For the very low cost of seeds this time of year we try to buy them and store them away when I find the deals , each year I try a few different types to see which work best for us and we try to stick to the heritage seeds and have had beautiful small plot gardens for the last 5 years and we dry / freeze / can as much as possible with the kids gone and only coming home for the holidays (-26-28-31-) we find ourselves with 2 freezers full of vegetables and 1 of meat /fish. and are dependent on electricity and we know it I have a 10,000 watt generator and a few smaller ones and 2 - 5000 watt power inverters that run on 12 volt to make 110 ,Building out the property we are lucky to have a flowing steam from a spring and water tested good and being on a ridge we will be building a wind mill to pump additional water from the deep and provide 12 volt power , I have a steam jenny that was given to me and the water heating tower was in great shape so being that it was fired by a oil burning burner we knew we could salvage the water heating tower to place on a out door wood fired chimney and by doing this we will have hot water for the price of firewood , My neighbors in the subdivision we live in now comment almost daily about what comes home in the truck to be taken out to the property , I find deals on almost anything you can think of to build from craigslist and I have been GIVEN 10'S OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF MATERIALS , One man had a posting saying he had leftover bricks and they were a couple different colors , so I called his ad and it turned out he was a commercial brick layer and wanted someone to haul them off his property When I got there he GAVE ME THIRTY FULL WRAPPED PALLETS OF BRICKS IN TWO MATCHING COLORS AND LOADED THEM ON MY TANDUM TRAILER FOR FREE ! IT TOOK 15 TRIPS TO THE PROPERTY AND I UNLOADED THEM BY HAND "WHO NEEDS A GYM MEMBERSHIP ?" he also gave me about 4,000 feet of steel cable that someone had given him ( thoughts of a zip line for the kids ) ,Another man gave me 600 brand new landscape timbers wrapped and on the pallets for free he was getting divorced and was not even leaving her a light bulb in the house he said ! My neighbors cringed when the chickens come home but now they ask for eggs almost daily (watch "factory egg farming " on you tube and you will never buy chicken or eggs from a store again ) besides we like knowing where our food comes from . sometimes I catch myself being a severe pack rat but I have projects and plans for all of this "junk " and my girl will occasionally be amazed at what comes home for FREE ! I have another friend who works at a large glass plant (they make large custom windows for a frame cabins and such "heh heh heh ") , He gives me all the large glass packing crates and I have a huge stack of clean 2x8x14 and 2x12x16 lumber that came home for free ! they used to cut them up and throw them in the dumpster and pay to haul them away I built private jet and helicopter interiors for almost thirty years and now barter upholstery services for everything from cement mixers to 40 squares of shingles . Why buy it when it's out there for free ? Now I want to ensure you we are not building a shanty in the woods with a car on blocks in the yard ! All these things can be built and do not have to look like the Clampet"s moved in the main house will be 4,000 square foot 1 bedroom and we are building an apartment above the garage for the kids when they are home ,That should keep them out of my fridge and away from my ice cream !
