Welcome to our self reliant homestead! Join us, Shawn and Dervla, as we create a resilient, abundant and sustainable ecosystem that feeds our families from the land in Ontario Canada. Using permaculture as our guide, we strive to become independent in water, food, energy and shelter, focused on beauty in form and efficiency in function.
Our Self Reliance is a life of compromise between my two daughters and my wife’s preference for culture, comfort and formality, and I, with my love of chaotic and beautiful but challenging and often uncomfortable wilderness living. The resulting homesteads are an eclectic blend of modern with traditional, whimsical with practical, formal with informal, civilized with rustic.
Over the last five years, my wife and I designed and built our dream homesteads from scratch with very little outside help; from undeveloped, declining forest to a comfortable home and cabin with a prolific edible landscape for people and wildlife equally. For many years, we have strived to lessen our burden on others by taking full responsibility for the health and welfare of our immediate family while building a strong community around us, both online and offline. Now that the infrastructure is in place here, we will be spending more time working cooperatively with community members, including extended family, to collectively become more resilient while living a deeply satisfying and meaningful life. Thank you for being part of that!
#homestead #sustainability #farming #offgrid #selfreliance
48 Comments
I agree, it is important to have both function and aesthetics. đ» Have you considered getting some barn cats to help with rodent control? đđââŹ
Wow magnifiques toutes ces fleurs ..avec la musique. .superbe vidéo. .
đ đ» Definitely need to get a couple of outdoor cats male preferably. They wont bother the chickens cause they'll kick their butt's first time if they decide to try but the mice is free food and they only require a small outdoor warm dry space . I liked the ideas others brought up like honey đ bee nests for more polination and free honey and hot pepper đ¶ spray that works great ! Here on my island Kauai đ i have these all that i use and have no pests or bugs and seldom have to feed the cats đ
garden is gorgeous
Sounds like you need some cats for rodent control.
Eat those squash flowers!
This summer, I have put bee attractor plants around my garden. And the response from the beeâs have been great. Iâve also did the same for the hummingbirds and fun watching them fight each other we have had so many. Next years garden, Iâm changing things up a bit for better production. Not only does this keep me fit for me as a 65 year old, but the beauty Iâm setting up is good for the mind as you have mentioned.
Your garden has always been most excellent through the years.
Get a cat or two
What are you doing to mitigate the mice and chipmunk populations without using manufactured poisons? Thank you.
There is a Black Flower, that is found near water .
Some are in front of You .
I'm , told you sometimes are dizzy , from enlarged Back Muscles , that have to be maintained .
These Flowers , have to be boiled .
They , are from Raven , and also Crow .
Raven came from Crow .
Crow , is Black Eagle .
The medicine brings the enlarged muscles , and the Other Muscles , together.
Adding the element of art is very important to a lot of people!! Bravo….you're outstanding in your field!
Beautiful gardens!
Very nice tour.
Hola querido amigo. Siga asiendo muchos videos MĂĄs †Chile đšđ±đšđ±đšđ±đšđ±
Happy weekend Shawn and everyone!
You are so full of knowledge ! I can barely grow a tomatođ plant…..
Can Food Growing be Beautiful? Yes 110% Yes
ĐĐ°ĐČДЎОŃĐ” ĐșĐŸŃĐ”Đș, ĐŽĐČĐ” ĐŸĐ±ŃŃĐœŃĐ” ĐșĐŸŃĐșĐž ĐČŃĐ»ĐŸĐČŃŃ ĐŒŃŃĐ”Đč Đž бŃŃŃĐœĐŽŃĐșĐž бŃĐŽŃŃ ĐŸĐ±Ń ĐŸĐŽĐžŃŃ ĐČĐ°Ń ĐŸĐłĐŸŃĐŸĐŽ.
I would have thought that "Bee Keeping" would be great for your plants and food supply… Hmmm
There is nothing more beautiful than growing food!
It truly is beautiful and peaceful! Such a contrast to the modern trends.
You ask me why I buy rice and flowers?
I buy rice to live and flowers to have something to live for.
Confucius
I enjoy seeing your work and hearing your thoughts. Our growing season in KS is winding down. I'm already planning for next season.
