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Off Grid Behaviors
Off Grid Behaviors
Mastering Homestead Harmony: Budget Cabins, Garden Secrets, and Self-Reliance Solutions
Ever wondered how to tackle the challenges of creating a self-reliant homestead? I'm Barry Smith, and on this episode of Off Grid Behaviors, you'll gain invaluable insights into everything from erecting a budget-friendly cabin to laying out a thriving garden. Tune in as I unfold my homesteading journey, detailing the highs and lows of cabin construction and the creative solutions I've employed to overcome unexpected hurdles. You'll learn why standard measurements are your best friend and how I turned camouflage tarps into a temporary fix for my unconventional abode. Plus, I'll take you behind the scenes of my podcast setup, revealing what makes this medium so uniquely captivating.
Roll up your sleeves for a deep dive into the art of gardening in Augusta, Georgia's unpredictable climate, where I’ll guide you through my color-coded seed planting experiment and the strategic design of garden beds to maximize harvests and prevent crossbreeding. We'll also explore the critical importance of water sources, alternative power options like solar generators, and food preservation techniques essential for a sustainable lifestyle. Whether you're raising livestock or just starting your first vegetable patch, this episode is packed with practical advice and personal tales to fuel your passion for the homesteading life.
Hey folks, welcome back to Off Grid Behaviors. I'm your host, Barry Smith, where being abnormal is completely acceptable. I'd like to thank you all for tuning in once again. I really appreciate the support. Last episode I talked a little bit about some survival skills, things like purposes for a five-gallon bucket and things in case of some big emergency response situation in your local area, such as fires, floods or some type of chemical explosion or something to that degree.
Barry Smith:Now today I have something a little bit different. First, I want to ask you guys have you ever heard of the old saying you got to crack a few eggs to make some omelets, right, yeah, I'm familiar with that. So I want to talk a little bit about the gardening aspect of that and building this cabin that I've been working on. So first of all, last week I heard this gentleman on some type of reel. First of all, last week I heard this gentleman on some type of reel. He said there are certain, I would say, um characteristics or components of homesteading or off-grid I can't remember his name, can't find it, but I thought it's interesting and there are some basic things like water, whether it be rain, well, or something like that. Also power, solar generators, wind turbines, even water turbines, whatever the case. He also mentioned things like canning and preserving your food, which that equipment is quite an investment. I think I saw some stuff and there were some classes. They were at that homesteading conference I didn't go to because it really wasn't a thing just yet and I also heard things about a root cellar. Does anyone know anything about what a root cellar is, how that works? I guess it's a thing. I mean, I guess if you have roots and they can stay for a long period of time, that is awesome. So also don't forget about livestock. I would imagine you would have to have some type of protein, unless you're strictly vegetarian, and whether it be chickens for eggs and whether it be goat or whatever people eat, and I would imagine that calves and cows are a really big deal, probably pretty expensive, and of course, uh, pigs of some sort. But for starters, I want to talk a little bit about the last thing your own food. How do you go about getting good food? And I saw on the internet just all this stuff they're putting through our foods, all the chemicals and colorations and everything else. So let's talk about that for a second.
Barry Smith:So this past weekend I went to Lowe's. I was looking at some things like compost and how to prepare these garden beds, what I was going to use, but of course, while I was there, I bought about $40 worth of seeds, wild variety fruits like watermelons or cantaloupes. Also, of course, the staple items tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, eggplant, name it. I had squash. I had all kinds of stuff, but then on the back if you ever look on the back of that, I don't know where you all are at, but I live in Augusta, Georgia, and it's right on the border of South Carolina. It's divided by what we call the Savannah River. So if you look on the back of those seed packages it has these color codes and for me it's usually in the orange and yellow. So whether it's february, march, april, may, the march usually starts with the yellow and the april kicks in with the orange.
Barry Smith:So I'm asking myself and this is going to be the experiment of all this how much difference does it make if I start something that says October, January and March versus something that says April, July, November? However that works, I would imagine that for me, where we're at is pretty mild. I would almost guess that anything that says March I could do in April and almost anything that says April I could do in March. That's the experiment. I mean, what do I have to lose? I paid $2 a pack for seeds, which makes it to be about what? 5 cents per seed. So I already have the soil, I I have everything done. So what's the risk? 10 cents maybe? So I'm gonna try it out.
