Our pickup truck turned 30 this year and is showing it’s age, so we started looking for a suitable truck to replace it, one where we could add small freezers and solar panels. We decided on a bus. We found the perfect bus in Kentucky. School buses tend to be well maintained and affordable: a good investment. Additionally, this bus has a handicap lift to move the freezers and had maintenance checks every 20 days throughout it’s previous career. What better way time to spend time with your kids than to go across country in a bus?...
Our entire farm is off the grid, a decision made years ago for economic reasons as well as environmental concerns. (The farm is former organic row crop acreage, far from utility poles and civilization.) The farmhouse, outbuildings and electric fencing for the pigs are powered by solar panels with battery storage. In addition, there is a small experimental wind-powered generator that “trickle” charges the batteries during stormy weather. We have a diesel generator backup for long stretches of cloudy days. The predictable prevailing afternoon winds also run the windmill that fills the water tanks. Windmills are a great example of an older technology that works splendidly under the right conditions…and it provides an enchanting sunset silhouette on the...
