storm at the Off-grid Prefab House! Living Dangerously, Off-grid.

2026-01-30T11:07:00.014-05:00

We are still not dug out from this dangerous storm that brought thick ice to our area.

I always consider, "How to work smarter, wiser?" The highways are now clear, but farm chores remain treacherous. Looking at the forecast, we will likely be hunkered down another week; more snow is on the way.

As you know, our prefab home's passive solar design and energy efficiency allow us to sail through winter. Our house is a "standard package" casa ti prefab from Green Modern Kits, but if these Arctic conditions were our normal environment (daily single-digit temperatures, wind chills below zero), I would opt for the thicker structural insulated panels so I wouldn't have to pay attention to the wood stove. If we had the radiant heat hooked up in the floor (one day!), extreme cold weather would be mundane. Still, we're comfortable.

Blazing-fast internet enables us to telecommute to D.C. and Richmond, often when the cities' power/internet is out.

Living with no utility bills for 20ish years is great, but takes careful preparation.

Each year we cut and store wood (targeting weed trees, downed trees, and with crop tree release). We make sure our stove air vent is dialed perfectly so that the chimney never smokes, thus cleaner, with complete combustion.

Note there is no smoke emerging from the prefab house.

It's stunningly beautiful, but rural living has challenges. This storm brought wet snow that turned to deep ice, and at dusk, after the snow and sleet subsided, we discovered a dangerously distressed donkey.

Cocoa Puff is currently enjoying warm water with molasses and fresh hay delivered to her by yours truly, who is slipping and skating across pastures several times a day. But inside the off-grid prefab? Toasty.

You can never learn enough. Here are a few ice tricks I acquired over the years:

Scatter wood ash and hay on hard-packed ice. We have plenty of both! Wood ash is particularly great, especially if you have to walk across slick car tracks.
Invest in a sturdy wheelbarrow! Normally stored in the tool shed, I bring it against the house and use that to lug wood, then upturn it over an outdoor faucet, which provides greater insulation during extreme temperatures than the well cover already over it. The wheelbarrow also provides balance as you walk across ice. Pretend you are 110 years old and roll the wheelbarrow forward, stop, then take your next steps!
Once the snow has fallen, stomp out footsteps in the pasture/yard so that when it turns to ice, you can step in them. Each footprint stops you from slipping.
Ice cleats for boots.
Give yourself 1,000% permission to 4-wheel to the wood shed or barn even if it's 50' away. No comparison to the cost of an ER ride with broken bones. Bonus: you can load up the farm vehicle with days of wood, then park it next to the house.
I use a hammer to regularly break ice in the water trough. New skill: Use the claw of the hammer to cut horizontal lines across ice for traction! This was particularly helpful at pasture gates.
The only time it is ok to store wood next to your house is when the temperature is Arctic and the storm is about to hit. Make sure to use it all down before replenishing.
Useful for cleaning dog hair off large concrete floors indoors, wide brooms are great for using as a crutch as you walk on ice - brush side down! The bristles and width provide more traction and stability.
Always keep everything organized so when you suddenly need to carry in water to a donkey you can simply walk to the camper, open it to reveal all camping items, remove the water cube, fill it up, and go on your way. Aren't you glad you're an organized prepper? Add water cubes, pails, tubs to your off-grid list if you don't have them for livestock. Sometimes they can't get to the trough - bring a mini-trough to them!
If you are off-grid, drink water before you go to bed (a great habit regardless!) so you wake up and throw a log on throughout the night.

If you are considering getting a donkey, while they are great for predator protection, I wish I had known they easily become obese on "normal" pasture, and that in snow you need to think of them like your chickens - I brought hay and water to our sweet beloved Cocoa Puff so she wouldn't have to struggle to get to the troughs at the edges of the pasture. Pro tip: have the trough extend outside the run-in so she can sip water from a dry area but if there's weather, it can help refill her water supply.

Please keep sweet Cocoa Puff in your thoughts, and enjoy the photos from when she was happier.
(Day 3 update: I found her in the pasture eating hay with the rest of the herd, phew!!!)

The end of 2025 and the start of 2026 have not been easy.

If you enjoy family stories and food, I go into this more in "Southern Quail, Duck, Soup. Love, While Muddling Through."

A week in, with more weather on the way, here are some great winter keepers to have on hand in the pantry/fridge for when you are craving fresh vegetables and don't want to leave the house:

Onions
Garlic
Tahitian Melon Squash
Cabbages
Radishes

Whole Peppers in Freezer
Cilantro, Basil, Parsley in Freezer
Carrots

With these (and foraging), you can make all sorts of fresh food when you get tired of roasts and stews - Asian, South American, Northern European... Of course, in the pantry and freezer we have a plethora of canned and frozen vegetables. But the above items are particularly great for when you want a "fresh" taste. Don't forget sprouting! Lentils are a favorite.

Six years ago, I sent this list to friends to help them think about what to have on hand if they didn't want to go to the store. (And yes, six years ago I sent that out in January and not in March, we knew it was coming.) In uncertainty, Pantry Food & Foraging was born! It was originally a private document, which I now continue, publicly.

Even in hard times (this week, dangerous ice), you can look back and see there were so many bright spots and love.

May you stay warm!
We are ready for more snow.

SNOWSTORM!!!! With upzoning, recipes and leftovers, from an off-grid prefab house.

2025-12-11T08:36:00.001-05:00

I *love* snow and usually am happily chirping away about the dire weather from my cozy, energy-efficient off-grid prefab while I cook and eat my way through any blizzard.

Not this time. I underestimated the storm. I thought it would snow all morning, then stop; it hasn't - now it's dusk, and there has been a steady, side-whipping wet snow since it began at dawn.

Tonight, this icicle-filled wet snowglobe world dangerously descends into the low teens.
We have no electricity!
No heat!

Oh, wait: we're off-grid in a toasty, energy-efficient SIP house!

We're SO grateful to be inside, with the cookstove now humming, the horses are blanketed, hay is out, and wood is piled by the back door. There's nothing left to do but cook, quietly work, read, and watch old movies. What a great week for soups, and leftovers!

Comfy, cozy in the off-grid prefab, I muse on zoning. Is YOUR city upzoning?

Richmond's Code Refresh is underway, and there's lots to say. Oddly, it seems no one on staff is talking about this 2023 Virginia Housing Commission report that shows upzoning does increase land values and rent.

“A 2019 study focusing on long-term impacts of zoning reform in Portland, Oregon, found that buyers paid more to live in communities with higher-density zoning. The reduction in lot sizes did not reduce prices. Instead, there was an increased demand for larger, more expensive homes on smaller lots (Dong & Hansz, 2019).”

“Builders often convert existing lower cost units into higher cost ones, increasing surrounding housing values. A 2020 study of Chicago found significant increases in upzoned property values in parcels with a 20% increase in density. The reform allowed for higher densities and reduced parking, later resulting in raised prices and no notable supply changes. Upzoning led to a 15 to 23.3 percent increase in sales prices between six months and two years after rezoning.”

Research shows affordable housing is cannibalized as a result of upzoning.

Let's talk about solar, daylighting, and the impacts of concrete towers on communities.

We know how important passive solar and daylighting is for our solar and health in our own off-grid prefab house!

Why are policymakers asking us to endure any lessened sunlight with new density? Will they start taking “just a few hours” of our oxygen next? No solar, tree canopy or fresh air levels should be reduced for any reason.

Mandatory shadow-modeling of any new building 3+ stories ensures all neighbors have access to solar opportunities. Many cities already do so, and this list continues to grow as the world understands the benefits of solar opportunities FOR ALL and tall buildings’ negative impacts on fresh air.

In the 1800s, Tenement Acts were passed specifically mandating windows for DAYLIGHTING for a reason. Yet here we are considering imposing unhealthy towers on our neighbors! When concrete tall towers take away light, you are turning vibrant communities into the unhealthy tenement conditions we created code for to escape.

Tenement Acts, particularly in New York, mandated windows for daylight and ventilation to combat the ill health caused by crowded, dark housing, even requiring minimum sizes (e.g., 10% of floor area). What’s the use of windows if their SUN is blocked with concrete? These laws mandated light and fresh air, evolving into modern building codes with stricter standards for daylight and fresh, clean air.

It is not acceptable to increase a community’s health and energy burden with tall density. Solar opportunities and access must be protected for all.

Richmond has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to LEED in clean energy - to achieve Net Zero, we must protect and encourage solar access in code.

We too can LEED with sustainable solar policy like Ashland (OR), Barcelona, San Francisco, Boulder, Dresden, Hartford, Miami… to advance climate goals and reduce air pollution. Solar for all must protect ALL our neighbors.

Recipes & Adventures!
It's not my blog without some stories.

Last weekend, while the boys hunted here, we headed in to the Richmond Christmas Parade and threw a Parade Party! For guests, I made Brunswick stew and served stollen, hot cocoa, gluhwein, and Spekulatius (think: gingerbread cookies with almonds, thin and crispy and addictive).

Christmas Parade Party Thanksgiving Brunswick Stew

Wait. Hold on, back up to Thanksgiving. Rewind!
We have to start at THANKSGIVING because these recipes were made from the frozen leftovers! Don't you like practical leftover recipes? So wave your hands across your face and repeat: "There's no place like Thanksgiving. There's no place like Thanksgiving. There's no place like..." and suddenly, wafts of turkey, casseroles, apple -and- cherry pie (both from our trees!) begin to dance about you. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

The night before, while I was getting the turkey ready, these two were making pies! I'm so impressed! Bakers follow precise, intricate directions! (Which is why I'm not a baker.)

Lemon Ginger Turkey on Roasted Vegetables
This easy, delicious Lemon Ginger Turkey was roasted at 350 on a bed of onions, carrots, and celery.

Lightly grease (I used Duke's) then line the pan with plenty of cut carrots, celery, and onions. Now your turkey doesn't stick, and you have a delicious instant side dish!

I mixed liberal amounts of lemon marmalade (a tart marmalade I made from a friend's gift of lemons and canned), minced fresh ginger, Duke's mayonnaise, a little rose jam and tamari, glazed the turkey, then roasted it.

After the long but joyful, filled-with-family-and-friends Thanksgiving was done, I climbed out of my dress, put on comfy clothes, then shredded the leftover meat in one half of a casserole, and added the vegetables to the other half, and froze it.

Now, a few weeks later, we're ready for turkey again! Defrost that leftover casserole dish to use up now that you're not tired of turkey!

Back to the Christmas Parade!

It was a cold, damp, "felt like snow" Christmas Parade kind of day.

Christmas Parade Party Brunswick Stew Recipe:
Start by making traditional Brunswick stew: soak, then cook salted lima beans (this year I used the big ones!) in a smaller pot. In the main pot, saute chopped onions, potatoes, toss in chicken (I love a mix of dark and breasts). Sauté that... now add the lima beans and a little broth or water so it doesn't burn. Stir it all around, simmering, then add in canned tomatoes. Rinse the tomato can, collecting water to about 1/3 the can, and add in that as broth (and now you can safely put it in recycling!). After it's been simmering awhile and getting done, remove the chicken to shred/chop it. Add it back in with fresh frozen corn, more dashes of Worcestershire, lots of pepper, and salt.

Now comes the Thanksgiving twist: Add in leftover shredded Thanksgiving turkey, more Worcestershire, sriracha, a little ACV. We have COLD GUESTS and this needs to spice them up from the inside!

What a fun day with neighbors and family friends!
Thank you to friends who gifted us with homemade apple cider from their farm (just outside of Church Hill!)!!!

We headed back to the farm with thawed Thanksgiving and new Christmas Parade Party leftovers under our arms.

Guess what, guys? It's going to snow!

I glance at what the weather app says... Looks like it will snow most of the morning, and then that's it! I'm SURE it will be melted by dinner like last week!

Thanksgiving Leftover Soup: More ginger! More onions! More garlic! More jazz hands!

EAT EVERYTHING. We had leftover Christmas Parade stollen for breakfast, Brunswick stew for lunch, and crunchy almond cookies for dinner. When that ran out, we made more soup!

Turkey Soup
Chop onions, mince garlic & ginger. Add onions to the pot with a favorite fat (today, olive oil). Sauté until soft, add in chopped leftover turkey & the vegetables (mostly carrots & celery), stir, let it cook a few minutes, stirring. Drizzle in sriracha, add the minced garlic and ginger, appropriate glugs of ACV (depending on how big your pot is), a salt of choice (today, tamari), stir, now add broth until it looks like how you like your stew to look, then let it simmer until you're hungry!

Bring in extra wood, blanket the horses, and tramp around, filling run-ins and mangers with hay. Now we're hungry! This hot, spicy, zingy soup hit the spot, warming us up from the inside!

Handsome Husband looked at the wind-whipped snow stuck to the windows and doors and noted, "This says a lot about the energy efficiency of the glass. If heat were escaping, this would have melted. Instead, it's stuck against the glass until the weather warms up outside."

Well, we're not going ANYWHERE, so why not curl up with vintage movies? Christmas in Connecticut, Roman Holiday, and Home Alone are on play.

This is right about when my mom always calls, saying I should run back to the city, and I reply, "I'm way more worried about YOUR infrastructure than mine!"
I do love my super-insulated, energy-efficient, Green Modern Kits house!

DIMBY: Disconnects in Richmond's Zoning Code Refresh and Sustainability Professionals Leading to Death In My Backyard.

2025-10-15T13:03:00.045-04:00

I have long-overdue prefab house kit updates for the West Virginia, New York, and Pennsylvania projects to share! But I recently mentioned I have not written here as I have been deep in regional zoning issues, and a reader encouraged me to post my thoughts, so here they are.

Like many, I have been watching national conversations on density in urban zoning and see disconnects with my sustainability peers from my own perspective of what is truly sustainable and resilient. I thought it might be helpful to weigh in; I'd love to hear what you think (and have experienced in your own community)!

Here is my first post in a series on zoning, starting with sustainability issues I see in Richmond's rezoning. As you know, I have been in the green building, energy-efficient, and passive solar sustainable realm since I founded Green Modern Kits, Green Cabin Kits, and Green Cottage Kits.

While living off-grid in our own energy-efficient passive solar prefab house (for about 20 years now!), we still maintain a foot in Richmond, my hometown. As a Richmonder, I was disappointed but not surprised to see its unelected Zoning Advisory Committee seats packed with developers (and not community voices). At community open houses for the zoning Code Refresh, I saw outsider lobbyists loudly speaking over actual residents.

Attending these many meetings on Richmond's rezoning (Code Refresh), I identified extreme conflicts with sustainability goals laid out in the Richmond 300, Climate Equity Action Plan (which includes calls for the city to be net-zero by 2050), and its SolSmart commitments.

Concerned by what I saw, I attended events put on by the Office of Sustainability and non-profits promoting sustainability, hoping they would add clarity to the overly dense development talk, but saw nothing mentioning (obvious to me) clear threats to resiliency.

So many peers crying "Abundance!" "City of YES!" "Build Build Build!"
Has anyone considered that new zoning is creating Death In My Backyard?

To meet Richmond 300, SolSmart, Net-Zero, and Climate Equity Action Plan goals, I recommend whole-life carbon and solar assessments, and prioritizing retrofitting before new builds.

What's the point of density if the city's health and sustainability are destroyed?

To achieve net-zero by 2050, Richmond zoning must enact:

Mandatory shadow modeling and air quality assessments for any new buildings higher than 3 stories
Mandatory whole-life carbon assessments
Protect solar access for all
Protect and expand soil-based percentages on every lot
‘Retrofit-first’ presumptions in planning
Carbon pricing in development decisions including a mandatory 20% carbon tax for demolition
Enhanced requirements for demolition justification and mandatory deconstruction
Incentives for refurbishment like a Retrofit Energy Incentive for landlords that prevents displacement
Push remote work and prohibit rezoning of agriculture to mitigate clogged transit and air pollution.

Richmond’s sustainability and zoning professionals must no longer greenwash new density, nor be greenbacked by lobbyist money. I call my peers to loudly counter myths being put forth in the name of green recently uttered by sustainability professionals:

Myth 1: "Tall Density is good! It makes wind! Developers can just pay a fund for trees! Taiwan and Singapore are leading the way!" - Daniel Klein, Office of Sustainability Staff

Tall density is NOT good because it creates harmful wind. The plethora of data showing tall buildings harm communities and that off-site tree funds are a woefully inadequate substitute for on-site trees is basic urban planning and environmental science.

"A report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released on Monday looked at the relationship between housing, building structures, and broiling city blocks and found that deaths from heatwaves — like the one in Chicago [in 1995] — are not a coincidence," reports Adam Mahoney. The "report found that the single biggest contributor to amplifying heat and warming in cities is 'urban geometry,' the relationship between city layouts, building construction, and density," and that "[t]he main problem driving the so-called 'heat-island effect' is tall buildings." Because of this, "[u]rban centers can range as much as 22 degrees warmer than nearby rural areas."

- Diana Ionescu, "Skyscrapers a Driving Factor of the Urban Heat Island Effect," Planetizen, August 19, 2021

Tall density creates hazardous, heat-trapping and extremely harmful air quality conditions.

(I would also like to mention Richmond has no tree fund for developers to pay for off-site trees, and don't recommend the city create one, as RESIDENTIAL LOTS are our largest source of tree canopy and vegetation in the city!)

"The evidence now is overwhelming that tall buildings hinder, rather than assist, our efforts to address key challenges of climate breakdown, resource depletion and biodiversity loss…"

- Lloyd Alter, "How tall should a building be: How not to build in a climate crisis," Carbon Upfront!

And the air quality in high-density Taiwan & Singapore? "Taiwan's air pollution more likely to cause lung cancer than smoking 1 pack per day."

Myth 2: "Tall density is good because it creates shade!" - Zoning Working Group facilitator

Tall density permanently blocks communities’ opportunities for solar access, negatively impacts their health (unlike shorter deciduous trees, which in summer cool sidewalks and soil, while also, when leafless, allow the community to embrace winter sun).

Tall buildings hurt communities' circadian rhythm and increases the utility costs and energy efficiency of surrounding homes.

I recommend mandatory shadow modeling for any new build over three stories, with setbacks and stepbacks protecting existing neighbors from negative solar-blocking impacts.

Myth 3: Tall Density Doesn't Matter for Solar When Sited to the North! - Zoning Staff and ZAC

Equitable solar access IS impacted no matter the location of tall density, even when north.
One recent shadow modeling case proves neighbors will lose over FOURTEEN THOUSAND HOURS of sunlight ANNUALLY if tall buildings as proposed are allowed on South Broad Street.

Shadow modeling is imperative to the health and resiliency of Richmond communities. Shadow modeling is easy; to not do so will permanently block equitable, affordable solar opportunities for existing communities.

Myth 4: I noticed the term "yard" had been removed COMPLETELY from the Draft Zoning. When I pointed out its absence to zoning staff, I was told the term had been replaced with "amenity space," and that it was "just semantics." AMENITY SPACE IS NOT SEMANTICS.

What counts as amenity space? Concrete balconies, storage lockers, gyms, and pools. Not. the. same.

Zoning's new draft districts are attempting to annihilate Richmond's LARGEST asset and square footage of urban cooling and food opportunity: RESIDENTIAL YARDS. Richmond must protect and insist upon soil-based yards, and that an inch is not lost.

Each individual lot does its irreplaceable part in mitigating water runoff, improving air-quality, and cooling heat islands.

Apartment towers must do MORE as they have more residents depending upon that lot space for resilience. Multiunits should have MORE mandatory soil percentages to grow food, not fire pits!

How will LESSENED YARD PERCENTAGES harm communities if developers get their way? MORE flash flooding. MORE heat. MORE deaths.

One study states urban heat islands cause "...12,000 (95% confidence interval 7,400–16,500) premature deaths annually in the contiguous United States, much larger than most estimates based on totals for select individual cities."

"In Virginia, days of “tropical‐level” heat and humidity (“very warm—typically associated with the location's highest temperatures—and humid, muggy, and uncomfortable, conditions that are prevalent in summer”) experience a 179% increase in heat‐related emergency department visits and a 217% increase in heat‐related hospitalizations." - David Woolf, "The Health Care Costs of Extreme Heat," VCU/Center for American Progress, June 2023

In the last 7 years, Virginia lost 50,000 acres of tree cover. It is imperative to protect and increase our yard percentages on every urban lot. Equally, it is imperative to prohibit the rezoning of agricultural acreage to residential or commercial use.

Before destroying any soil to expand density, Richmond must revitalize downtown's empty tall buildings - on the bus lines, already dense, and ready for adaptive reuse. Start with West Hospital and continue south, there's plenty!

Richmond must adopt strong tree-replacement laws, raise minimum soil requirements, and prioritize preservation of existing canopy - not just planting replacements - in development policy. Richmond must encourage gardens, protect ANY vegetation over pavement, and maintain code standards with private lots being our LARGEST SOURCE OF VEGETATION and resiliency opportunity.

Myth 5: Density Prevents Sprawl and Protects Wildlife

Richmond density does NOT stop sprawl nor help wildlife. (What does help wildlife? YARDS!)

The best, immediate, easy way to stop sprawl is by
1. protecting farmland and
2. promoting remote work.

I challenge sustainability peers who are showing up to urban zoning discussions: “How many acres of farmland have YOU prevented from being zoned residential? How many acres have YOU put into conservation easements?”

For generations, suburban developers in Hanover, Powhatan, Chesterfield, and Amelia have never stopped building nor will stop expanding their profitable suburban businesses because of what's being built in Richmond. As these mini-cities continue to expand, how many of my peers attend THOSE zoning meetings to call for protection of agricultural zones? (I have...)

If you are a sustainability professional, you should equally be spending time insisting rural zoning and boards of supervisors in counties emphatically PROTECT AGRICULTURAL ZONES and REFUSE TO REZONE acreage to commercial or residential. (Where are your policy papers on THAT?)

Removing acreage from agriculture or demolishing urban tracts so you can build your next “energy-efficient, clean and green” project from which you 1,000% profit IS NOT GREEN.

Where are my peers' policy recs for REMOTE WORK to address air quality and transportation clogs today? I recommend they voice them.

During covid, Richmond had a 13.6% decrease in the median Air Quality Index (AQI), and a 35% decrease in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels. "Good" air quality days in Richmond jumped from 74.5% to 89.9%, and traffic was reduced by 45%. IMMEDIATELY: a could-have-been permanent impact!

Shout it from the back: Want to make a huge and immediate impact on our emissions and air quality rather than expending enormous amounts of carbon on new construction? Support hybrid/remote work! Retrofit without displacing our community! Save farmland and yards!

Myth 6: We Will Solve Our Energy Burden With New Construction!

Sustainability and planning professionals must no longer ignore the EMBODIED CARBON ELEPHANT in the room: allowing demolitions to build new energy-efficient apartments is NOT better than the anti-displacement opportunity, huge cost savings, and comparable energy-efficiency than RETROFITTING existing housing.

Retrofitting equitably upgrades energy efficiency yet protects existing communities because when people stay in their homes, they are not displaced.

To achieve our 2050 net-zero goals, I recommend Richmond zoning require whole-life carbon assessments, mandate deconstruction, and implement a 20% carbon tax on demolitions to minimally address its negative impacts on the community.
Retrofitting costs often 60% less than demolition and new build projects.
Richmond should implement a Retrofit Energy Incentive that would give landlords a tax credit towards energy-efficiency upgrades. Renters could stay in place like any homeowner undergoing renovation, instead of being displaced! Even better, affordable housing advocates should not only ask for a Retrofit Energy Incentive, but if the landlord uses the credit, they could agree to reduce rent while renovations are underway, then maintain those rents for current tenants for the time they apply the credit. When utilities are included, landlords should lower rents according to the new lower utility costs they saved from their increased energy efficiency!
Retrofitting reduces embodied carbon and lowers a building’s carbon footprint through reuse.
Retrofitting significantly reduces construction waste, and speeds up project timelines!
Retrofitting can achieve the same efficiency goals as new builds. We know that it’s not just about Passive House or LEED certifications but the WHOLE embodied carbon cycle that matters.
Retrofits SELL. Old character and craftsmanship command higher prices than new builds, and have greater property value appreciation.
Richmond's solar access, water, air quality, and soil must be protected for the resiliency resources they are.

Speaking of "City of Yes" and "Abundance" vs. Enough doctrines of urban planning theories, it is October, the end of the rental annual "sign your lease!" madness, yet on Zillow, there are 3,300 apartments for rent in the city, with more on the way, and 39 office buildings available for purchase for adaptive reuse. When is it enough?

When does yes and abundance slide into death of resiliency for our city?

Reading Club:

Diana Ionescu, "Skyscrapers a Driving Factor of the Urban Heat Island Effect," Planetizen, August 19, 2021.
Lloyd Alter, "How tall should a building be: How not to build in a climate crisis;

They are incredibly inefficient at everything except making developers rich." Carbon Upfront!, Apr 19, 2023.

Philip Lewis, Rania Christoforou, Peiman Pilehchi Ha, Ursula Wild, Marcel Schweiker, Thomas C. Erren, "Architecture, light, and circadian biology: A scoping review," Science of The Total Environment, Volume 955, 10 December 2024, 177212.

Felipe Carozzi, Sefi Roth, "Dirty density: Air quality and the density of American cities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Volume 118, March 2023, 102767.

Jiayu Li, Bohong Zheng, Komi Bernard Bedra, Zhe Li, Xiao Chen, "Effects of residential building height, density, and floor area ratios on indoor thermal environment in Singapore," Journal of Environmental Management, Volume 313, 1 July 2022, 114976.
"7 Reasons Why High-Rises Kill Livability," Smart Cities Dive.
Copeland Casati, "West Grace Street Analysis: Broad Street shadows on Grace Street, Monument Avenue, and Broad Street (Ryland to Boulevard)," Claude, August 2025.

https://sunroof.withgoogle.com
Peter Braun, Todd Lookingbill, Beth Zizzamia, Jeremy Hoffman, Jessica Rosner, Daisy Banta, “A Heat Emergency: Urban Heat Exposure and Access to Refuge in Richmond, VA,” NCBI, June 2024.
Woolf, S. , Morina, J. , French, E. , Funk, A. , Sabo, R. , Fong, S. , et al. "The health care costs of extreme heat," Center for American Progress, 2023.

Andre M.Eanes 1,* , Todd R. Lookingbill 1, Jeremy S. Homan 2 Stephen S. Fong 3, "Assessing Inequitable Urban Heat Islands and Air Pollution Disparities with Low-Cost Sensors in Richmond, Virginia," MDPI, December 2023
Evan Visconti, “Watershed Mapping Project Shows Rapid Loss of Forests,” Virginia Mercury, September 29, 2025.
“Retrofit and Upgrade vs Demolition and Rebuild: What's the best option for a developer?” Urbanist Architecture, May 16, 2025.
“Building Smarter, Not Newer: Uncovering the Climate and Economic Case for Retrofits,” SuperSouth, May 2, 2025.
“The Financial Benefits of Renovating Historic Properties,” The Construction Today, June 7, 2025.

Firebreathing Daylily & Violet One-Pot Noodles… With Zoning.

2025-03-21T13:01:00.015-04:00

Spring arrives! Daylily shoots, dandelions, speedwell, and violets emerge and enter my meals. Most creasy greens are still low to the ground, so I’ll wait a week before generously picking. As usual, I am thinking on zoning in the city and the country. As I thought things over, I rustled up a quick one-pot meal on the camp stove, as it’s way too hot to start a fire. I use propane very sparingly, preferring to solar cook… but sometimes, you just need to quickly eat.

Firebreathing Daylily & Violet One-Pot Noodles: In a pot, add a little broth, enough to barely cover your noodles. Scoop in some Amish habanero relish (phew that’s HOT!), some peanut butter, and mix it in well as it heats. Most of you won’t have Amish hot relish on hand, so dash in your favorite super spicy sauce. You’re creating fire broth to cook your food in! Add noodles so they’re just covered, then glugs of ACV and tamari to taste. Add sliced onion, mushrooms, and whatever you foraged - daylily shoots, violet leaves… dash lots of garlic powder (or add garlic, earlier), toss so everything is cooked & coated. Cook with the lid on, stirring occasionally, adding more seasonings if you like.

Once done, top your meal with violet and speedwell blossoms!

Violets are extremely high in vitamins C and A, their flavonoids and alkaloids lower blood pressure, and their leaves contain salicylic acid, which is anti-inflammatory. Daylily shoots provide protein, carbohydrates, iron, and vitamin A. Speedwell, a Veronica, has anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties. Check out this NIH article for more.

Meal made, my zoning musings begin. I am not anti-municipal, anti-utility, anti-make-a-buck-when-you-can. But there are goals (does it better the community?), and that’s where zoning comes in. Why is zoning allowed to be so influenced by outsider interests? Why do SUPs/CUPs not need to prove their benefit BEFORE an application is filed to that local community?

In the country, happily living off-grid for years, I consider the already-felt impacts of large-scale solar farms on our rural community.

These not-by-right projects, SUPs shoved through by supervisors despite much community opposition, benefit a very few property owners (including themselves), breaking generations of community-sourced zoning. Adjoining Amish neighbors left. These same neighbors began the revitalization of our area over 20 years ago, built friendships, shared skills, and thrived with our community. Solely because of solar farms, neighbors are gone. For what? 70% of Virginia solar projects have incurred water quality violations that resulted in DEQ consent decrees. Is that improving our community? Does that better the natural resources we and future generations depend upon?

Not yet built, these industrial solar projects have already permanently hurt us - beautiful, restored farmhouses now sit empty, abandoned, quiet. These farms bustled with children and activity, they were happy homesteads with farmstands selling fresh produce and eggs to locals. Solar should not destroy forests, farmland, and communities; large-scale solar should be sited on brownfields or better, at the power draw, on the property of those most consuming it: industry.

My thoughts turn to the city, where urban communities and cultures are being erased by illegal AirBnBs. As Richmond implements its first code rewrite since the 1970s, I wonder how many of the new, by-right duplexes and ADUs they propose will fill local, affordable housing needs or… will they overwhelmingly be purposeful, illegal AirBnBs?

Communities don’t have to endure them. Neighbors can save taxpayer money, relieve overworked urban planners, and eliminate large chunks of bad elements quickly: revoke their license. Wait, how does that hurt them? They’re already operating illegally! No, not that non-effectual license…

Illegal AirBnB owners don’t live in the community, thus can not manage listings on their own, so hire local property managers who 100% know what they’re doing is illegal, and overwhelmingly… work in real estate! Hit them where it hurts while also removing the burden from city planning and zoning: urban neighbors can report (suspected) illegal hosts to the real estate board and demand their licenses for unethical, purposely illegal behavior. Non-primary residence owner on an AirBnB listing? That’s an illegal host. Multiple listings? Illegal. File illegal activity with proof to the real estate board and make it a problem of their profession.

Culling real estate professionals (with their marketing, staff, and property knowledge) from the illegal STR gold rush makes listings much harder for absentee owners to manage profitably, thus hopefully making STRs “not worth it,” thus converting back to traditional leases for a lower price.

What do you think? Will reporting illegal realtor hosts to real estate boards, instead of making them a time-consuming problem for city staff (and a community tax burden), help quickly eliminate fraud/illegal businesses in your city?