Barry Smith:But of course for the past week and a half or so I've really been cleaning. I actually bought some tomato plants from a gentleman offline just to kind of do some experiments, because growing them from the seed is kind of tough and lead it to the pros. I'm still going to experiment a little bit myself. I'm still having some issues with discoloration. Some of them are turning kind of brown and some already have flowers and stuff. In fact they're about tomatoes and peppers. I remember when I grew some peppers a couple of years ago. Those things go crazy. It takes no time. So the experiment now is yellow versus orange, orange versus yellow April, march.
Barry Smith:I'm testing to see before I go on vacation, which is next weekend, april 6th, getting back around the 11th. So we'll still be on spring break when I get back. So perhaps that weekend when I get back still be Masters week Remember that golf tournament. I'll still have that weekend to plan everything. I shouldn't be worried about rain, because it always rains during masters or spring break for us here, so I was contemplating putting things in the ground, or seeds, before I go on vacation. Not sure if they'll just maintain, but you know, for the first week or so, it's important to make sure that those seeds get water, so I think I'll just wait till I get back.
Barry Smith:Speaking of which, bringing it to my next topic, um, I was building the garden and the dimensions are about 10 by 12, so the thing that I'm coming across right now is the design. Where do I put what? What can crossbreed, a hybrid or whatever? How can I put things together? So I've seen some pictures in magazines online where they make like a almost like a u-shape of boxes. So the boxes in a u-shape and even maybe one box in the middle. We could easily work into the boxes and reach stuff. So, again, with 20 some odd seed samples that I bought, I need to figure out which ones we're going to put inside the box that I'm making and the ones that are going on the ground. I can eliminate two real quick, though the cantaloupe and the watermelon. Those are definitely going in the ground. But then for everything else I have to figure it out.
Barry Smith:And for that build I'm using some 44 by 48 pallets as the wall, as the base. So if you turn them sideways where you can get an even number such as um, 12 feet in width, you'll put them how can you say horizontally? You know they'll be 44 inches high but 48 inches wide. And the good thing about this, you can estimate how wide the cuts and how you put things together. So, for example, 48 inches is three feet, I'm sorry, 48 inches is four feet. So you put them side by side, you put three of them together, you have 12 feet, right, 12, 12, 12. And then you may do some cuts.
Barry Smith:And the idea to get the height for me is taking some two by fours or four by four posts and securing them to the top of these pallets and adding another, I would say four feet, so making the overall garden box or the garden house about eight feet tall. I'm six, four, so it had to be at least six feet, and when I was still concerned about what I'm trying to do is keep animals out. So they said that six feet is a minimum to keep deer out. Seven is ultimate, so this would be about eight feet, but I'm not, of course, done with that because still have squirrels and whatever else might be out there, so I need to bring that wire over the top. So I've been designing the build of this, still using pallets as a, as the door and and the two by fours is this brace is going across the top. So that's kind of what that's going to look like, so that should be a pretty easy build. I pretty much got it framed out. Now it's just a matter of putting a couple more cuts together for the for the hike.
Barry Smith:So also, I do have the water situation. I ordered some stuff off of Amazon as far as the funnels going to those 275 gallon water tanks. I'm also using some other things to capture water in, like those maybe 35 gallon little blue containers or like 35 gallon water containers, and some may be black, like rain ones that you might see. But what I have inside this garden house is a variety of containers and how to make them work. And, again, whether I'm using five gallon buckets, standard pots, boxes that I have laying around or some other type of storage containers, whatever case, I'm going to use everything that I have and, in whatever case, I'm going to use everything that I have, which is something I forgot to mention about the homesteading or the upgrade thing. The gentleman mentioned using or reusing everything that you have. At the end of the day, if you have a five gallon bucket, reuse it for water, reuse it for I don't know, for your emergency kit or anything you buy. Try to reuse it for more than one time and save the environment.
