Well done Ice House,

I'd seen this thread before but never looked into it. I really respect anyone who can make subsistence farming happen, and you have such a large variety of foods! Makes me want to move out into the wilderness somewhere and do the same thing. keep up the good work, edward abbey would be proud

IceHouse;...I want to be like you. Bless you and your family and your realy REALness.

We used to kill animals even long before we´d become homo-sapiens. Eating dead animals is something that is deeply entrenched in our culture, our way of life.

There was a time where we realy needed it to survive. Those days are over now, but when you grow-up, eating meat, your body adapts and you become 'hooked' in a sense: for many people it´s very hard to quit.
I remember that for several months, i realy craved for meat, when i became a vegetarian.

We find it so normal that very few people actually question it. Maybe just like the ancient greeks didn´t question things like slavery...even great thinkers, known for their critical minds like aristotle, owned slaves. Aristotle has never written anything that shows evidence of him questioning slavery. On the contrary even...he rather seemed to have defended it.

Eating meat is part of our culture. It´s everywhere, all around us. And unlike in the days when we realy needed it to survive, we don´t get to see the actual animals that are eaten. We only see the nicely displayed end-products.

For many people, witnessing the actual slaughtering of an animal is like a sort of wake-up call, from this cosy dream.

Great thread Ice House. I hope this isn't too personal of a question, but I'm curious how economical this sustainable living is. I envy your plot of land and your dedication to the garden/farm, but I can't see myself doing it until I retire simply because of the upfront cost and time required for maintenance. Do you still have a job on the side? Is the cost of living low enough to where you can essentially live on savings? Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks!

Now thats a damn fine question! No its not personal at all.

Let me start off by saying that it is a work in progress and it IS evolving. Each season it becomes more and more cost effective. As I learn more about Permaculture I am able to arrange my garden so that individual projects within the whole support each other. It has taken time to accomplish this.

Once upon a time my garden and livestock was a huge money pit that took allot of my time.

I came to the realization that I was in a catch 22 I couldnt put a price on organic home grown food but I also couldnt afford to do it the way I was.

So I had to invest some time and money into a system that produced enough biomass to make it finacially worth it, because, to be honest since I live in farm country, I could just go to the farmers market down the road twice a week and buy cheap organic produce.

So I did some research and changed my farming practices and I can now say that I produce food at the same price it would cost me to go out and buy it at the farmers market.

This took considerable research and some up front cost. I put in raised beds, I planted dozens of fruit trees. I have a permanent productive system for processing compost and mulch producing great organic soil every year. I have integrated worm farming into this. I have also learned to effectiveluy utilize my chickens and livestock to help with my garden prep and end of year clean up. I grow my own seed stock I collect and recycle rain water among other things.

I do have a job on the side. We couldnt live like this without income. I have a home and autos and a pretty fun lifestyle that I need to finance.

I could go into more detail on how I cut costs to make my farming more cost effective, but let me just finish off this long winded post by stating a few things that you cannot put a price tag on.

I grow my own food I KNOW what I am eating! From May until about January we purchase no produce and almost no fruit.

I am teaching my son a wonderful way of living that he will no doubt pass on to his children.

If something bad happens, ie a total ecconomic crash or a massive natural disaster or whatever, we here at the Ice House homestead have the know how and the capability to live! Notice I did not say survive. In case of energency we will really do well. We are prepared!

Those three things alone are priceless.

Its not cheap doing what I am doing but its getting cheaper and cheaper every year.
I havent bought potatoes in over four years! My chickens free range and eat table scraps so feed costs are minimal. I havent bought eggs in over four years, as well as onions, garlic and sun dried tomatoes. We can our own jellies and tomatoe sauce, I have squash in my cellar that we will still be eating this spring. I have jars of dried beans, gallons of frozen apple cider, many jars of home made salsa and pickled beans and peppers, salted and roasted pumpkinseeds and sunflower seeds. Dried figs and apples and pears and plums/prunes.

Yea, its a bitch! It costs some money to get going it takes allot of HARD work. It can be cost effective and it is very rewarding.

What price would you pay for FULLFILLMENT?

Gotta say, the Ice House homestead came to me in the form of a blanket and smudge.

If only I could express how warm its kept me this past month through some trying times.

<3 <3 <3

WOW, this is incredible!


i hope to emulate your situation in a year and a half, i have the land already and this time in between to plan and save money.

what would be the first thing to plant/ bring with you/ how to start this sustainable living situation/ perhaps there were a few pieces of literature that were essential to your design.

any tips/hints/suggestions are more than appreciated. everyone should be participating in their own energy consumption and that alone will be reason for species wide panic when mcdonalds is closed.

I would like to second this request.

