Insteading
Homesteading & Sustainability
Most of us were raised on flush toilets. You go in the bathroom, do what you’ve got to do, and then the press of a shiny lever flushes all your unpleasantries into oblivion, never to be thought of …
Continue Reading about 5 DIY Composting Toilet Ideas And Details To Consider →
In my experience, it seems that discussions about off-grid water systems only take place in niche communities of homesteaders or preppers. If you were to bring it up in “normal” workplace …
I’ve always loved camping, and one of my favorite parts is the outdoor cooking experience. Food cooked over a campfire is something you just can’t replicate at home in your kitchen.A lot of times, …
Continue Reading about 20 Dutch Oven Camping Recipes for Your Next Outdoor Adventure →
"So let me get this straight. You want me to pull the electric pump out so you can put in a manual pump?"My husband and I nodded at the man who had come to remove our broken electric pump. He …
When we moved from a city of 200,000 to a homestead in a hilly, Ozark town of 2,000 residents, my husband and I fully anticipated there would be an adjustment period. As I wrote in my first article …
Continue Reading about Moving from City to Country: The Long-Term Transition →
Coffee is something I really used to enjoy. In my memories, that roasted, dark liquid is synonymous with warm cafes, good conversation, and air perfumed with delicious aromas. But now that I'm more …
Continue Reading about Caffeine-Free Coffee Substitutes That You Can Forage In The Backyard →
When I think of using a clothesline, I think of a conversation I had when I still lived in the city. While hanging my laundry, my neighbor’s little boy poked his head through the fence.”Whatchoo …
Continue Reading about Why You Should Start Using A Clothesline →
Lead contamination. Chlorine and fluoride. E.coli. Fracking pollutants. Toxins and pharmaceuticals. There are so many things that might be mixed in the water that flows from the faucet, that turning …
Continue Reading about Rainwater Harvesting: The Basics And Why You Should Start Today →
It’s no secret that modern living is a bit of a morass of consumerism, waste, and debt. In a world where the latest smartphone debuts less than a year after its previous iteration, where the Joneses …
Continue Reading about Frugal Living: Everything You Need To Know →
When people learn that my husband and I moved our family to the Ozarks to go off-grid, we sometimes get interesting responses. Living off-grid evokes images of end-of-the-world preppers stocking up …
Continue Reading about Living Off-Grid: What It’s Actually Like →
Converting a school bus into a permanent residence is a bit like a coming-of-age story. You take a school bus, probably one very similar to the one you rode in elementary school, gut it entirely, and …
There's a charm to underground homes and so-called 'hobbit homes', but many former owners of such buildings have moved out due to problems with moisture and related conditions. But, earth might be the …
This summer, my family and I moved to our homestead. We were not able to get a garden into the rocky, wild ground, but somehow we’ve had a fantastic fall harvest and have started accumulating jars of …
Continue Reading about Eating Acorns: From Foraging To Cooking & Recipes →
Some earth homes take advantage of something called thermal mass, which basically means that the mass of a structure has some capacity to store heat. So the mass of a home can stay at a more constant …
Living off the grid might seem like a dream come true for some of us. No longer tied to electricity or natural gas coming for a utility, we have greater choices for locations and saving money over the …
Building an off the grid, tiny house style cabin is a dream for many Americans, but money is always a huge obstacle to putting up any building. At least, that's the conventional wisdom. Derek …
Continue Reading about This Tiny, Off Grid Cabin Was Built for Just $300 →
With all the hysteria surrounding Ebola these days, more and more people are checking out off the grid lifestyle and "disaster prepper" websites. We're not exactly that, here at Insteading- but we're …
Despite all the benefits that easy access to electricity allows many of us to enjoy, here at Insteading, we tend to think of "the grid" as an oppressive sort of thing. Instead of glowing light bulbs …
