Articles
Homesteading Life
Creating a permaculture homestead was a longstanding dream both of us had before we even met. Here are some reflective and inspiring articles about our motivations, what keeps us going and things we might’ve done differently in hindsight.
Our Journey to Becoming Homesteaders
Why We Homestead | Through Thick & Thin
My 18 Year Old Self Asks, What Kind Of Life Is That?
Vision & Dreams Behind Mountain Jewel
150 Years | 7 Generations Thinking: Inheriting Things From Strangers
Homesteading Year 2 on the Land (Moldy Yurt, Reality TV, Solar Power, Getting Grants to Plant Trees, Goats, High Tunnel and More!)
Why Did We Choose This Life & Could We Ever Return To The Mainstream?
Homestead Life: What We Would Do Differently with 100K at the Onset
Perennial Agriculture: Edible Landscapes & Food Forests
After studying and witnessing Permaculture sites & spending many summers working on Organic Farms, Ini and I both decided that we wanted to focus our efforts toward a perennial agriculture vision. In the articles that follow, you’ll hear our motivations for doing so and find some of the key ways we’ve manifested our vision.
Why We’ve Chosen Perennial Agriculture
A Case for Edible Landscaping with Perennial Plants | 3 Plant Profiles
The Gardens @mountainjewel | Permaculture Design Process
How We Got Paid $$$$ To Plant Fruit and Nut Trees in Our Food Forest
Forgotten Plants | 6 Perennial Vegetables
Catching The Vision | From Brushy Field To Food Forest
Our Visit to a Mature Florida Food Forest at FGCU
We Visited A Mature Permaculture Food Forest! Tasty & Inspiring! We Can Do It!
Permaculture Food Forest: How We’ve Created A Shade-Producing Microclimate
Grow Food Not Lawns: A Vision for Suburban America
Humanure & our Fert(ility) Lab(oratory)
At Mountain Jewel, all of our humanure is composted in our Fert Lab, where the magic of the composting process happens! We thank the soldier flies and other decomposers for their help and we were happy to take out our first 1 year seasoned batch of humanure in Winter 2019 and put it on some fruit trees.
An Introduction to Humanure: Let’s Talk about Poop
Our Composting Toilet: Newbie Natural Builder Homestead Review Part 1
Off Grid Homesteading Composting Toilet: Clay Plaster, Slip Straw, Stone & Salvaged Wood
Our First Humanure Harvest! We Take You Every Step of the Way!
Harvesting Humanure on the Homestead: When nature calls, we choose to let her take care of it
Soil Builders
In this section we feature articles on ways you can more sustainably build soil. We focus on solutions such as cover cropping, keeping a worm bin and using the compost and more.
Worms! A Homestead Must Have For Building Soil
Improving Soil with Cover Crops
Off Grid & Solar Powered
The first couple years of living on the homestead we did so without any power! It’s a good education for a modern human to do so and we don’t regret it. However, it was always in the plan to stay off grid and become solar powered. Here are some articles about our solar set up.
Be Empowered! How We Built a Storage & Solar Shed for Under $6/sq Foot | Natural Building on the Homestead
Solar Power for Newbies: A Walk Through Our Solar System
Solar Powered Homestead, A Way We Care for the Earth
Homestead Solar System Challenges: What Do You Do When the Power Goes Out
