Or, What I Did All Day
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I follow some fantastic Substacks about lady farmers and homesteaders, and I greatly admire all the work they do to keep their farms going. I read about Sam moving sheep and Jenna harvesting potatoes and Helen weaning pigs, and I think to myself, “WOW these ladies are super badass.”
And what the hell am I doing, living off-grid in Mexico??
I see my closest off-grid neighbors, Don and Sean at Casa Tres Lomas raising cows and chickens and ducks and even fish. Also, their ranch is amazing, with a jaw-droppingly beautiful view of the ocean.
Though my view is also pretty, I get a tad bit of an inferiority complex about my 1/2 acre homestead, Casa Buenavista. I don’t have livestock, just two large derpy dogs who do their best to be helpful. The majority of my fruits and vegetables are bought from a store. My latest harvest was alfalfa sprouts. I have a stack of seed packets that I still haven’t planted. I’ve been unemployed all summer so I can’t even use the excuse that I’ve been busy with my day job.
I could go on, wallowing in not feeling “homesteader enough.” But how boring for y’all! Instead I will stop and ask myself, “What did I do today?” Well, let’s see…
– I fed and walked my two dogs: my beloved companions, guardians of the house, and dedicated dishwashers.
– I made breakfast: yogurt with mangoes from my parents’ orchard, and homemade granola. I usually make my own yogurt, but this summer it’s been too cloudy to run the Instant Pot on our solar for 9 hours. So we’ve switched to store-bought yogurt for now.
– I dragged the buckets of rainwater caught from the roof to the main rain barrel and poured them in. The rain barrel has a direct hose connection to the cistern. Soon we’ll add more barrels and more plumbing so this process will become more automated.
– I washed the dishes from breakfast, which the dogs’ pre-washing has made an easy chore.
– I cleared the vegetation from the walkways, and one side of the trailer. I’m letting the jungle go wild everywhere else but I need a path to my stuff. In this heat, I don’t want to do too much yard work at once so it’s better to spread the work throughout the day. Here’s some Before/ After photos of the jungle trying to take over our trailer. I might get to the other side tomorrow.
– I tossed the cuttings over the fence for the neighbor’s mules. Two of the mules, Cremoso and Mapa, stopped by to ask for carrots.
– I stopped for a quick homemade mango/ coconut milk popsicle. Lurko doesn’t like coconut so his side of the silicon popsicle mold is experimental vinegar popsicles.
– Lurko and I drove into town to pick up eggs, veggies and yogurt at the fruteria. Today they had pitaya (dragon fruit), which at 70 MXN each is expensive but I splurged on two because they’re soooo good.
– I made an experimental batch of ginger beer. The “experimental” part is we’re trying to switch back to keto so I’m using monkfruit instead of honey for the sweetener. Raw honey will ferment but even 1 tablespoon of honey is 17 grams of carbs. The Internet says this may not work, but I need a keto fizzy drink that’s not manufactured by Coca-Cola like Topo Chico. I’m going to try all my options. (Spoiler alert: the monkfruit didn’t ferment. Trying again with raw honey.)
– Lurko and I decided we will go back on the keto diet (for real) starting Monday. Lunch for this week consists of cleaning out the fridge and pantry of non-keto foods. I wistfully pulled out the tostadas and melted some cheese and canned pork over them. It’s really hard to make keto tortilla chips but I’ve got a new recipe that I’ll try next week.
– I watered the newly-sprouted carrots and basil, the struggling lantana, and the probably-dead-but-I’ll-give-it-one-more-week garlic. It just rained so everything else is probably fine.
– I went inside to enjoy the air conditioner, catch up on email/ Substack, apply for a new year of liability insurance (thinking positive that I’ll have a job soon), put out a job post at a convention I’m attending virtually, sign up for sessions at the convention, and write this post.
– I read about growing pineapples (I’ve planted three so far), and pitaya/ dragon fruit (my favorite but not always available in my local fruteria). I’d love to grow more fruit but the local nurseries do not have a great selection. Then I read in the pineapple article that you could order plants off Amazon. Amazon Mexico does not have many plants, but Mercado Libre (our Latin American alternative) ships from nurseries all over Mexico. I ordered two cuttings of dragon fruit cactus and they should be here next week!
So okay….I did some stuff. I may not have sheep or goats or heirloom tomatoes, but I have taken steps to maintain my homestead, and possibly expanded it to include more fruit. I am creating a tropical homestead. And also, this is only my second year so yes I should cut myself some slack. At this time last year, all Lurko and I could focus on was surviving the heat. Today, that problem is behind us and I’m enjoying my forays into growing food and preserving it and fermenting it. Lurko, bless him, continues to support me in my off-grid endeavors, even if he’s not really a “farm guy” himself. But he’s doing his own experiments, and I will continue to encourage his pickle making and pepper preserving and making of ridiculous snacks. Vinegar popsicles, anyone?
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Here’s what you can look forward to in the next few weeks:
8/10: Living Off the Grid While Unemployed
8/17: Book Review: The Zero-Waste Chef
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