So there ya have it: spicy, firebreathing, one-pot meals made while musing on zoning! Thoughts?

P.s. Here’s another version I made with shrimp:

My work here today is done: I made some food, and (MAYBE) gave some unconsidered tools to communities. What’s next?

An Important Passive Solar Zoning Story… Prefab House New York Update.

2025-01-16T11:02:00.006-05:00

It was Artic this week. At our off-grid prefab house, we are still sitting in snow. At dawn, hooves paw at the now-hard water trough. I grab the hammer, and trudge out to break ice for the equines. But in the house, even with the logs long burned out in the cookstove, we still wake warm.

I had a productive meeting with my New York client who is building a casa ti prefab house from our Green Modern Kits. He shared this zoning story regarding his house’s passive solar siting. The project is in a small town in New York, and the lot is a narrow, irregular shape. While the house footprint fits within the lot’s 25' setbacks, to angle the passive solar prefab house to face true south means it would slightly encroach on the lot’s setback. So off to planning and zoning he went!

The special use permit (SUP) application gathered the community. WHY do you want to turn the house that way when you can just build it to sit squarely there? My client explained that his house is passive solar, designed to maximize heating with the low winter sun. But to do so, it should face true south to capture all that low winter sun.

He explained the energy efficiency of the SIP, and then the town got *really* excited and began discussing how it would use less propane (a lot of people depend on propane in rural areas), how passive solar with energy efficiency maximizes warmth, and no more burst pipes! They approved the special use, and my client made friends!

Want to listen to the story in full? Click below.

Passive solar placement on a building lot should be part of any construction conversation. I reflect on the USA's history of planning: from the City Beautiful movement (brought to my hometown of Richmond by Colonel Cutshaw, and in DC, the McMillan Plan), to grids, cul-de-sacs, back to New Town green spaces, and Missing Middle Housing. Here’s a great timeline and overview of our planning history, if it interests you, too:

https://www.planning.org/timeline/

As we spoke, I kept noticing how red my face was in our Zoom meeting. I had just cooked lunch on the cookstove, but even with cooking, it was really hot indoors! As we discussed the energy efficiency of the prefab house's design I reminded him that off-grid, my own casa ti is only heated with an antique wood cookstove. I jumped up and checked the thermostat. “No wonder my face is red, it’s eighty degrees!” And that was with just one log going!

Passive solar at work.
Frigid outside, cozy indoors!

We continued our meeting, and after, I reflected on how I really do have the best clients. I also have an update on the West Virginia modern prefab house to share, a modified Dogtrot Mod from our Green Cabin Kits, and it is also time to check back on the Dogtrot Mod hemp build in Pennsylvania!

In the meantime, we're still sitting in snow at our off-grid prefab house, happily eating my way through cold, sloppy weather.

Here are a few pictures from the week.

Reading Club:

Dwell on what architecture is being lost in LA, and its impact on preservation:

"...It’s easy to forget that buildings are given historical designation as not just an acknowledgement of their significance to the past, but what their preservation has to offer the future. These were time capsules of our history, the unique and influential way California does architecture—demonstrating the boundary-pushing design that has always been an engine of inspiration for the rest of the country. (It’s no surprise that in October of last year, Los Angeles was the chosen host for Dwell’s Open House Tours.) This destruction is a hard pill to swallow in a relatively young city where historical preservation is difficult and politicized."

https://www.dwell.com/article/los-angeles-wildfires-eaton-palisades-architecture-climate-change-9c28beae

The snow melts. Next week? We shall see.

Passive Solar Prefab Project Updates: One Prefab Hemp, One Structural Insulated Panels, From Green Modern Kits / Green Cabin Kits.

2024-11-22T10:15:00.010-05:00

We will soon circle back to the Hardscrabble HempHouse, a modified Dogtrot Mod project from Green Cabin Kits, finishing the main house unit with hemp.

But let's introduce a new Green Modern Kits casa ti prefab home project in New York!

Not yet under construction, this passive solar home already has an important story regarding zoning. We will tell that story in Part II, let's begin the story of this client and project team!

Meet Yah Jeffries-El.

In the rolling hills of the Mid-Hudson Valley, Mr. Jeffries-El and his siblings are bringing their vision of a sustainable, energy-efficient home to life. "We need something sustainable, something built for the future – a place where our whole family can connect with nature and with each other."

The family's search ultimately brought them to the world of Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs), then our Green Modern Kits prefabs! In the end, they chose our casa ti passive solar prefab home.

Mr. Jeffries-El (along with his brothers Hassan and Jabbar) are constructing their energy-efficient prefab home using Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) in Catskill, New York. Their journey began in 2018 with a simple online inquiry for information on our prefab homes. It evolved into a complex project that weaves together modern design, environmental consciousness, and resilience in the face of unforeseen challenges.

Brooklyn-born and raised, this family embodies a creative, entrepreneurial, New York community culture steeped in the music, visual, and conservation arts. The clients assembled a wonderful project team that includes Bill Chaleff of Chaleff & Rogers Architects, whose wisdom and expertise greatly helped this project.

From Mr. Chaleff's bio:

"A long time advocate of 'Green' architecture, affordable housing and sustainable planning and design, Bill Chaleff has designed over 300 energy-efficient buildings since he began his practice on Long Island in 1974. These solar and underground structures – the first on Long Island - have been built using state of the art construction methods and materials, and have integrated thermal system engineering with structural engineering and architectural design. Bill is the developer of air-floor construction, which has been integrated into over 150 buildings over a period of 30 years. His firm won a New York State engineering award for their Tuckahoe School addition.
Bill has been guest lecturer at U.C. Berkeley and at R.I.S.D. and New York Tech Architectural Schools. He has also taught architecture at the Hampton Day School and was adjunct professor at L.I.U. Southampton. He has been retained by the Structural Insulated Panel industry and the A.I.A. to run several workshops across the country on construction with Structural Insulated Panels. Bill is a LEED Accredited Professional since 2003.
Additionally, Bill continues to be active in working with his local Townships on affordable housing and planning issues so as to reduce our energy expenditures, strengthen community by increasing economic and cultural diversity, and further the regenerative restoration of the unbuilt landscape."

We are all lucky to have Mr. Chaleff's oversight and suggestions for adjusting our standard casa ti prefab design to our client's individual site and performance needs.

Clients choosing to tweak our design documents with a draftsperson or architect for each client's individual site is par for the course. Once completed, we send the revised documents to the factory for fabrication.

This prefab house project will be in Climate Zone 5a, an area with frigid temperatures which code requires R-values to meet:
Attic: R-38 to R-60
Cathedral ceilings: R-30 to R-38
Walls: R-13 to R-21
Floors and crawl spaces: R-25 to R-30

Our structural insulated panels will meet the R-60 by opting for 12.25 Neopor Graphite Polystyrene (GPS), and exceed the R-21 for walls with SIPs that are standard thickness 6" EPS.

If you are wondering why the roof is thickening so but not the walls, Mr. Chaleff explains it well: "I would recommend nominal 6” wall SIPs and 12” roof SIPs. Here’s my thinking – and we can do the calculations to justify this – but there’s much [more] roof surface area than wall area (when you deduct the window square footage), and we also know that hot air rises. Another approach - without changing the thickness of the SIPs – would be to change the foam core material from the “standard” EPS foam (R= 3.8 per inch) to the new NEOPOR (graphite-infused EPS) with an R-value of 4.7 per inch. About a 20% improvement, usually for a 20% up-charge."

But wait! We haven't delved into the incredible zoning story! That tale will be told... next time!

Here, at our almost-20 years old prefab home, off-grid, I have been ruminating on clean energy. We live off-grid with battery storage, are green and clean energy enthusiasts, yet have seen firsthand the destruction of rural communities by large solar farms. Insisting that energy be created and stored near the draw is critical and ethical.

More on these topics... soon. In the meantime, here are moments from life on our off-grid farm and prefab home.

Prefab House Turned Hempcrete House Update: Hardscrabble Hemphouse

2024-10-16T10:04:00.008-04:00

Two passive solar modern prefab house projects underway on the East Coast have exciting stories, one regarding its materials, the other, with zoning.

Today, let's focus on the first. This Dogtrot Mod project from our sister site, Green Cabin Kits, is interesting as the guest unit was built first, years ago (which the client nicknamed "The Little Lab"). Now, the homeowner will move permanently to the site so is finally building the main unit (which she affectionately calls the "Hardscrabble HempHouse").

While the guest unit is a typical prefab modern house build of structural insulated panels (SIP), her main unit is constructed not with SIP, but Hempcrete. Hence, the Hardscrabble HempHouse!

Hempcrete works differently than a tight-envelope home — the material allows moisture to come in, but it also allows moisture to leave and helps to purify the air. Tight-envelope homes do so through mechanical fresh air exchange/systems. Due to hemp's C02 absorption during the plant's growth, Hempcrete is carbon-negative while providing energy-efficient insulation.

Our Dogtrot Mod from Green Cabin Kits
modified for hemp with Hempcrete.

Below are a few articles I found interesting regarding hemp, hempcrete and its use in passive house / passive solar builds:

Hemp's advantages include its sustainability, low impact, strength, fire resistance, and biodegradability. I am looking forward to seeing this material and applications develop further. Wouldn't it be great to offer Hempcrete as an affordable, Green Modern Kits prefab house kit one day??? Hmmmm... The industry still has a ways to go before becoming "turnkey," but hemp is a material I continue to follow with great interest.

Hardscrabble HempHouse Project Updates:

~~Prefab~~ Custom Green Cabin Kits project recap: This Dogtrot Mod prefab house has been adapted for hempcrete construction by an architect with HempBLOCK USA who also made other alterations, including changing the roof line from butterfly to shed (to address snow loads further north), adding a carport, and clerestory windows on the northeast. The walls are hempcrete to the clerestory, then insulated with HempWool, as are the floor and ceiling. The membranes are from Rothoblaas.

The summer flew by with slow progress. Finding a local plasterer who could do lime plastering on the outside and inside was difficult. Ultimately the client decided to clad this modified Dogtrot Mod with steel siding with a 4" air gap from the external wall.

Regarding the interior plaster, with the help of horse hair, it adheres to the Hempcrete.

The plumbing passed its inspection, so the Little Lab and Hardscrabble HempHouse are now connected! Stay tuned for more on this project, this fall!

Our Dogtrot Mod from Green Cabin Kits
modified for hemp with Hempcrete.

Green Modern Kits Prefab House Updates:

Our own modern prefab house, now almost-20 years old.
Still excelling off-grid thanks to its passive solar, energy-efficient design!

Soon I will begin documenting another passive solar prefab house project, a casa ti in upstate New York.

As the founder of Green Modern Kits, I often share family stories over the years, but our children are now in college. Our own modern prefab house, a casa ti, is approaching its second decade which means there's cladding maintenance (I'd like to remove neglected-because-I-was-an-exhausted-mom-mud-stains from the galvalume but oh well) and we are working on some solar system upgrades, including a new battery bank.

Current project underway: upgrading our 20ish year old solar system.

Glimpses of life, off-grid and otherwise:

I started writing down pantry and foraging recipes with stories, here, then finally, recently (and reluctantly), committed to a recipe/family story blog. As a family, we've been busy!

We are well, I hope you are, too.

Modern Prefab House Project Updates: The Little Lab Unites with Dogtrot Hemphouse

2024-04-29T08:25:00.004-04:00

Happy Spring from the off-grid modern prefab! We are well, and hope you are, too!

Our off-grid prefab, built over 15 years ago, is still extremely energy-efficient and SO easy to live in throughout the seasons. (Just ignore the dirt on the cladding, we're muddy!)

Here is the first of some 2024 prefab house project updates.

Remember the Dogtrot Mod being built in the northeast that the client named "the Little Lab"? This prefab house, another *modified* Dogtrot Mod from our Green Cabin Kits line of modern prefab homes, was purposely built backward- the smaller guest unit was constructed years ago while the client continued to live in their beautiful, historical, but not-energy-efficient farmhouse in the northeast.

Only once it was time to downsize from the farmhouse and move to their soon-to-be-finished prefab home did they plan to construct the main unit, and for this, they decided on using HempBLOCK and hempwool insulation. Thus the client is calling her main unit of her Dogtrot Mod... the DogTrot Hemphouse. 💛

The prefab home's main unit is now underway, have a look!
Here's the Dogtrot Mod prefab, unaltered:

Here, the altered Dogtrot Mod's guest unit, built years ago, is on the left, and now its main unit's construction is underway on the right.

Through the client I learned a lot about today's hempcrete / hempblock / hempwool industry. Our prefab standard "package" is constructed with structural insulated panels (SIP), so this is a departure from usual construction. This project is another reminder that clients do sometimes choose other methods of construction, and I think we can all learn a lot and explore other sustainable methods using less embodied carbon.

Modifications to this Dogtrot Mod include changing the roof line from butterfly to shed, adding a carport, and clerestory windows to the NE side.

There are more prefab project updates to share in the next weeks! Not one, but of two modern prefab homes - finally new casa ti prefabs from our Green Modern Kits line, in upstate New York!

(Our own off-grid prefab house is also a casa ti.)

On my end, after intensely following and writing about PassivHaus (now Passive House in the US) for almost 20 years, I enjoyed taking the Passive House Retrofits: The EnerPHit Standard certification course recently, which is a great way to explore how retrofitting structures via the EnerPHit methods is parallel or different than the original Passive House criteria.

Our prefab's blower door test in 2009.

From 2009: Passive solar, energy efficient, but not passive house certified.

When we constructed our own prefab house over 15 years ago I decided not to pursue passive house certification. Wouldn't it be interesting to do an EnerPHit certification today on the same home? We have the original energy audit / blower door tests already documented... Hmmmmm... A Passive House's airtightness must be demonstrated with a pressure test wherein the allowable air change cannot exceed 0.6 times a room's volume per hour and the pressure differential is limited to 50 Pascals. Our 1,200 SF prefab chased a 6"x6" software-estimated leakage in the initial blower door test (mainly along the base of the SIP that needed more sealant, the cumulative size of all the air leaks within the building, which is helpful for visualizing the total size of all the air leaks), then easily resolved it.

No Energy Loss's energy auditor, even with that initial leakage, was VERY pleased.

A superiorly airtight building will ensure favourable ventilation and temperatures while preventing moisture damage. A Passive House’s airtightness must be demonstrated with a pressure test wherein the allowable air change cannot exceed 0.6 times a room’s volume per hour and the pressure differential is limited to 50 Pascals.

I enjoyed the National Trust's Past Forward Sustainability Symposium in April, particularly as Lloyd Alter participated. I love his work, if you don't read him you can find him on Carbon Upfront! where he continues to write and is publishing his latest book, "The Story of Upfront Carbon" which you can pre-order now.

While I don't write much anymore, you can glimpse snapshots of our adventures about and within our own prefab house (built in 2008, so please excuse the dirt, but it is still fabulously energy-efficient and lovely to live in, off-grid!).

Kind regards, and more updates, very soon!

- Copeland at Green Modern Kits / Green Cabin Kits / Green Cottage Kits

P.s. While I am still trying to overcome writer's block, do know I did put a vintage hat or two on this spring and fondly remembered the days when we used to have our architect Vintage Hat Fridays!

Then...

...now.

...and for Easter, some non-vintage hats!

Family, guests, and a whole lotta hats
in another project we're working on, this one, a rehab.

Maybe... my writing and wearing of hats isn't over yet. xo

Passive Solar Modern Prefab News... and Hello! Happy End of Summer From Green Modern Kits.

2021-09-09T19:09:00.001-04:00

Happy end of summer!
As the seasons change, so do we.
We just launched our eldest.

I begin to write again.
First, I am excited for our child's new journey, now a young man studying engineering.

Second:

BRING ON THE PREFAB NEWS!

We currently have two projects underway, with a third in the modifying-the-design stages. All current projects are iterations of our Green Cabin Kits's Dogtrot Mod.

Current Prefab House Projects:

One Dogtrot Mod, in the North East, will be re-imagined in hempcrete!

The client engaged Coexist.build to revision our Dogtrot Mod into their hempcrete experience, already celebrated in AD, Dwell, Elle Decor, and Insider. We are very much looking forward to seeing how they translate Green Cabin Kits's Dogtrot Mod!

There are Green Modern Kits's casa tis, another West Coast R1 Residential, AND a Midway from Green Cottage Kits nearing the committal line, so we shall see what happens this fall.

We received pictures of the West Coast R1 Residential modern prefab, built a few years back!

I await construction / prefab completion updates from the Lake Tahoe and Washington State projects.

What Have WE Been Up To Over The Year?

This spring I wrapped up a year-long personal project, Pantry Food and Foraging, which I began for friends as grocery shelves emptied. I hoped to show how one can stretch and slowly build a reliable pantry, and forage for nutritious and delicious greens when there were not a lot of resources in stores.

I do have some very sad news for longtime readers.

We lost both our beloved dogs within six weeks of each other.
And thus, childhood really is gone.
Thank you to all the dogs who raised our children.

I *knew* Tiny would soon pass, I suspected it was coming.

But the sudden death of still-young Toothless, late on a Sunday night with no emergency vet around for hours, was out of nowhere.

If this helps anyone: know large-chested dogs can get something called stomach bloat. Thankfully he was not in pain because the twist was so severe he died very quickly.

Now we know what to look for, how to prevent it, and to always have Gas X in the house.

The grief over Toothless's sudden loss was not lifting.
Tiny and I did not get better, we got worse in our grief.
We took on a new rescue.

Usually, I stagger the farm dogs so that there is an elder dog who trains the younger dog, and then when the elder dog retires, the younger dog is now a seasoned farm dog who can take on a trainee of their own. So for awhile, until the eldest passes, we have three dogs.

Now we just had two dogs: a wild, goofy new trainee, and a retired, grizzled, "I don't have time for trainees" grandpa. I would have to be "the second dog" and take on the youngest's training.

But I thought we'd have Tiny with us longer, at least another year.
We didn't.
Not six weeks later he passed.

And then the trainee showed he not only aggressively hunted livestock,
but humans.
And that
was that.

We loved him deeply, too.

When your heart breaks, and breaks, what is there to do?

Sometimes there are points in life where you REALLY, really just need to press The Easy Button.
Instead, we adopted Princess "WHO'S A PRETTY GIRL" Casati.

At only one and a half, maybe two years, her ears and tail are purposely butchered close, her body shows tales of multiple litters, and fights. She resource guards, level 5.
She has a lot to learn about farm life.
She is a delicate princess flower.

Oh... and then I broke my ankle.

BUT WE'RE HERE!
How are y'all?

Still living off-grid in our prefab home, a casa ti, we also began an urban renovation project which I will go into later if you like.

Recipes:

Here's a sample of Pantry Food & Foraging for those who are interested.

Let me know if you want more!

And with fall, we will have more detailed prefab house kit construction updates from Green Modern Kits, Green Cabin Kits, Green Cottage Kits, and the architects involved.

Thoughts On Longterm Power Outages From An Off-Grid Energy-Efficient Prefab House Through In An Ice Storm: Disaster Prep

2021-02-26T13:33:00.033-05:00

Thoughts On Longterm Power Outages From An Off-Grid Energy-Efficient Prefab House Through An Ice Storm: Disaster Prep.

I will post prefab house project updates in coming weeks, but that post was waylaid by a historic ice storm sweeping through the southeast, knocking out power for long periods of time.

Over the last year, I had been publishing foraging and pantry recipe thoughts through the pandemic on my Green Modern Kits Off-Grid Instagram, as many were worried about food insecurity. It was my way of sharing with worried friends how they might gather fresh ingredients without "having" to go to the grocery store, how they might better stock a pantry slowly and affordably for not "in dire times" use, and to creatively enjoy cooking with those ingredients.

I hoped my tales of Pantry Food & Foraging made others laugh during a difficult year, but also encourage others to become a little more creative with and rethinking their own food stocks and what was edible in their own community.

When the storms hit, others asked me for more advice, so I decided to publish the ice storm tales, here.

Below is our own journey through our region without power and things you might want to consider for future weather events.

As the first ice storm approached, I was having fun with my Pantry Food & Foraging tales, now celebrating the Lunar New Year throughout Asia.

But first: a power outage.
(Aren't we cute thinking it was just a flicker?)

The Ice Storm

Social Girl’s Night Guac, With Chinese New Year: Breakfast Jook / Congee Rice

Happy Year of the Ox!
We are in an ice storm and the internet is out.
I’m guessing all power is out around here, too, but off-grid, it affects us not.
Aside from chores, there is nothing to do but
read
write
eat.
Yay!

This week I am cooking Asian food in celebration of the Lunar New Year, beginning with China.

The cookstove is hot; let’s peruse the pantry.

I mentally note the daylily buds gathered and dried in spring, the dried mushrooms, tins of bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and frozen mushrooms, ginger, and seafood in the freezer I stock. Also I notice the leftover chicken.

Throwing a New Years celebration in an ice storm without reach of a grocery during a regional power outage isn’t difficult! This, off-grid, is why you have a fun pantry.

For inspiration, I will use shelves full of vintage cookbooks, and not the internet!

Thinking on fun things to squirrel away in pantries, at a virtual Girlz Nite last week, I served guacamole, made for quarantine at the end of January… OF LAST YEAR. This is a reminder that little batches of guacamole freeze well and are handy for virtual socials. This is *also* a reminder that when filling your pantry and freezer, to add little items like that and not just make it “I am practical” only.

Like the water chestnuts,
like the homemade guacamole.

I remember how for Asian New Year we certainly avoided Asian markets, not because we don’t love Asian food and culture, but because we knew *that* market, of any in our area, would have a much higher risk of traveling to China and back and if there ever was a place for a hot spot…

It wasn’t xenophobia, or prejudice.
Our Chinese kid was the one who wanted to avoid Asian stores the most.
So we made our own food and decorations.

A year later, we celebrate Chinese New Year today, the Year of the Ox!

Our internet returned. I quickly sorted work emails in case it goes out, again.
I have a meeting this afternoon regarding another prefab house project in Lake Tahoe, so quickly gave the client a head’s up that the internet might go out.

Back in Chengdu, our Chinese kid sent greetings for 2021:
“Hi you all,
Today is Chinese New Year. Happy New Year!
I wish you'll have a happy New Year. In the Chinese zodiac, this year is the ox!
I wish (the adults) make progress in work and (the teens) do well in academy.
The ox stands for sureness. Find what you want and implement it!
Best wishes,
K”

In preparation, I made congee rice for a late breakfast.

Breakfast Jook / Congee Rice
Throughout dynasties, jook / congee was pretty much a gruel. So I feel no guilt in diverging from tradition and adding loads of vegetables, fresh, cooked, and pickled, proteins, and rich broth to this breakfast dish!

Cook rice with some salt or tamari, and broth if you like. Keep cooking, stirring occasionally so it doesn’t stick. Cook some more. Feel free to smush it around to break it up. Is it porridge-ish? You’re done. If you like it thick, make it thick; if you like your congee thin, make it thin.

In a bowl, I soaked daylily buds and mushrooms.

Cook some vegetables, with ginger, meat and a little broth. Today I used pickled carrots, Neighbor Green Beans (thank you again, neighbor!), diced turnips (thank YOU J and Farmer C!), daylily buds, mushrooms, tamari, and shredded chicken before ladling it over the congee.

Congee rice in traditional Chinese medicine is served as a healing, soothing, anti-inflammatory food for the sick, the very young, and elderly. It is easily digestible and is believed to tonify blood with a good yin/yang balance. With the nutrients in the broth, vegetables, and protein, it aids health (and thus, luck!).

This is a great filling, warming farm breakfast for those of you who must now go trudge through ice storms to toss hay and unstick the frozen shut door to the chicken run.
(To be continued.)

Chinese New Year, Continued: Ginger Soup With Crab

Unlike New Year in the States, Chinese New Year lasts days.

So I don’t feel bad sticking with Asian cuisine awhile, 2021’s New Year lasts over two weeks!

We need all the luck we can get!

Celebrations include gathering (hard to do in pandemics) with red paper beautifully decorated with poetry, fireworks, lion and dragon dances, spiffy new outfits, and, of course, food. When China adopted the Gregorian calendar, this holiday was renamed the Spring Festival. But even in 1911 I can’t imagine there was much “spring” in their January/February months!

Ginger Soup
Ginger soup is often eaten after a party, or going out, as a late night snack.

On New Year’s, it is served with rice balls, and crabs.
Making ginger soup takes *talent,* and sadly you can’t compete with my skillz: slice a bunch of ginger, add a little more brown sugar, even more water, simmer, remove ginger.

Dang that’s hard, almost as intricate as congee rice!

Now that you’ve mastered THAT, let’s make rice balls, which in the New Year, symbolizes togetherness!

Mix enough water into rice flour to make a dough that reminds you of wet clay. Pinch off a small bit, roll into a ball, let it sit awhile, cook five minutes in the soup before serving.

Crabs
I don’t know about you, but in an ice storm, deep in foothills of Virginia, right now I *SADLY* don’t have a crab pot full of crabs on hand. But I have a tin of crab meat! These fritters are supposed to be deep-fried, but I’m going to lightly fry them in a skillet, ensuring they will go from Fried Crab Fritters, to A Mess, With Crab.

Shred/mince a bunch of vegetables- I had soaked dried mushrooms, bamboo shoots, surprisingly found celery in the freezer, water chestnuts, did not have snow peas oh well, garlic.

Mince and mix ginger, tamari, sherry (alpha-gal people: Taylor’s is safe), sesame oil, set aside.

Beat an egg, add in a little flour until you have a smooth batter. Mix in crabmeat, garlic, salt, pepper, and fry one spoonful at a time, set aside.

Now add vegetables to the pan, stir-fry, dust with corn starch, now add in the sauce, cook until reduced, spoon over the fritters, serve with Chinese parsley, which we know as cilantro, and was certainly, when I gathered it, covered in ice. But worth the getting.

I looked at the calendar and saw last year’s Chinese New Year was January 25th.

Our Chinese exchange student was throwing a dinner party for a few of his friends. I remember sadly thinking, “This might be the last gathering we host, awhile. Now we just wait.”

By then we were almost done with weeks of slowly stocking (aside from my usual fall prep).

I ended up not adding rice balls to the ginger soup since I was doing crab fritters which had so much batter. These two dishes went SO well together. Even though I love ginger, I was surprised how delicious the ginger soup is, especially on a frozen day!!!!

It really is a perfect winter soup to serve, coming in from chores!

Chinese New Year, Continued: Lunar Lucky Leftover Soup

Oh look! *Another* ice storm!
Ice-sheathed trees dejectedly hang over,
their splayed branches, frozen, broken, litter the edge of the farm.

The internet (and power, for others?) is out again!
Good thing we have a house full of books...
And if this icy, no power weekend continues so, we might pull out old favorites:
boxes (and boxes) of DVDs.

In my pantry I do not keep multiple bottles of certain Asian ingredients, but I *do* make sure to always have on hand one unopened bottle of each: oyster sauce, fish sauce, red curry paste, several tins of water chestnuts and bamboo shoots.

Although I don’t use these ingredients often over the year, usually just in winter, when I finally open that bottle, it goes back on the grocery list to replace.

Lunar Lucky Leftover Soup
I made a gently simmered cloudy broth with a carcass and scooped out the bones.
(Just as I prefer jams to jellies, I appreciate cloudy broths.)

From the pantry, I pulled out dried seaweed, shredded it, cut dried mushrooms, and added that to the broth, with apple cider vinegar, tamari, ginger, garlic, a bit of sugar, a dollop of chile garlic sauce (as hot as you like, or not, I like it spicy!), and stirred it around, with lots of leftovers: chicken bits, minced pickled carrot, golden needles (daylily buds), onions and a diced, leftover half a turnip from Farmer C.

Today’s icy sleet is so *heavy* and *constant,* there’s never a break.
With no sun, as the sleet continues, the layer of ice grows.
Chores weren’t easy, but together, they were done.

I went to reach for firewood outside the door, and was so upset to see that somehow,
water was now running towards the house from where the gutter overflowed!
It must have been the earlier re-insulating-the-slab-from-the-chickens-eating-it project!
ARRRGH!

I fought it.

The gutter’s overflow rained hard on my head, down my neck, into my coat as I, anguished, toiled against the frozen ground with a hoe…

Teen 2 looked at the situation and instead of fighting it,
solved it.

OUT into the deluge she grimly walked.
BACK with buckets of soil to raise the area where the water was breaching the grade.

The back step area slowly was raised.
She got out the tamper!
I didn’t know we HAD a tamper!

The grade was adjusted, water removed, foundation protected.
I am so impressed with this teen.

While she worked hard in the middle of the storm,
the 90 pound puppy frolicked and raced about her, joyously oblivious to sleet,
enthusiastically giving her his 100% support.

Bursting back inside, mud flying, fur shaking, coats dripping,
with extreme gratitude,
I served out rounds of bone-warming,
comforting, flavorful Lucky Leftover Soup.

Chinese New Year, Continued: Stir-Fried Chicken With Almonds And Vegetables

Like the Lunar New Year, the ice storm continues.

While we have lived off-grid for ages, I learned a lot about working with *thick* ice this winter,
vs. the usual snow.

The ice is ethereal,
and brutal.

You can hear the woods cracking, and each tree that gives,
gives itself permanently.

When days of gray lower our solar system’s battery, I head out to run the generator awhile.

Knowing weather was approaching, yes, *days ago* I had filled the tank.

But that power solution, snug within its battery bank shed, is now encased in a thick coat of ice.

The first time this happened, years ago, I tugged and pulled and pleaded.
The ice remained impassive.
I might have whined
and cussed
and cried a little as, without result, I fitfully scratched at the shed’s frozen opening.

Now, I keep a heavy rock there for such a need- and, with a determined pop, knock up, thus out, the heavy bolt that keeps the shed door closed.

The weight of weather, gathered on the lid, makes lifting it up impossible.

That’s where a garden trowel comes in. With a sharp rap, the ice cracks, and you can now run the trowel, upside down, like a ship breaking through Artic ice, up the lid’s front to lift then break the sheet. Now use it to sweep those huge ice shards away, and the lid is its own weight again.

NOW I can refill the tank, assess the gas cans, check the battery levels.

By then, others return from mucking and tossing out hay.
Frozen, wet, and relieved the day’s last things are done, we meet in the drive to head in.

That is when the tree CRACKS, loud as a gunshot,
and falls down hard upon the horses’ fenceline.
Our eyes meet, and back into the fields we head, again.

Stir-Fried Chicken With Vegetables And Almonds
Toast chopped almonds, set aside.

Dice chicken, and a bunch of vegetables. Commonly used are cabbage, snow peas (I had neither), mushrooms, celery, water chestnuts… I had the others, and added broccoli from the freezer. Mince ginger.

Set out a little broth.
In a cup, mix in cornstarch, sugar, pepper, hot sauce, water into a paste.

In a heated, oiled pan, add a little tamari, ginger, swirl around, then the chicken. Sprinkle with sherry. Quickly cook, then add the vegetables and broth and cornstarch paste, stirring to cover everything, sprinkle over almonds and serve.

Pantry Notes: I always keep one bunch of celery, and one bunch of carrots in the freezer for fresh tastes like this in winter. But in times of uncertainty, I err on filling the freezer with protein vs. the usual amount and variety of vegetables, since we can eat those, foraged.

