Surgery, goats and gardening. I’m having surgery today so it’s an early post this morning. Recently it became very clear who has the livestock experience between Grant and I. Spoiler alert - it’s not me. 😏 If you want to read about it and a chuckle at my expense, I shared about it and more in my recent blog post. The link is in my bio. 🌱🐐📖 #farmlife #farm #offgridliving #offgridlife #sustainableliving #goats #yurtlife 
I wanted to say Thank you for the kind comments and words of encouragement about my first YouTube vlog. Though I really enjoyed the process of learning how to edit videos, it wasn’t an easy thing to put up. I have shared a little bit about this on my latest post on my blog. If your interested the link is in my bio or you can google ‘a simple living journey’ and it should come up. It’s a beautiful rainy day here today. There is sourdough on its second prove to bake later and Will is home as it’s a pupil free day. We might make pumpkin soup for lunch I think. I recently bought a new kitchen knife after snapping my old one and suddenly cutting pumpkins and food prep has become a whole lot easier. I should have not been such a tight wad and bought a new one years ago. 🤦♀️ What are your plans for the day? 
Washing. It’s not a remotely exciting topic to talk about but yet it’s one of those jobs that is never ending, especially with a big family. Washing while living off grid requires a little more organisation. We have a really small solar system but it’s big enough I can run our front loader washing machine on a long cold wash with an 800 spin when the battery is charged and the sun is shining. Usually I do a load during the day and then I’ll do a 40-60C wash of cloth nappies or particularly grubby things when the generator needs to be on. We try to time all the jobs that the generator to be all done at once. It takes a little more consideration but I have gotten used to it and it’s really no hassle. I pretty much always have a load on the line and a load inside waiting to be folded or put away. I’ve given up washing the kids sheets every week. They go to bed freshly showered and wear pjs so I do them fortnightly unless there is a wet bed or something similar. In the heat of summer I put away the doonas and they sleep with just a sheet and cotton blanket so it’s less to wash if they get sweaty. We have been told by experts we are too clean and it’s damaging our resistance to fight off allergies and sickness so I have cheerfully embraced this philosophy in our home. ‘Clean enough’ is good enough and housework is never actually going to be finished. Besides who wants to put on doona covers more then absolutely necessary? 🤷♀️ 
Hagrid the Anatolian shepherd is well on the way to earning his name. He must be about 7 months old now and still seems to be getting bigger every week. He’s a gentle giant, though a little derpy. He also has a really strong independent streak. 🐾 ❤️ 🐐 
I have been pondering for a while about starting a YouTube channel to share our story on a different style of platform. I’ll still be blogging of course but some things are better shown on film. Over the last couple of weeks I have been learning how to cut, edit and upload to YouTube. There has been wine consumed as a result of said learning. Nonetheless, here is my first vlog. It’s a little rough around the edges but we all have to start somewhere, yes? If you want to check it out, just click on my profile and follow the link. 🎞 🍞 💕 #yurt #pacificyurts #mypacificyurt #offgrid #offgridliving #tinyhouse #offgridfamily #livingintheround #homestead #homesteading #homesteadinglife 
Sometimes things are frustratingly slow here. This is Grants shed he’s been building. It got waylaid by waiting for chainsaw parts that got held up by Covid. The local shop finally managed to get in after a two week wait turned into 3 months wait. It must be a frustrating and difficult time to run a business that’s for sure. But he finally has his chain saw running again so building the shed has recommenced. There is something really beautiful about it. And the wood roaches will be getting their very own luxury accomodation with insulation and a wood burning slow combustion fire. 
This morning I’m watching a beautiful YouTube film by @talasbuan. They are a young family who live in the Swedish woods and like us they are living off-grid. Aggie, however, is bewildered as to why there are chickens on the TV and doesn’t think they should be in her house. The little TV is a 12v TV/DVD player and it runs off our small solar/battery system. We have a google chrome cast which we can stream to it and we are on satellite internet here. 🐾 #yurtlife #offgrid #offgridhomestead #yurt #pacificyurt #simpleliving #slowliving #mypacificyurt #scottishterrier 
It’s been hot and dry here lately so we have been heading to our river at the bottom of the driveway to chill out on hot afternoons with a couple of ice cold beers in hand. As we sit in the cool clear water I’m always reminded why we moved here, even though a lot of the time it’s a stack of hard work. But the beauty of this place is astounding. 
Hagrid the guardian of the goats. He’s 7 months old now and he’s a giant. He still has plenty of growing to do yet. He’s a beautiful character and we all adore him though he’s very different from a traditional pet dog. He’s an independent fellow and can be a little aloof if he’s not in the mood for company. Which is a guardian dog thing, he’s bonded primarily to the goats. Soon it will be time to bring in a billy goat for the girls and we are looking forward to seeing new life on the farm. #anatolianshepherd #guardiandog #farmlife #boergoats #farm #asimplelivingjourney