Continue Reading about Planetsave Considers the Benefits of Living Off the Grid →
Gardening is a big part of what we at Insteading tend to think of as "off the grid" living. With proper maintenance- and a bit of luck- a garden can help you survive and thrive. Still, Julie and I are …
Continue Reading about Garden Philosophy – Now is a Time for Architecture, Not for Toil →
Environmental science professor Jeff Wilson believes that American homes have gotten way too big, and way too wasteful, giving people something they don't need at a price that- often- they can't …
Continue Reading about Living in a Dumpster, For a Full Year – Meet the New 1% →
As surprising as it may seem, you actually don't have the right to grow your own fruits and vegetables on your own private property. In some states- Florida, namely- people have been fined thousands …
Continue Reading about California Passes Neighborhood Food Act →
Lightweight, waterproof containers are a miracle of modern technology. You might never know how much you'll need a bucket, or a water jug, or a few dozen little plant pots until you don't have them, …
Continue Reading about How To: Grow Microgreens in Tupperware →
Access to clean water is essential in any survival situation- and an especially critical issue for homesteaders and survivalists who plan to live off the grid for extended periods. One way to ensure a …
Robin Speronis lives in a modest home in Cape Coral, Florida- and she's living in a way that many environmentalists and preppers would call ideal: 100% completely removed from the city's electrical …
Continue Reading about Cape Coral, Florida: Go Off the Grid, Go to Jail →
Crafted from 6061 aircraft-grade aluminum and high-strength composites, Go Primal's compact folding survival bow can fit in almost any bug-out bag. Weighing just 2.25 lbs. and measuring less than 2' …
Continue Reading about Folding Bow Makes Survival Less Cumbersome →
Part extreme dirt bike, part motocross racer, the original Motoped was one of my favorite discoveries of 2013. In 155cc form, the ultra-lightweight motoped could break every speed law in the book, and …
Continue Reading about Motoped Builds Ultimate Survival Moped →
Are you seriously supposed to share those black-market antibiotics that you worked REALLY hard to acquire with whatever random person happens to get strep throat after SHTF?In the 2013 …
Keeping minor cuts and scrapes clean and avoiding infection is just as important as steering clear of disease-carrying mosquitoes in a disaster/survival situation. More often than not, it's the little …
Continue Reading about DIY Hand Sanitizer That’s as Good as Store-bought →
Tree tents have quite a few advantages over both conventional tree houses, being significantly lighter, easier to put up, and portable. They have a few advantages over traditional tents, as well - …
Continue Reading about Roomoon Tree Tent Gets Campers Off the Ground →
Let's say that self-sufficiency is a spectrum. You like to garden? You're on the low end of the spectrum. You can the produce from that garden? You're a little higher on the spectrum. You irrigate …
Continue Reading about Book Review: Practical Projects for Self-Sufficiency →
Do you know how much water you'll need to survive if you're ever caught truly off-grid? The US government says you need 1 gallon of water, per person, every 3 days, just to survive. Their recommended …
Continue Reading about How Much Water Do People Need to Drink in a Day? (w/ Video) →
More and more people are turning to the "grow food, not lawns" movement for a variety of reasons. Some of us are urban farming revolutionaries, some of us are preppers, and some of us are just …
Continue Reading about Families Getting Fined for Growing Food Gardens →
We all love the idea of growing our own. Sometimes that's vegetables or microgreens, sometimes it's rabbits, and- on rare occasions- that can even mean grubs and maggots. When it comes to poultry and …
Continue Reading about DIY Tip: Turn an Old China Cabinet into a Fresh Egg Apartment →
Tiny homes are great for those seeking stability in their life, but what about those wanting rugged and dangerous adventure? For those adventurer types, there’s Conqueror's line of Urban Escape …
Continue Reading about Video: Conqueror Pop Up Trailer Maximizes Minimal Space →