Man ........Where to begin..... . . . ....... I have really been sufferin through a decent bout of depression this spring. I wasnt really sure I wanted to doccument anything this year.

Its been a weird, very extreme, spring this year. Its May 22 and we have still been getting nightime temps below freezing. The extreme lows have caused havoc on allot of my garden. I havent felt real pride lately? Hmmm. I do have some very bright hopes for this summer.

My garden hasnt been completely innactive......

I have been working allot out there this year....

Spring has sprung, but summer just doesnt want to seem to grab hold.

damn IH noice

The status of the Ice House homestead chicken population is looking verry good this year. We are currenly free ranging 48 laying hens of those 6 are up for slaughter this year as they are no longer laying. We have 1 rooster, he is a Americana breed. I purchased 20 new chicks this year and they are no 7 weeks old. They will be laying in late July. They are Sexlinked Black Sussex breed. We have few White Leghorns, about a dozen Americana poults, and 18 Golden Bluff sexlinks. We do have a 2 yo and a 1 yo turkey hens that are currently laying about an egg a day. We are averaging about 24 eggs a day. Egg production will be great by August or September up about another dozed a day. There is a very high demand for free range organic eggs. We get as high as 4$ a dozen for em. So it works out that we get all the eggs we can eat and we sell enough to pay for all the feed and maintenance. Its no big profit but not operated at a loss. So Let me try and put the pics in order-
1 Rooster
2 Black Sussex poult
3 White Leghorn hen
4 Golden Bluff
5 Americana
6 Turkey Girl!!!!!
7 Eggs!!!

The beautiful color varieties of our eggs

Hey Ice House,

you're amazing, thank you for being an inspiration to people who hope to one day follow a similar path.

Much love!

My wife has just become a fan of your poultry and eggs collection. She wonders how do you manage to find time to go online.

Awesome work. Much respect.

this is very awesome and as everyone has already said a huge inspiration. You are making a profound difference in the world just by living your life, that is beautiful.
Right now im still in "the comfortable cage" as I like to call it. The door is not locked, I just need to work up the courage to walk out lol. And then theres always the damn money issue. I would love to buy some land someday and start working towards sustainable living and hopefully someday be almost completely self-sufficient. Actually I would really like to start an intentional community (or join one but there are so many weirdo cult people out there you gotta be careful lol). If I can ramble a moment about my dreams, yes I know they are very big dreams, I would be happy if i only accomplished a small fraction of it but its fun to shoot for the stars. I would like to start a community in a place where we are away from the glow and noise of the city but not too far away. I dont want to abandon society, just set an example for them. I would hope that many different kinds of people would come to live at this community with many different skills. I would like to have many small cottage industries running at the community to support it, maybe if somebody is an awesome cook we could open a little diner, if somebody is good with mechanichs we could open a small vehicle repair shop, we could make soap and candles, sell food, art, music etc. I would like to give people that dont live this way yet a reason to venture into our community and see first hand a better way of living. I do not want the main focus of the community to be making money by any means, hopefully with creating or growing most of what we need we would not need very much money at all. Unfortuneatly it seems there is no way around it though, the need for money is just a sad fact of life. I would like to even open a part of the land as a campground and hold music festivals, this is the part of the dream that gets me the most excited. A local music festival here (coming up next week!) has changed my life many times for the better, I would love to provide that same kind of opportunity for others. Ok, rambling is done, its just so fun to talk about this and imagine all of the possibilities. Yes I will admit i spend far more time and energy thinking about where id like to be than thinking about how the hell im going to get there but I think things will fall into place if im in the flow.

Have you hear of motherearthnews.com ? its a very cool site about sustainable living I try to check into it as often as possible.

Have you thought about working towards alternative energy yet? I wonder if the stream you are talking about on the property would work with micro-hydro electricity?

I have had a subscription to motherearth news for some time its a great read ervery month.

Its still early in the spring for me. its only been a week since last freeze. In most every garden the herb garden is the early stars of any good garden. Most of the plants in there go dormant for a month or two maybe Dec-Feb, after that they spring to life fast.

Garlic was planted last October so it is up and growing fast for an early August harvest we planted about 100 this year in one large raised bed. The variety is a red Korean variety, very tasy, hot, has a nice bite!

All the early risers in the Herb Garden

Rubarb
Fennel 1
Fennel 2
Cilantro
Onions
sage
lemon balm
oregano
SeaHawk
horse radish
Red onions
Garlic patch 1
Garlic oatch 2
Hopps vine

That cat has a deadly stare.

These eggs are truely a work of art, all the beautiful colors and textures, I love it.

Amazing life you have nutured, well done sir and madam! Thanks for posting this. Planting those seeds in our minds was very kind of you.