But always: carrots, and celery.

Almonds contain manganese and phosphorus, and feed the muscles, brain, and nerves.

In Asia, the New Year’s approach is a time to settle your debts. Likewise, I do not move forward with the next year of business before, the first week of January, all accounting is done, and filed.

Like Santa’s list, the Chinese kitchen god Tsao Wang is annually sent into the stove to, now smoke, journey to the heavens to give a report on the family. A wise family sends Tsao Wang and his horse on their journey to heaven with sweets, and for the horse, hay and water, so they might only have good things to say.

Once the New Year is entered, the next days are spent feasting, but not cooking- stores are closed, cutting tools like knives and scissors are not to be used, so the last week before finds a family hard at work preparing food, getting ready, cleaning.

I love the idea of shutting down, focusing for more than one day on festivity, relaxing and playing with family, and gifts of good will.

Thai Lunar New Year: Thai Corn Fritters With Arjard, And Country Chili

The Lunar New Year, and mud season, continue.

I wanted to celebrate next with Thailand, where it is currently certainly warmer and more colorful than here.

Off-grid tip:

During DAYS of
blustering,
*unrelenting* ice-storms,
it is always good to stash kindling in several directional places.
You never know which way the sleet will blow, and I was grateful to have several days of dry wood when the other usually secure areas were soaked.

Power is still out for our area, but we are off-grid, and armed with books, dvds, and tea.

Teen 2 wanted to make chili, so for her I will write this down.
The Lunar New Year is celebrated not just with fancy banquets but street food.
In Thailand, corn fritters are a popular festival snack, and go great with a heaping, very non-Asian bowl of chili.

Copeland’s Country Chili

Start by sauteeing lots of onion, garlic, a meat if you like, in a little oil in a pot. Once browned, add in cumin, chili, a fave hot sauce as spicy as you like, and today I added quite a bit of cinnamon because it just seemed the right thing to do in an unrelenting, dire ice storm!

I also used breakfast *maple* (chicken) sausage, which added its own twist!

The maple and cinnamon are a great take on classic country chili, and because of these twists, for this version, I did not add the usual green pepper.
Now add in at least one big can of tomatoes.
I had cooked cranberry beans earlier, and into the pot they go.
Simmer until you’re hungry.
If hungry early, it’s delicious soupy with the fresh taste of tomato.
If hungry later, it’s thick and full of seasoned, condensed, savory flavors.

Cinnamon warms as a stimulant, and, ingested early, is a flu-preventative.

While Asian festivals might not dish out Copeland’s Country Chili for hungry festival-goers, they *do* ladle out all sorts of warming soups and noodle broths.

Thai Corn Fritters: Tord Man Khao Phod
Mix rice flour, regluar flour, salt, baking powder, chili powder, pepper, sugar, coriander, garlic, onion. Add in enough water to make a smooth batter. I added a dollop of garlic chili sauce.

I absolutely headed out into the storm for some ice-sheathed fresh cilantro.

Now mix in corn, and you can either fry in lots of oil, or, like I, simply cook with your skillet and flip.

Arjard Corn fritters are supposed to be served with arjard, a cucumber sauce made with hot chiles, vinegar, onions, sugar. It is February and I don’t have fresh cucumbers. But guess what I *do* have? A jar of Amish sweet bread and butter pickles I’ve been dying to open!
I FINALLY HAVE MY EXCUSE!

Bread and butter pickles already have cucumber, vinegar, sugar… even onion!
All I have to do is mix it with a favorite hot sauce.

Thai Lunar New Year, Continued: Thai Chicken Curry With Squash /
Kaeng Pet Kai

The ice storm has passed.

In our region, after days, power remains out.
My thoughts are on the many without generators or woodstoves, in inefficient homes.

A steady light rain, almost more of a mist, sweeps over the ice-laden woods and fields.
It’s beautiful, and not.
The drip drip drip of melting sounds through the trees,
and out to toss hay, I spy branch after branch, split suddenly, dangling overhead:
widow makers.

Thai Chicken Curry With Squash
With a spoon, dole out the thick coconut milk in a pan, saving the thin. As it thickens, add red curry paste… the consistency will change- it will separate the oil, and that is when you also add in curry powder, chicken, and stir-fry until done. Now add in fish sauce, stir it all up, remove the chicken. Now you can add in the thin coconut milk, sliced pumpkin/butternut (TAHITIAN MELON of COURSE is what *I* have on hand…), brown sugar, and cook until soft.

Now add back in the chicken, with basil and sliced hot chiles from the freezer, season with more fish sauce/curry to taste, let simmer for a few minutes, sprinkle on some fresh cilantro, and serve with rice or a Thai salad.

I always get frustrated when recipes tell me to cook something, then set it aside. So I added the squash and chiles first, then, minutes later, the chicken, and stirred it all up cooking it in one dish because isn’t it all gonna be stirred up together in the end, anyway?

So, yeah. You do you: follow the instructions, or not.

Bad Weather Tip:

For weeks like this, without a walk, I keep a jump rope hanging in the pantry with my aprons.

While I wait for coffee to percolate on the cook stove, when I put something on for lunch, *whenever* I feel like it, I jump. It just feels so good to move after days of just reading, movie watching, and eating!

Jumping rope is such great exercise- I get my heart rate up, blood pumping, lungs working...
Except now I’m jumping rope with a mesmerized, humongous puppy!
He’s bowing and barking and enthusiastically commenting on my actions as I attempt to hop.

But what’s *THIS?*
OH LAAAAAWD PEOPLE, Fedex has come to the door!
WHAT?

Suddenly a package appears, and, dogs barking and throwing themselves at the door,
as I begin to register what is going on,
she climbs back into her van... oh MY
this poor chile
is SO going to get stuck.

I can’t believe we left the driveway gate open, but what’s done is done.

This girl is slipping
and tearing
and sliding that truck
all over our yard.

Oh holy heck.
Gotta go, I’m off to help.

Lunar New Year: Singaporean Shrimp / Har Loke

How do y’all like my new lawn ornament?
This Fedex truck might sit ‘till spring.

That nice driver and I tried, from the garden’s border,
picking up and lining around the tires
lots, and lots, of rocks.

Then, we tried branches
(there are a lot, discarded in this storm).

From the run-in, I lugged out stall mats.
And boards.

Wheels spun, the engine revved,
the truck remained,
after hours and hours,
solidly stuck.

A tow truck arrived
and couldn’t,
wouldn’t,
shouldn’t
didn’t
get anywhere near.

Wisely, it retreated.

The equines
were *entertained.*

What’s done is done, y’all,
no reason to be mad.

She kept apologizing for the mess.
I assured her, “Grass will grow…”

Just *think* of what that poor driver is thinking and going through.

And hey! I just acquired a corporate piece o’ transportation,
an entertaining new feature in my yard.

“Y’all can leave it here for weeks, if you need…” I reassured,
as packages were unloaded and stacked into her far-away parked coworker’s truck.

“And more weather is supposed to hit Thursday…” she quietly, glumly stated.
Oh.
Whelp, good thing I have plenty of books, paints, and DVDs.

Being Monday, I just feel bad I can’t check work emails constantly.

I know two prefab quotes for projects arrived, but I don’t have the cell data to spend time on them. I sent out quick notes to the clients, and all projects, so people would know Virginia is in an outage. Hopefully tomorrow we can work again.

Singaporean Shrimp
Lunar New Year’s celebrations serve a lot of whole fish, for prosperity.
In my pantry, I keep no whole fish. Salmon filets just don’t seem very Lunar New Year-sy.
But I have shrimp.

Combine garlic, ginger, sherry, and shrimp and let marinate awhile.
I did not have fermented black beans. BUT I HAVE BEANS.

I cooked black beans. You are supposed to rinse then drain the fermented black beans.
I imagined what rinsed fermented black beans might taste like, so I drained, added some salt, and a dash of vinegar.

Now chop the beans finely and mix with ketchup, oyster sauce, sugar, and salt. I chopped and that was boring so I put it back into the pot and mashed it all with a fork instead. I also added some chili sauce, because I can’t imagine a dish in Singapore without heat.

I made too much beans. Who cares, it tastes delicious!

The shrimp has shells on, so let’s serve the shrimp next to the beans instead.

You’re supposed to stir-fry the shrimp, then add the bean mixture, then some green onions (I just pulled some from the garden!).

Malaysian Lunar New Year: Delicate Kadazan Soup

Oh.
My.
Gosh.
We have MORE… driving RAIN.
POUNDING RAIN.
Unending SHEETS OF RAIN.

I observe the brimming pond, the absolutely soaked old oaks to the south… can they *still* stand through this?!? How?!?

Despite worry, suddenly I find myself irrepressibly
loudly cackling,
imagining myself a siren,
as I take in my newly acquired FedEx van.

Unceremoniously ditched near the camper, I contemplate AirBnB.
Maybe I’ll siren myself a whole camper van community!

In seriousness, it is late,
the rain is fearsome
and I am dipping into the safety firewood I carefully placed outside the door,
before the approaching storm:
now soaked.

OH MY GOSH WE HAVE LIGHTNING
and THUNDER.

The dogs growl,
the weather gales.
Rain pelts heavy
where no more room for saturation remains.

It might be time for flu wood.
Stacked carefully against the cookstove,
ALWAYS untouched,
unless it is a true emergency... (like getting the flu, off-grid...)

Might
be

an
emergency.

Kadazan Chicken Soup
This delicate soup is even better made a day ahead.

Put chicken breasts in a pan with sliced ginger and onions, and add water or broth just to cover. Simmer about a half hour, remove from heat. If there’s any unattractive foam, spoon that out. Cut or pull apart chicken into bite-sized pieces. Add a glug or two of rice wine, some salt and pepper. You are then supposed to use watercress but I added chickweed, watercress’s sibling on the land.

Dire weather or not, Lunar New Year’s festivities continue, off-grid.

Vietnamese Lunar New Year: Chicken With Mint / Ga Tron Rau Hung

THE SUN CAME OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Color returns to our world!
We all rushed outside.

Our grateful, ancient hens
celebrated by laying!

With the internet (and power still, in most areas) out in the region, I am reduced to sending work emails via my phone.
Hopefully, they go through.

My Fedex truck looks *really* pretty in the sun, all shiny with bright bits of purple and green… kinda like a cute humongous spring Easter Egg. It’s like another new pet, and we’ve now become friends.

Then: we had more nice Fedex people came to visit!
They hemmed and hawed and discovered that...
GUESS WHO HAS A POWER LINE LYING ACROSS THEIR DRIVE?

Then even MORE Fedex people arrived!
Four vans, a truck, all sorts of contraptions and pulleys and meetings ensued…

After all this coronavirus whatnot, it is so much fun to have people here!
HI EVERYONE!
Oh hey!

It’s our old Fedex driver!

Oh wow, it’s our OTHER old Fedex driver, from when the kids were itty bitty!
It’s a reunion!

To my surprise, they ALL had stories about *our* family to share.
“REMEMBER the time I drove up and y’all were…” (Insert crazy moment, here.)

MAYBE these Fedex people are *really* Lunar New Year’s kitchen gods reporting tales of our family to heaven. I do hope they have good things to say!

Again, the horses were entertained.

The puppy was distantly socialized,
interestedly watching through the glass door
all of this *hullabaloo* occurring right outside the prefab.

Engines strained, wheels turned, cables tightened,
and then my cute little Fedex van
slowly rolled away.

BYE LITTLE FEDEX VAN!
Come and see us again. Bring friends!

Vietnamese Chicken With Mint
As an appetizer to a New Year’s meal, or served in summer for lunch.
Scrounging for mint in the ice brings promise of spring.

Cook some chicken and enough water or broth not to burn. Shred.
Remove from heat.
Slice onions paper thin, then soak in a little light vinegar.

Now drain, combine with chicken, salt, pepper, and mint.

Indonesian Lunar New Year: Skewered Chicken With Spiced Peanut Sauce / Sate Ajam, Katjang Saos, Katjap Manis

Five days later, I know MY area is still without power
because I have a prostrate power line across my drive.

While, off-grid in an energy-efficient prefab, we are warm, secure, and cozy, I admit it has been hard to be on our fifth day with no internet, and counting.

But let’s face it: everyone else is without *all* power.
We can’t complain.

Life, without internet, has had upsides- for the first time in years I pore not through Pinterest,
but my many vintage cookbooks for recipe ideas, and every afternoon I spend time perusing our shelves, selecting and reading real books. Although I subscribe to Foreign Policy, The Economist, and Dwell, it has been ages since I’ve not just read the articles online.

I am appreciating my recent issues
stacked by the chair.

In evening, the boxes of DVDs entertain, or I read.

But off-grid in a very rural environment, *without internet,* does have drawbacks. Communication is solely via a spotty mobile connection, vs. the wider-reaching internet. Work goes from blazing fast to a crawl, and there are projects waiting for more detailed responses.

People know Texas is out and aren’t expecting their deadlines, but do they know others in the south are out and can’t work?

I also realize how much I rely socially on regular virtual hangouts with far-flung friends.

Tonight, another storm heads our way.
This, after infrastructure from the biggest storm in twenty years has still not recovered.

But right now we are enjoying a gorgeous, COLD but beautiful blue-skied day.

Elder dog has taken the youngest outside to run his energy out.
He stands like a lion, barking and lunging when the puppy nears to say,
“We are playing wild but you haven’t noticed that I stand, conserving energy, while you race in big fast circles around me, and then when you come close I just lunge with a play growl, and send you off on your trajectory, again... puppies are really not that bright, are they?”

Puppy says,
“THIS GAME IS THE *BEST* WOW WE ARE PLAYING SO HARD
HOW DOES ELDER KEEP UP? I AM GETTING EXHAUSTED!”

Then I hear them commenting loudly on who, moment by moment, has the rope toy;
the horses gather like referees along the ring
throwing their support between one, then the other.

When they tire of the rope, a new discussion begins over a pilfered cookstove log.

It’s a beautiful day.

I keep heading outside to enjoy the sun, then, shocked, realize how *cold* it is!

As evening approached, another ice storm moved in.

As always, knowing weather is coming, at dusk I put out extra hay, closed the chickens up with feed, and lugged a little more firewood near.

We hunkered down in the passive solar prefab.

Skewered Chicken With Peanut Sauce & Ketjap Manis

Ketjap Manis Mix brown sugar, water, bring to boil, stirring on high heat. You want it hot like you’re making syrup! You ARE making syrup! Great job!

Ok, now lower the heat and stir in soy sauce (or tamari), molasses (oh come ON you are Southern you MUST have some, somewhere!), laos (nope I don’t have that, either), coriander and pepper so it makes a sauce. Careful to not add too much water in the beginning, it’s better to dissolve the sugar in a little water then add more if needed!

Back to the Skewered Chicken Recipe!

IN A BOWL ADD GARLIC, KETJAP MANIS… and lime juice.
Toss in some chicken breasts, marinate. Skewer, head to grill...

Serve with Peanut Sauce.

Spicy Peanut Sauce / Katjang Saos
Scratch all of that. Here’s an easier, delicious way: Don’t do chicken skewers.
I mean... HAVE YOU LOOKED OUTSIDE? THERE’S AN ICE STORM!!!
In a pan, cook chicken THIGHS in just a little water, with minced garlic and onion.
(Ahaaaaa now you are making stock *and* cooking the garlic & onion you’ll mix in the peanut butter to make the peanut sauce!)

Once that is gently cooked, remove the thighs and in a hot greased pan finish them, cutting with a spatula into rough strips. You know why this is so much better? It is now more like BBQ wings, spareribs- juicy and fatty and crispy on the edges, so good!!!

*Much* better than boring ole chicken breasts on a stick!

Take some of that broth and all of the onions and garlic from the other pan, and stir into the peanut butter with liberal amounts of ketjap manis, lime, a dash of fish or oyster or shrimp sauce, lots of hot sauce, to make a thick mess.

MMMMMMM THAT IS GOOD!!!! There’s your peanut sauce, AND your chicken!

This was so not the bland peanut sauce with dry chicken served in “exotic” buffets throughout the USA.

As a side, I munched on pickled carrots which helped cut the extreme richness of all the peanut sauce I hoovered up.

I also used up any leftover broth/garlic/onion and ketjap manis by just dolloping out even more peanut butter and mixing up *another* batch of spicy peanut sauce for later. Uh, just because we wouldn’t want it to go to waste. Not addicted. Oh man.

Indonesian Lunar New Year: Indonesian Green Beans, Carrots and NO WAY AM I USING BEEF in Coconut Sauce / Jukut Mekalis, and Vintage Cookbook Credits

Six days our region has been without power, and this *new* ice storm is a TEMPEST.

I can not stop thinking of those without heat, without ways to save their food… even with a generator, it must run constantly, bringing the anxiety of running low on gas… to then head out in these treacherous conditions only to discover the local gas station remains without power, too…

People might dismiss “thoughts and prayers” but I dismiss those people.
My thoughts and prayers are constantly with the beautiful people in this region who suffer.

About twenty years ago, before we lived off-grid, with an infant, we endured Hurricane Isabell, and remember the ten days without power well. But it was fall, not in the middle of icy, dangerous winter. And after the hurricane roared through, it was done; we didn’t endure ice storm after ice storm after ice storm like this.

Country people are tough; but these storms are no joke.

Nearby town’s churches coordinate to feed the linemen, working in brutal conditions.
For those of us so rural it is too dangerous to leave, we send donations.

I am going to continue to cook Lunar New Years in hopes it restores balance, and luck.

The family had gone to the city, so they can continue school and work.
My cookbooks, and the stories they contain, keep me company.

The windows on the prefab’s north and east are wavily coated in ice, thick.

Sideways sleet turns the landscape white, as morning edges in.
I am grateful for hot coffee and congee, and a cookstove, always on.

The battery bank is 24.5, so I will run the generator about an hour.

Bundled, with an always-enthusiastic puppy, out into it all I go.

I am so proud of the equines. I trudged up, and as I passed them, seeking shelter in the run in, I eyeballed each of them and gave a stern, “STAND.”
And then, for good measure, a “WHOA. STAND.”

Instead of the usual, “Yay she’s putting out hay! Everybody kick up!” they stood.

Whereas on any other day they’d make faces at each other and compete,
they now quietly waited
even as I lugged half a bale to one side,
then half a bale to the other.

They didn’t budge as I headed back for more, then distributed, again.

Instead, now contentedly munching, they said, “Thank you, Momma…”
and I mumured: “I love y’all… now don’t be silly and go out in this, y’all hear? Just hang out. I’ll be back, later.”

And with a bounding bouncing 90lb puppy, I returned to the comfort of the prefab.

Indonesian Green Beans, Carrots and NO WAY AM I USING BEEF in Coconut Sauce / Jukut Mekalis

Of course, if you aren’t now anaphylactic to beef thanks to alpha-gal, feel free to use beef!
I’ll substitute chicken, thank you very much.

I always make a little broth from the shells of any seafood, which I did when I earlier made shrimp. I’ll use this condensed little broth instead of shrimp paste.
Cook green beans, and carrots cut into ½” slices.
I pulled a carrot from the freezer. While my freezer carrots and celery never LOOK pretty, they still give that fresher taste than if I use canned.

Pound garlic, laos (heck no I don’t have any), ginger, chile sauce (or fave heat), sesame seeds, shrimp paste (I used broth made from leftover shells), salt and pepper into a paste. (Disclosure, I didn’t pound. Isn’t life hard enough right now?)

This was supposed to be more of a stir-fry, but I made it more of a saucy stew, because I had to cook the chicken, and the carrots (the green beans were from a can, leftover by teen 2). Regardless it will go great with rice!

Heat skillet, I added chicken, the carrot, the shrimp broth (just a little at a time, so things cook and don’t burn), a little brown sugar, the other spices (except sesame), then daun salam whatever the heck that is and fyi you can substitute bay leaves so I did. I cooked it all until tender and the broth mostly gone, using the spatula to cut the chicken into smaller pieces as it cooked.

Once the broth is gone, add sesame seeds to toast with it all, add coconut milk and a dash of lime.

I scraped everything to the side, tilted the skillet to run some sauce to the the empty side, then stirred in cooked rice with that.

FYI with the power in the region out, thus for us, the internet, if you are wondering what vintage cookbooks I have been reading to get ideas, they are:

- The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook, Gloria Bley Miller, 1966
- The Southeast Asia Cookbook, Ruth Law, 1990
- Foods of the World: Pacific and Southeast Asian Cooking, Time Life (I *love* this series), 1970
- Chinese Village Cookbook: A Practical Guide To Cantonese Country Cooking, Rhoda Yee, 1975

Alone, in the middle of nowhere, after a year of preventable crazy, I peruse the boxes of DVDs.
Thinking maybe I’ll pass on “The Stand” and “I Am Legend.”

Filipino New Year: Sweet And Sour Battered Shrimp / Hipon Rebosado

And again, sleet.

It is day seven of no internet, but really, I have no complaints.

A few minutes a day I can respond to anything critical at work via emails that take forevvvvvvvver to send. Can’t load social media. Phone calls are spotty at best.

This is nothing compared to what others in this area are going through.

Day seven of no power in the area, thus without internet, brings thoughts of permanently making a break. It has been a quiet inner call awhile, maybe I will just toss myself into the full role of hermit.

Day seven has my dead dog’s presence felt keenly everywhere around me. He is always here, every day, he never left. I think about what it would have been like to have gone through this historic storm without him, without his careful watch, and then realize: I did.

I thank God for bringing me our new Shadow, who oversees my every moment as I do things on the farm, letting Elder dog now kick back.

Like his predecessor, if I move, he’s watching.
Even without the world, I am not alone.
With Elder dog guiding and teaching, by my side, always, I have my Shadows.

For this gray, contemplative day, I make food for comfort, acceptance, so it does not ebb back into grief.

Snow begins.

Sweet And Sour Battered Shrimp / Hipon Rebosado

Make a sauce with cornstarch and water over heat, then equally add vinegar and brown sugar (I used rose jam, to ease melancholy), and stir as it boils and thickens, remove from heat.

Make a batter of flour, water, egg white if you want, salt, pepper. I stirred in coriander and ginger, then the shrimp.

In a hot greased skillet, add the battered shrimp. You know what goes really well with this? Sliced pickled carrots. Just add them in once the shrimp’s batter firms.

Instead of just shrimp and sauce, I decided to add a side of noodles, with more sliced small, pickled carrots. Once the noodles cooked, I fried them lightly with garlic, carrots, and basil and oil from the freezer.

This seemed such a huge, white-with-starch meal.
But healthy carbs enable your body to produce serotonin and aid in brain function.

As I began eating, the heady spices rippled throughout my body with warmth.
Its heaviness lulled, centered.

Ice cracks sharply throughout the woods,
shards fall loudly from the solar panels,
then it all slowly, gently begins to melt.

I still won’t be walking out to get mail anytime soon.

Does anyone else see the humor that I live off-grid
yet am trapped by a downed power line?

Pantry Note: Living pantry-wise means when you open something you don’t often use, you need to commit to it, otherwise it will waste. So you will see more of recipes with molasses, oyster sauce, red curry, certain pickles over these weeks… until those jars are done. Also, the moment you open one of “those” jars, the item goes back on the grocery list, to have on hand.

Copelandanesian Lunar New Year: Scallops With Spinach / Scallops, Y’all!

Even when I have ACTUAL VINTAGE COOKBOOKS with ACTUAL RECIPES in front of me in a historic power outage I still can’t follow instructions, so I just gave up.

This recipe is from Copelandanesia, off the coast of Copelandapore.

Copelandanesian Scallops With Spinach / Scallops, Y’all!
I have leftover coconut milk.

In a greased pan cook on medium minced garlic, ginger, and sliced onions. Add in some coconut milk, red curry paste, and hot sauce, stir around to make a sauce. Scrape over to one side and add scallops on the clean area. Keep stirring the sauce, adding coconut milk as needed. From the pantry, now add in a can of drained spinach, coriander, stir.

Once the scallops are cooked, sprinkle lemon juice over it all.

Instead of noodles or rice, local inhabitants serve this traditional Copelandanesian dish with potato chips, a classic vegetable there.

And with that, I will cut myself off from cooking more Lunar New Year food. I was going to do Javanese and Indian New Year recipes next, but I feel even without power restored, we should change our course. We can save and celebrate those, and more countries, next year.

Who wants fried chicken and mashed potatoes?

Keep On The Sunny Side With Breakfast

Day 8 of no power dawns.
It is Saturday; I’d like to sleep late.
But a 90lb happy puppy is shoved in my face, smiling and celebrating:
“GOOOOOOD MORNING!!!!”

Another day begins.

Temperatures remain fluctuating at night between the teens and twenties.

Even with the sun out, even a *much* milder day, as I make brunch I note it has only risen
to 27 degrees.

Vulnerable people are in drafty, stone cold homes without heat, water, their food scarce and spoiling, and until now, with roads impassible certainly for those without chainsaws and 4-wheel drive.

Even friends with generators or who are on propane have run out of gas, and when they call for emergency fillings, they are getting in line after hundreds.

I have gas for another week-ish, because even when there’s no sun, I only need to run the generator an hour or two vs. like they, all day.

I feel helpless because if covid didn’t exist I could just fill this prefab up with people, fill the beds, and keep them safe and fed and warm. I also curse that downed power line across my drive, because even if there were no covid, well, there’s that: no one is getting in, I am certainly not getting out.

I am starting to get a mildly-stronger but still spotty cell signal, possibly as other carriers and power outages are restored, and was finally able to get on social media for a hot second.

I saw nothing about our area of Virginia in any news I could see. Does anybody know?

I posted.

“Hope this goes through. Our area of Virginia has been without power in dire weather conditions for a week and counting. If you are not seeing it on the news, if you are not seeing help and relief for those folks, ask why.

I am totally fine, I live off-grid in an energy-efficient home.

Everyone else does not. These have been incredibly dangerous weather conditions day after day.”

Someone responded I sounded “dramatic” (because I called the situation dire?) so let me break this down for him:

I clearly said *I* was fine, off-grid, but that our region was not.
This is a historic ice storm, the worst in over twenty years, in weather conditions that were in the teens and twenties, icy, dangerous, and until just now, with roads here in undrivable conditions.
Eight days later 20,000+ Virginians, most of them elderly, are still without power, water, heat. Not only are families without water (well pumps don’t work without power, y’all), but their livestock need water, and are giving birth.
Most people in this region live in old homes that are not energy-efficient (that is putting it gently),
and don’t have lined chimneys for a wood stove.
News did not seem to be talking about these people, so it might be good for people to know about these hard hit communities in their backyard.
99% of my friends chimed in saying they had NO idea, the 1% only having recalled hearing about us when it became someone they knew going through it.

I would *love* to chuck that guy
into a flimsy 1970s trailer
with just whatever was in the cupboard,
on a long, ungraveled dirt road
with no power for eight days
no water
and no way to get to a store
and let *him* go through
what we just all went through
with the wind screaming,
the ice going sideways,
nights in the teens
and *then* see what he might have to say.

But he *didn’t* go through it.
He was comfortably in the city, from his armchair, dismissing us.
The rural South knows they are again overlooked. It matters.
In the end, they won’t need or see you, either.

Keep On The Sunny Side Eggs With Squash

I love fresh breakfast salads, but today I made cooked breakfast squash.

Take onions, garlic, and winter squash in a little water, cook until tender, then finish with a little grease. Add an egg. Oops. That one got a little stuck! But it was SO perfectly cooked- runny yolk, everything else firm, just a little messy!

Keep On The Sunny Side Eggs With Turnips
Here’s another version, with field turnips! If I had done my chores first I would have grabbed creasy greens or wild radish leaves and cooked them up with this, but, well, I was still sipping coffee.

Chicken With Colorful Corn

Hello Day 9 of no power in this region. Last night it was 13 degrees, but I woke to 19.

Inside the prefab house, even though the cook stove burnt out early, it was 67.
I started the fire, and began the day.

I am dying to get out, to go for a walk, to refill spare gas tanks, to… but there is that pesky little matter of the downed power line across my drive. I mean, I’m *SURE* it is off, but how do we know?
SHOULD I TOUCH IT AND SEE?

Is it ok to drive your car over? The Fedex people did, but *should* they have?
I’m guessing it is fine, but DO I KNOW?
That will be one of the first things I look up, once internet is back!

Until then, on a spotty mobile signal, I don’t have access to searches, much less results.

People asked if, living off-grid, I have advice for outages such as this.
Here are my thoughts:

Insulate, insulate, insulate your home.
Yes invest in a minimal solar system.
Count up the number of times you have lost power in the past five years.
Add up the financial and mental costs- the food you lost, the $1,000 emergency delivery of propane you had to wait for (and how many times you’ve done that), the generators you constantly needed to fill even though the driving conditions were still not safe, the temporary solutions you sought, the costs of gas you had to purchase per day, and the stress of dangerously driving, to then stand in long lines for that gasoline.

Think about that total, and invest *at least that* in a solar system, using a generator only for equalizing and to boost the batteries on days of gray.
Invest in a secondary heat, typically a wood stove, and make sure you always have weeks of wood carefully stored.
Always have weeks of regularly rotated dry goods/cans of food, water and gas.
Don’t forget pet food, and if you have chickens/horses etc., feed.
If you do not have solar, keep lights lined up in the basement / somewhere with a note on your calendar to charge them monthly. There are some great ones with a power station at the base and a hook at the top so you can hang them high in rooms so they seem like “normal room lights,” and they also, with the press of a button, go from bright to flashing to a focused beam. Those are great!
People stress about their toilet situation on Day 1, watching them quickly clog. I do hope you filled your tub. Even if so, instruct everyone to put their toilet paper in the *waste basket* and not the toilet, then just put that in the garbage can when full.
You’re welcome.
That’s an old camping trick I used when we had little ones. It’s so much easier to toss a pail o’ urine into the woods, than a pail stuffed full of wet, messy toilet paper and bodily slop. I just tossed that bag of toilet paper into my trash bag at the end camping, and dropped it all off at the first dump we passed on the drive home.
I’ve always only bought the warmest, real down comforters for winter bedding.
What passes for “bedding” these days isn’t functional.
Neither is much clothing.
Buy serious, extreme temperature duvets, coats, hats, gloves... winter clothing that actually *works.*

You might find yourself and your children under a warm duvet,
in winter clothing, with hats on
in yet another frigid power outage.

You’ll be grateful you’re clad in things that work.
I even own a pair of quilted down pants, to go with my down coats.
Like an energy-efficient home, why just insulate one area vs. the whole?
Heck, I even own a quilted down skirt for when I’m outdoors and fancy!

For the record, aside from putting out extra feed and firewood for a normal, sleet-y day, I prepared zero for these storms.
I was busy playing with a puppy.

Like most, I had no idea it would hit this hard, and for power to be out this long. But because I am prepped… well, don’t knock the preppers. By being comfortable, we can let others get food or gas first, offer others shelter (in non-covid times). We reduce the lines. We do not take from the meagre grocery shelves in times of need.

With the sun out, I no longer need to charge our system an hour-ish a day.

Every day with sun extends my gas, and if it continues, my remaining gallons of gas will now extend out a month, allowing me to let others get gas right now in their greater need.
I’ll just refill after everyone else is okay.

