Home, Garden and Orchard Layout

Reader Contribution by Ron Melchiore
Published on March 18, 2021
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Cleared and staked out area.
 Photo by Ron Melchiore

The Off-Grid and Free series recounts one homesteading couple’s journey to build a new homestead in Nova Scotia.

The last time we corresponded, we had cleared out a section of property, flagged out the location of house, garden, orchard, well, septic and solar array and were ready to do the nitty gritty on the house.

A Quick Personal Update

But first a bit of house keeping. As many of you know, we moved from the wilderness of Saskatchewan to Nova Scotia to start our third and final homestead build. It was my intent and desire to write occasionally to bring you along on the journey and share some of what we’ve been up to.

To be honest, I’m still finishing the “eternal house,” have just started building our greenhouse, am working on getting ahead on firewood etc. and I’m simply maxed out. But we still have the pep to get things done; in fact, part of the last year was taking some of that pep and training for sprints to compete as an old guy. I used to run sprints as a younger man and then gave it up for about 35 years. I paid a high price last year in terms of time and pain (torn quad, gimpy knees, torn hamstring) but I set the Provincial records this winter in my age group. I have no desire to toot my own horn and I mention it to offer encouragement to all that no matter your age and aspirations, it’s never too late to follow your dreams, including living a more self-reliant life.

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