Barry Smith:So after I finish building this garden house and putting some seeds in the ground, I'm going to continue work on that gazebo building. It's kind of going to be an outdoor kitchen, because currently it's like the only way you can eat outside is underneath a canopy, which is fairly boring sometimes and the wind. So I'd rather build something that has a solid structure, a permanent structure, a table, a grill, and that's what I'm looking at. It should start off with pallets being the base, and then I still have some metal roofing that I bought some months ago and it's going to make the roof about 12 feet wide and 10 feet deep. So that's the structure of that.
Barry Smith:As I watched some videos the other day about quick creep and how to put those posts in the ground, quick creep and how to put those posts in the ground. And and also laying out a maybe a four inch cement pad without having to use things like rebar. So if you're interested in something like that, take a look at some of those videos and look at how you can mix quick creep without actually having to stir it. It was very interesting. So what they did was put it in the pit. They dug the pit out for the quick creating and level everything out, strained it so it's not all bubbly or have any little rocks on the top, and then lightly sprayed it with water, let it sit for an hour or two, sprayed it again, let it sit an hour or two, I guess, sprayed it again and repeated that process until it got wet, I guess from the bottom up, and then solidified. So I thought it was pretty interesting. So I can imagine if you have to stir up the concrete and whatever that. Whatever you dig out, try to stir it up and then try to level it out and make it nice and neat. That could probably take some time and make some mistakes, or even getting something like a mixer and mixing it and then pouring it in. So this looks pretty simple, but just take a look at it. Just maybe google something like how to mix quick creep without mixing it, or how to make a quick creep pad without stirring the mix of the concrete. So that was very interesting.
Barry Smith:Also, I don't know if I've ever told you, but I started building a cabin. It was about two years ago when I first started on the land and the oddest thing about it is the structure, the base and all the measurements. Now I began to build this thing because I saw someone, some nice lumber, big lumber, let's say, six inches, six by two, something like that. But the funny part is I ignored that. The length. The length were weird Nine, six or nine, eight, nine feet, six inches, nine feet, eight inches. But I'm excited, they were sturdy, they look good and they were inexpensive. So I took those boards and put them across those deck bricks and that's how I laid the foundation. So it worked out everything pretty good and it squared everything up great, using those deck blocks, putting everything in place and nail them and screwing them together. And that was my base.
Barry Smith:But here's the situation when I start going inside, framing everything, whether the flooring, the walls, the exterior there there's nothing. There is no, there are no materials that are nine feet by six inches, not half, not a third. Most everything you buy in the stores are four feet by eight feet. So think about it If I put two together side by side, that gives me eight feet with a foot and a half left over, and that's in every capacity, whether it's sheetrock, whether it's flooring, the roof, everything was just thrown off. It was a great learning experience. But moving forward, I tell anyone know your measurements, know something about basic construction. It was a great learning experience, but moving forward, I tell anyone know your measurements, know something about basic construction, it'll save you so much time. Now I have to go back and rip boards for another extra foot and a half. The roof was complicated. And now, because I didn't have a roof on that thing for a long period of time almost two years, I would imagine that the rain has destroyed the floor in a lot of spots, not completely, so what I need to do is go back over it with, I guess, a half inch of plywood on the floor to make that floor sturdy again. So about insulation, because let me start over On the exterior, over the summer I I put some that low building, wrap a house, wrap around it to secure it from rain from the exterior after I put the roof on.
Barry Smith:So that was a big deal. And then, as I started looking at what I was going to use to put around the building, as far as what was affordable, what looked good and what I need to do and what, how much time I had. So I was looking at things like vinyl siding. I looked at using pallet wood. I looked at almost everything you can imagine. The vinyl siding stuff was just more than I really wanted to deal with. The bottom rack what is it? The bottom tray you had to put on the bottom of the house or the cabin, then put everything on top of it, then put the corner pieces on. It just seemed like it was going to be a little bit more time and definitely more money that I wanted to spend. It probably would have been $600, $700, $800 after everything to do that and that's just not something I wanted to do.
Barry Smith:So what I did? I bought some tarps from Arbor Freight. I bought the camouflage ones because most other ones are either gray or blue or black. I didn't want black because of the heat. So this was the camouflage. They were about $12 a piece, I guess About $2 or $3. Because I started from the side of it, it not where the door is that because I'm still working the door entry door and brought around the face, then around the back side. But I'm also leaving the back open right now because I'm going to be doing some electrical work back there as far as building the outlet and potentially something with water, like plumbing for a sink or a toilet.