It’s now 32, but because it’s sunny, I hear my solar hot water system kicking in!

One of these days I’ll turn on the radiant heat, but always forget to do so.

Chicken With Colorful Corn
Coming in from chores I picked some mustards- creasy greens and mizuna.

In a pan I started chopped onions, garlic, and after a few minutes, added chicken on one side.
As the chicken cooks, the grease and juices can be mixed with the vegetables!

Now I added the greens, stirred it around, and once wilted, added a can of corn from the pantry, stirring occasionally until the chicken was browned and cooked. I added in some red roasted peppers I canned in summer, and swirled that around. Pretty! I sprinkled salt and pepper over it all, and on the chicken, paprika, then served plates: delicious.

I was contentedly cleaning up lunch when movement outside caught my eye and
YOU HAVE *GOT* TO BE KIDDING ME THERE ARE *PEOPLE* AT THE DOOR?!?

The dogs went beserk.
I slipped out the back door
and met these two *lovely* ladies:

Their EMT clothes identifying them,
they are walking down every single drive to check on we all, here.
“OH MY GOSH THANK YOU SO MUCH!”

I admit I might have almost cried, seeing such kind concern.

“WE’RE fine, we live off-grid!”

They: “WE SAW!!!! I *love* your home!!!!”
“I assure you it’s much more fun after pandemics and storms, y’all come back, I’ll give you a tour!!!”

Then I told them who here needs to be checked on,
where to find them,
how to approach them.
Gosh I love people here.

The EMTs said power is starting to come our way,
so hopefully our neighbors will have relief soon.

Opinionated Old Virginia Peanut Soup

Day 10 arrives with a cold, heavy rain.
Without internet, I had no idea it was due.

I use the internet off-grid for not just work and entertainment, but for weather preparation.
Thankfully, I have days of dry wood close by.

Without internet, I gauge less accurately my gas situation.
Currently I have 1ish weeks left if it’s indefinitely gray.
It is absolutely overcast.

What if
I now run the generator
and then the sun emerges?
It would be gas wasted, when there’s then a solar charge.

A prepper attitude means you start conserving on Day 1 of an event,
not when precious supplies are almost gone.

The internet helps me predict, prepare, and stretch resources.
I’m going to wait to see what the day brings.

I head to the electrical panel and flip a switch-
the pump, off. Thus water is conserved, as I don’t want the pump to run the bank down.

This means I won’t shower, but who’s visting?

I glanced out at the horses to see how they were.
Unperturbed, standing in the weather vs. the run in…
I SAW FLASHING LIGHTS ON THE ROAD!!!!
RIGHT AT OUR DRIVE!!!!!
Is it the power company finally picking up that downed power line
and restoring power to our neighbors?!?!

It was the mail lady.

Well, my coat’s on, might as well head out and toss hay.
Boy was I grateful for the toasty cook stove and hot coffee ready upon my return.

I thought I’d pore over some of my hometown Richmond cookbooks today.
Opinionated Old Virginia Peanut Soup
In butter (buttr for alpha-gal) saute minced onion, adding a little chicken broth as necessary so not to burn, cooking until soft, then sprinkle over some flour lightly to cover it all, stirring to blend it all through. Now add more broth to make soup- drizzle it in, stirring, so it doesn’t get lumpy.

I then added hot sauce, some oyster sauce, some tamari... oh yes I did.

Let’s face it: we Old Virginians grew up making tasteless food, and even though I was raised on overcooked baked chicken and rice where the big foreign spice was a dash of paprika, I have left blandness behind.

I also like my peanut soup *not* like a hot mouthful of peanut butter, but like onion soup with peanuts. So, more onions go into my soup than the creamy glop served as tradtional colonial fare.

Add in peanut butter until the broth is creamy, stirring. Once done, add (non-dairy for alpha-gal) cream if you like (I don’t, isn’t this rich enough?!?), top with parsley and peanuts if you wish.

The fresh parsley was *really* good, I might even stir some in next time vs. just as a garnish.

Again, this is *another* driving, endless, sideways cold rain.

I’m not heading out unless I have to. That’s why I am so grateful for that little itty bitty stand of parsley that volunteers against the prefab. On days like this I keep thanking it, year after year, as I lean out the door to grab a leaf or two.

Wait.
What’s that sound?!?
Are those utility trucks on our road I hear?!?
They are!!!!!

The downed power line is gone! They are at our farm!!!!

Neighbors! They’re coming!!! This will be over for you soon!!!!

Quick Good Ole Country Beans

The rain ceased, but the sun did not emerge.

When I ran the generator, I noted it was full, so that means I have, gosh, 3-4 good runs of bumping the battery bank up, and then one more full can.
So… fuel for two more weeks, if the sun refuses to return.

I am so, so, SO happy for neighbors about to have their power restored. My mood right now is JOYOUS. Hang on, y’all. It will be over, soon.

Quick Good Ole Country Beans
Add garlic, onion, (for alpha-gal, chicken) sausage to a hot pan.
Stir it up, add salt, water so it doesn’t burn if needed, until it is cooked and on the edges, crisp.
Now add in ketchup, hot sauce, liquid if needed, then cooked beans.

You can add molasses if you want to… I did.

Of course, a side of greens goes great with everything, but I’m not heading out.

Usually, I start with dry beans and let it cook on the cookstove for hours, along with a can of tomatoes. Today, I was suddenly hungry so used canned, and ketchup.

Still delicious.

Another Shakshuska, Shrimp In A Mold With Greens

The sun is out! Our battery bank charges.

For our neighbors, power is restored!!!
But it’s Day 11 without power for other friends, still without here.

It’s a *beautiful* day, in the 30s.
Let’s center ourself on this gorgeous gift of a morning and right the world with shakshuka.

Another Shakshuska
I stirred around onions, garlic, caraway, coriander and cumin, hot sauce, salt, then added some tomatoes, and once it cooked up, into it, I perfectly poached an egg. Now ladle into a bowl and add olives and if you’ve foraged it, ground sumac. Just remember, though, that sumac IS related to cashews, if you have an allergy.

Time to do chores.

Elder Dog continues to train Youngest on hawks. I am grateful he is able to still train, that was supposed to be the job of Younger Dog, now passed. Each time I see him training Youngest, I have extreme gratitude, sadness, and love in my heart.

Youngest is learning many valuable farm jobs,
and even climbed up a story-high stack of hay to help me toss down bales!

Even the equines no longer want to kill him; that says a lot.
Because illegal dog hunters purposely run hounds on our land,
our herd will kill any canine who enters the field,
so if *they* don’t want to 100% kill him and accept him… he’s doing great!
BONA FIDE FARM DAWG.

I think Youngest is now ready for a city visit.

He arrived in our family growling at and charging every new thing.
Now he wags his tail to what he encounters a second time.
Sitting on a city porch watching life go by on a mild afternoon
will do wonders for desensitizing a pup.
Spring will be here soon.

Shrimp In A Mold With Greens
I diced and sliced garlic and onion with found greens (wild radish leaves, collards, creasy greens) and overwintered Tahitian melon squash, and cooked with a little tomato, hot chili garlic sauce, salt, pepper, then added shrimp. Once cooked and the juice evaporated, I set it aside to cool, and in a greased copper mold, started with the shrimp, tossed it all with a little (for alpha-gal, non-dairy) cheese, then poured over a beaten egg, and stuck it in the oven.

In general, my wood-heated cook stove oven hovers around 300ish, because I only put in one log at a time unless the weather is really bad- otherwise, if it's over 20ish outdoors, the energy-efficient prefab house overheats.

You could add in rice, but I’m still trying to lose the weight I gained over rifle season.

Oh no it didn’t hold! I *knew* that was going to happen, as I used so many vegetables vs. just one little egg! Oh well, it’s delicious, dig in!

Because people asked, when the internet returns I’ll post all this.

If you *really* want to know who to tar and feather for the posts,
this will go online because of Bob Bradner.

Every time I tell myself I’ll never write another word,
he says kind things, and asks me to keep telling tales,
so I do.

Thus ends the off-grid prefab house tales of the ice storm, with disaster preparation, Pantry Food & Foraging notes, and... a few recipes.

Maintaining Off-Grid Prefab Homes And Considering Off-Grid Prefab House Rentals

2021-01-28T13:24:00.003-05:00

First, I hope you are well.

At our off-grid prefab house, it is snowing.
I have written prefab project construction updates over these months, yet never hit "publish."

But waking, with the snow swirling, suddenly I decided, "Yep, let's do this."

It's not that I haven't been busy.

My favorite small project has been sharing stories of our off-grid life, trying to show people how to better surf uncertain times and make food with a thoughtfully stocked pantry and weeds.

It's fun and nutritious to forage and consider food nutrition, and I'm glad it made people laugh.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Green Modern Kits (@offgridprefab)

But I have a question to answer from a potential client, which prompted me to write this, in the hopes it might help others.

Maintaining An Off-Grid Prefab House, Away

No way around it, if you are planning to be off-grid, yet away during the day, during the workweek, if you are thinking about using our prefabs for an off grid house rental business... you will not be able to do so comfortably on "a bare minimum solar system + wood heat."

Good news is that our prefab homes start you on the path to off-grid success: a passive solar design to embrace the winter sun (and keep its direct rays out, in summer), the energy-efficiency of the SIP in the prefab house.

But when temperatures plummet, that wood stove needs to be fed.

If you can work from home like I, that's easy!

The stove gets the house toasty, the foundation warms, the SIP hold in the heat.

But if I leave?

Albeit slowly, the temperature will drop.

The slab will cool.

It takes effort and time to regain heat, lost.

You will need a much larger solar system, to power thus heat your house.

Like so many off-gridders, you might embrace a (usually propane) gas solution, not a great off grid method if you want to truly be independent.

And: adding smart home devices to monitor and notify you of failures today is a given.

If you are considering a prefab house (or any home) as an off-grid rental, I would absolutely consider the liabilities of letting renters work with indoor fire. It's not that it's not done. But you should certainly have that as a secondary, minimal reliance heat. What I experienced myself when we rented a cute cottage years ago at the Greenbrier is that we were forbidden to light the fire, but could add to it via a small stack of wood.

If *I* were to rent our off grid prefab house during winter, at a minimum I would...

similarly forbid the lighting of the fire, because who knows WHAT they would do ("Hey let's toss gasoline on, that'll start it, quick!")
provide a sign, conspicuously posted, AND give a personal demonstration of the flue / lifting the lid to access the firebox, "dos and don'ts"... even then, imagine someone mistakenly dropping your firebox lid and it breaking! Eeep! How would you even fix that, locally? If you're gonna mess with wood stoves, you'd better have "oops" plans ready!
only have smallish to small-medium pieces of wood, stacked, with big lectures of not stuffing the firebox and when it's okay or not ok to add wood ("Please do not add wood if the oven is above 350, as that might jump the firebox exceedingly." I mean, WE know what is safe / how much is safe to add at 350, but they don't, do you want to chance it?).
schedule a "Good morning we are here to re-light your fire" visit for them each morning.

What are your thoughts? How might you handle this? Would you take it on?

Prefab House Kit Update: The Dogtrot Mod Modified In the Pacific Northwest: Wolftrot Update!

The client, an engineer, wrote in spring that they had not yet moved in but were doing well.

"The SIP building contractor just managed to complete and weather proof the house shell before he cleared off for Xmas, leaving a few still uncorrected minor issues, such as missed caulking in places around the siding.

We ended up switching to Hardie Products cement and fiber-based siding as the contractor screwed up ordering the siding and the house weather proofing would have been not possible until probably around now!

...

And of course it's unpainted so we'll be doing that ourselves. We've been quoted prices between $4K and $7K but we're not impressed with how houses get painted around here. Spray guns don't do an adequate job filling crack or tight gaps and you can't tell afterwards for some time if you got ten microns or a tenth of an inch coverage. It will cost us less than $500 using the best paint available and we'll be comfortable it's well done. I might have to rent some trestles as mine are too low but, what the heck.

We pretty much ignored the house until a few weeks ago, taking a break from construction stress that was as you noticed getting us down. Things picked up when thought we'd finally found an electrician we could work with. The Utility wanted $14,100 to excavate and install a conduit for the power to come from a pole at the top of our lot down to the meter at the house. I tried to get solar and off the grid contractors to respond with alternative power sources, i.e. solar, batteries and standby generator but I think they only exist in glossy architectural magazines. No one was interested here in X, particularly in X. There was one that looked a possibility, a two-woman business located on the X side of X, but they declined to bid.

So we've bought a tractor with a front loader and a back hoe.

The used 2015 Kubota tractor came from a rental company in northern California. It cost $13,500 plus another $600 to get it transported up to us. It took another $100 for minor parts to fix silly problems the rental company was too lazy to correct, but it took a month to get everything sorted. But we're ahead as the tractor will resell for what we paid for it and we now have a 'free' tractor to use grading and clearing the lot. Oh, I also added a 'thumb' to the backhoe stick so I was able to pickup large logs and relocate them out of the way.

So after grading the lot down to the anticipated final 'landscaped' level where the trench for the conduit needed to go, I have now been able to excavate the required 40" deep trench. It extends from the pole to the house where the meter will be installed, a distance of 210', which I calculate amounts to around 30 tons of material just for the trench, let alone all the grading before hand. The Utility came and replaced their old, weak pole with a taller, stronger one with the necessary transformer atop it almost as soon as I told them I'd bought the tractor. Now the electrician, that was was supposed to be available last Friday to complete the process is "unavailable' until April 28th! Now I may just order the Siemens distribution and meter boxes and install them myself while I'm waiting. I'm under the impression that an 'licenced' electrician has to sign off on the electrical work before a building inspector can sign off as well but ... I'm begining to have my doubts about that. I'm told that here in Oregon a home owner can do any work on a new home or remodel themselves. They do need to get a building inspector to sign off each critical feature but I'm told they will do that for a 'civilian' constructor. I'm now researching that heavily.

I've always hated electrical outlets that result in electrical plugs protruding so furniture can't be placed close to walls. So, for that reason, and to eliminate having to cut holes into the SIP insulation, except where it's required for water intrusion safety (bathrooms, toilets and the laundry) I intend to install recessed, flush mount electrical receptacles in the floor wherever we would otherwise have wall sockets. The ones I plan to use allow two plugs to be inserted below the flush floor level, leaving just the wire coming out through a small opening.

Lastly, for now, I did manage to get a framer to come and build out the interior walls for us. I could do that myself but the alignment of walls has a huge effect on the internal appearances if I were to screw something up. Besides, he helped with the SIP framing and we were very impressed his workmanship then. He came and installed the front decking last week (I'll be doing the rear decking myself) and got started on the interior before he left Friday. He's back now and expects to complete the entire interior structures this week. Pictures of that to follow.

I have to say that despite the stress we're enjoying the results so far. It's fun to refine the design as we go along, within reason, as we better understand just how we want "our" house to be."

Thank you Wolftrot for your update! I appreciate it very much!!!

Back To Our Own Prefab House And Life Off-Grid...

Ahhhhh this… year.
Annually, I make a Christmas calendar for the grandparents, snapshots of family moments over the year. By Thanksgiving I am *panicked* and frantically trying to pull it all together, sifting through thousands of photos to paste together one collage for each month.

Any year, it’s hard.
This year?
Would you?!?

I obviously decided not to do it *this* year.

But Handsome Husband asked how it was going, as he does annually,
and when I broke the news

right before the holidays
that *maybe* this was the year to simply purchase a gift,
he flipped.

So
I began
the Christmas calendar.

Know what?
Despite EVERYTHING,
as I went through every month
to my surprise
there were
smiles.
Enough of them.

It made me reflect.

It also made me uh… get hurriedly on to making that calendar.
I see that even in the worst year EVER, through those many awful stretches… we forget too quickly the love, laughter, smiles.

Adversity also brings opportunity, and watching the building industry (and bureaucracy in every city and county permits/zoning/inspection bureaus) this year has brought, after a panicked struggle to quickly implement, many overdue changes.

Personally, we are working on an urban restoration/renovation project, and have been able to experience that leap from "you must drive down and wait in this musty dusty hallway to file XYZ" to "that may be done OF COURSE through our online portal!"

There's still much, overdue, to achieve, but the building industry and bureaucracy are, pushed during trying times... getting there.

A 1915 Renovation Project In A Historic District

There is much to say about this renovation project, but I don't know if a prefab house energy efficient blog is the place, so let me know if you want to hear about this project.

But RELEVANT to this prefab house / energy-efficiency building blog, I *will* note:

Remember all the years I recorded and mused on our prefab home's energy efficiency when I'd let the cookstove go out at night, when I'd agonize over whether, after a night in the 15-20s with no heat, more than eight hours later, I'd pad in to the great room to discover the temperature was 66 (!) and wonder if that was REALLY bad?

Yeah.

I got a wakeup call quickly when I spent a night, heated, in the 100+ year old historic home project.

The thermostat might have been set high, but I assure you I woke to WAY LESS than what I wake to in my unheated prefab house!!!!

Oh.

My.

GOSH.

Energy efficiency/insulation is always on the top of the list with any project.

But DAG, people.

In Closing, On Our Own Prefab House Project:

We are nearing 15 years since our own prefab house construction, and with this beautiful snow I'm noticing how beat up and muddy our doors and some areas of the cladding are... hey, we play rough in this family!

I'm thinking maybe in spring with the kids now older I will repaint doors, do some landscaping, and spiff up the exterior a little.

To be, always, continued!

From Our Off-Grid Modern Prefab House To You, Tips On Pantry, Prefab Project Construction Updates and Edible Weeds

2020-05-02T16:14:00.000-04:00

I hope you are well.

We are busy at the off-grid prefab house enjoying spring's approach, with the never-ending work on home projects... even after building the off-grid prefab house over ten years ago, we have lots of items on our Honey Do list!

So yeah, once you build your modern, energy-efficient prefab house, that doesn't mean household projects will stop!

There will ALWAYS be stuff to work on around the prefab house!
There's the garden! Powerwashing the galvalume! Tractor repairs and fencelines to fix and cutting wood for crop tree release while gathering next winter's wood! Teens wanting to change their bedrooms! Vintage camper restoration! Green horses to work on! Pickles to make! Trails to clear!

They are crammed into the same camping chairs
they have used since they were one and two...!

By February, as the pandemic neared, I finished the usual pantry preparations and then buffered more than usual at our off-grid prefab home. See, I have a lot of friends in design, and watch them circuitously flit between NY -> LA -> China's factories and back, so it was not a great mental leap to trace flight paths. Being two hours south of DC, with a small southern city closest to us at the off-grid prefab that has several businesses dealing with military / security-related goods to China... it was not a leap for even my small mind...

Not a medical professional!!!

Note: Before reading this understand I have NO knowledge of medicine, am not a medical professional, and am just sharing, in the spirit of The Four Thieves recipes passing on of information, what I have found and think.

If you don’t know The Four Thieves story, and the modern lawsuit, it is a very interesting tale on trademark law, business, and communal property!
Before the Chinese New Year I was sick. Sick sick sick sick sick.

There was no vaccine or prescription anywhere, not for a long while... so...

Raised in modern medical culture (I actually joke that I was raised running wild in the hallways and cafeteria of a local hospital, which is kind of true, while on weekends my dad did charts and my mother, the accounting), a doctor's daughter with an interest in research, I started with the SARS research published in reputable medical journals over ten years ago, then looked at China today, then found what protocols respected naturopaths were recommending.

In February, knowing a vaccine would be 18+ months out, I researched, ordered the herbs, and made tinctures.

If I had told you even two months ago that you should have a two year plan, would you believe me? So yeah, that is done, let's move on!

Let's lighten up a bit.
The upside of this is that now you can follow our escapades eating weeds and Pantry Food.

If you would like to follow what we do for pantry creativity, if you are interested in seeing how we forage healthy delicious food, and our own off-grid thoughts and tips, follow us on Instagram at @OffGridPrefab.

Prefab house projects continue, and I have an update from the Pacific Northwest.
But I'll write about that next week.

BAD! He is texting and driving!!!!

I also had a bright spot this week from a couple in DC, as I can share more I will, but basically they, like other clients, remind me of why I keep doing this.

We quickly diverged from the reason for the call, to purchase a prefab house, and instead spent a lovely while catching up on how they journeyed from Ethiopia to a Sustainable Agriculture Program in North Carolina to DC... and now, newlyweds, are searching for their own place to farm.

I never began this business as "Just A Business."
Each time I connect with someone, THEY are why I do this.

As I have mentioned frequently these past two years, I have lost my joy of writing.

Yet clients like Little Lab or Wolftrot, clients who have to postpone their prefab dream, or a lovely discussion with these newlyweds make me want to write again, because I *do* have thoughts on many things not even remotely related to a prefab house, from how to look for land, what systems work well, lifestyle considerations...

When I have zero desire to write, it is people telling me they read something I wrote long ago that make me collect myself and write more.

Ironically, after grudgingly, trying to rise to the occasion and post bright spots around the prefab on Instagram for the past two years,
when we went on lockdown
I suddenly
started writing.

Not to write, which I now don't enjoy, but because I thought people might need to know certain things.

Since I began this blog, they have grown...

See, we are rural AND urban in our culture, and I have noted that BOTH need a little help in some things each might not know.

I was actually surprised how not just my urban friends but also rural friends didn't know how much food is outside in their yard even before their garden is up. So I started posting on that.

I'm no chef, but I am an Affable Prepper, so I thought sharing creative journeys with Pantry Food might help, too.

And you know what?
Are y'all interested in having a Virtual Get Together?
If so, comment below, and how you would like that to happen - Duo, Zoom, Skype... and we can make it happen! You can ask me all about living off-grid in the prefab house over ten years later, being creative with Pantry Food and weeds... what else?

Y'all come on over!

In the meantime here are some beginning Pantry Food posts, if this interests you, to help you catch up.

Beginning in March, the Pantry Food And Foraging posts began.

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Dusk rituals... Allegro, andante, adagio, berceuse. Canines, equines, humans, we beasts join up to greet, scratch on and chase as the sun slips down, into the woods... We pause, look up, quickly askew, wildly tracking the bats' erratic flight, over the fields, away... Turn: the moon ascends slowly. Antics diminish. Light silvers, ebbs, the peepers quieting. In the wooded depths, a great horned owl repeats his calls, even now. . . . #OffGrid #offgridlife #offgridhomestead #prefab #PrefabHome #PrefabHouse #cabin #NetZero #passivesolar

A post shared by Green Modern Kits (@offgridprefab) on Mar 8, 2020 at 4:59pm PDT

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A post shared by Green Modern Kits (@offgridprefab) on Mar 9, 2020 at 10:20am PDT

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It's like the moon, but the sun! . . #OffGrid #prefab #PrefabHome #PrefabHouse #NetZero #passive #solar #offgridlife #offgridhomestead

A post shared by Green Modern Kits (@offgridprefab) on Mar 10, 2020 at 6:59am PDT

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Just for thought...

A post shared by Green Modern Kits (@offgridprefab) on Mar 11, 2020 at 11:43am PDT

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Lotsa rain = lotsa Virginia red clay mud = lotsa days where I am so grateful I never finished the prefab with bamboo flooring haha... The concrete floors are perfect for our (very messy) family life. . . #OffGrid #offgridlife #prefab #PrefabHome #PrefabHouse #PassiveSolar #RadiantHeat #NetZero #offgridhomestead

A post shared by Green Modern Kits (@offgridprefab) on Mar 13, 2020 at 5:59am PDT

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Remember not to pull all your weeds yet! #Bees love them! . . #Gardening #SaveTheBees #Bumblebee

A post shared by Green Modern Kits (@offgridprefab) on Mar 13, 2020 at 12:06pm PDT

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I always keep mint, oregano, sage, rosemary, and winter greens in the garden so that I have something fresh to add even in winter, without having to go to a grocery store. . . #PantryFood #GardenFood

A post shared by Green Modern Kits (@offgridprefab) on Mar 14, 2020 at 10:09am PDT

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Shashuka... pasta. 😂 Why not. It's good! . . #offgrid #PantryFood #GardenFood #Canning #FreeRangeChickens #offgridlife #offgridhomestead

A post shared by Green Modern Kits (@offgridprefab) on Mar 15, 2020 at 10:01am PDT

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Made yogurt and a perfect squash soup. Because we have #AlphaGal we no longer make our own yogurt, sour cream or cheese. But I tried coconut milk and it soured / firmed great! Perfect to top the soup (tahitian melon squash I grow each year, great keepers), and the soup is like a cozy blanket for this damp and cold day. #PantryFood #homegrown #offgrid

A post shared by Green Modern Kits (@offgridprefab) on Mar 16, 2020 at 11:17am PDT

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Yesterday, reality hit many in the USA. Schools suddenly closed for months, not weeks. Empty grocery stores. Sudden loss of jobs and businesses. A week ago, they never imagined that today would really be like today. I am no cook. But I am doing #PantryFood to maybe help someone reimagine what is in their pantry so it is not the same old, same old. Here is what I did here: I thought I was going to open a can of gross chunk chicken and make chicken salad but instead decided soup so not to waste the broth. I was despondent and didn't even want to cook, so didn't. I stirred in some ACV, honey mustard, mayo, tarragon, s&p... and remembered violets outside. I totally would have cooked this differently if I was happy. Is anyone happy? To my surprise it was savory, comforting, and getting outside to get the violets lifted... well, it didn't lift my spirits but it was good to get outside. If you can, get outside. Sending you all love.

A post shared by Green Modern Kits (@offgridprefab) on Mar 17, 2020 at 5:53am PDT

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Did you know you can eat quince petals? One more thing to add in for vitamins... I love lots of vegetables / salad at breakfast, so yesterday's curried lentils with purple dead nettle (found in yard) remerge, with a backyard egg, and a crumbly creamy biscuit made with a dollop of yogurt I made from a can of coconut milk added in with the dough. If you are intimidated to make bread, start with biscuits! So easy to make with pantry ingredients on hand. . . #PantryFood #Forage #OffGrid #OffGridLiving #OffGridHomestead #BackyardChickens #backyard #EatYourYard

A post shared by Green Modern Kits (@offgridprefab) on Mar 18, 2020 at 7:31am PDT

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I know some outdoor enthusiasts have been waiting for me to mention my next weed. But the meal was so… SINFULLY RICH I almost didn’t. But then I thought how every aspect of the food might help someone think more creatively about pantry food, and foraging, and bread, so decided to share it. After I let the horses out, I stopped to pick a mess o’ creasy greens. I actively encourage creasy greens in my permaculture bed, but you can find them walking in yards, fields… just like other edible spring weeds. I have been sprouting lentils all week but they are so delicious I haven’t been able to use them in a meal, I eat them like popcorn! So I resolved to sprout a BUNCH, and kept chiding myself as I raided them, but finally still had some left for today’s meal. Let’s talk bread. By now you might not want to go to the store for milk, eggs, or have baking soda or powder to make a loaf of bread. Off grid, this time of year I just want to let the cookstove fire up once to make a bunch of stuff rather than keep it going, so this is when I embrace making crepes, flatbreads, etc., I make a stack for the day, and they don’t have to use eggs or milk in them, there are plenty of recipes without. For today’s “crepes” I decided to go Indian and dusted them with spices as they cooked. Let’s talk meat. When I cook a whole duck, chicken, or turkey, after Day 1 I slice the remainder for sandwiches. Anything not big like that I further shred- all the little pieces and skin, cook then add in some fave things (onions, garlic, carrots, celery, anything on hand, most of the time when I cook something whole I already have root vegetables baked with it so it is super easy), and from that pack into ramekins or mini loaf pans, pour the juice over, and, served cold, slathered over hot fresh bread, call it rillette, served lukewarm, with friends over, call it pate, and otherwise, add it to sandwiches with sauce as “barbeque” or toss into soups / pasta sauces. (Note: after you have done this don’t forget to use the bones and anything left for broth! You can freeze that, too.) Sautee the creasy greens, your favorite way. (cont. in comments) #PantryFood #Forage #Foraging

A post shared by Green Modern Kits (@offgridprefab) on Mar 21, 2020 at 9:55am PDT

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Virtual Girl's Nights have been so much fun!!! It's nice to carve out some girl time, getting "out" and going "away" from the rest of the house. 💛

A post shared by Green Modern Kits (@offgridprefab) on Mar 22, 2020 at 7:42am PDT

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Breakfast With Crepes, Egg, Salad, and Radish I love breakfast with lots of greens. On the way back from letting the chickens out, I picked creasy greens and chickweed for a breakfast salad, then softboiled a backyard egg while making crepes. The can of coconut milk I started into yogurt weeks ago with just one probiotic is now nearing the end of its second can, I am using it like creme fraiche by adding a little lemon. But I am also mixing in the whey / some of it to my crepe batter and it is delicious. A few weeks ago, knowing the pandemic neared, I timed its proximity with pickle making so I would have lots of fresh but lightly pickled vegetables on hand. More on that in a minute. I decided to break out a can of pickled radishes and carrots with star anise and ginger I made just before quarantine hit. I sliced them, added them to the plate with the salad and crepe, and made a big ole rolled-up sandwich with that and the egg… I also took a second crepe and lazily dipped it into the pot of made-from-a-can yogurt / creme fraiche, but don’t tell anyone! It was SO creamy sour tangy and perfect with the crepe… Pickling Philosophy: Pickled anything, anytime is great. But I knew we would eat down fresh veggies first, and only have so much space in our freezer for frozen. And purely canned veggies… well, they are just canned veggies, not much excitement there, no? So pickle. You don’t even need a pressure canner, you just need a tall soup pot with enough height to have 2” above the jars, and do a water bath. Here are my favorite things to pickle: Sliced radishes and carrots with star anise, ginger, sugar and red pepper flakes (or favorite heat) Whole carrots Cauliflower Cucumber slices with onion, a little sugar Red onions with a little sugar #PantryFood #Forage #Foraging #OffGrid #prefab #PrefabHouse #PrefabHome #OffGridHomestead #OffGridLiving #pickling #canning #NetZero

A post shared by Green Modern Kits (@offgridprefab) on Mar 23, 2020 at 8:50am PDT

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Chicken Salad From The Bar Open your pantry, reach far back and pull out that dusty box of golden raisins, and sprinkle some in a bowl. Add a dash of ACV and a little mayo, salt, pepper, tarragon, garlic powder, stir it allllllllll up and let it sit a minute to plump the raisins, then open up a depressing can of chunk chicken. Save the broth, of course, for tonight’s soup, and mix the chicken in. Now open the bar and reach for NO NOT THAT! Grab that little tin of nuts. SHEESH, people! Chop up some nuts and mix them in. If you’re really depressed go outside and forage some violets and toss them on, it will make you feel better. Serve with whatever bread / crepe / crackers you have on hand, in this case, I made a crispy flatbread. HOW did I make the flatbread? Well, don't tell anyone, but I took some leftover batter from this morning, and at a lower heat ladled out some, and then spread it as thinly as possible across the pan. And let it sit awhile. Then I flipped it. And waited a while, again, at a lower heat, because, honeychile? We have TIME today. . . #PantryFood #Forage #Foraging #OffGrid #OffGridLiving #OffGridHomestead

A post shared by Green Modern Kits (@offgridprefab) on Mar 23, 2020 at 11:08am PDT

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Dinner With Dock First, there are some things you need to know about docks, and not just the fishing kind. NEVER forage dock from pastures or places you don’t know because most farmers or suburban residents will DOUSE a cluster of dock with ROUNDUP if they see it. Don’t do it! We, however, abhor RoundUp. And have dock. Broad leaved dock is also known as bitter dock, for a reason. You can also tell the older plants by the red tinge along the stem. Curly dock is narrow, with curled edges. Here is a great overview on the two: http://returntonature.us/stalking-the-curly-dock-rumex-crispus/ Today I am bitter so thought I’d pick the oldest dock, not the youngest. Let’s see how that goes. In the meantime, I cut up some of my Tahitian melon squash (again, I love this one because it keeps all winter and is huge!), diced some onion, tossed in some garlic, sriracha… and made soup by adding a little water, just to cover. Once cooked, I didn’t even bother to get out a processor or anything I just took a fork and violently mashed it all up as I talked to myself. “You have GOT to be KIDDING me I sent my kids from homeschool to high school and NOW THEY CANCEL SCHOOL FOR THE YEAR???” In no time, it was pureed. Then I added in that leftover canned chunk chicken broth from lunch. Finally, I plucked one tiny leaf from my sage, drizzled some ongoing creme fraiche yogurt whatever made from a can o’ coconut milk weeks back, and over it all dusted nutmeg. I cooked the dock leaves in a little water, drained, then twirled up the dock leaves. Dock gives you vitamin C, iron,vitamin A, magnesium, manganese, and even a bit of copper. While not much in presentation, the leaves taste more like spinach than mustards. Together, they paired well- the comforting soup with the dock… a good meal of nutrients for this… this day. #OffGrid #PantryFood #Forage #Foraging #OffGridLiving #OffGridHomestead

A post shared by Green Modern Kits (@offgridprefab) on Mar 23, 2020 at 3:24pm PDT

Now, I am again getting sick with the same thing I had in January.
How do I know?
That old, immediately-recognized weird mass feeling under my ribs.
That vague headache, like when you get dehydrated, yet it takes three days to realize,
"Wait. I never get headaches, and I have had one three days."
The sore throat, aches, mild fever... and day 3, it is in my lungs.
Now that I realize I'm sick, I begin tinctures.

