Hello from Rural Ontario, Canada

Hi Kate,

We have been full time at our place since the beginning of this year. (we owned the land and developed it from 7  years earlier) We used to live in the city as well. Solar maybe isn't the ideal place for solar that far North. We live more close to the equator. (Thailand) On the other hand, maybe you can keep things more easily frozen there. 

Anyway, we did some calculations before we got the solar. Solar isn't that easy in Thailand though as the supply for private properties is rather limited. We started about 5 years ago with Lead Acid batteries (There where no Lthium), an inverter/charger of 5.5 Kw and 7 panels of 330 W.

About 1 year ago, the batteries were not good anymore. By then Litium was available. We got an 14Kwh LifePo4 battery. Also we had to replace the inverter/charger as it couldn't handle lithium.

Even though it is good, we are about to extend the system with 6 panels of 545 W each and a second battery.

We don't use much electricity so we use only about 10% 

We have also government electric but in the rainy season we have about 3 times per week a powercut.

I expect in the future the government electric will get less reliable. So, that's why we get more panels and batteries. Also, if shtf we might get some more family living with us.

Further, we have a well with pump that runs from another 8 panels. This pumps up the water to the top of our land filling 8 tanks of each 2000 liter.

We had some issues, once we had a pump running the whole night without knowing, even it didn't pump water. It drained a lot of the batteries also because we had visitors. Next, it was rainy season so charging from the sun was very low. And finally, a powercut from the government.

So, that was a reason to increase capacity. Though we will have the second set of batteries and panels separated with a MTS (manual transfer switch) so if one set of batteries get low, I can first check why before switching to the other set.

Just some thoughts,

Peter

Hi all,

Where to start? Well, I’m a retired married lady living with my fairly newly retired husband in rural Eastern Ontario. Our area is lakes and heavily forested “recreational” land (as in what’s called cottage country, but we live here year-round), crown land (Similar to BLM in the US) and some native territory rather than agri-farmland, although there is lots farmland within an easy drive of us.

We have 3.5 acres that are partially wooded, a natural fresh water stream that runs through our property, cleared grass land, and are fronted on a lake. Here’s the thing! This is our dream place after living in the suburbs of a major city all of our lives. For my husband it is to get away from it all, as it is for me too. But, for myself I have a strong drive to become as self-sufficient as possible. That’s why I am here. I been educating myself continuously since we moved here in 2019 on preparedness and homesteading techniques.

I’d dearly like to learn more straight from people who actually have years of experience in this. I do have some self-sufficiency skills under my belt from my life. I have been sewing since I was a child (everything from clothing including outerwear to curtains and other home fabric necessities including upholstery which I taught myself), cook everything from scratch, plan and stock a pantry, can fix pretty much anything around the house, and also have emergency sets and kits always at the ready. This to me is just Life 101 when you have major snow and ice storms, regular power outages, prefer to make things yourself rather than waste money or be too reliant. Oh, I also make my own remedies and teas, many of which I have been gradually taught to me when I sought out Native people in my area. I also paint and craft and have sold at local artisan markets. I also refurbish antique/vintage secondhand items, some for ourselves and some to re-sell.

My husband is very good working with hands and does all home repair, renovating, building. He’s not interested in gardening however.

Some things I’d like to learn more about:

Greenhouse gardening for vegetables and gardening in general. We have a short growing season. I come from city folk, so I feel backward with my lack of food gardening skills.

Canning, Preserving, Drying and General food “keeping” (I’ve been looking into salting lately)

Feedback on what works best for things like water. We have a very good well. It runs on electric though. Looking into getting a manual pump or rain barrels.

Feedback on other things like generators or solar and your thoughts and experience with them. Right now we are fine with an outage that lasts a few days but after that all our frozen foods will start to be ruined.

A bit more about me ~ We have two grown daughters, one married and one with a committed boyfriend, a light-of-my-life baby grandson (our first grandchild) who all live fairly closeby and me and my husband share our peace of heaven with a rescue dog.

I think I’ve gone on long enough Looking forward to conversations with likeminded folks. All the best

Kate