Barry Smith:So, and needless to say, the measurements on the on the tarp for 10 by 12, or I want to say 11 by 14 for this one, something like that. But nothing's going to be perfect. If I did a 10 by 10 or 10 by 12, it may have been too short or too too tall or too short, whatever the case may be. Uh, it worked out. So I'm just gonna have some excess on the bottom which I'm gonna cut and then pin with some with some steel or aluminum siding or just staple it. So that's worked out pretty good. So I have two sides covered and looks pretty good, especially from a distance, because before, with the white house wrap, you can see through the trees. I leave some trees up front and some grass up front, just so people can't look through. So but the white was sticking out quite a bit, so hanging it, I'm sorry. Putting the tarp on and the camouflage colors definitely helps disguise it a little bit more.
Barry Smith:So back to the interior. Funny enough, after reading I found out that most people don't have insulation in their walls, is using the ceiling and I've seen the ceiling but I guess it's not in the walls. I never thought much about it. But for this cabin build I wanted it to be warm in the wintertime. I haven't made my mind up completely about what it's going to be because of the size. It could be a nice bathhouse, which I think I'm going to definitely make it for the summer, but then in the wintertime it's probably going to be more of a sleeping area because I use some moving blankets for the insulation in the walls For my studio.
Barry Smith:For years I had several shipping blankets that I used for insulation in the studio until I got other acoustic foam and just got better equipment like microphones. But when you're in the studio and you're trying to record, if you don't have a nice studio or a nice microphone or a mixer or whatever the case, you want the room to be as treated as possible. If you're doing any podcast or any other type of production, your room doesn't have to be 100% covered in acoustic foam, but it helps to have about 50%. And as we speak right now, I'm using a Shure SM7B if anybody wants to know and a Rodecaster Pro for the mixer. In front of me I have some cushions in front and behind me I have a blanket on the board that kind of prevents the sound from bouncing all over the place. But this is just for those who are interested in podcasting. So sorry if I got off topic, but I find podcasts to be fun and very energetic, to kind of reach across and kind of help people in some way. And a good thing about podcasts and unlike videos is you can actually listen while you're driving and working out. You don't have to look at the videos. So that's why I'm into the podcast and business.
Barry Smith:So I put the insulation, the wall and it should be fine, and now I'm concerned about how I'm gonna close the walls up. So again, with those weird cuts that I made, I'm still going back and forth about what to do. So I didn't want to use sheetrock because it's heavy and I still had to paint it afterwards. I consider using pallet boards, but that can be tedious too because, again, I don't have the studs every 18 inches. I have the studs like every 36 inches. So trying to stagger the boards would be kind of hard. But I guess for me, knowing that it's not for aesthetics, I don't have to stagger the boards would be kind of hard. But I guess for me, knowing that it's not for aesthetics, I don't have to stack them. So I could take those boards because usually they're going to be 44 inches across and just kind of lay them one on top of each other. It doesn't matter, it's just who's gonna care, right. So I could very well use those and cut them off at 36 inches, 36, 36. And I care less about the staggering and how it looks Once I get it painted and put a couple of things on it, then the stagger, or the lack thereof, should be okay.
Barry Smith:So I left a corner open in the back because I'm going to use my toilet. I don't have plumbing out there, so just a little flushable toilet, which is good, and then in the same corner I'm going to put a window air condition. I was debating about the portable ones, you may have seen, but some people say that the heat in such a small space like that may accumulate inside the space. So that's a concern for me. And of course, the window air conditions are a lot cheaper than the portable ones anyway. So for this space I'm not going to need to move stuff around so much. So I think my best bet for the money would be the window unit. I have a brand new one I'm going to put in my cargo trailer that I made and I'm turning it to a camper. So the new one is going in there potentially, and I have an old one that may put in this cabin. I may swap them either way. I'm not really sure at this point and the old one I'm not sure if it gets cold or cool. I paid like 30 bucks for it Last time I tried it. It worked, but I was doing it in an uninsulated space. So with these shipping blankets I'm thinking they should definitely keep heat in in the winter and definitely keep heat in during the summer. But during the summer it may not be a place to be other than taking a bath or shower, washing up and getting out of there. Otherwise it'll be air conditioned as well. So those are the two projects that I'm working on currently.