Whatever it is, I remember too well its previous hold, and determine to not let it, again.

Off-grid Modern Prefab House Winters With Prefab Home Construction Project Updates

2020-02-07T07:54:00.001-05:00

Enjoying winter in our modern off-grid prefab home.

Greetings from our modern Off Grid Prefab House!

Ugh, right now we all have colds.
No one feels like doing anything, going anywhere... which is a great time to talk about off-grid food storage. Because who wants to drive down the highway 30+ minutes just to get to the grocery store?

Plus, when you're sick, ethically, you shouldn't.
Stay in bed!

So. After I publish this post, I'm going to crawl back into bed and let the kids take over awhile. At least we don't have to drive, we have everything we need, here.

How much food do you have on hand? A week?
Why not three months?

As uncertainty nears (like snow/hurricanes / weather systems, for example) I make sure we not only have our usual stores but double check to have extra, for extra weeks... and to not forget to store up food for our animals, medicine, extra toothpaste / deodorant / shampoo / detergent... and TOILET PAPER...

Likewise, this time of year especially I always have a "living off-grid with the flu" plan: it may be unsightly, but that pile of wood by the back door ensures that if I get ill (although now, with teens, they could certainly keep the house running, but what if we all get sick?), I don't have to travel to the woodshed for wood and have three days to rest before having to head out.

So during approaching weather/flu season, ask yourself: do you have enough on hand where you can then just allow yourself to go to bed and be sick? Or if the hurricane fells trees across the road and you're stuck? (Pro tip: Country people put chain saws in their cars before heading out after storms.)

And with that, I will now pass you on to our client in the Northwest, while I crawl in to bed.

Prefab House Construction Update on the Wolftrot- A Modified Dogtrot Mod from Green Cabin Kits in the Pacific Northwest!

If you recall, they heavily modified our Dogtrot Mod from GreenCabinKits.com, from this...

...to this:

The husband is an engineer, and here are his words.

"We are making progress on the house, through at times it goes in fits and starts. Last time I wrote we had the basement in place. The floor quickly followed and then it rained. A lot. Then the crew put the SIP walls up. And then it rained. A lot more, to the point where we now have WolfTrot Pond in front of the house.

Copeland's note: Ok not this pond. This is the lake in front of their house, the real lake.

When the builders needed more dirt to complete back-filling around the stem walls I said they could take more from beyond the level area we'd made anticipating a garage being sited there. The plan was for them to increase the size of the already level area. Of course, they cheated and took more where I suggested but cut deeper, leaving a shallow area where rain water collects.

Putting together the SIPs!

The SIP roof was installed and the builder decided we needed a 'cool roof' under the metal roof as the slope is 1:12. This entailed completely covering the SIP OSB surface with waterproof material, then installing battens with more sheets of OSB layered on top of that, followed by more waterproof covering material.
...

Now the entire house shell is completed and as I write they are finishing installing the metal roof.

Roof is on! Now for windows and doors!

We had originally intended to use steel siding for the walls but that has had to be dropped. The original metal roof supplier that our builder was familiar with offered steel siding too but we found it was really roofing panels that were mounted vertically on walls which we felt looked too industrial.

Our builder was recommending Hardie Planking which I felt was not ideal despite their being considered recyclable materials. Cement and fiber may be recyclable but are not CO2 friendly. I searched around and found that there is a dearth of steel siding available but succeeded in eventually finding a source here. We decided to use their roofing panels as well as the Dutch Lap siding.
...

But all told, we're okay with how it's gone in general.
We're looking forward to this stage being completed(...).
Then we can get down to construction the remaining interior stud walls and installing the plumbing and wiring. At this moment I'm anticipating doing much of that myself.
...

Beautiful M!!!!

We've been waiting for the local utility company to come and install a new power pole where they want to situate the transformer for our property. The request was made over three months ago and we're still waiting.

If I thought we could still afford it I'd go straight to a solar configuration but that will require a standby generator and batteries too. There is no natural gas supply nearby so I would have to either install a propane or diesel tank for fuel for the generator. Propane pricing can be more volatile that diesel and diesel is more energy efficient but the generators cost more as well.

Windows going in on the passive solar modern prefab house!

I scheduled a visit by a solar contractor but he never showed up!
He also never returned my calls after that.
(...) 20-30 years ago you could get anything done with a few phone calls. Today it seems like pulling hens teeth to even get someone interested in doing anything. I estimate that less than 10 percent of the contractors I asked for quotes have even bothered to respond.
TTFN. P.

And that's the latest from Wolftrot, a Dogtrot Mod heavily modified in the Northwest.

I am deeply grateful when clients send updates, as it seems, more often than not, that they don't.
HOWEVER I understand all to well these days writer's block and the reluctance to type out anything!
I resolve to check back with others soon.
I do know that the Austin project has sold her lot, but don't know if the project is in hiatus or for a better location. This winter the architect made a round of changes, but I have not heard more.

So back to our own life, off-grid, in a modern prefab house from Green Modern Kits.

We continue to make a farm kid out of the "I'm From The 3rd Largest City In China" teen.

The two other teens
played a joke on him
which somehow involved
a chicken.

NO CHICKENS IN THE HOUSE!

An introduction to chickens, and chicken handling, followed.
But not in the HOUSE, kids! Geez.

At the Amish auction, he learned to load hay.

He learned the beauty of
all kinds of junk food in country stores.
To my organic chagrin.

Over winter, we headed back-and-forth into the city, and I did my usual temperature comparisons of outdoors vs. indoors-in-the-prefab-house-that-hadn't-been-heated-in-days.

In Virginia, our average temperatures in winter are in the 20s-40s. I have never arrived, after days without heat, to the interior of the prefab house in the 40s.

Usually in real winter weather, when I arrive in the prefab home after night after night in the 20s, I find it in the mid/high 50s. I fire up the cookstove, and it takes awhile, I don't turn on the radiant heat or fans to blow it even or anything; but the temperature rises to cozy soon enough.

When I arrive, I like to walk around the prefab home with my little laser temperature reader and sniff for any indication there are leaks in the door frames or windows. So far, after all these years... no.

In the following pictures, I fell asleep super early and let the cook stove burn out for a night when it was 14 degrees.

If you fell asleep in YOUR house tonight, with no heat, and it was 14 outside, to what temperatures would *you* wake?

I like to walk around the prefab with my little laser temperature reader after nights like this and see. It's certainly not toasty, but it's certainly not cold. (After this I lit the fire and then I was toasty with hot coffee and a beautiful day!)

Look closely in these pictures and you'll see the laser point on the wall.

Laser pointer on the art, now. Temperatures in this test were 59-64 I think.
Fluctuation due not to insulation
but to what rooms were semi-closed / height
(I did not have fans running, either.)
Did I mention it was 14 degrees?!?

Winter at the off grid prefab house has been pretty gray this year.
Lots... and lots... of gray.

Keep it colorful with friends!
That's why this time of year is Visitin' Season.

When it's gross and gray, I make a big pot of stew and invite friends. As much as I want everything in place and tidy at the prefab house, these concrete floors were made for friends and dogs and romping...

Happiness is a sink full of dirty dishes after a great evening.

A messy kitchen = remnants of good times.

TTFN...!
Ta
Ta...
for now
from the off-grid prefab home.

Modern Prefab House Construction Project Update On The West Coast While Our Prefab Home Teems With Teens On The East Coast

2019-12-11T09:19:00.000-05:00

Fall Flies Into Winter At Our Off Grid Prefab House.
I have been avoiding writing, not for any reason other than it's just not that fun anymore... writer's block envelopes my keys...

BUT. Then a kind reader emailed me and asked when I would post! You made my day, and made me want to start clack clack clacking again on the keyboard, because I *do* have things to say.

Ten Years In At Our Own Prefab House
I love it. I still love it. I love the small square footage, the energy efficiency, the layout, and am so... centered and happy and comforted when I'm home.
I love living off-grid.

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Even on dreary days I am happy at home. The endless slushing rain broke for a moment, so I hurried out to feed the horses and let out the chickens, then THIS! I am always grateful when the farm gets me outside to see things I would not otherwise from the comfort of the toasty off-grid prefab. 💛💛💛 . . #offgridlife #prefab #prefabhouse #prefabhome #offgrid #WhatMattersMost #NetZero #netzerohome #rainbow #farmLife

A post shared by Green Modern Kits (@offgridprefab) on Dec 1, 2019 at 7:33am PST

SURE there are things I would improve / change / work on in the prefab house finishing, don't we all have something to tweak? I mean, there are still small areas of the SIP we still haven't finished covering! That is the downside when one decides to "do the interior finishing on their own."

Let's tweak the dog. WHAT A MESS!
(But we love him...)

Prefab Home Project Update
Our sweet clients P&M sent in this update a few weeks ago from the west coast!

If you recall, they heavily modified our Dogtrot Mod from GreenCabinKits.com, from this...

...to this:

They are also clients who decided to take the lead on their project, something I advise the average residential client from doing. But this client is an engineer.

I have appreciated our client's frank insights.

His engineering background, world scope, and adventuresome, creative spirit have all been key to their construction and prefab house kit modification experience.

"Hi Copeland. Sorry I've been ignoring you. Our situation got messy for a while but now we're back on track if somewhat behind our original hoped-for schedule.

We had two problems to overcome. First was the dearth of interest from local builders here on the Oregon coastal strip, between the coastal range and the Pacific. The people that call themselves contractors or builders are really just interested in doing as little as they can to make a modest income. They are happier doing remodels than build a new structure and have absolutely no interest in learning anything new. That has resulted in all the work having been done by businesses I found inland (...).

Second, and perhaps our biggest problem was our desire to have a one level home and garage, in anticipation that one day one of us might be in a wheel chair and need easy access from garage to house without assistance. This became a huge problem when we tried to get grading estimates to create a suitable flat plot on our lakefront sloping lot. No one was prepared to commit they could do it and quote a price or they simply said it was too big a job for them to take on.

I wanted to get a contractor to grade the best they could so we could see what we had to work with as we couldn't finalize the house and garage design until we knew the amount of flat land we could create. M. didn't want to spend the money to grade until we knew we could afford to build what we wanted but we couldn't get final building quotations until we had a final design. One might say we had a serious Catch 22 situation.

We eventually resolved the problem by deciding to just go ahead and build the house, with a basement to reduce the amount of dirt to be brought in, planning to add a possibly smaller garage, with a ramp between it and the house. We contracted with a young contractor from the valley who showed up with a small Kubota backhoe and he set to work. One week later we had our house flat pad done and the excavation for the basement done too. He also flat graded the area where we want to build our garage which came out around 6' above the house pad.

One week later we had the builder who will be doing our SIP construction on site installing the formers for the foundation and pouring concrete. A few more days later they were back setting up the formers for the stem walls and the ICF structure for the basement walls. This past week they came and finished the concrete pouring for the stem walls and ICF. The next step will be installing the joists and floors so the SIP can be set on top of them.

At some point as the SIP builder's designer was talking with me I asked why he'd decided to have the floor joists installed using metal hangers inside the concrete stem walls. He said he always did that. I said that would make it very difficult to route electrical wiring up from the crawl space as I'd have to carve my way through concrete to get to the base of the SIPs and access the molded channels. I suggested he reduce the height of the stem walls by a foot and lengthen the 12" floor joists so they could sit on top of the stem walls, then it would be easy to drill up through the floor between the joists to run wires up into the SIP walls above. Savings eliminating the steel brackets and reduced concrete required came out a wash with the extra cost for the slightly longer joists.

Ironically it now looks as though the level of the house floors will be only a foot or two below the garage pad. It should be easy to have a shallow ramp between the garage side door and mud room/laundry entrance. We might even be able to make it level by grading the garage pad a little lower and using the extra dirt for raising some areas around the lot to better manage water runoff and access to the basement and lakefront.
...

You'll see the WolfTrot still has the basic layout of your Dogtrot Mod prefab design but it has evolved a lot with all the revisions I had to make. ... We ended up with (...) more conventional doors at each end. However, I did have the designer incorporate the necessary headers (lintels in English) so that if I get the chance I'll be able to open up both ends and install wide opening doors without having to rebuild the walls above. Prego! It's in there! Do you remember that advert for pasta sauce? It's in there!

I will be taking lots of pictures of the construction process and will send some when I can. At this moment we have all the materials and labor scheduled to build the shell, roof, walls, siding, doors and windows with all the critical weather sealing so we anticipate a sealed shell to work inside possibly around the end of October or early November.

Now I'm focused on scheduling the septic tank and drain field installations as soon as all the heavy equipment has left the lot, along with electrical power and plumbing. I hadn't planned to be my own prime contractor but was prepared to if I had to. ... I've learned just how many decisions cascade into more decisions and on and on. It's like kicking one stone that hits a few more and they even more and soon you have an avalanche. Make a poor decision of delay making one and it can present more and more issues later. Planning ahead helps but if you don't know what you don't know ...

You can't teach experience but I feel I'm learning a heck of a lot as we've been doing this. Getting the high level decisions made, such as roof and siding colors or floor treatments are hard (...). But deciding where you need every electrical outlet, the amperage of each circuit, the location and interaction of the necessary switches and finding an electrician that won't rip out the SIP insulation because he's never worked with it before... It's challenging. I'm almost at the point where I just may decide to do all the remaining work myself. Take my time and be sure it's done well, correctly and safely.

In Oregon, home owners can do their own building as long as it passes building code inspection. I've discussed this with our local city building inspector and he's very supportive. The only work I can't do is the septic system and I'll be happy for a contractor to do that and I do have a reasonable quote from a company in the valley. I had hoped we'd in the house for Xmas but now I'll be glad if we can be in by Easter.

I never expected to be living in our 36' coach for this long. But we're doing fine and the coach was well built and is holding up fine. A lesser RV would not have lasted as well we're sure. All the solid oak cabinetry is very solid so the repeated openings and closings of cupboards, drawers and sliding room doors had not resulted in any structural problems. It has made us realize that although we are living in just 300 square feet of space, all our "stuff" is nearby in another 750 square feet of storage space, so we really have 1000 square feet of distributed living accommodation.

Although our previous house was around 2000 square feet we probably actually lived in just half of it. Our new home will be around 2000 square feet too and we'll mostly live in just half of that too. The rest is just room to "spread out" or entertain when you want to. I'll admit the few trips we've made, usually to potential vendors or a car club outing have been great to get a change on scenery. And it's nice to be able to enjoy a long shower in a bigger space than the one in our coach when we've stayed overnight in hotels, but then it's still nice to come back to our home and relax.

Everyone who has seen what we're doing likes what they see.
Most think we're crazy but at the same time you can detect some envy. In a few weeks we'll be able to at least sit in a couple of folding beach chairs, with perhaps a scotch and soda in hand, inside our weatherproof, lakefront shell and look out at our new world.

But not for long. There will still be much to do.

Watch this space for future developments...
P&M"

(I have enjoyed so much getting to know P&M through their prefab house project, and clearly, you can see why!!!!)

And At OUR Off Grid Prefab House...
We have not two, but THREE teenagers this school year!
WELCOME, K!
Our "second son" hails from the third-largest city in China, but has adapted to Life In Population 40 (and the nearby Southern City) well.

He is not complaining.

We are making a farm kid out of him!

Yeah, the other teen is still doing that awful "hard" look for photos, hence why I hate writing a blog.

Our weekends have been taken up with never-ending teen horse shows, dances, and slumber parties.

(Thank you to the photographer David Hale for this!)

I am looking forward to cozily curling up in winter at the off grid prefab house and just relaxing, having friends over, making lots and lots of food on the cookstove...

Visiting with neighbors.
Oh look, is that a smile on Teen 1? Yay!

Nephew #3

Thanksgiving!

Random Thoughts:
Because it's not my blog without a bunch of random thoughts, right?

Exchange Program

Hosting children from other parts of the world is... gosh, I can't begin on it now but will later, so many things to cherish, but it led to another thought: when our own kids are older (thus not hosting high school children) wouldn't it be great to host college students?

Bear with me- here is my thought process-
One of the school's fellow host families is hosting a girl from Germany. "We had boys, now are empty-nesters, and thought it would be fun to have a girl!" I was thinking that might be something WE do as well, once our teens are off and away... and then it also occurred to me that if one was an empty nester close to universities and colleges... wouldn't it be cool to have a program where you could sign up to have a student of need (financially? Rural to city and anxious about being on their own?) live with you semester to semester?

They would get free board, in exchange for having to put up with you (me), who would mostly leave them alone but offer them dinner and a dollop of love?

Granny Annie's Candy

Ok I'm back from the store. CUTE CANDY ALERT!!!!

All last winter we would visit with an elderly friend slowly succumbing to heart failure. She was everybody's "granny" and SO beloved. In town on errands, I would go to the German grocery Lidl and get "fancy" European candy that delighted her, being in such a rural area... you should have seen her beautiful smile, how her face lit up when we would walk in and announce, "CANDY DELIVERY!!!!" I now have a medical condition where the ingredients in that candy would now kill me, lol, so it was so much fun to get her all that fancy cool colorful stuff I could no longer have!

She passed this summer, and it was not until the cold weather set in that I really began mourning her absence. Visiting her had become part of my Friday route- first to my friend's Amish store, then to Grannie Annie, then on to the next errand... this week I just really felt blue and lonely... and then I knew. Today I am going to the store. I will buy whatever colorful candy that strikes me, and then, when I'm out and about, bumping into friends (and heck, maybe even strangers), I'll hand them a box of Grannie Annie candy.

P.s. I was looking for the link to the newspaper article to show people a little bit about her (like her desire to knit 1,000 sweaters for children in need), and found something awesome- a VIDEO! (And for those who did not know her, yes she reached her goal!)

Kehinde Wiley's Rumors of War Criticisms, Considered

Watch this video for an overview of Rumors of War.
(Take a slow look at 7:10ish! What are the chances?!?)

I would like to address criticism of the Kehinde Wiley statue, as some of it has great merit.

Y'all.
Kehinde Wiley does not look like his statue
at all.
Unless, of course,
all you can see is black.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Critics of Kehinde Wiley's Rumors of War, created as the artist's response to seeing the Confederate statues on Richmond's Monument Avenue, denigrate it as fabricated for the artist's self-glorification, a mere fiction that aims to confuse, a trouble-making piece of art that will only inflame our differences.

Privately funded by supporters of the arts, this statue is art, correctly placed on the grounds of an art museum.

Instead of seeing it as

a vain

self-glorifying portrait of the artist,

consider that this art represents not a fictional figure but "Everyman" - every person who ever looked at Confederate monuments and recognized that those historical figures would have enslaved them,

and thus fought back,

over multiple eras,

to today.

Divisive this is not (another criticism leveled) as enslavement is something we all decry, no?

Looking at data, who can argue the war was not fought over slavery?

From American Battlefield Trust

Rumors of War is Anyone-Who-Would-Have-Been-Enslaved's response to monuments erected to people who fought for the right to enslave, and more.

Rumors of War, Times Square, with Teen 2

"At the Times Square unveiling, Wiley talked about how the inspiration for 'Rumors of War' came from his visit to Richmond and encountering the monuments on Monument Avenue.

'I’m a black man looking up at those things that give me a sense of dread and fear,' Wiley said at the unveiling. 'What does that feel like physically to walk a public space and to have your state, your country, your nation say, "This is what we stand by." No. We demand more. Today, we say yes to something that looks like us. To broader notions of what it means to be an American.' ”

To broader notions of what we citizens of the United States all uphold:
our freedom.

Can't we all identify with Wiley's Everyman fiercely resisting the scourge of slavery that persists not just in our state, but worldwide, today?

For those who still attest that statues on Monument Avenue should only be erected for real historic figures, your point is valid. We need statues to real, historic figures who, under tyrannically oppressive unjust laws, rebelled to organize and fight back for their families' rights.

Overdue in recognition and honor on Monument Avenue is another real Virginian who displayed military prowess and bravery, rallying about 1,000 Virginians (estimates range from 2,000 to 50,000) in another failed rebellion:

Gabriel.

Our Chinese "son" visiting the American Civil War Center.

To Heritage-Not-Hate people: you think Rumors of War is inciteful and misleading (which it is not). What IS inciteful is waving Confederate memorabilia as today it is (still) used to threaten people of color.

My neighbors know this well.

"A bitter feud between black and white households in a remote corner of Charlotte County has taken an ominous turn after one of the families hung a rope in the shape of a noose from a tree in front of their home, flanked on both sides by Confederate flags."

As a nation we try to emulate higher ethics than we might, as individuals, personally have.

In my heart I know

that

if anyone enslaved, raped, and murdered

MY family

not only would I fully intend to kill them

but I would slay their seed slowly

until all was dust.

So "conservatives" who are actually on the fringe, consider: you mock "Libtard snowflakes" for being offended by your flags (where they today are *still* used to intimidate), yet you can't handle art?

More on Kehinde Wiley and his thoughts on Confederate monuments, here.

For many reasons, I agree with his feelings to not take them down but to add voices and information and dialogue.

More Interesting History:

How the autobiography of a Muslim slave is challenging an American narrative:

Reading Club:

How Can They Afford This When I Can't?

Honestly I disagree anyone should feel they have the right to know how individual, private people get (or spend) their money. But looking at faceless data provides insight into financial trends, that one can then use to compare and evaluate oneself.
The "Everybody Seems Wealthy" Illusion

And with that, TTFN.

Reminiscing Yet Onward With Prefab Modern House Updates! With, Well, Lotsa Reminiscing. But Onward.

2019-10-09T13:00:00.002-04:00

At Green Modern Kits we finally head into fall, but first, some summer / fall prefab green home project updates!

Greetings from the off grid prefab house, the casa ti from Green Modern Kits!
It is good to be home.

After a summer of back and forth, we are all happy to be at the off grid prefab house.

Don't get me wrong, we appreciate every moment away on the bay. But it is so good to be steadily home, vs. back-and-forth! I wish magic carpets existed, because I do not enjoy any drive.

There is something calm, steady and comforting to be home at the off-grid prefab house after the frenzied summer.

Off-grid lawnmowers are always working.

Not that summer wasn't fun.

And not that the bay is that different. We are surrounded by friends, who are family.

Even at the bay we still wave to the ISS, and it is always exciting.

Thriftin' with a friend.

Found some stuff.
Some mid-century modern stuff.
Some Knoll Bertoia stuff.

A special deep, grateful thank you to
our 150 year old guardian, protector of our family:
the grand ole RAMSHACKLE.
LOVE HER!
She really DID save us this summer, and forever.
A true lady, a gracious host.

Welp... Let's move on to our latest modern prefab house project updates, as I have not been writing much lately, due to the children's busy teen years- now filled with college tours and horse shows!

From our sister modern prefab cabin Green Cabin Kits projects, we had an update from a client building a modern prefab, the CornerHouse, in the southwest.

Modern prefab cabin, CornerHouse, from Green Cabin Kits.

"...The site itself is located in a recreation area called the 'Granite Dells', an area of exposed Precambrian bedrock which is over 1.4 billion years old. Over time, the rock has eroded to form spectacular vistas of boulders that seem to be delicately balanced into most interesting formations, which are very popular with hikers and rock climbers alike.

...

The uniqueness of the geography does not come without its challenges, as homes in this area often require significant engineering to account for the granite outcroppings and silty, decomposed granite soils.

As of late, the area has also become known for its unique architecture, with several modern homes dotting its otherworldly landscape, as well as geodesic domes, cave castles and earth ships."

When undertaking this project, Justin put great deal of care into finding a design that would complement the unique beauty of the area and when he first discovered the CornerHouse plan 2013, he knew immediately it would be a perfect fit.

Read more about this modern prefab cabin project, here!

Regarding our modern prefab home project outside of San Francisco, it went through... iterations.

Here is our two story modern prefab house, the R1 Residential, "as is."

If you recall, we made custom modifications for the client, adding lots of fun features including a roof deck on the addition, and a back balcony:

Thus leaving our hands, further changes were made (notably the windows) and this is what was built:

(images via Google)

We have more prefab house project updates to come, notably from the Northwest, the deep south, back to the southwest... and more.

Soon.

In the meantime, let's rest up and embrace being back at our off grid prefab house, the casa ti from Green Modern Kits.

I just want to curl up with a good book, start cooking stews, have a little quiet time after the frolicking rollicking summer...

Ahhhhh...

Wait. What's that noise?

Though it is good to be home, the teens DID have a great time over summer in their travels.

Hangin' with James Dean.

(If you are wondering he is second on the left...)

I returned home with gifts for sister.

(Or, as cowgirls say,
you can just punch them in the throat.)

It is now time to busy ourselves with winter.

There are still holz hausens to build, and things to be done.
WINTER IS COMING...

Right when you think you can kick back and just busy yourself with green building...

the college tours and equestrian shows begin.

Geez.

Speaking of teens and college tours, we had a great time visiting the talented, wonderful green-building architect of Green Modern Kits's casa ti, David Day, and his wonderful wife during a recent university tour!

It was SO GOOD to see old friends.

And thus, fall begins.

Stay tuned.

Summer Recipes:
(I am clearly having a craving for sweet and sour and creamy this week, no?)

This Is Either A Bad Idea Or A Really Good Idea, Fig Pasta
'Cause you have figs. And bean salad. Why not.

Make a day ahead: a delicious bean salad with fave beans (this time, kidney), minced garlic, onion, sweet and sour (ACV and brown sugar) with a tang of mustard (wasabi powder) and sea salt and let sit 24 hours.
Then...

In a pan sautee onions then add homegrown quartered figs, cherry tomatoes, some chicken sausage
Cooke penne al dente then add to pan + bean salad and stir
Top with fresh basil
If I didn't have alpha-gal I would totally add goat cheese. Sob.
P.s. It was a good idea!
Pining for Pimento Tomato Pie

Instead of the usual tomato pie, try it with pimento cheese and fresh basil! I always use oat flour for crust, it makes it more crispy. And of course we have to use vegan butter and cheese because of alpha-gal, good news: no one else has to! 😂

So butter the pie tin, make your crust (but add oregano basil thyme and sea salt to the dough), lay it out...
Now bake the crust a few minutes.
Take it out, spread just a little Dukes around, and then layer: Sliced tomatoes (ripe Romas are better than juicy beefsteaks) Minced onions Sprinkled with fresh basil Farm Dust or fave herbed salt Dollops of pimento cheese...
Bake!

Pro tip: don't make it too cheesy! Focus on the tomatoes! Drain any juice from the tomatoes or it gets soggy! So often tomato pie is just very mayonnaise cheesy and it's so delicious when it's really more vegetable.

A CANAPE PLATTER! The usual cucumber sandwiches, radish canapes (all made alpha-gal safe, of course)... and...

Liverwurst With Figs
Oh my gosh SO GOOD- make chicken pate by sauteeing onions, then add chicken livers in a teeny bit of water, with tarragon and sea salt. Make sure it's done but not overdone! DRAIN any liquid. Puree with a dollop of jam in a food processor. Spread onto toasted bread, top with a quartered fig!

And of course, the usual canning / seafood / feeding lotsa teens.

Roasted peppers canned with garlic are heaven in winter...

Shrimpzzzzzzzzzzz Bubba. Just saute up diced onYON, garlic, peppers, then add yer shrimpz. Sprinkle liberally with sea salt and herbs or Farm Dust or try another herb combo you fancy. Serve on the porch with a bowl for shells, cloth napkins, and cold beer.

Or make a seafood soup with the above ingredients but add in broth, celery tomatoes and a dash of lemon...

Try making a savory / sweet garlicky bean salad
but with fresh corn and red peppers!

Homemade bread topped with mayo, chicken
tossed with a fave vinegar olive oil basil tomatoes...

And thus, with memories of a fun summer buoyed by friends...

Sailor race team parents working HARD!

...we edge into autumn, off grid, at our modern prefab home.

Being home means we're stuck in traffic, again...

Coffee with my besties!

Modern Prefab Cabin Project Construction News! Wolftrot Sends Prefab House Updates!

2019-07-16T12:31:00.000-04:00

Our own off grid passive solar prefab house from Green Modern Kits.

SUMMER IS HERE!
I am waaaaaay overdue on prefab house construction project updates!

There are a lot, so let's take it over a few prefab house construction posts instead of all at once.

As I have mentioned, I used to post all the time, but have lost my joy of writing.
Not because of work, but because...
we're in the teen years.

Teen 1 and Teen 2 are great,
doing well, flourishing...
but they're teens.

(However, I did get a few pictures of them smiling! Here you go:)

Ok fine he's super cute...

She's pretty cute too...

But they're... teens.
So... I don't feel like writing!

Thankfully, our wonderful clients are interesting, kind, and happy to provide us the words!

Let's start with the prefab modern home from our sister modern prefab site, Green Cabin Kits, in the Pacific Northwest, then next up will be the Arizona CornerHouse, the Dogtrot Mod underway in Austin, then an update on the Lake Tahoe projects, and on.

Without further ado, I present updates on our *modified* Dogtrot Mod in the pacific northwest, Wolftrot, from my favorite English-engineer-moved-to-the-USA-once-lived-in-a-castle-now-wants-a-prefab couple!

