Building a Pre-Industrial Farm
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My name is Michael Bunker and I'm an author and off-grid farmer/proponent/spokesman. We live totally off-grid on a small farm in a "Plain" community in Central Texas. We try our best to raise our own food and produce what we consume. I also write books.
A How-To Farm
Our goal is to build a completely "beyond" off-grid, pre-industrial farm. A living, historical, agrarian farm -- one people can visit or use resources to learn from. This would be different from a "living history farm," which often is more of a historical example than an actual working, self-sustaining farmstead. And it would be different from any of the other show-farms we've seen, in that we want to build a complete, self-contained and sufficient pre-industrial farm. We want to use the farm to teach off-grid skills, via our YouTube channel and in person, and show interested people how people have lived and provided for themselves and their families for thousands of years, and how it is possible today. Our YouTube series "How We Do Stuff" has been watched and followed by thousands of people.
In 2012 a documentary film crew came and spent a few days filming. They were basing their independent documentary on my book Surviving Off Off-Grid. That documentary has now been released. Check it out at Beyond Off Grid . We were glad to be able to help so many people get to know another, more sustainable, way of living.
Working on Infrastructure is Investing in The Future
We’ve long dreamed of doing more to help people. I’d love to have a fully functioning infrastructure that we could show visitors, in person and online, that are curious about how this kind of system works.
Our multi-faceted water project has been on again and off again for a lot of years. We’ve been working on it piecemeal, well… for the eleven years we’ve lived out here. It started with catching water off of our small cabin and putting in gutters and a poly storage tank. We did the same down at the office. In 2006 we raised the dam on our pond and started pumping water through garden hoses up to the gardens. That little trick worked on and off, depending on if the pump was working, getting new ones, gas prices, etc. A few years ago we put in a 3400 gallon cistern to catch most of the water off of the new cottage. That cistern was designed to eventually work with a water tower we started 4 years ago. The clean rainwater would be pumped (we’d have multiple pumping options, depending on the situation, from hand pump to solar) up to a tank atop a stone water tower. From there the water would be gravity fed down to the cottage and the gardens. The tower is still a work in progress, but we are constantly working on some facet of the overall system. What we still have to do is…
1. Catch the water off of our large barn. This will require either two poly tanks, or one in-ground cistern.
2. Create an elevated small storage for water going to the cottage (this is an option. We can use this separately, or pipe this from the tower tank.)
3. Finish the tower and elevated tank, with pipe going to the garden and/or the cottage.
4. Pipe from the cistern(s) to the elevated water tank.
5. Pumps for getting water to the elevated tank. Either hand pump, solar, or both. Preferably both.
6. Some pipes into the cottage with a sink, etc.
7. Shower room off of the water tower.
That sounds like a lot, and it kind of is, but what we have in mind is a sustainable system that will still be good and working even if we don’t have access to solar, or if pumps go out. All told we’re talking about $10k for this whole project, but we’ve been doing it a piece at a time for eleven years, and we’ll keep working on it no matter what.
So What is Our Bigger Goal?
Well, of course our main goal is to be sustainable and sufficient in our water supply for an off-grid farm. Our larger goal is to have a system in place that — as we add more such infrastructure pieces to the farm — we can use to teach others about this way of life. A living agrarian life museum.
Other Projects
Guest Housing. Eventually we would like to put in some guest housing up near the front of our land. Not a Bed & Breakfast per se, but a place where visitors can stay… for a number of reasons. We get a lot of folks like to come by and check things out, and usually they have to get a motel room far away and even if they traveled from across the country, maybe if the weather is bad they won’t be able to get in. This way, if room is available people can stay right here on the property. We could make that housing dual use… or dual powered. We could have powered water and lights, etc. if someone wants the hotel experience, and if someone wants to test living off-grid for a few days, we can do that too! What we have in mind are a couple of small cabins or cottages.
Improved, pre-industrial style animal maintenance system. Pens, water infrastructure, and a way to raise all of our own feed.
Cottage Completion. In addition to running gravity fed water to the cottage, we want to finish out the front porch so we can receive guests, have community get togethers, etc.
Horse and Buggy. Jennifer’s horse and buggy project is on-going. We hope to, within the year, be on our way to using horsepower for travel and for work.
Ok, so this is our goal and plan. The water project is the largest infrastructure thing we have going. If you can see the value in these projects, please help out if you want to. If not, that’s fine too. Volunteerism is at the heart of how we operate.
The Water Project
The Horse and Buggy Project
All of this will help us AND it will help thousands of other people who follow us, learn from us, and who travel here to see how to live off-grid and to live a more sustainable life. In the last ten years we have had hundreds of visitors and tens of thousands of online visitors who use us as a fount of information about off-grid and beyond off-grid living. So I will be very thankful for your help. Any amount will go a long way!
