MOM's Self-Reliant Homestead

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The house isn't hooked up to the utility grid. Instead, it's wired for 12 volts and is served by a small hydroelectric generator, which, in turn, is backed up by an AC/DC motor-driven generator. Power use is about one kilowatthour per day at 12 volts: The occupants run the backup generator to boost the battery bank and to power the vacuum cleaner and other major appliances. We've been working on a 12-volt refrigerator, but there won't be enough power to serve even its meager needs until photovoltaic panels are installed to augment the hydropower. The range and water heater are run on LP gas at this point. We'd love to have a wood cookstove, but time and funds haven't allowed that yet. A passive solar water heater is the next item on our construction agenda.

HORTICULTURE TODAY

As we've already mentioned, most of the ground used for this project was a virtual wasteland when we started. It had been used as a stump, rock, and earth fill, and most of the area had no topsoil at all. Hence, our first priority was to get cover crops in that would begin renovating the surface layers of earth. As soon as heavy construction was finished, in the spring of '83 a temporary crop of hairy vetch was planted in an effort to control erosion until proper cover cropping could be done in the fall.

In the autumn, Bob Kornegay (manager of the agricultural aspects of the project) seeded the high area north, east, and southeast of the house with a mixture of five parts fescue to one part clover—a perennial combination that's easy to maintain and that loosens the upper layers of soil with both its roots and the biomass that it adds to the earth when mowed periodically. The area closer to the building, some of which Bob hoped to put to work in the spring of '84, got a mixture of hairy vetch and rye, all of which was to be turned under in the spring. At the time, Bob would have liked to have done the entire area in annuals to be turned into the soil, but he knew that job was beyond the capabilities of any of the tilling tools we had then. Now that he has access to a Gravely walking tractor with a rotary plow, however, he plans to speed the pasture renovation process by using annuals over the entire area.

With the help and advice of MOTHER's gardeners and apprentices, Bob is establishing growing beds from the house outward, starting with what will eventually be a flower/plucking green/culinary herb area on both sides of the front door. He planted mostly perennials in these beds this past year but plans to move the plants gradually to outlying areas as appropriate beds are readied. In fact, during the 1984 season most of the plots next to the house and along the front walk served as nursery areas for a diverse batch of herb starts. Because of the convenience of this location, Bob was able to keep a close eye on the progress of the seedlings. In 1985 the area under the kitchen window and in front of the greenhouse will be converted to its intended end use: growing a mixture of cooking herbs and small greens and a selection of flowers that we expect will attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

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