For reference, you can see the original prefab modern cabin house Dogtrot Mod, here.

This update is in two parts, one from April, one from June.

The clients were encountering delays because of site-specific issues like grading challenges, and local material challenges. Let's start with the local material challenge: CONCRETE.

On a sloping lot, with a desire for slab -and- a half basement, our clients have run into some concrete vendor and application issues, one of them being that a British company has purchased all the local concrete plants and, upon taking ownership, significantly increased concrete costs.

So they were looking at alternatives.

We are always interested in green building solutions to construction dilemmas.
In our own prefab home, we used fly-ash to offset our concrete's carbon footprint.

Our own prefab house is on slab.

Some green building alternatives to concrete foundations include

From SmartCities Dive:
"Screw piles also take a lot less time to install and this makes for a shorter project time. In turn, they also require far fewer people to install than a traditional foundation. Fewer people means less energy required and a lower carbon foot print.
...
The process is also safer than the one used to install a concrete foundation, which means there is less risk for the work force. Of course, the reduced costs of all of the aforementioned is also something that needs to be mentioned.

Concrete foundations do have their place, however screw piles can be used for a vast amount of the foundation work in modern building. They offer a far more eco-friendly alternative to the traditional methods and are also lower in cost and thus have become increasingly popular in the last decade or so."

They are also looking at creative solutions for their grading challenges to make them financially feasible.

The cool green building solution items of note is that, my client states,

"First, I believe I've found a grader that will provide a better lot contour that will reduce the need for importation of additional materials. Second, I'm getting a quotation from Goliath Piles for screw pilings to be installed for the building foundations. This can eliminate all or a significant portion of the concrete required in the construction. At least one builder we're talking with sees this as having huge potential here in the local market where most homes get built on sand that has historically required concrete raft foundations."

These grading challenges also present added costs with lugging construction materials to the job site, including the SIP.

Now as you know I am totally okay with a client not using SIP *if* they are choosing an energy-efficient, reputable, green building, LEED-embraced solution.

BUT you have to understand comparing apples to apples, and oranges to oranges, if you want your organic fruit salad financial numbers to match!

Boy do I appreciate SIP's energy efficiency
in extreme temperatures!

So if you're considering not using SIP, make sure you not just factor in the material cost "to frame" or "to insulate" but to frame *and* insulate, projected cost savings through efficiency, and even then, how do you guarantee that an alternate insulation method was done correctly and at what R value?

That is why we sell our prefab house kit package as not just the design documents, but design documents hand in hand with SIP, so that you *know* your home will be evenly, consistently, and guaranteed at a good R value, with proven structural integrity.

In June, I received more updates from the Wolftrot project!
"We have now had our well drilled and capped at 260 feet deep. We are seeing just 3.5 gallons a minute from around 60 feet down but got no more the deeper we went. The well driller said we could go to 300 feet before risking any increase in salinity despite us only being around 60 feet above seal level and around four miles as the crow flies from the Pacific Ocean. I decided to stop at 260 as that means we'll have 200 feet of water (26 - 60) down the well which equals around 300 gallons plus whatever we keep in our above ground pressure tank. I'm thinking we'll go for at least 40 gallons in the tank (i.e. an 80 gallon tank) and perhaps more just to reduce the pump cycles and extend the pump life. It will be a dollar trade off, depending n the cost of a replacement pump vs the incremental cost of a bigger tank.

Our planned home drawings are about final.
We've had them reviewed by the structural engineers and used their feedback to size the roof beams accordingly. Now our draftsman is detailing the interior so we can get final price quotations for the interior work. We're hoping to have the gross numbers in hand in a week or two for the foundations, footings, floor, walls and roof structures, with windows and metal roof and siding included. We can't quite finalize the deal as we're still trying to get a blasted grader to come and prepare the lot ready for the foundations. I may have to buy a 4x4 tractor, loader, backhoe and grading attachments and just do it myself!

I'm attaching the latest renderings of the house.
Ignore the colors.
Well, not all of them.

The roof is correct as shown in charcoal grey, the siding will be light grey, the rear trim (frames, sashes, fascias, etc we want mid-grey) and the decking will be stained a dark natural wood color.

At the front M. has insisted we only have the one double door to the sunroom (But I've specified we will have the lintel in place to open the wall up at a later date if I can get away with it. I'm planning to use Dutch doors (double for the basement and sunroom, single for the entry door) so we can have just the upper panels open with removable glass or bug screen panels depending on the seasons.

I've had the RV barn eliminated from the garage structure to shrink the building outline and give us some options for later modifications. But I've also had the garage drawn so we can build it quickly using SIPs if the price works out okay. Getting the structure weatherproof quickly will be a serious consideration given the heavy rain historically starts in October.

We visited the metal roof and siding manufacturer last week and saw the various grades and designs. It was well worth the trip. We both feel better about the quality of the materials and the finishes. I've been wanting to add a flash of color on the siding around the front of the guest room structure to 'break up' the amount of grey. M. balked at using red barn as a shade on vertical steel siding. I then tried a light yellow which she though better but balked at the vertical siding panels. At the manufacturer, we saw how they had cleverly covered their large structure with roofing and siding panels in very creative ways and M. liked it! Now I just have to get her to sit down with me and agree how we're going to create the visual break I want. We'll get there.

The problem is I want to color the dutch door panels (not the braces) with the same color we use for the contrast on the guest house. BTW, the trim will all be white in the front of the house. My idea is that the rear of the structure will be modern NW style contemporary while the front is more rural/craftsman style. We've even figured out how to create a front porch over the front deck and entryway that M. wanted.

You can expect to see a couple of traditional style rocking chairs on that porch.
I anticipate they will never get used.

That's all for now. I'll send the pictures soon, after I've added the well drilling shots."

THANK YOU WOLFTROT clients for the updates!
(And don't ever underestimate the power of a good rocking chair! I suspect our sweet clients will find MANY quiet happy moments in them, even as busy as they are!)

I hope you all have a great summer, I promise to post much more over the summer following up on the other prefab house construction project updates.
Meanwhile, here are a few pictures, and a few summer recipes, of our summer back-and-forth from the off grid prefab house, to the bay.
: )

Recipes:
Dilled Crab Soup
This is so freakin' rich and delicious!

Roughly pulse equal amounts of cucumber (1/2 skin off) and avocado with a little less onion, sea salt, pepper, dill, vegetable broth, (vegan = alpha-gal safe) sour cream, and lime juice. Chill and let flavors blend, serve topped with crab and diced cucumber.

Amished Up Southern Staple 'Mater Sandwich
I Amished up a southern classic: fresh white bread, local tomatoes, Duke's mayo... and Farm Dust. My Amish friend turned me on to this Himalayan salt & herb blend, it is tasty on everything!

And then there's this recipe...

Is this what empty nesting will be like?!?

And thus, until I post the next prefab construction update (for which I now have MULTIPLE posts so I'd better get writing!), I leave you with... pictures of... teens.

Ok fine THEY are super cute...

They are ALL adorable!
We will get through the cranky teen years!

But we are having fun.

TTFN

(As my English clients say: Taa Taaaaaaaaaa... For Now. : ) )

Ok maybe we'll survive this teen stuff.

Getting through the teen years with
GOOD FRIENDS, on A BOAT!

On the Schooner Virginia, to be exact!
Happy birthday W!

So GRATEFUL to have our beloved Ramshackle
to protect us. Summers of back-and-forth would
never be possible without her love and protection.

Each year we work on her, fixing yet another thing.

Here's a teen working hard on
The Ramshackle's subflooring.

Here's a teen working on burying the internet cable.

These kids really are hard workers.

They... not so much.

Birthday present- I love the Moomins!

Always something to work on...

Now she's working on her Papi.

Lawnmowers working hard... wait.
"Aaaaaaaa! That's my garden!!!"

With good friends, we enjoyed
A SAIL WITHOUT TEENS!!!!

Anyhoo.
We'll be back with more prefab house project updates, soon!

In the meantime, TTFN.

Modern Prefab House Project Updates With Off Grid Living While Surviving Teens

2019-03-01T15:54:00.003-05:00

It is winter at our off grid prefab house.
I know we are overdue for a prefab project (and off grid life at the prefab) update, aren't we?

Between prefab projects and meetings and racing around with teens, it has been hard to sit down, slow down, and spend time typing out these days... but I will try!

My usual off grid prefab experiments continue
where I let the stove burn out overnight
(or barely stay via embers)
and see what I wake to.

Prefab Project / Architecture Firm News:
Congratulations to the architecture firms behind our passive solar prefab homes!

The architect behind our traditional line of passive solar cottage prefab homes
at Green Cottage Kits!

This winter, Gelotte Hommas Drivdahl Architecture, the genius behind beautiful, custom architecture in Seattle / the Pacific Northwest, but *also* of our traditional prefab cottages at Green Cottage Kits, won best of Houzz! Congratulations to them!!!

And Damon Pearson, the architect of our Green Cabin Kits modern prefab homes, is busy in New York with his colleagues at 3North speaking on their work with the American Civil War Museum, and how he used the firm's IQ process to align with the museum's vision.

Here is the latest on what is happening with our current prefab home projects:

I can't talk about an upcoming CornerHouse prefab project yet
(from our modern prefab line at Green Cabin Kits)...

But in both project quotes, the quotes look great,
on target with what I tell people are "guesstimates" for prefab fabrication.
And guess what?!? This just in: the Arizona CornerHouse is a GO!
SO EXCITING!!!

My lack of writing does not come from having nothing to write about, but because I used to really enjoy writing and no longer much do.

Did I mention teens are experts in everything?
Maybe they should tell us all about green building.

WHY? Because I am a parent of teens, and that is not as much fun to write about, lol!

So let's talk about prefab projects and off grid living instead of teens!

As I have mentioned, when clients take our design documents and modify them, that means they have a new timeframe- because you need to get in line with the engineer's (and *everyone's* schedules) already-busy project list (vs. a quick run-through of getting through permitting), and only THEN be able to submit for permitting.

The more changes, the more time, the more lines to get into.

So Wolftrot (the Dogtrot Mod in the Pacific Northwest) and the R1 Residential on Lake Tahoe and La Rancho Pistola (our Dogtrot Mod project outside of Austin) are still in the permitting / engineering process, as they have all made changes (and on the Wolftrot and Lake Tahoe R1 Residential, the changes are major, hence much more time).

The R1 Residential on Lake Tahoe wants their project to remain private, so there will be no interior finished shots unless, later, they change their mind.

We have several types of clients- those who enjoy sharing (while maintaining their privacy of name and address), those who want to share their business name and are happy to be contacted by other enthusiasts who then give them business (like Amber Gunn of Amber Gunn Realty, who is already speaking to local Austin modern enthusiast groups on her green building / prefab project experience!) and those who want to be totally invisible. As you know, reading this blog for a decade, I never use names, addresses, etc. UNLESS the client wants me to, like the following two projects below!

Through the Lake Tahoe R1 Residential prefab house project, we met the fabulous design firm, Integrity Design, and are excited to announce a NEW prefab house project with them, a Dogtrot Mod modern prefab house from our Green Cabin Kits line, also in the Lake Tahoe area! The synergy between our companies regarding design and culture makes working together easy and fun. I'm very excited to see this new project come to fruition and look forward to sharing every detail with our enthusiasts.

As I just mentioned, not FIVE MINUTES AGO I received the exciting news that one of the CornerHouse quotes (the modern two story prefab house from Green Cabin Kits) is a GO!!!

Here the client even sent in how it would be placed on their lot!

I guess, even with teens, I will be writing a LOT MORE through the year with all these prefab projects under construction at the same time!!!

And How IS Life At Our Own Off Grid Prefab House These Days?

Ten years in, the SIP prefab house is energy efficient and... yeah, we are still working on it!
When you build a farm from scratch, there is always something to do.

I might not be writing a lot (arrrrrrgh teens!) but I am still taking videos, and you might find them helpful in imagining what it is like to live, off grid in an energy efficient prefab house, as dire weather surrounds you.

Maybe I just should start vlogging life at the passive solar prefab house... but that would be annoying.

Speaking of, I *do* have a video showing what it is like to arrive after a week away from the off grid prefab house in winter:

Below is another winter blizzard video, and how the off grid energy efficient prefab house allows us to be cozy, comfortable, and relaxed where we can just enjoy the snow.

As long as you are prepared (and we always are, off grid at the prefab house), bad weather can be serene, even fun.

This one is a good reminder on energy-efficiency of SIP:

Oh, wait! I forgot to make my green building / prefab house point!

HERE you go:

It was an impressive snowstorm.

...and more notes on how you can see the lack of heat escaping from the roof of the prefab house:

AAAAAND some pretty videos, just because they're happily... pretty.

So please excuse my lapse in writing.
But CHECK OUT this BEAUTIFUL sunset!

...and a beautiful sunrise.

"We went down into the silent garden. Dawn is the time when nothing breathes, the hour of silence. Everything is transfixed, only the light moves."
- Leonora Carrington
"Except the ROOSTER..."
- Copeland Casati

Ahhhh the teen years...
It just occurred to me that I really am more miserable than I should be.
(And before you start tsk-tsking, do know we are firm parents.)

I need to break free of these teens
and do whatever the heck I want!
RUN FREEEEEEEEEE, parents!

It occurred to me that there are endless parenting articles for we adults to learn about the science and psychology of developing teen brains and why that creates a self-centered stage. And of course, we as parents encourage them to get out of their centrist selfish bubble through volunteering and exposing themselves to other perspectives.

But the other day I realized that I need to no longer make it my problem as well. Maybe we adults need to stop learning and empathizing with our developing spawn and make it more
*their* problem.

MAYBE I need to be self-centered, myself.
I need to embrace *my* inner teen.

"MOMMA, hurry up, you have to take me to get my hair cut!"
"Yeaaaaaaah, I canceled that, I didn't feel like driving you anymore when I saw you didn't clean your room... we'll see how it goes next week."

Teens must have been sent to their rooms.
It's so quiet and cozy!

"MOMMA! WE ARE GOING TO BE LATE TO MY RIIIIIIDING LESSSSSSON!"
"Oh, *phew* child, I canceled that, it was too much trouble! I didn't feel like driving to another county, at the end of the day, in the rain, to then spend an hour and a half in a freezing barn with no internet after you didn't want to go for a twenty minute walk with me yesterday... yeah, that hauling you around stuff is boring, just like you said when I asked you to walk with your poor ole Momma!"

"MOMMA I want to meet friends and go skateboarding in the city! Can you take me in?"
"Hmmmmm.... nah. I no longer feel compelled to give up any of my time this week since you were really snippy with me earlier today... I'm really liking it on the farm, IT'S SO QUIET, NO ONE AROUND, plus I'm reading a really good book. Let's stay another day! Oh wait, you're throwing a fit? Nice, off you go to your room, out of sight, and now the adults get some time alone! Yay!"

See? Simple!

Suddenly I feel like writing again!
Maybe these next few years of posting on our off grid life will be allllllll about ME.

Teen years might be frustrating, but we're still having fun.

What Greenie thinks of the teen years.

What Toothless thinks of the teen years.

So, yes, looking at these sweet pictures, I guess the teen years aren't all that bad.

Teen 1 is really getting handy and helpful helping Handsome Husband (finally?) finish detail work (like trim on the interior of the prefab)!

When you finish things yourself, it takes awhile, even on a prefab house.
The prefab house kit shell was erected and weathertight in a few days.
Finishing all the little details like trim / painting etc. ourselves? Years, lol.

Isn't that door trim BEAUTIFUL?
The teen is kinda cute, too!

Teen 1 is handy with all sorts of tools, so there's that- he IS useful!

So... we'll get through this.

Another morning waking after the cookstove goes out overnight
to a comfortable prefab home.

Making pizza for teens! Ok it's all kinda fun.

And with the next post, I will have more prefab home construction updates!

Have a great weekend! Here's some more winter pictures of off grid prefab life... with teens. : )

Passive Solar Modern Prefab House Construction Updates from Green Modern Kits / Green Cabin Kits! With Off Grid Life.

2018-12-06T14:44:00.001-05:00

Psssst! Sneak peek at a big upcoming modern prefab house announcement
I can start talking about in the new year!

As usual, at my own prefab house,
when the temperatures drop
and the cookstove goes out overnight,
off grid with only a tiny firebox
heating the entire prefab house
we still wake comfortably.

At our modern prefab house companies, Green Modern Kits and Green Cabin Kits, we are having a very busy fall and winter.

Here is a quick update, and I will be going in to each passive solar modern prefab house construction project in much more detail in the coming weeks.

In general, when potential clients ask for SIP fabrication quotes from the factory, I tell them the estimated time for fabrication of the panels is about 4-5 weeks. Now, even in winter, this year I need to tell them 6-8 weeks, because that's how busy the plants are, east coast or west coast. It's not just the plants; the architects are slammed, the engineers' schedules are full... so if you are planning on purchasing a prefab home, what you need to know is that if you leave things "as is" and don't start customizing anything that would involve an architect or engineer, even so, it will be a few weeks longer than usual.

If you are really reconfiguring the prefab house design, expect much longer than you might think for this time of year, because it seems as if this summer's boom still has not ended and everyone is still going full steam ahead already before your project gets into queue! So my message to interested parties is: PLAN AHEAD. Start interviewing contractors now, not when you actually want the house to be purchased.

Now let's go over our current prefab house projects and a brief synopsis of where they stand:

The Wolftrot

This Dogtrot Mod modern prefab house from Green Cabin Kits has been modified for the Pacific Northwest and the client's lifestyle.

You can follow the Wolftrot prefab construction progress here.

As I mentioned, the clients decided to close in the breezeway between the main and guest units and create a solarium, changed the foundation, roof, and more to accommodate snow load and lifestyle choices.

These European clients have lived allllll over the world and have decided to settle on the west coast.

What makes this client particularly engaging is his quick understanding of the prefab industry, as he has a background in business, engineering, and, with his wife, has lived in architecture as diverse as restoring a hundreds of years old stone home in England, to also having built their own new homes in the States.

They are big fans of SIP, understanding that the consistent quality, energy efficiency and speed in fabrication of the structural insulated panels overcomes the slightly higher upfront price.

This prefab house will be sited discretely on this peaceful property, nestled near surrounding woods and overlooking the lake.

Currently, this project is in engineering.

The Austin Dogtrot Mod

Outside of Austin, this Dogtrot Mod modern prefab house will be a contrast to the Wolftrot in that it will be a standard, push-button prefab house as our architect envisioned. The only divergence from the design is that in order to site the modern prefab house correctly on the lot, the breezeway will be narrowed by four feet in order to remain within the easements of the urban lot, and the roofline raised.

Enjoying Austin with her family.

The client, Amber Gunn, is a savvy entrepreneur in the real estate industry. Here, the Texas native explains how she went from a degree in accounting into her love of real estate!

"While I loved financial analysis and problem solving, I didn't truly love the monotony of accounting. I was hired as a business development representative for a title company where I mentored and coached realtors. Early on, I knew that real estate was something I was very passionate about.

I got my real estate license in 2006 and my broker's license in 2008, and I haven't looked back! I created my own brokerage called Austin Domain Properties in 2008. As a Dave Ramsey Endorsed Local Provider (REAL ESTATE) and Master Financial Coach, I use my finance expertise to coach my clients in their real estate plans ranging from 1 year to the next 50 years. "

About three years ago, Amber reached out to us for information on a modern prefab house. We scheduled a conference call, and answered some general questions she had. Over time, she kept checking back, and in the fall of 2018 purchased a lot, called, and said, "I'm ready!"
And thus the process began.

Amber and son checking out their
newly-purchased lot.

What a great lot!

Currently this modern prefab house is in the engineering and permitting process, with structural insulated panels due to arrive in two months.

This Austin Texas prefab house project can be followed here.
The project shall be thus called, "La Rancho Pistola."
Amber GUNN you crack me up!!!

There is an R1 Residential modern prefab house on Lake Tahoe project...

Keep an eye on how they flip this floorplan!

A local Tahoe City design firm is adjusting the floorplan in the R1 Residential for the client, and an engineer has been engaged to adjust the roof for snow loads and local code.

The client is a modern design enthusiast, as is the designer.

What makes this prefab project interesting is that the client is flipping the floorplan- the kitchen and dining will be on the SECOND story. They are also building the R1 Residential modern addition.

The 18,000 sf lot is in an extremely restrictive zoning area, with heavy snow.

If you love Lake Tahoe you will love where this prefab is located! But for now, I will stay mum on that. : )

More details on this modern prefab house and project team, in upcoming weeks!

Currently, the quote for this modern prefab house project has been approved, and now moves to engineering, and the client wants to break ground in May.

Remember the R1 Residential Outside of San Francisco?!?
IT HAS BEEN BUILT!!!!

A *modified* R1 Residential
under construction outside San Francisco.

I am hoping to share with you interior and exterior photos very soon!

And finally, we have a Dogtrot Mod in the Northeast update!

The client enjoying the first snow of the year
in her Dogtrot Mod "Little Lab."

This client has been such a joy to work with. If you recall, she built the guest unit of the modern prefab cabin first as a retreat, while still living in her historic farmhouse.

It has finally come time to put her farmhouse on the market, and thus, she wrote that in soon she expects to re-start construction and finish the project.

Of note: she wants to finish with HEMPCRETE.

I will be re-publishing this update on our Green Modern Kits News blog in about a week, with details on the TEAM involved with each prefab- the contractor, the engineer, the interior designers, and more.

One thing to note is that a lot of these projects happen only after years of discussion, after many gentle leads turn into, suddenly, a very real project where the client has the loan, the lot is purchased, contractor lined up, and suddenly out of the blue I get that call that another prefab house is a GO.

Each prefab project and person is fascinating and is it's own vibrant journey. I enjoy learning about every client, their lot's unique character, their life.

I really love being able to work all over the USA... from the middle o' nowhere, in my own dream prefab modern home!

In OUR family and off grid life, as I have mentioned, we are ~~enduring~~ enjoying ~~the persnickety smelly moody aura of teens~~ the high school years.

Ok maybe they're not SO bad...
Ah, the teen years.

Like many families, we are doing too much, and I miss the steady confident-yet-quiet security of homeschooling on the farm, where you worked hard on your studies then spent the afternoons free outdoors. But then again, maybe back then I thought I was overwhelmed, too!

Halloween was great, Thanksgiving was great, with friends and family and even sailor friends reuniting, brushing our hair, and gussying up together. So the teen years are good.

I just miss our quiet days allllllll together, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, I guess.
The teens don't.
They want REAL SCHOOL and lots of KIDS who are not goats.

Anyhoo.
Tonight, over dinner, Teen 1 is talking about how much he wants a job.
So I put my napkin down, languidly leaned back, and said,
"Sure, we're done, pick up my dishes and clean the kitchen."

He says all the city kids have jobs.

Jobless teen busy at work.

"Well, after you're done helping the F's put up about a 1,000 bales of hay each June, after you're done teaching Code Camp for free to rural kids, after you're done letting out, feeding, and locking up the chickens horses dogs and the very-naughty donkey daily, after you have swept the house and cleaned your room, after you have folded your laundry, and after you have scrubbed the bathroom, then done your homework, and are making straight A's, AS LONG AS IT DOESN'T INTERFERE, we can talk about it.

But... kid: country families have too many jobs they already need you for in the family to hire you out."

Replacing a well pressure tank
bladder instead of
just going out and buying a new one.
This teen has skillz!

I prefer he work as a programmer wherever we are and earn $X++ vs. scooping ice cream for cents, live with us rent FREE so he can save enough to pay a mortgage at a super young age (thus having his ROOMMATES pay his mortgage).

THAT'S how you freakin' get out of my hair, not by scooping ice cream.

It seems to me that often, city kids have jobs "to teach them responsibility."

But country kids... well, they just have a lot of jobs and we depend on them to be responsible.

And thus ends my musing and prefab projects for the day.
As my English clients say... TTFN!
.
.
.
.
.
.
Taa taa
FOR NOW.
: )

The teen girls had a great Halloween handing out candy.

All gussied up for a sailing event believe it or not!

Matching sailors!

Caught up to Granddad.

Love a guy in an apron.

'Bye Grandma! 'Bye Granddad!

Back home = good day for brunswick stew.

Passive Solar Prefab Homes Consider Emergency Prep Zoning Snobbery And A 911 Address

2018-10-19T14:29:00.000-04:00

This Current Passive Solar Modern Prefab Cabin Dogtrot Mod Project Becomes... Wolftrot.

Standard passive solar prefab house, our Dogtrot Mod from GreenCabinKits.com.

How the Dogtrot Mod changed, in THIS prefab house project, to become Wolftrot.

Today's prefab house and off grid living blog focuses on... emergencies.

Remember the old days of our off grid prefab house while under construction?
Our clients too have a tale.

Let's start with the current Dogtrot Mod prefab house turned into Wolftrot in the Pacific Northwest.

There are two things in this project that might be relevant and learning experiences to readers:

The clients purchased an empty lot.

"Oh look, here comes the prefab!"
We well remember what it was like to just
have a lot, and no address...

More on this and why it's relevant, later.
Chicken, Meet Egg.
The clients need to submit to the review board, but in order to do so, they need documents / construction drawings. The level of detail of what is needed in permitting varies throughout the United States, and in this project area, all new construction is approved after a board review.

About our SIP package and when you go into permitting: Clients receive shop drawings with structural insulated panels labeled clearly, with component engineering and a stamped calculation packet for their contractor. If they would like to / can submit this for permitting, the panel numbers and labeling (so the contractor can easily see what goes where) can be eliminated so that review boards can just consider "the big picture."

**However, do note that for many localities this simple shop drawing is not acceptable- in most cases you need to have a local draftsperson / engineer / contractor create individualized-to-your-site specific plans- site plan, foundation plan, construction drawings...**

Fabrication does not begin until the project is approved so that any changes can be made to shop drawings before going into production.

Let's talk about the future Wolftrot prefab house's lot!

Ah, the olden days where the prefab
was weather-tight, comfy, we camped within
still with no 911 address.
At this point we had owned the land
for YEARS so why no address?

Like many (including my own family), the clients purchased a beautiful lot, and moved on to the lot in an RV before the prefab house was constructed.
Why is this important?
Because they can not get an address without a house being on the lot.

Why is this important?
Because, y'all, what if you cut your head off and have to call 911?
"Hello, 911? I just cut my head off, can you come here and help me put it back on?"
"Yessir, what is your address?"
"Oh. Ummmmmmm... Huh. I have no idea. Somewhere... with a bunch of trees."

It's not just about 911. (As if that isn't enough!)
The clients have moved from another state, thus needing to re-issue all KINDS of documents, including drivers' licenses.
What does DMV need to issue you a license?
YOUR ADDRESS.

Our own passive solar prefab house
not quite finished, but weathertight
and habitable
...without an address.
Did I mention we had no address?

We went through this as well, but I thought instead of listening to me you might enjoy hearing about the experience in the client's voice. So read this in an English accent, okay? It gives much to think upon regarding obtaining an address for emergency and practical purposes.

HERE IS OUR CLIENT'S TALE:
"We were able to get the City approvals we needed to move forward using my rough drawing. That got us a document from them that enabled us to present a package to the county engineering staff using the contractors GPS lot layout so they can approve our septic and anticipated water well locations satisfying a state requirement for documented concurrence by the City and County planning staffs.

Once the county has signed off our contractor will be able to do the final grading (we already have that permit in hand), calculate soil export or import requirements and excavate for and install the septic tank which will need to be completed before any building structure foundations may be started.

...

Even before we built our own prefab house,
we camped many years on our land
where a 911 address would have been niceconsidering all the family activity there!
What if there was an accident?!?

As soon as we can we want to peg the site to locate the structure position clearly. This will enable us to get a temporary electrical power distribution panel installed on a post close to the planned final position on the RV barn north exterior wall. This is important to us as we've been told we can't get a street address issued by the City before we have power at the site. We have the street name of course but no number established yet. I'm optimistic that we can pull that information out of the City once we hand them our construction plans and apply for the building permit.

Shouldn't everyone have an address?
Our land wasn't going anywhere....
why couldn't we have an address?
We certainly played with many sharp shooty objects
surrounded by things that bite!
Why make it difficult for 911?

This is a source of some aggravation for us as without a permanent address we're effectively homeless as far as some organizations are concerned. Getting vehicles, driver's licenses and many other matters resolved is a problem without a permanent address. The people at the DMV have been helpful, telling us just to wait and to pretend we're just tourists, but now we have vehicles tags expiring and we fear the state police will not be so understanding.

I did try the "what if we are building an 'off the grid' home" argument a couple of weeks ago and discovered the real bottleneck to getting a street number assigned. It's not the utility company. That's just used to deflect responsibility away from the city staff. The underlying reason the city won't issue a street number for undeveloped land is it is their way to stop people squatting, living in trailer homes or caravans indefinitely. It's actually just snobbery. The affluent want to keep out what they consider to be 'undesirables'.

The city staff have to support the position of the council which is made up of a few long standing land owners from the area. The politically easy way to do that is to require property developers to show real intent to build quality homes that the city believes will enhance local property values. They blame the utility but the decision to assign a street number happens once property owners have shown credible intent to develop the land.

One way is for the property owners to have had their lot and building design approved and construction permits issued. Typically once that has happened the developers will apply for utility connections to be made and the city then grants the property it's new street number. It's not the utility. It's the city. They are just using the utility to deflect the ire of any new developer.
...

Back in the olden days:
unfinished SIP of the prefab house...
off grid
and no address.

I suspect we'll get our address soon and not have to wait for the 'utility' company to get around to installing anything. But the inconvenience is real. The most conspicuous one is the vehicle registration and drivers license problem but as you've probably experienced, any time you have to change your address it creates the opportunity for other people to drag their feet and cause issues. It affects healthcare, insurance, banking, investments, etc. ad nauseum. We'll get over it.

...

Not much has changed,
still happy and off grid in the
passive solar prefab house
WITH AN ADDRESS.

The contractor is scheduled to install the septic tank and drain field next which is all permitted and approved already. I anticipate us installing the power utility conduit at the same time the drain field is installed as we will be sharing some excavation for both, suitably separated and to code of course.

Then we can get the utility to schedule their connection to our planned temporary power distribution panel we'll be able to get a 'real' street address. Yaaaaay! Then we can finally get driving licenses, vehicle registrations done, some of which are expired now, and update all our other services and accounts with our new address, which will be a huge relief. It will be nice to make the transition from 'Californicators' to "Oregonasms' finally.

And thus ends this week's update on the passive solar prefab house Dogtrot Mod, turned into Wolftrot.

Lookin' like a city kid!

Back To Our Own Modern Prefab House:
The Off Grid Family Was ON Grid When ANOTHER Hurricane, Hurricane Matthew, Passed, With Flooding, Tornadoes... and POWER OUT!"Drat. We're not home, we're in the city..." I reflected, deeply missing my strong, cozy, energy efficient OFF GRID prefab house as the wind wailed and transformers blew...
Oh well. I pulled out camping lights, grabbed a book, and cozied in for the night.

At some point I looked outside, and was surprised to see our city house was the only one lit up.
Maybe a tiny flicker of a candle here and there, but otherwise the street was DARK.
"OH MY GRACIOUS. Did no one of anyone get batteries even with Hurricane Flo last month?"
It didn't look so.