Thanks again,
Michael Bunker
A How-To Farm
Our goal is to build a completely "beyond" off-grid, pre-industrial farm. A living, historical, agrarian farm -- one people can visit or use resources to learn from. This would be different from a "living history farm," which often is more of a historical example than an actual working, self-sustaining farmstead. And it would be different from any of the other show-farms we've seen, in that we want to build a complete, self-contained and sufficient pre-industrial farm. We want to use the farm to teach off-grid skills, via our YouTube channel and in person, and show interested people how people have lived and provided for themselves and their families for thousands of years, and how it is possible today. Our YouTube series "How We Do Stuff" has been watched and followed by thousands of people.
In 2012 a documentary film crew came and spent a few days filming. They were basing their independent documentary on my book Surviving Off Off-Grid. That documentary has now been released. Check it out at Beyond Off Grid . We were glad to be able to help so many people get to know another, more sustainable, way of living.
Working on Infrastructure is Investing in The Future
We’ve long dreamed of doing more to help people. I’d love to have a fully functioning infrastructure that we could show visitors, in person and online, that are curious about how this kind of system works.
Our multi-faceted water project has been on again and off again for a lot of years. We’ve been working on it piecemeal, well… for the eleven years we’ve lived out here. It started with catching water off of our small cabin and putting in gutters and a poly storage tank. We did the same down at the office. In 2006 we raised the dam on our pond and started pumping water through garden hoses up to the gardens. That little trick worked on and off, depending on if the pump was working, getting new ones, gas prices, etc. A few years ago we put in a 3400 gallon cistern to catch most of the water off of the new cottage. That cistern was designed to eventually work with a water tower we started 4 years ago. The clean rainwater would be pumped (we’d have multiple pumping options, depending on the situation, from hand pump to solar) up to a tank atop a stone water tower. From there the water would be gravity fed down to the cottage and the gardens. The tower is still a work in progress, but we are constantly working on some facet of the overall system. What we still have to do is…
1. Catch the water off of our large barn. This will require either two poly tanks, or one in-ground cistern.
2. Create an elevated small storage for water going to the cottage (this is an option. We can use this separately, or pipe this from the tower tank.)
3. Finish the tower and elevated tank, with pipe going to the garden and/or the cottage.
4. Pipe from the cistern(s) to the elevated water tank.
5. Pumps for getting water to the elevated tank. Either hand pump, solar, or both. Preferably both.
6. Some pipes into the cottage with a sink, etc.
7. Shower room off of the water tower.
That sounds like a lot, and it kind of is, but what we have in mind is a sustainable system that will still be good and working even if we don’t have access to solar, or if pumps go out. All told we’re talking about $10k for this whole project, but we’ve been doing it a piece at a time for eleven years, and we’ll keep working on it no matter what.
So What is Our Bigger Goal?
Well, of course our main goal is to be sustainable and sufficient in our water supply for an off-grid farm. Our larger goal is to have a system in place that — as we add more such infrastructure pieces to the farm — we can use to teach others about this way of life. A living agrarian life museum.
Other Projects
Guest Housing. Eventually we would like to put in some guest housing up near the front of our land. Not a Bed & Breakfast per se, but a place where visitors can stay… for a number of reasons. We get a lot of folks like to come by and check things out, and usually they have to get a motel room far away and even if they traveled from across the country, maybe if the weather is bad they won’t be able to get in. This way, if room is available people can stay right here on the property. We could make that housing dual use… or dual powered. We could have powered water and lights, etc. if someone wants the hotel experience, and if someone wants to test living off-grid for a few days, we can do that too! What we have in mind are a couple of small cabins or cottages.
Improved, pre-industrial style animal maintenance system. Pens, water infrastructure, and a way to raise all of our own feed.
Cottage Completion. In addition to running gravity fed water to the cottage, we want to finish out the front porch so we can receive guests, have community get togethers, etc.
Horse and Buggy. Jennifer’s horse and buggy project is on-going. We hope to, within the year, be on our way to using horsepower for travel and for work.
Ok, so this is our goal and plan. The water project is the largest infrastructure thing we have going. If you can see the value in these projects, please help out if you want to. If not, that’s fine too. Volunteerism is at the heart of how we operate.
The Water Project
The Horse and Buggy Project
All of this will help us AND it will help thousands of other people who follow us, learn from us, and who travel here to see how to live off-grid and to live a more sustainable life. In the last ten years we have had hundreds of visitors and tens of thousands of online visitors who use us as a fount of information about off-grid and beyond off-grid living. So I will be very thankful for your help. Any amount will go a long way!
Thanks again,
Michael Bunker
Organizer
Michael Bunker
Organizer
Santa Anna, TX