This blog is about being ready for anything- from hurricanes and power outage to food riots and zombie outbreaks. If you're a fan of the Moon Crash series, however, you might know that death by moon …
Continue Reading about The Moon is Gonna Kill Us: Survival Tips from Moon Crash →
So you've got your homegrown vegetables and yard-bred rabbit yummies all ready to be canned and dried. Some of it, though, you'll want to eat fresh- but you'll have a narrow window to do so, …
Continue Reading about Zeer Pot Refrigerator Keeps Food Fresh Without Electricity →
If you're in Florida and hope to live a more sustainable lifestyle free from the influence of energy companies and massive agricultural conglomerates by adding solar panels to your home, harvesting …
Continue Reading about Florida Law Makes Living Off The Grid Illegal →
This isn't the first time I've covered DIY teardrop trailers. Over on Gas 2, we even published a how-to manual from Mechanix Illustrated a while back. This, though, is the first time we've seen one of …
Continue Reading about DIY Teardrop Trailer for Camping and Survival →
Der Ziesel electric mini tank is the silent-running, go-anywhere, rechargeable ATV you'll want at your cabin or campsite when the gas wells run dry. That's obvious by looking at it- what wasn't …
Continue Reading about Stuff You Want: Der Ziesel Electric Mini-tank →
One of the topics that regularly comes up on the prepper/post-collapse pages I frequent is the bug out vehicle. Almost no other topic brings up more diverse and "energetic" opinions than what the best …
Continue Reading about DIY Prepper Project: Build Your Own Motorhome (w/ video) →
What you're looking at here is a pretty novel outdoor sporting concept called the Kahuna - a lightweight composite-bodied outrigger kayak that's ready at a moment's to put you up for the night when …
Continue Reading about Camping: the Kahuna Camping Kayak Concept →
It's getting to be that time of year again, when the zombie hoards crazed shopaholics invade the malls looking for gifts for the special outdoorsman in their life. I do that online, usually - and, …
Continue Reading about 2nd Hand Review: the Leatherman Charge Titatanium →
We've covered the benefits of farming your own rabbits for meat in an off-grid/survival situation before, so we won't get too far into the whole "highly efficient protein source"/"OMG they breed so …
Continue Reading about Gourmet Survival Recipe: Rabbit Liver Pate →
Free fish heads. There is something exquisite about sucking on an eyeball- the fragrant jelly bursts into your mouth, lighting up your taste buds with an explosion of pleasure. Or so I’m told by keen …
Continue Reading about Fish Heads, Fish Heads, Eat Them for Free (w/ video) →
Living off the grid - whether by choice or by chance - is all about efficiency. You need to learn to make the most of your land, your water, and even your food waste. That's where worm composting …
Continue Reading about DIY Worm Composting Solution for Under $20 →
Movement is life, if the writers of World War Z are to be believed. If you can keep moving, you can find what you need to stay ahead of the trouble, and stay alive. That's just as true in the case of …
Continue Reading about Polaris Uses Airless Tires to Keep You Moving On (w/ video) →
Whenever I watch post-apocalyptic sci-fi or zombie outbreak movies, I'm always shocked at how much noise everyone makes - especially when the characters are shown "hunting" for food.Here's a bit …
Continue Reading about Cogburn CB4 Realtree Hunting Bike is a Silent but Deadly Survival Ride →
Introducing the FlameStower, a portable charger for small electronics that converts heat energy to electrical energy to keep your high-tech gadgets alive off the grid. Way off, if it comes to …
Continue Reading about Charge Your Cell Phone with Fire! (w/ video) →
Farmers have been trying to extend the growing season of their crops for hundreds of years. So far, the greenhouse has been the dominant technology, since it doesn't usually require electricity to …
Continue Reading about DIY How-to: Build a $300 in-Ground Greenhouse (w/ plans) →
Remember "Blast from the Past", that late-90s cold-war parody/rom-com that starred Brendan Fraser and Alicia Silverstone and told the story of a family that built a lavish underground bomb shelter …
Continue Reading about Blast From the Past? Las Vegas Home Features Epic Bomb Shelter! (w/ video) →
