Powered by the Sun!
This array of solar panels on the roof of our home offsets all of the electricity we use.
My husband and I live in beautiful western Montana with our daughter ("little nugget") born in August 2011 and our two dogs Amos and Oona. I have a Master's Degree in Social Work and was working full time in a good paying job I loved until February 2012 when I resigned to be able to stay home and raise our daughter.
A long time crafter and creator, I decided to turn my creative hobbies into an income source by opening our Etsy shop, MontanaSolarCreations. As our business grew throughout the year, my husband began working in his wood shop (also partly powered by solar!) to make creations to sell in our Etsy shop. As of January 2013 we added a line of handmade wood baby toys and beautiful, one of a kind antler button sets.
I came up with our business name as I was sewing one day with sunlight pouring through the window and I realized that my sewing machine was partly powered by the solar panels on our roof- how awesome is that?! Everything we do, from crafting to blogging and running the vacuum, is done partly with solar power!
I started this blog in April 2012 as a way to share about our adventures in simple, natural living. It has been an amazing experience to connect with other like minded folks and grow in our path of self-sufficiency. I am always looking for new ways we can be more self-sufficient by growing and preserving more of our own food, making homemade and from scratch when we can. This in turn also helps us to lead a more simple, frugal, sustainable lifestyle.
Throughout the last 12 years I have served on numerous local non-profit boards for conservation, environmental and social justice organizations. Living a simple, natural, sustainable, "green" lifestyle is important to us and a path I've been on for many years but still have a lot to learn!
We're a member:
I am so happy I stumbled upon your blog, sounds like some good ol' natural fun takes place here! :)
ReplyDeleteWelcome Sarh, glad you found us! We love having new folks join us :)
DeleteHi Annie, thanks for commenting on my Life on the Funny Farm blog. I hope you can get chickens! Are you planning on getting layers or meat birds or both? If you get meat birds, the cold winters shouldn't be an issue, b/c they only need about 7 weeks start to finish, so you can just do them over the summer. If you get layers, it's true that you will need to keep them warm in the winter. Obviously, a smaller space is easier to keep warm than a larger one, so I would create a coop that was just the minumum amount of square feet per bird. Then add a few heat lamps and your hens should be good to go in the winter. Then let them have an attached run, or the run of the yard during the day, and coop 'em up at night. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks for that helpful info! My husband's concern is with the cost of powering heat lamps all winter and thinks it would make raising chickens for eggs and meat not cost effective. I definitely need to do more research on it and come up with some numbers on costs to see if it will work for us!
DeleteAnnie, I, too, 'retired' to take care of my baby...27 years ago! Now 4 grown kids later, I have never regretted raising and teaching them. My time with them has been precious.
ReplyDeleteBlessings!
Love that you use solar power... we also have chickens for eggs and to eat, as well as a hog...
ReplyDeleteDid you do the panels yourself? I want panels but they are too expensive. Sheila@The Frugal Exerciser
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