Barry Smith:I still been moving a lot of trash around, and at some point I may need to get some type of I don't know earth moving equipment, because doing stuff by hand with shovels and rakes is time consuming. I mean I do have time, but again, if I could in the future move some stuff around quicker. If I'm going to do more as far as expanding the land, I will probably need to rent something from one of the places, and one of those tow things or ground things run about $300 for a day, so that seems doable. I mean to pick it up, let's say, 6am in the morning, like when they open, and have it all night and bring it back the next day for 300 bucks. I think I'll definitely get my my use out of it. So those are experiments that I've got going on right now. I'm looking forward to it when to plant the seeds when I come back from vacation, and that is pretty much it.
Barry Smith:I remember earlier I was talking about reusing things. So in this little bathroom or cabin, whatever you want to call it, I'm going to be using a vanity that I had in storage. It came from my house, so it's the standard white and while I don't have running water for it, I can put one of those little bowl sinks in it and put a little pump thing in it and give it a nice little aesthetic look. Not only would it look good, but just having that underneath storage adds a little bit of storage space so I don't have everything all cluttered up in there. So with a quick paint job and a bowl sink, it's gonna be a good thing to go to do so up lately.
Barry Smith:Um, I'm gonna be going back to my house. The tenant that I had in there, uh, will be leaving actually in the next day or so, and at that point I'll be getting ready for that master's rental of the golf tournament I told you about. So they'll be coming in a few days after while I'm in Puerto Rico. So it's a lot of moving parts, but I'm getting closer and closer to think that I do want to sell my house. I'm going to give it another few months over the summer and see if I can get like another long-term rental Six months, eight months or something from a student or whatever.
Barry Smith:Again, because Airbnb was kind of a waste of time for me. It was just again a learning curve. I remember saying break a couple eggs and make some omelets. I broke a couple eggs and I realized that's not something I want to do. So I'm looking for a long-term rental and I'm on this site called Furnish. What is it? Furnish Finders dealing with traveling nurses and other folks. So's a couple things that popped up, but what they were offering was just way below and I don't know who gave them the scouting report. But they're requesting to get into a house, like this week and two weeks from now. And I actually sent an email to someone said look, I'm sorry to break you the bad news, but there's nothing available here in Augusta, georgia, from the 1st of April to mid-April, no one's going to rent you a or with and let them know this is the worst time of the year to try to relocate to this area, because everything 50 miles out in radius is going to be occupied every hotel, every house. So they need to go ahead and readjust their um, their plans, unless they're going to move into an rv or off grid. And that's again to move into an RV or off-grid. And that's again something another market I can potentially tap into with my property is that when people come into town, there's something I could do with that. I'm not sure what it could be they have campers and I don't know but that's something I could tap in as well. So that is what I'm always looking for is another opportunity to make a little dough. So I hope to get another episode uploaded before spring break and I think I will.
Barry Smith:Work has been pretty lax lately. Kids are kind of checked out because they're graduating. Some seniors are graduating just toward the end of the school year and, as I counted, there's only like 36 more days in the classroom year and, as I counted, there's only like 36 more days in the classroom. We'll finish at the middle latter part of may, like the 22nd or 23rd of may, but it's actual school days and what that may be. So this is last week in march, so we're out tomorrow because of good friday. So a week out in april for spring break. So we're talking about four weeks, four weeks maybe in April and three weeks in May. So you look at, four times five is 20 and three times five is 15. So you're looking at 35, 34 days left in school and I can't wait.
Barry Smith:So hope you guys are doing well, go out there in the ground and start figuring out what you're going to do with your design in your garden and your all-grade solutions and everything else. So go out there and read up on something and don't be afraid to make some mistakes. Just don't do something you can't fix. But as I always say, was it? Measure twice, cut once and don't use anything. That's nine feet and six inches, I promise you you you're going to hate yourself if you do. Four feet, eight feet, 12 feet, 16 feet. That's what you want to use, all right. So again, thank you for listening. Go out there in the woods and do something. And I have two last words for you..