After years living off grid, I just could never live like this- these regular power disruptions. (And people think *I'M* primitive, off grid. Hey. We off gridders are cozy, warm, and with always-running appliances!)

My biggest shock was not just seeing the entire area DARK but how people shrugged it off, passively- "Well, that's just how it is..."

Um, actually, I can tell you it does NOT have to be "just how it is..." if you're off grid...

Here are my tips for getting through 24/48+ hours plus without power (and yes there are TONS of lists on the internet that are even better!) without buying expensive generators and such. Because sometimes an off grid country girl with a stocked-pantry-that-can-last-for-months might offer some inexpensive practical tips.

Bad weather doesn't have to knock you out.

I'd also like to point out that since this is now a "thing," this being without power every other year for extended amounts of time, what I mention below you should just aim for as a "basic kit."

If you are an adult, consider giving these items to a teen / college student each birthday or holiday so they don't have to figure it out all at once as an expense the first time they're away and weather hits.

Seriously, that's what I do with my nephews. The second they were a few years out from getting their first apartment, the gifts of pots and pans, camping gear, working sleeping bags etc. were gifted each year. They don't know it but they are PREPPED. (Maybe I should remind them and go over this all, too.)

PURCHASES FOR PREP:

Each expenditure is about the equivalent of a dinner out. So over months, just cut back a dinner out and get these instead:

Uhhhh that's pretty but
that's not gonna cut it.

Light. No, not just candles, although you should always have candles stored. Flashlights don't really cut it, y'all. Get nice big glowing lamps you can read books by... it might seem expensive at the time but any time you can pick up plug-in LED lights on clearance, well it might be $10 here and $15 there (still a good deal!) but they are PRICELESS for evenings without light. I keep some discretely always charged regularly throughout the house. Well worth the investment. If you ever go to thrift stores always pick up big camping lights, and make sure you stock them with fresh batteries. But the best ones are the ones that are LED and plug-ins. We got some LED "wands" at Lidl recently for $9- you can stand them up in the base and even hook them to something tall to cast a room full of light.

Note that each lamp only gives you about an evening's worth of light (don't forget to charge them once a month! Don't leave them plugged in! I do so on the days I also do monthly maintenance chores like giving the dogs their flea & heart treatment.). So keep that in mind when choosing how many to pick up, how fast to use them and of course also have candles to accommodate two week's worth of light.

Light? No problem.
If you don't have a gas stove, invest $15 in a one-burner camp stove at least, and keep 3-4 little propane tanks near. Used judiciously that will get you through two weeks, easy.
Ahhhh but we all need coffee, no? Well now you've spent about $50 just on random prep stuff so here's a cheap fix for coffee instead of buying that $35 camping percolator: a $2 reusable coffee filter. Plus now you don't need to buy wasteful filters! Yep, boil water, stick the reusable coffee filter on top of a wide mug or whatnot, insert coffee, cue Def Leppard and instead of sugar now sing, "POUR SOME BOILIN' WATER ON MEEEEEE."

Ok fine I clearly had my coffee typing this!
HEY I saved you money now you have to listen to my bad jokes.
Groceries: Save $ by not letting things spoil: The second you hear a storm is coming, fill your car with gas and start carefully choosing recipes that eat down your freezer / fridge. Get creative, then only buy things that last ok outside of the freezer / fridge like fresh vegetables. Keep shelf almond or coconut milk on hand, the kind in boxes you can store in the pantry. Cook all meat in fridge as storm nears.
If weather is approaching, fill your bathtub with water to flush toilets. Don't panic much less waste money on plastic jugs of water, just fill pots and pans with lids with water for drinking water. Don't tell me you don't have pots or pans much less roasting pans. GET THEE TO A COOK BOOK AND KITCHEN and stop eating out all the time! (Note: Also discover the joyful easy art of brewing sun tea. Add a little sugar and POOF NOW YOU ARE A PROPER SOUTHERNER. Those containers also work great when hoarding water for emergencies. AND bonus: serving party beverages!)
The water with a penny freezer trick = peace of mind when the lights come on. Haven't heard of it? Put a penny on a tray of ice cubes (or in my case, a water-filled espresso cup in the freezer).

When the power comes back on it helps you judge how much things dethawed by where your penny is found- on top? Safe. At the bottom? Ew, toss that.
Keep pantry items on hand and don't open the fridge or freezer for anything in the first 24 hours, then sure eat through that fridge first, quick, then the freezer.

I understand if you're in the city you might not have months and months and months (and years) like we country people do. But if anything, keep rice, pasta, and canned goods on hand, enough for at least a month. Use up regularly and replace. Don't forget to have non-electric kitchen tools like a can opener!

Because if you had all that food and an electric can opener, well, that would just be funny!
Often after bad weather the sky is clear and sunny. Consider making an inexpensive solar cooker to have on hand.
Security. Peace of mind when it's dark and you're single and alone and even though you KNOW THINGS ARE FINE it is still scary out and you find yourself without proper, traditional means of defense? Number one deterrent is dogs. Reinforce your peace of mind with long metal flashlights, garden tools, baseball bats handily brought in before weather hits = free already-here helps-your-peace of mind so you can sleep through the anxious blackness of a city without light. I know I don't have to tell you this but if someone IS attacking, attack back with intent to kill. Long metal flashlights are my FAVE if you have no real weapon handy or if you're in an area that prohibits weapons ("Dude! It's just a flashlight!" and bat your eyes.). Always have one on hand. Bonus: you get a cute handy light with that killing machine!
Finally: Make sure you know MAINTENANCE. Got a generator? Battery bank? Batteries? Candles, matches, little propane tanks to replenish? Make inspecting and maintaining your emergency items part of your routine.

Now that we've discussed bashing people's brains out, let's move on to design! MAKE GOOD CHOICES. Always choose design that FUNCTIONS.
You have to buy a bedspread regardless, right? Or a new coat. Or... etc.

When you buy bedding, buy duvets that actually work and aren't just pretty. Many brands let you choose down comforters by warmth levels, always get the warmest. Same thing for jackets! Buy *working* (read: for cold weather not just for fun) sleeping bags when on sale. Now you can go camping!

Let's talk more expensive / investments.

Buying a house? Upgrading appliances? CONSIDER:

Start with an energy efficient home that WORKS
and from there everything is easier.
You need less systems, you spend less...

Buy (or rent) homes with gas stoves (yay you can cook without power!).
Our last on-grid house even had an automatic generator, one of the few in this city ages ago. Now, they are more common. That was a real estate bonus! And yet the assessment didn't count it that way. Wow.
Hot water: Our city house has a hot water heater using natural gas. It has a pilot light and a mechanical thermostat on the unit tells it to turn on and off based on the water temperature in the tank. The heater does not need any electricity to function.
Our city heating system is a natural gas, hot water, radiator system. It's a great system, completely silent and no air flow. The circulation from the boiler uses gravity, no circulation pump. There is no igniter, we have a pilot light there as well. Therefore, our ability to operate the heating system in the event of a power outage depends on being able to keep the thermostat running. The thermostat runs on 24vac, supplied via a transformer, from household current. We want to install a battery with an inverter and plug the transformer into the inverter to operate the thermostat. The battery charge will be maintained with a trickle charger.
The same process applies to the internet access and the router, they should be plugged in to a battery inverter with a trickle charger.
Solar, duh. Generators, duh.
So what do you do if you're renting / don't want a wood stove in your living room? BUILD A BATTERY BANK (at your OWN RISK).

Here's some fix-its for our own on-grid city house: (Do at yer own risk!)

Hot water: We have a hot water heater using natural gas. It has a pilot light and a mechanical thermostat on the unit tells it to turn on and off based on the water temperature in the tank. The heater does not need any electricity to function.

Our heating system is a natural gas, hot water, radiator system. It's a great system, completely silent and no air flow. The circulation from the boiler uses gravity, no circulation pump. There is no igniter, we have a pilot light there as well. Therefore, our ability to operate the heating system in the event of a power outage depends on being able to keep the thermostat running. The thermostat runs on 24vac, supplied via a transformer, from household current.

We will install a battery with an inverter and plug the transformer into the inverter to operate the thermostat. The battery charge will be maintained with a trickle charger.
The same process applies to the internet access and the router, they should be plugged in to a battery inverter with a trickle charger.

(Consider using your car battery in a pinch since yer not going anywhere, anyhoo, vs. maintaining a battery just for this purpose.)

Ready to go TOTALLY AT YER OWN RISK GOIN' TO THE DARK SIDE?

Well dang that conversation went
hi-voltage, fast!

Welp, you could always build yer own Tesla battery.

These DIY Powerwall Hobbyists Are Building Their Own Home Battery Systems
These Supercharged DIY Powerwalls Are Giving Tesla Some Serious Competition
Online communities for Powerwall builders are now prevalent worldwide and have become a meeting ground for hobbyists. Some have actually found ways to push their Powerwalls to store far more energy than Tesla’s version.

I know some of y'all are getting ALL EXCITED reading this. Here is my argument on why this might not be the solution for you:

When was the last time you changed your underwear?

When was the last time you dusted a window sill, much less the crown molding?

Do your houseplants die? Do you even have houseplants?

If you can't dust or keep house plants alive then you are not the one to build and tend safely a battery bank.

Living off grid all these years, we check, water, charge, and maintain our battery bank and generator as religiously as we do the bread we are carefully making and baking. As part of our daily housekeeping, we check our battery bank levels (often several times a day) just as we routinely sweep up mounds of dog hair.

Imagine if it were actually cold!

The next morning, still without electricity, I padded downstairs in my t-shirt and boxers and felt a chill. This was SHOCKING because outside it was only in the 50s!!! "WOW I MISS MY ENERGY EFFICIENT SIP HOUSE!!!!"

It is so weird to be in "normal houses" during power outtages after living off grid in an energy efficient prefab home for so long. In my energy efficient prefab house I don't even think about "turning on heat" (otherwise known as firing up the cookstove for dinner) until it's in the mid-30s outside. In the city "normal" house just in mild normal fall temperatures, it was chilly indoors.

Many of our farm friends are still flooded, with trees down, and without power.

In the city, it was the weekend of the Folk Festival, for which our teens volunteered.

He thinks he looks hard.

Look close: HE IS GIVING SOMEONE THE CUTEST SMILE!

We sat on a blanket and enjoyed the many acts. All were amazing. Here are a few videos of bands we caught (taken by other people but on YouTube for all), I hope you enjoy.
Lulo Reinhardt & Daniel Stelter

Leroy Thomas & the Zydeco Road Runners

Vishten - Acadian/Cajun Medley

With the Richmond Folk Festival, even when you go two days you'll still never catch it all. I wish I had seen more!

Siiiiiiiiigh... NEXT YEAR.

Meanwhile, it's great to be back off grid at the modern prefab house.
Y'all be good.

Last night: low of 30s, awoke to 68+, with no heat.

Modern Prefab House New Project On West Coast On East Coast A Hurricane At The Passive Solar Prefab

2018-09-13T12:15:00.002-04:00

The Modified Dogtrot Mod Passive Solar Modern Prefab House in the Pacific Northwest Begins!

Passive solar modern prefab house from Green Cabin Kits: The Dogtrot Mod
This is the standard Dogtrot Mod, before modifications.

Ok now let's dig into this prefab construction project!

Here are more pictures of our standard Dogtrot Mod modern prefab house so you can better see what the client changed:

Now THIS prefab house, a modification of our Dogtrot Mod in the Pacific Northwest, will henceforth be referred to as...
Wolftrot.

First: Wait. What happened to the Dogtrot Mod?!?
The clients extensively changed it!

They enclosed the breezeway to accommodate for their Northwest local conditions.
The breezeway is now a solarium!
They also changed the roofline to address snow loads / local conditions, as well as to add solar.

There is a basement!
HOWEVER, the basement is in just one area, and the rest of the Wolftrot prefab house rests upon slab.

The clients also designed a garage to accommodate daily practical function as well as a workbench area.

We will continue on with the Wolftrot project after the hurricane!
What? Yep, on the East Coast, Hurricane Florence approaches, so y'all hunker down!

Is your area not directly in Hurricane Florence's impact and want something to do during all the hurricane's rain? Why not use that time to go through all your clothes, all your kids' clothes, try them on and if they don't fit, make a donation pile so that when this is all over, you have a bag ready for those in need. Sort bags by size.

I know my kids have been growing all summer, and in the Back To School frenzy this was a chore not yet done!

We did have a great summer.
A few videos, pictures at the end.

Anyhoo...
People ask why my blog posts have slowed.
"OhMyGoshIsTheCompanyPhasingOutThePrefabs?!?"
Nope.

Folks, in our family, we have entered The High School Years and they t'ain't pretty.
Not that anything bad is going on, but often, teens are NOT FUN.
They are moody, computer-y, irritating-y, angsty, emote-y beings so sometimes instead of wanting to write, which previously I enjoyed, I instead just ponder on how teens can ~~suck the lifeforce and joy out of~~ keep you busier than you anticipated, thus writing is not as fun, hence put on hold.

I will try to write more ~~even though teens suck the joy out of writing and make me feel like a miserable haggard mom~~ because I cherish these teen years, too.

If you happen to be parents of teens or have recently survived those years: CHEERS!
(And honestly, as chafing as teens can be, they really are great kids. And hardworking. And adorable.)
BUT.
I feel like every day all I do is walk around screeching like this hawk I confronted after a kill.

THIS. IS. I. DURING. TEEN. YEARS.

So.
Cheers to bay kids sailing the seas!

(Cheers to P.A. for taking these pics!)

Cheers to all you pirate parents! (And grandparents!!!)

(Thank you P.A. again!)

Cheers to spending sweaty summer days volunteering at sailing, horse, and code camps!

Code Camp:

And horse camp after horse camp after horse camp: (We loved every second.)

Cheers To Beautiful Moments With Friends.

Cheers to little card sharks from Brooklyn.

Cheers to old friends.

And thus was summer's end.

Now It's Back To The Off Grid Passive Solar Prefab House.
With Hurricane!

Recipes:
Alpha Gal Safe Tomato Pie
(Actually, until further notice, assume all recipes are alpha gal friendly! But of course always read and subsitute ingredients for allergies!)

Because a lot of alpha gal people also become high histamine intolerant and gluten sensitive, we avoid wheat flour and soy-based cheeses. Daiya makes an ok swiss and cheddar cheez, which I use here.
Flour: Stir together oat flour, sea salt, dried lavender, oregano and pepper, then add a non-dairy "butter" creamed in (Earth Balance is good), then a little cold water to make a dough. Spread it out on the pie tin, thin. Bake 5 min.

Remove tin, spread around a thin layer of Duke's mayo on dough.
Add thinly sliced beautifully perfectly fresh tomatoes.
Sprinkle a little minced onion, dots of mayo, pieces of swiss and cheddar, sea salt and chopped fresh basil.

Repeat layers then top with a little basil, pepper, oregano, lavender, sea salt and cheddar.
Bake with no top until it looks good, remove and add a tad more cheddar and fresh basil. Baking with no top allows it to be more savory and less soupy.

Watermelon Salad

I told my friend, "You know, I wanted a good salad that wasn't all LOOK AT ME I'M WATERMELON SALAD!" and this came out beautifully. Two thoughts: focus on a fresh salad of crisp lettuce studded with watermelon and avocado instead of I AM A WATERMELON SALAD. alpha gal, we tried to make a feta vegan equivalent and the result tastes good but totally did not taste like real feta. I realized, "Geez, we United States people really do eat a TON of cheese, why not make this a simple clean watermelon salad with no cheese for once?" So I did.

Second, why does every watermelon salad have a ton of strong cheese? With

So... tear off a bunch of crisp romaine as a layer. Remember that the succeeding layers should be lighter, it really is a great salad when it is mostly lettuce: layer minced onion, watermelon NOT IN BIG CHUNKS but the size of an olive, then avocado. Repeat. Dressing: In a bowl stir up some lime juice, apple cider vinegar or fave vinegar, honey, salt and pepper. Keep separate until ready to toss.
This salad is a perfect complement to seafood!

Roasted Cabbage And Fresh Stuff Salad With Tahini

If you like roasted brussels sprouts you will love this summer salad.
Section a cabbage so that each piece has core on it, to hold it together. In a pan, add sesame oil, and "grill" on each side (including round side). Put lid on pan and add a little water to steam it a bit. In the end it should be nicely roasted but also steamed enough so that it is cooked. Take the sections and put on a plate or whatnot to cool.

While cabbage is cooling, thickly chunk some onions and give them the same treatment.
While they are cooking, you can take the cabbage sections and cut into bite-sized chunks, discard bottom of core, and create the first layer in a pretty bowl of your salad.

Once onions are done, add them to salad as the second layer.
Cut cucumber (not sliced, but diced), add as third layer.
Cut raw corn from at least one cob, let it be pieces held together that is delicious and pretty too, and add it as the forth layer. Fifth layer is a heavy sprinkling of fresh Italian parsley.

Top with dressing of choice but what we used was DELICOUS on it- mince garlic, add tahini, lemon juice, sea salt, enough water to make it thick, whip until it's a dressing.

Salad, with tahini dressing on the side, and safe jambalaya
(Vegan chorizo actually tastes fine.)

BEST Chicken Salad EVER Inspired By Christopher's Runaway GOURMAY

In a pan sautee chicken breasts until golden on both sides, cool, shred. Add 1/2 DUKES mayo to 1/2 sour cream (vegan, duh, as we have alpha gal), stir it all together with lots of sea salt (more than you think), garlic powder, some vinegar, fresh purple grapes, currants, chopped roasted salted almonds, and lots of tarragon.

The more you stir it all together the creamier the chicken becomes. I think I kind of overload it with nuts and currants BUT NO ONE IS COMPLAININ'- I love the crunch and savory sweetness of the currants.

Deviled Deviled Canapes
Yeah I went all alpha gal safe on some of my favorite apps this summer.

For the delicious EGG SANDWICHES, boil eggs so they are still thickly gooey in the yolk but with firm whites. When you slice them, use your knife to cut then lift carefully on to a bed of 1. safe white bread with no dairy and 2. a spread made of Duke's mayo, organic safe sweet relish, sea salt, organic mustard and of course some sriracha. Sprinkle with paprika if no high histamine.

For the CUCUMBER SANDWICHES make your own vegan version of ranch with fresh ingredients, and then mix in vegan sour cream and fresh dill to spread onto safe bread and top with cucumber and Old Bay (yes Old Bay is safe!).

Heck I even made vegan pimento cheese canapes and after they were warm enough no one noticed it wasn't real cheese. Key is getting a good vegan cheddar, making sure it's warm and not cold, spicing up everything as usual like I do with great homemade roasted red pepper canned in garlic vinegar, sea salt, safe worchestercher, sriarcha... careful to gently fold it all and not mash it because vegan cheese doesn't hold up so well.

Reading Club:

Young People Don't Want Construction Jobs. And That's A Problem For The Housing Market
From Forbes:
"But innovations in homebuilding are delivering more affordable, sustainable housing, and that could relieve some of the pressure in areas where homes are hard to find....Prefab houses featuring design principles that save energy and reduce the homeowner’s carbon footprint can be a great alternative to traditional housing.

The new tax law won’t immediately affect federal tax credits that were already in place to encourage the use of solar electric or solar water-heating systems in qualified residences or new homes. Homeowners can still take advantage of this credit when they purchase a new home with eligible renewable energy features. Currently, homebuyers can get up to a 30% federal tax credit for solar systems if they take up residence by December 31, 2019. After that, the tax credit is reduced gradually until January 1, 2022."
Amazon Isn't Paying Its Electric Bills. You Might Be.
"Virginia’s largest utility, Dominion Energy Inc., had planned to run an aboveground power line straight through a Civil War battlefield—and Thomas’s property—to reach a nearby data center run by an Amazon.com Inc. subsidiary. After three years of petitions and protests in front of the gated data center, skirmishes punctuated by barking dogs and shooing police, Dominion agreed to bury that part of the line along a nearby highway, at an estimated cost of $172 million.

Within a month, however, the utility and state legislators had passed on the cost to Thomas and her fellow Virginians. The state’s House of Delegates approved Dominion’s proposal to raise the money needed for the Amazon line with an as-yet-unannounced monthly fee."

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE? DVP IS SCREWING VIRGINIANS OVER IN MULTIPLE WAYS!
Hog Farmers Scramble To Drain Waste Pools Ahead Of Hurricane

Anyhoo, I end this with lots... and LOTS... and LOTTTTTTTTSSSSSS of pictures.
It was a great summer.

Harold.
My pet skink who lives in the kitchen.

Oh. You don't believe me, do you.

Check it out: Harold can even do tricks!

Yeah, I know, it's never the same as the real thing...

Badminton referee.

Race team!

He is clearly excited about his "Casati" bike jersey from Italy.

Remember what I was saying about the teen years?
Want examples of how, uh, trying teens can be?
Well, there was this:

(PSA to fat lazy pool squirrels: FARM KIDS ARE FAST!)

"Hey Teen! We got you a PRESENT!" And thus we gifted him a 1950s (60s?) lawn mower purchased from a dear friend, Mr. L. We are fans of pushmowers, yes, but on the bay with an acre they are not efficient.

Off Grid Prefab House Has A New Prefab House Project, Seasonal Projects, And New Projects. With Moomins And Turkey Hunting.

2018-06-28T08:09:00.002-04:00

Oh heyyyyyyyyy, modern prefab house enthusiasts! I've been quiet, because at this time of year at the modern off grid prefab we are busy with new projects, back and forth to the bay sailing, and... seasonal projects! But I do have a new prefab project to announce.

But first... our homestead projects continue at our own prefab house.

Her first engineering and project management experience!
Of course it is for her horses.
Also: WHO ASKS FOR EARTH WORK FOR THEIR BIRTHDAY?!?
She does.

He haz stick.

There are ALWAYS seasonal chores...

I do have news:
There Will Be A Modern Prefab Cabin Built From Our GreenCabinKits.com Line Of Modern Prefab Houses, Stay Tuned!
What can I tell you for now?
A Dogtrot Mod modern cabin will be built on the West Coast, in the north.

To adapt to the Pacific Northwest, the roofline will change, as well as some other details.
After I ask permission of the client, I can say more, but they are *super interesting* for many reasons- their expertise, understanding of SIP (structural insulated panels), worldliness, the future prefab house's modifications and lot placement...

In The Meantime, I Am Back And Forth Between Our Off Grid Prefab House And The Bay!
There hasn't been much to say because it has just been a very rainy *very* wet spring and start to summer. Hence I haven't had much to say because, well, IT HAS JUST BEEN RAINING.

Remember "the hole" Teen 1 dug? It's full.
No more dreams of root cellars...!

I'm sick of these rain pictures! We read lots of books, okay?!?

Let's see some other moments.

Off Grid Permaculture Project: Hugelkultur

Permaculture Hugelkultur in the beginning...

I have been so impressed with hugelkultur. Before we bought the land, it was used for tobacco and corn, not great for the soil to say the least. AND it's on the top of the highest point in the county. For YEARS after growing up with a great soil farm, after having thriving city food gardens, it was a disappointing shock to struggle to grow anything on our land (and the back-and-forth to the bay we do during summer didn't help!).

Just in the weeks since planting I can see how thriving things are now in the hugelkultur. Yes we have had tons of rain but do note I have not watered at all and even on the rare weeks we didn't have rain you could just sense the soil's moisture. I have been extremely pleased.

Looks great despite the neglect of our back and forth!!!

Ohhhhhhh the rain. Ohhhhhhhhhhh the moisture. Ohhhhhhh the old 150 year old farmhouse on the bay.

It made me think:
Mold In Tiny Homes (And Mildew In Old Bay Homes)
As we are back-and-forth on the bay now, I am dealing with the annual "we have a 150 year old leaky farmhouse on the bay" issues, namely: mildew. The first thing I do when I arrive on the bay is 1. air that house out then 2. wipe everything down with a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide. This might be the year we finally climatize vs. window units.

In my research for our 150 year old house, I see that a lot of Tiny Homes also have this issue, because they do not install ERVs / HRVs (which is why I always emphasize FRESH AIR EXCHANGE for ANY energy-efficient home!)...
So don't forget your ERVs / HRVs!!!!

On The Bay, It Was Time To Volunteer At Sailing Camp And Visit Cousins.

Coach Handsome Husband and a niece!

Cousins in the kitchen, making berry pie!

We are also volunteering at a horse camp!

All this volunteering makes me yearn for a long hot bath at the end of the day. Soaking Tub
Even though it's summer, I'm still thinking of winter. One of the things we miss, conserving water and living off grid, is a deep steamy soak. Here are a few links and ideas for a DIY Japanese soaking tub I'd like to build this fall. Our Amish neighbors even have a cedar sawmill so getting local cedar for this project will be easy!
https://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/one-person-hot-tub-zmaz95djzgoe
https://www.dwell.com/article/japanese-soaking-tubs-33c62e59
Because every now and then it would be nice to have an awesome winter bath without wasting water.

This spring my dad came out to turkey hunt.
Here I am talkin' trash to turkeys in my pj's without even trying:

My dad left the HRV running (easy to do when you don't know that bathroom switch turns on and off the HRV, which we run several times a day for about 30 minutes in winter or when the windows are closed to keep out the summer heat), I found myself putting up ANOTHER sign for those who don't know our off grid ways.

On one hand, I'm trying to be helpful and prevent damage to our modern prefab house's solar system. On the other, I feel like I'm turning into the Park Keeper in Finn Family Moomintroll, gah!

If you've never read the story about Snuffkin and the Park Keeper, do. In fact, read everything Moomin. This chapter is one of my favorites, I hope you can click, zoom in and enjoy.

Another one of my signs in the prefab house...

Recipes:

Alpha Gal Non-Dairy No Nut Parmesan: Cook garbanzo beans until ALMOST tender. Drain, then stir around in the pot until they're not only dry but "roasted." Cool, then in a food processor add the beans, sea salt, garlic powder and nutritional yeast (all to taste- start with an amount you feel good, blend, taste, add more salt and garlic or whatever until it tastes like parmesan to you!), pulse until it looks real. Keeps a few days or you could be smart and keep in the freezer, take out as needed.

Have a great week.

The evening tussle.

She's southern so of course she's curtsying on her horse...

Meet Buddy the fox, who steals my socks.

Modern Prefab House Gets AC Off Grid On A Tiny Solar System! With Tornado Proofing And Permaculture At Our Off Grid Modern Cabin.

2018-05-16T09:48:00.000-04:00

Yes, you heard that right. We have outfitted the modern prefab house for AC despite being on a tiny solar system- four 210w panels. Yep folks, we run our entire HOUSE off the power of just 840 watts.

For years, we didn't even consider air conditioning at the modern off grid prefab house. Ok well fine we *considered* it, researched it, mused upon it, but never found anything we felt good about implementing.

Plus when it's super hot, you will find us at the bay! Air conditioning was never a huge priority for me, off grid, because my philosophy was, "Hot? Honeychile, sip some sweet tea and spend the hot afternoon at the lake!"

Solar cooking, mowing the lawn, all at once!
I'm working HARD!

This changed. Our daughter (and I) have alpha gal. Unfortunately, like many people who suffer it, alpha gal also triggered high histamine intolerance and mast cell issues in our child.

You might think of high histamine intolerance being just a food issue, but it also a TEMPERATURE reaction. Hence, no extreme heat and cold. So I wanted a PLAN for when it's 110 to keep our child safe.

In the end, I presented my strategy to Handsome Husband, who again did that special imperial German dismissive chortle he does so well when I present him with a great idea that makes me want to backhand him hard across the face. "NOOOOO it ezzzz not POSSIBLE, ve arrrr OFF GRID!"

Don't call me grumpy, I'm beautiful.
This is the look you get when you pluck my nerves.

But. There was a point last week where he was in SO much trouble for something else, that I suggested he not come home... without a small, energy efficient AC wall unit.

He came home... with an AC unit. I tersely told him to get out his oscillating saw and cut me some plywood to fit the small square window in the east, and to stick that AC in, stat.

He did. It works.

Off Grid Solar Notes On AC On A Small Solar System In An Energy Efficient Prefab:
Now WHEN the AC is running, I make sure to turn off the water pump / anything that's a big draw! I keep a careful eye on the battery bank to see if we need to run the generator at the end of the day if we run it!
BUT IT WORKS.

This AC unit is supposed to cool a 10x12 foot room.
It cools the entire 1,200sf modern prefab house.

Good work, boys. Oh by the way I have another job for you...

Just like in winter, when in extreme cold our tiny firebox on the cook stove heats the entire energy efficient prefab house, this little AC unit, which is only supposed to cool a small room, makes extremely hot days bearable (even cold!) in our off grid house.

We're cool, even in blazing heat, thanks to energy efficiency,
passive solar design, and the final kicker on those sweltering days: sparingly-used AC.

Here is Handsome Husband's synopsis:
"When we run the window AC unit we draw on average 350 Watts more than normal for a total loss in the low 500s. On a sunny day in early May we have a net effect of -4 amps of draw from the battery bank which at 24 volts is about 100 Watts so if we increase the capacity of the solar panels from the current 840 Watts then we will be able to offset the increased load from the window AC unit while continuing to recharge the battery."

Here are my own notes on using AC in an off grid prefab house that has super-small solar systems:
DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT AC UNTIL TEMPERATURES CLIMB PAST THE 90s.

(Side note: seriously people, why aren't y'all dressing for the seasons, even at work. Actually, especially at work as this is where you will spend the majority of your "high heat" time over the week.)

As usual, sleep with all the windows open
As the sun starts to heat everything in the morning, close the windows
When it starts to be uncomfortably hot, turn on the AC (in the small square east window of the great room) set to 78, energy saver. It says 78 but in an energy-efficient prefab house it feels like 70. I'm already fighting Handsome Husband who wants to set it to 76: "That's crazy, can't you see I have goosebumps?"
As soon as the temperature slips under 90 outside, turn off the AC, open up the windows and let the breeze in.
If it's a super hot day in the mid to upper 90s and no relief in sight, feel free to run the AC with the generator so you don't stress your solar systems.
PASSIVE SOLAR NOTES: The casa ti is designed passive solar to work as is for most of the year BUT in extreme heat / sun feel free to hang strategic seasonal curtains or awnings!

The installation and testing of AC could not have come at a better time. Sweet spring suddenly switched from breezy and pleasant to summer temperatures in the mid-90s.

I watched our alpha gal high histamine intolerant child flush, and start dragging, weighed down with headaches as the heat rose. "It's okay," I soothed. "Let's just turn on the air conditioning awhile."

We only felt the "need" for AC in the blazing afternoons. But for a medically impaired child, the relief the AC provided was invaluable.

At the modern prefab house, we are also in tornado season.

Mid-April, EF-3 tornadoes touched down in nearby towns, with wind speeds of 150mph.
This is the third time we have ridden something out like this in the area in the past four years.

At the off grid modern prefab, we were not among the over 19,000 locally left without power.
Over 25 homes were demolished or severely damaged in nearby towns.