What a wonderful life. You have worked a miracle with your land . congratulations . đđđđđŹđ§
4:47 Divinorum? đ lol jk. I wasnât able to tune in to this weeks uploads so I just binged them all rn. Thank you Shawn have a good Sunday & take care!
HELLO:
Shawn, you have done amazingly. Looking back, I have learned so much from watching your videos, that have been invaluable to me, and I'm sure, others have too. Thank you so much for sharing your journey, with us. UK.
Companion gardening is NOT monogamous.đŻđ
Hi Shawn, Since you can't place nets around the plants intended to feed the chickens without preventing them from feeding, could you perhaps get Cali into garden when chickens are not present so she'll mark the area as unfriendly to chipmunks etc ? Others have suggested peppers, but garlic and other alluvials ( onions ) also repel the little thieves. Otherwise maybe place fine mesh nets deployed as curtains in spaces between rows that can be deployed/retracted when needed ie ( chickens return to roost ) and maybe that would frustrate their intrusions ?
Shawn, I am sorry to say I haven't been viewing your videos regularly but tuned in again tonight and am AMAZED!!!!! So much work, so beautuful, so inspirational. I won't miss any more videos I promise. What an achievement!
Your plants are beautiful!
One question from an ignorant man. Is there any dangerous plants or flowers there?
Beautiful garden. Makes my heart happy to see all the beauty.
Ok Indiana Jones..lol…very nice video. Working hard pays off. Thank you for your hard work making videos
Re: your bee pollination situation, when you say "bee" do you basically mean honeybees?
Honeybees are not very good pollinators actually. I have been working with solitary bees for the past three years. Primarily Mason Bees. They are great fruit tree pollinators! Plus they are fun to raise.
What a beautiful way to grow food, itâs amazing Shawn and thanks for sharing! đđđđ€©đ€©đ€©đŻđŻđŻđđđ
Got my fall garden in, again. Not watered closely first time. Great video!
Seeing this, I continue to pray my husband will get serious prepping. He's busy, busy learning solar for 3 different locations.
I so miss being able to grow those flowers and some of the plants and trees. I now live in a zone 9 with sand for soil. Even in raised beds with good soil the temperatures are too high for most of them and even though we do get nighttime temps in the 40's and frost during December, January and February frequently, we don't have enough of them for the trees and plants that need to be dormant and or freeze during the winter. I no longer have to shovel snow however, lol
Here in Tucson Arizona, I find using pots and grow bags works much better that attempting to grow vegetables and herbs in the ground. Our native soil is so alkaline it actually fizzes if you put vinegar on it! Winter is the best time to grow vegetables here.
Cat shelters offer spayed/neutered feral cats that could keep rodents populations down
Beautiful Garden Shawn I know you work hard to keep it that way⊠Planting the garden is easy compared to fighting the weeds thatâs a lot of work keeping it that pretty đđđ
That problem you have with the critters is the same in Sydney in the blue mountains.
We have possums and birds that eat the new growth on our plants.
Vegetables are difficult to grow,one way to protect our plants is with netting.
Nice to see you donât give up.
Keep your dream alive Shawn.
Hur lĂ„ngt ifrĂ„n ligger hönshuset frĂ„n dit timmer hus ? Ăr det för lĂ„ngt bort sĂ„ försvinner den miljö vĂ€nliga odlingen i utslĂ€pp frĂ„n fordon ,
Hur mÄnga av dina blommor som du odlar kan du Àt ? Ska du bli jordbrukare sÄ fÄr du snart tÀnka om .
Dina insekter behöver Àven stÀllen dÀr dom kan övervintra , Sedan kommer dina sorkar Àlska dit land i vinter , nÀr snön ligger tjock och skyddar mot kylan sÄ grÀver sorken gÄngar under snön och i skydd av dina staket sÄ kan inte rovdjuren ta sorkarna . Sorkarna kommer överleva pÄ dina vÀxter som du odlat .
Itâs not about beauty itâs about planning and organization and an acute skill for prediction lol
09:05 a weed is just a useful plant in the wrong spot.