This time I didn't see a funnel clouds touching down from the sky. (Last time I did!)
But the pressure drop was insane. You could just feel our house turning into a pressure cooker!!!! Thankfully nothing happened aside from the crazy pressure barometric drop.
(At that point I tossed the teen in the bathtub!)

Here are some tornado safety tips, and here, off grid in our small footprint home, is what WE are doing:

Now you know a SIP house is structurally strong, so there's that!
- From SIP School: "A structural insulated panel’s standalone strength, the fastening details, and the design of the structure itself all combine to create a safer building envelope. Credit to both designers and engineers should not be discounted. A 140 + mph wind event requires that all parties be at the top of their game. "
- And this: "As you see in this video, stick framing is incredibly vulnerable until the sheathing is properly nailed off. A stick framed wall has no resistance to shear until the sheathing is nailed, making it vulnerable to collapse from wind or seismic loads. When structural insulated panels (SIPS) are used as the framing method you have the full sheer strength available immediately as soon as the SIP is installed and nailed to the sill plate, top plate and adjacent panels. Risk less when you build with SIPS."
- And from an area that knows much about high wind, read about another SIP case study in Florida.
BUT if you are a mom like I, nothing is ever good enough. As we do not have a proper official storm shelter, I looked at the layout of the casa ti modern prefab house and determined the bathroom would be our "go to" place as it was in the center and had the least amount of windows.
The bathroom is clad with plywood.

This is by no means an intentional storm shelter (FEMA details here), but an "on the fly" approach "for the meantime."

This is a great picture because it shows:
1. unclad SIP on the ceiling
2. maple floorboards on exterior to the left
3. thick plywood lining the bathroom
4. and note the south wall of the bathroom
is thus covered in maple

Here is a proper way to build a wood storm room, and from this we are adapting the bathroom as we can which is better than not having anything at all (and at least we're a SIP house!!!!)
And this article notes, "Above-ground safe rooms can be built in a basement, crawlspace, or on a slab. They can be constructed with standard building materials—though beefed up considerably. Basement lean-to rooms are built with 2x4 framing; each stud is doubled-up and the wall is sheathed with two layers of 3/4-inch plywood over a layer of 14-gauge steel sheathing.

The main point of weakness is the door; the hinges and latch are the critical links. To secure the latch, FEMA says to use "3-locking pins, dead bolts, or slide bolts with min. 1-inch throw surface—mounted to astragal with #8 x 3-inch wood deck screws." (The 1x3 astragal is fastened to the double 2x4 framing with 3-inch deck screws)."
This article (click the pdf) goes into more detail on a wooden storm shelter!

So: we have a slab, we have a SIP house, we have a thick plywood-clad small room (bathroom) with one window and door. But wait! Not only do we have a slab, a SIP house, a bathroom clad in plywood... but the EXTERIOR of the bathroom (walls shared with adjoining bedrooms and hallway) is... clad in THICK HORIZONTAL MAPLE BASKETBALL FLOORING nailed in!

Not only is it nailed in to the plywood, but the maple flooring interlocks vis tongue and groove, making it further strong and secure!!!

Exterior of bathroom's west wall (thus
the inside of the center bedroom).

Exterior of the bathroom's east wall is maple as well...

...and the north wall of the bathroom is 1. SIP and 2. further covered with plywood.

So to even get to the bathroom, a strong storm would have to FIRST penetrate the SIP.

THEN it would have to penetrate the maple, then the plywood... and yes I'll be adding a steel door vs. the wood door we currently have, and cladding the plywood window cutout we have with steel.

And finally, we brace the window covering securely with simple metal bar holders found in any hardware store:

From USDA's Tornado Safe Rooms From Commodity Wood Products:
"Results indicate that a nailed and glued wall section constructed of three layers of 2 × 8 lumber and sheathed with 23/32-in. CDX plywood can consistently pass the impact test. "

Did we unknowingly create (a great start to) an efficient storm shelter?

I think we did.

So if YOU are considering using plywood, and using horizontal boards to clad your SIP prefab house interior, think about these applications for 1. doing something you want to do anyway: clad the SIP without using drywall that 2. also strengthens a possible storm room ALL IN ONE STEP!

Permaculture At The Off Grid Modern Prefab:
We are again doing some excavating work on our property and would like to mention how USEFUL logs and brush are to improving your soil. So instead of making a humongous bonfire, use them for your garden! I highly recommend Sepp Holzer's Permaculture book not only for these raised beds but for its wealth of information on improving soil, and you can also read a little about his methods of raised beds here, and here.

Basically, we followed Sepp Holzer's methods and cut two trenches at 45ish degree angles on a slope.

Sleeping on the job!

Into that, we put in some rotting logs...

...then piled up brush on top of the logs...

...added a layer of topsoil... (upside down)

...then over it all dumped good soil we relocated from the bottom pasture.

Now we plant.

Permaculture notes: Y'all know we go to and fro and back and forth in summer. So I expect nothing less than to grow plenty of weeds these first years. HOWEVER I made sure to seed these hugelkulturs with plenty of things that are 1. perrennial or/and that we can 2. harvest in late summer / early fall after our sailing season of back-and-forth is over. That included swiss chard, onions, kale, asparagus, salsify, sorrel, and then annuals that take time like plenty of sweet potatoes, potatoes, beans, artichokes and peppers.

Two of these hugelkulturs were plenty.

See how high they are?!?

We continue with homestead projects: To our chicken run, we added a downspout and rain barrels (which also has wood & tool storage; the wood helps insulate the coop in winter, climbing roses & vines provide shade in summer) = even MORE functionality in one structure! Holzhausen in foreground. We have a few more barrels to add but it will be great for watering the garden. Note we put the rain barrels on a base to aid in gravity-fed water for the down-the-hill hugelkulturs.

Recipes:
This time of year I heavily rely on my SOLAR COOKER. It is especially useful for cooking potatoes, beans, slow cooking meat and vegetables... without using anything but the sun.

I have been really enjoying making all sorts of savory (and sometimes, sweet) pies in ceramics in the solar cooker. The crust is totally flaky, the pies, delicious. It is so important with a child who has medical food issues to present food that is colorful, nutritious, and even fun. These ceramic experiments do all three.

For this "pie" first I poured a "batter" that acted as pie crust in the bottom and seperately cooked the filling in the solar cooker. Then I poured the cooked filling onto the "crust" and guess what? It was SO flaky and delicious. I am omitting more traditional eggs to bind things together in these pies due to Teen 2's alpha-gal triggered high histamine intolerance, fyi.

White bean, onion, kale, and ground turkey soup.

Solar cooker is cookin' while the passive solar (with sparing AC) kept us cool!

Oh! I know my friends will be SO excited I can still make molded food despite alpha gal thanks to this vegan algae-based powder! YOUR DINNER PARTIES ARE SAVED! I just KNOW y'all are excited!!!

Reading Club:

Chesapeake Bay grass resurgence is first big conservation success tied to humans, scientists say.

Well, I guess we'll go back to work on more homestead projects, and in the meanwhile, have a great spring.

Cornbread thinks he's handsome.

NO YOU MAY NOT BRING THAT IN THE HOUSE.

Off Grid Modern Prefab House Settles Into Spring With Snow Shakshuka Fiddleheads And Cattle Wrangling.

2018-04-23T11:49:00.001-04:00

Off grid, at the modern prefab cabin, snow became spring, then snow again.

Then it was 80!

Then frost again. And back.

There is change in the air.
And yet, like seasons, and weird fluctuating springs, it is a reassuring cycle where everything is new, yet known.

A few weeks ago, I took an Amish friend on an errand to a nearby village. I could not stop exclaiming over the interesting cottages, ornate Victorians and darling shops. For fun, I dreamed: "Oh L., LOOK! What is that brown house??? Is it now a bank? Let's buy it and live there!" "L. Look at THIS Victorian! Imagine when it snows and we could be reading a book in that bay window all cozy by the fire... let's move THERE!" "Look at these cute stores! We could live in this house on the Main Street and WALK over for ice cream!"

We were giggling and having a grand adventure but after awhile L. turned to me, wearing of dreams, and ended it:
"OR. You could BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED."
And with that, our own beloved homesteads flashed open in our hearts as we happily, appreciatively drove back home.

I am now in the city. Again, doing errands, I stopped in my tracks in the dish towel aisle when, way in the back but somehow calling to me, literally waving at my cart, I spied a lone green potholder and towel in a sea of flowery pink patterns... and as I lifted it I knew... I KNEW to whom I was going to gift this dishtowel.

My friend L. is wise. (In fact, all of my friends make me a better person.) I could not stop thinking of my friend's words these past days because maybe this message is meant for me.
We.

You see, our family, like everything in life, is changing. After six years of homeschool, it is time to step into high school, to be not just farm, but world citizens. I am awed by the teens' hard work and diligence that has allowed them to choose from schools that want them. I am thrilled they can be with a herd, in a culture that will make them even better for this planet. I am excited for them as they grow.

While I appreciate our back-and-forth and make sure to see the best of what the city and farm offer, my gravity, my peace, is on the land. But as tumultuous as change is, it is also natural as seeds carried in the wind: drifting, spirling, wafting down... to bloom where you are planted.
Even if it's not in your own earth.

We have a lot of change going on... and yet it's the same, and centered.

And not. How do we go more back-and-forth and embrace it, while also keeping our homestead happy? NO ONE wants to rehome our fur and feathered family. But I can't schlepp a rooster, no matter how beloved, to town! A teacup donkey would kill her canine neighbors in the city. We are creatively trying to balance the chaos while also allowing us all to grow our own way.

I will say that after years of making something-outta-nothing, of step by step, of a little here and a little there, the off grid prefab and homestead is FINALLY coming together. Off grid living is routine, the fences and run ins are solid, the chickens and horses and teacup donkey are thriving, the garden areas and cold frames and... everything is gelling! Set up for the rest of our lives.
And so...
?

In the meantime, I sit in the pasture and wave madly at the international space station as it flies over... cycles of the earth, cycles of rockets, cycles of seasons and years. Each one new and never experienced, yet old as infinity.

I also have received news that I too have alpha gal, for which I have been caretaking our daughter for over a year.
Life is interesting.

What this means are ALL MY FAVORITE WINES HAVE MAMMAL! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
(Good news: most of my fave summer sailing beers are fine!)

Ok serious (well I was serious!):
TO START, ALPHA GAL 101:What it means is...
1. that I have to read EVERY inactive ingredient because more than not they have a mammal ingredient no matter what your doctor thinks
2. that I can only have vegan rice, sugar, flour or WATER because often they are processed with filters made of BONE CHAR
3. no dairy (I live for cheese), pork, lamb, beef, venison much less gelatin vintage molded food of which I love to experiment!
4. we will run from summer cook outs, and often, holidays: fumes are dangerous.
5. a restaurant can kill us (it's just not worth it, bring your own food to discreetly snack upon), and so can grandma
6. my makeup, moisturizer, soap, shampoo, detergent, and dish soap must be vegan
7. animal exposure must be a minimum. No hugs, no bedrooms, and sweep sweep sweep.
8. travel: no international unless food and water on the airplane are safe, no hotels because all the carpet cleaning/sheets/towels are cleaned with mammal. AirBnb + wash and bring our own sheets, towels, soaps, pans, utensils is the only way we can go...

We have navigated this with our daughter for over a year now. She usually wears gloves when she rides or pets her dogs. As the caregiver I have to be just as vigilant because now I'm taking care of two of us.

We ALWAYS wear tick repellent + check after + shower + check for the next 24 hours after the woods.

Recipes:
Each fall, I pick a little sumac along the fields for Middle Eastern dishes. Because when you get a hankering for Middle Eastern food in a town population of 40, you gotta be prepared.😂
Every summer, I can a basic tomato/onion/garlic sauce I use for EVERYTHING, including Middle Eastern food. I also can roasted red peppers. All of this comes in handy to make the BEST white bean soup, ever.

Copeland's Ka Pow Middle Eastern White Bean Soup That Actually Has Flavor!
I am ALWAYS disappointed when I order white bean soup at restaurants, no matter the ingredients. This stew, however, actually tastes AMAZING.

In a pot, simmer your favorite white beans for hours until tender. Drain, and salt, stir gently, set aside.

In the bottom of a pan or pot, sautee a bunch of onion and garlic in olive oil.

Once done and a little crispy, add in some cumin, then roasted red peppers with juice it is canned in. Stir. Add in a bunch of my tomato/onion/garlic sauce. Add in the beans, a bunch of hot sauce, more salt, lemon juice, and carefully mix it all together.

Simmer until it looks so delicious you want to eat it. Pour into bowls, top with ground sumac and fresh parsley (if you have it), and eat it!

Copeland's Shakshuka:

This time of year I crave shakshuka. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it is SHAKSHUKA SEASON.

There is something about a *perfectly* poached egg in a stew of savory deliciousness that makes this the perfect comfort food as the chickens after a winter break start laying again!
It's fresh. Savory. Stewed. Creamy. PERFECT.

First, in a skillet, I make the harissa. I never bother making the harissa a paste in the blender because THINK OF IT for hundreds of years nomadic Africans have been making harissa and do YOU think they had a blender? Naw. Just chop that stuff up and get to work in the pan.
(Also: I always add a ton more caraway/cumin/coriander/hot spices than called for, ha.)

To that, I add in a bunch of the roasted red pepper I can every summer, chop it with the spatula, then I add in any other extra ingredients to customize the shakshuka- grill some eggplant? Stir in olives? THEN I dump in a half quart of my tomato/garlic/onion sauce, get all that simmering, and add in salt/hot sauce/spices/lemon juice.

Add the egg, put the lid on... and taaaaa da: once it's PERFECTLY lightly poached (it will continue cooking), spoon the sauce into a bowl, then the egg, then sprinkle with sumac. Often I don't add in thick yogurt or feta, and just have the savory sauce and egg. (Note: now that I have alpha gal I certainly don't add dairy!)

It's great by itself, but super good with fresh homemade bread or naan.

Fiddlehead Pasta

Dice onions, chicken in a pan, add fiddleheads if you promise not to destroy them by GENTLY turning them, otherwise cook them in a separate pan with a little broth so the onions soften. You can add a little duck fat at the end to finish them with an edge if you like.

While THAT is cooking, cook and then add very al dente pasta and gently stir so that the pasta absorbs the rest of the broth / flavor, then add sea salt and pepper to taste.

Fiddleheads have both a light (like asparagus or artichoke) yet strong flavor so you don't need too much.

Confusing I know but if you've had them you'll understand. If you don't have alpha gal like we, feel free to toss in a little parmesan!

Reading Club:

Apple Says Its Global Facilities Are 100% Powered By Clean Energy
Keystone pipeline leak in South Dakota about double previous estimate
‘Shocking’ decline in birds across Europe due to pesticide use, say scientists
New figures reveal decline in farmland birds at a 'level approaching an ecological catastrophe'
Crop insecurity: what is the future of our food?

The next weeks are busy with gardening.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy your spring!

Here's some more moments from ours:

HAS ANYONE SEEN MY LAVENDAR SOAP???? I can't seem to find it.
(Why does the breeze smell so good?)

(Rule is you can't dig past your waist.)

They have worked on this hole for weeks. (Not allowed to dig deeper!)

We were called in to help a friend wrangle vicious longhorns.
We are always here to help, folks.

Wrangling a VICIOUS longhorn.
(Yes I was careful not to touch the milk / wash hands!)

My friend C and her vicious longhorn.

The girls are wrangling cattle, too.

Vicious longhorn.

Modern Net Zero Prefab Maximizes Comfort In Winter Wind And Weather.

2018-03-05T15:02:00.002-05:00

At the net zero off grid prefab house, this time of year during "normal" winter weather (20s-40s/50) we keep the cook stove running intermittently so not to overheat the house. If you have been following this blog, you know that in "normal" winter weather, with our prefab house completely off grid, we are cozy, so there's not much to tell! The energy efficiency and structural strength of SIP, which is what our prefab house kits are made of, rock!

Our prefab house kit architects have some news...
This month, there were some nice articles written on the architecture firm 3north that designed our two story modern prefab house, the R1 Residential!

The R1 Residential prefab house.

Dezeen noted 3north's small footprint cabin is about 800 square feet, yet open and embraces (like our own prefab home site choices) being hidden yet also having moments of reveal: the 3north custom small footprint project hides the waterfront home down a long drive, and only do you see the water once you arrive!

We too enjoy privacy, not placing our own off grid prefab house up on the road to be seen, but hidden back beyond the fields. Yet when you look south, you can see the view for miles. LOVE IT.

I love how they clad the modern house with black on the waterfront side- 3north notes: "When viewed from the river, the black siding gives the impression that the house is receding into the landscape."
They did a really beautiful job. Check it out:

For 800 square feet, 3north certainly maximized the clients' living!

Back to our own modern small footprint house and off grid living!

Off Grid Seasonal Maintenance:
This is the time to not only cut weed trees for firewood (thus improving the health of your woods) but to build holz hausen, and if you want to move any firewood into the wood shed, now is the time to do that, too. Why? Well of course you know you want to cut wood before sap rises. But there are many reasons to take advantage of this season for wood- when hauling out the wood from the woods, snakes and ticks are less. When stacking (or unstacking) wood, black widows / snakes have not yet come out. It makes it waaaaaaay easier to handle, no?

For many of our friends, power is still out days after the nor'easter hit the east coast. Over 1.5 million along the north east (not counting the south!) lost power.
At our modern prefab cabin, winds gusted to 60!
But I wasn't worried about the prefab house, we had already been through two hurricanes and I know the SIP prefab house is rock solid.

HOWEVER I did worry about our structures- wood sheds and run ins and fencing...
Thankfully, due to our great friends who helped us build these simple structures that many people don't think about enduring extreme weather, they reminded us to always use hurricane straps for everything, even simple wood sheds.

Trees were down, roofs blown off, low-lying areas flooded, many are still without power here. When outside, we stayed away from the tree line while doing chores in case the wind would knock something down.

But otherwise, we sat in the net zero prefab, cozy, cooking food on the cook stove and enjoying the indoors until it passed.

Local Dominion Energy noted the severity of the nor'easter, and its impact more severe than even Hurricane Sandy:
"This storm was particularly damaging as it lasted so long – with our system experiencing significant winds more than 24 hours including gusts of over 70 mph. It ranks as one of the top five most damaging storms in the number of Dominion Energy customers impacted, topped only by hurricanes Floyd, Isabel and Irene, and the Super Derecho of 2012."

After ten years of off grid modern prefab house blogging, I will now write intermittently, because you have seen the off grid modern prefab through all sorts o' extreme weather and now know we're fine, we're cozy, we're happy!

We also now an off grid family with teens.
Not all moments are fun.

I noticed Teen 1 was constantly sulky, dark, glowering.
I took away electronics.
Taaaaaaaaaaaaa daaaaaaaaaaaaa! Look how bright and shiny he is again!

He spent the entire day DIGGING THIS HOLE just fer the heck of it!

Look at that beautiful smile!

I am so thrilled to have my teen back!!!
He hugged his equines, played with his dogs, was SO much fun to be around...
I love our Pips so much, and my heart aches when they're not putting smiles in the world, much less wiping them off my face.
My smile is back.

Here are some favorite moments from these weeks:

He loves him so much he's sleeping on his feet.

"DONE WITH SSATs,
SCHOOL INTERVIEWS AND TESTS!"

Hanging out with some chicks.

Cornbread: "Tell me yer troubles, kid..."

Teen 1: "They took away the electronics! There's NOTHING to do! She's so MEAN!"
Cornbread: "You think she's mean to YOU? You should see how she moves ME around all day!"

Dogs: "LET'S CHASE A BALL!" Teen 1: "Ok! Doggie KICKBALL!"

Teen 1: "I'm bored. I think I'll spend all day long digging a hole."
Dogs: "AWESOME!"

And so, at the net zero modern prefab home, we move forward.
Towards spring.

Off Grid Modern Prefab House Enters Its TENTH Year of Prefab House Kits And Construction

2018-02-06T10:10:00.003-05:00

You can tell spring nears, not by the groundhog's shadow, but by how my email suddenly explodes with people asking for quotes of our prefab house kits.

For ten years I have been writing about our own modern prefab house kit construction! Yes, it was ten years ago that I was waiting for the weather to warm up so we could pour the foundation of our own modern prefab house!

This fall, ten years ago, our structural insulated panels arrived on a flat bed truck...

The SIP arrive! November 2008.

Day 3

Day 4

Day 7

This fall, TEN years ago, our contractor (with an Amish crew) assembled the SIP, added cladding, windows, doors, plumbing, electric, built the interior walls...

And then for over TEN years we have been, weekend by weekend, sloooooowly finishing things, building a farm, and enjoying life in our off grid prefab house.

We can now attest that the standard package SIP perform fantastically in average conditions, and impressively even in extreme weather.

Here we are snowed in, -2 degrees, totally happy and warm!

Of course, if you live in an area where you regularly get daily 0 and negative temperatures, or 100 and more above, then you would want to consider thicker panels.
But DANG! Off grid has been fine with just that tiny cook stove's firebox!

Firebox is the length of my arm,
width of my hand,
and heats the entire prefab house!

Each winter, each polar vortex, each dire plummeting weather condition... the standard SIP prefab house kit package has outperformed any of our other friends' new construction homes!

So yes, ten years down the road, I can still enthusiastically say how much I love using SIP as a proven quality, energy efficient, affordable solution for optimal performance home construction.

Our off grid life is good, and easy, even with minimal panels.

With winter ebbing and ten years of proven off-grid prefab house kit performance under my belt, as we ease into the "easy seasons" I might step off this blog a bit more.
UNLESS YOU LIKE HEARING ME RAMBLE.
(I can ramble away.)

In fact, I can not only ramble, I can SING and ramble at the same time like we did in the city this weekend at HamilTUNES. If you like Hamilton, but citizens doing a sing-a-long (including women with babies and men in kilts!), I would definitely go.

In the meantime, I'll be relaxing, cozy, and quiet in my off grid modern prefab house.
Here's some pictures from the week.

Another morning where we wake to 68
even with no heat (note the system says off) overnight
yet outside it is in the 20s.

One last tussle before bedtime.

Have a good week. xo

Prefab Homes: Passive Solar House Kits: Green Modern Kits!

Ice Storm at the Off-grid Prefab House! Living Dangerously, Off-grid.

We are still not dug out from this dangerous storm that brought thick ice to our area.

Living with no utility bills for 20ish years is great, but takes careful preparation.

The end of 2025 and the start of 2026 have not been easy.

Even in hard times (this week, dangerous ice), you can look back and see there were so many bright spots and love.

SNOWSTORM!!!! With upzoning, recipes and leftovers, from an off-grid prefab house.

Oh, wait: we're off-grid in a toasty, energy-efficient SIP house!

Comfy, cozy in the off-grid prefab, I muse on zoning. Is YOUR city upzoning?

Let's talk about solar, daylighting, and the impacts of concrete towers on communities.

Recipes & Adventures! It's not my blog without some stories.

Guess what, guys? It's going to snow!

Handsome Husband looked at the wind-whipped snow stuck to the windows and doors and noted, "This says a lot about the energy efficiency of the glass. If heat were escaping, this would have melted. Instead, it's stuck against the glass until the weather warms up outside."

This is right about when my mom always calls, saying I should run back to the city, and I reply, "I'm way more worried about YOUR infrastructure than mine!" I do love my super-insulated, energy-efficient, Green Modern Kits house!

DIMBY: Disconnects in Richmond's Zoning Code Refresh and Sustainability Professionals Leading to Death In My Backyard.

So many peers crying "Abundance!" "City of YES!" "Build Build Build!"Has anyone considered that new zoning is creating Death In My Backyard?

To meet Richmond 300, SolSmart, Net-Zero, and Climate Equity Action Plan goals, I recommend whole-life carbon and solar assessments, and prioritizing retrofitting before new builds.

To achieve net-zero by 2050, Richmond zoning must enact:

Myth 1: "Tall Density is good! It makes wind! Developers can just pay a fund for trees! Taiwan and Singapore are leading the way!" - Daniel Klein, Office of Sustainability Staff

Tall density creates hazardous, heat-trapping and extremely harmful air quality conditions.

"The evidence now is overwhelming that tall buildings hinder, rather than assist, our efforts to address key challenges of climate breakdown, resource depletion and biodiversity loss…"

Myth 2: "Tall density is good because it creates shade!" - Zoning Working Group facilitator

Myth 2: "Tall density is good because it creates shade!" - Zoning Working Group facilitator

Tall density permanently blocks communities’ opportunities for solar access, negatively impacts their health (unlike shorter deciduous trees, which in summer cool sidewalks and soil, while also, when leafless, allow the community to embrace winter sun).

Tall buildings hurt communities' circadian rhythm and increases the utility costs and energy efficiency of surrounding homes.

I recommend mandatory shadow modeling for any new build over three stories, with setbacks and stepbacks protecting existing neighbors from negative solar-blocking impacts.

Myth 3: Tall Density Doesn't Matter for Solar When Sited to the North! - Zoning Staff and ZAC

Shadow modeling is imperative to the health and resiliency of Richmond communities. Shadow modeling is easy; to not do so will permanently block equitable, affordable solar opportunities for existing communities.

Myth 4: I noticed the term "yard" had been removed COMPLETELY from the Draft Zoning. When I pointed out its absence to zoning staff, I was told the term had been replaced with "amenity space," and that it was "just semantics." AMENITY SPACE IS NOT SEMANTICS.

What counts as amenity space? Concrete balconies, storage lockers, gyms, and pools. Not. the. same.

Myth 5: Density Prevents Sprawl and Protects Wildlife

The best, immediate, easy way to stop sprawl is by 1. protecting farmland and 2. promoting remote work.

I challenge sustainability peers who are showing up to urban zoning discussions: “How many acres of farmland have YOU prevented from being zoned residential? How many acres have YOU put into conservation easements?”

If you are a sustainability professional, you should equally be spending time insisting rural zoning and boards of supervisors in counties emphatically PROTECT AGRICULTURAL ZONES and REFUSE TO REZONE acreage to commercial or residential. (Where are your policy papers on THAT?)

Where are my peers' policy recs for REMOTE WORK to address air quality and transportation clogs today? I recommend they voice them.

Shout it from the back: Want to make a huge and immediate impact on our emissions and air quality rather than expending enormous amounts of carbon on new construction? Support hybrid/remote work! Retrofit without displacing our community! Save farmland and yards!

Myth 6: We Will Solve Our Energy Burden With New Construction!

Retrofitting equitably upgrades energy efficiency yet protects existing communities because when people stay in their homes, they are not displaced.

When does yes and abundance slide into death of resiliency for our city?

Firebreathing Daylily & Violet One-Pot Noodles… With Zoning.

In the country, happily living off-grid for years, I consider the already-felt impacts of large-scale solar farms on our rural community.

Culling real estate professionals (with their marketing, staff, and property knowledge) from the illegal STR gold rush makes listings much harder for absentee owners to manage profitably, thus hopefully making STRs “not worth it,” thus converting back to traditional leases for a lower price.

An Important Passive Solar Zoning Story… Prefab House New York Update.

Passive Solar Prefab Project Updates: One Prefab Hemp, One Structural Insulated Panels, From Green Modern Kits / Green Cabin Kits.

We will soon circle back to the Hardscrabble HempHouse, a modified Dogtrot Mod project from Green Cabin Kits, finishing the main house unit with hemp.

But let's introduce a new Green Modern Kits casa ti prefab home project in New York!

We are all lucky to have Mr. Chaleff's oversight and suggestions for adjusting our standard casa ti prefab design to our client's individual site and performance needs.

Prefab House Turned Hempcrete House Update: Hardscrabble Hemphouse

Two passive solar modern prefab house projects underway on the East Coast have exciting stories, one regarding its materials, the other, with zoning.

Hardscrabble HempHouse Project Updates:

Green Modern Kits Prefab House Updates:

Modern Prefab House Project Updates: The Little Lab Unites with Dogtrot Hemphouse

Happy Spring from the off-grid modern prefab! We are well, and hope you are, too!

Passive Solar Modern Prefab News... and Hello! Happy End of Summer From Green Modern Kits.

BRING ON THE PREFAB NEWS!

Current Prefab House Projects:

One Dogtrot Mod, in the North East, will be re-imagined in hempcrete!

What Have WE Been Up To Over The Year?

When your heart breaks, and breaks, what is there to do?

Still living off-grid in our prefab home, a casa ti, we *also* began an urban renovation project which I will go into later if you like.

And with fall, we will have more detailed prefab house kit construction updates from Green Modern Kits, Green Cabin Kits, Green Cottage Kits, and the architects involved.

Thoughts On Longterm Power Outages From An Off-Grid Energy-Efficient Prefab House Through In An Ice Storm: Disaster Prep

The Ice Storm

Social Girl’s Night Guac, With Chinese New Year: Breakfast Jook / Congee Rice

Chinese New Year, Continued: Ginger Soup With Crab

Chinese New Year, Continued: Lunar Lucky Leftover Soup

Chinese New Year, Continued: Stir-Fried Chicken With Almonds And Vegetables

Pantry Notes: I always keep one bunch of celery, and one bunch of carrots in the freezer for fresh tastes like this in winter. But in times of uncertainty, I err on filling the freezer with protein vs. the usual amount and variety of vegetables, since we can eat those, foraged.

Off-grid tip:

Thai Lunar New Year, Continued: Thai Chicken Curry With Squash /Kaeng Pet Kai

Bad Weather Tip:

Lunar New Year: Singaporean Shrimp / Har Loke

Malaysian Lunar New Year: Delicate Kadazan Soup

Vietnamese Lunar New Year: Chicken With Mint / Ga Tron Rau Hung

Indonesian Lunar New Year: Skewered Chicken With Spiced Peanut Sauce / Sate Ajam, Katjang Saos, Katjap Manis

Indonesian Lunar New Year: Indonesian Green Beans, Carrots and NO WAY AM I USING BEEF in Coconut Sauce / Jukut Mekalis, and Vintage Cookbook Credits

Indonesian Green Beans, Carrots and NO WAY AM I USING BEEF in Coconut Sauce / Jukut Mekalis

Filipino New Year: Sweet And Sour Battered Shrimp / Hipon Rebosado

Does anyone else see the humor that I live off-gridyet am trapped by a downed power line?

Copelandanesian Lunar New Year: Scallops With Spinach / Scallops, Y’all!

Recipes & Adventures!
It's not my blog without some stories.

This is right about when my mom always calls, saying I should run back to the city, and I reply, "I'm way more worried about YOUR infrastructure than mine!"
I do love my super-insulated, energy-efficient, Green Modern Kits house!

So many peers crying "Abundance!" "City of YES!" "Build Build Build!"
Has anyone considered that new zoning is creating Death In My Backyard?

The best, immediate, easy way to stop sprawl is by
1. protecting farmland and
2. promoting remote work.

Still living off-grid in our prefab home, a casa ti, we also began an urban renovation project which I will go into later if you like.

Thai Lunar New Year, Continued: Thai Chicken Curry With Squash /
Kaeng Pet Kai

Does anyone else see the humor that I live off-grid
yet am trapped by a downed power line?

People asked if, living off-grid, I have advice for outages such as this.
Here are my thoughts:

At our off-grid prefab house, it is snowing.
I have written prefab project construction updates over these months, yet never hit "publish."