Andrew Odom's Blog (12)

The following post was originally seen on www.tinyrevolution.us. 

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Yesterday was a day full of firsts for me. It all began when I woke up in the morning and found out that one of the schools I work with (…

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About a month ago I was tired of winter. The doldrums had me....well, feeling humdrum. I needed something green. Something needed to grow! Unfortunately nowhere around us sells seeds or sprouts so I hopped on the line and had some friends in Charleston, SC pick up some seeds at a local whole food-type market. Each packet was about $2.99 and we decided after some research to…

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When Crystal and I first talked about tiny houses we found inspiration in the most....well, (dare I say????) obvious of places. We were not sure what less than 200 square feet would look like, let alone feel like inside. So we headed to the local box home improvement store. It was there that we found the… Continue

It was just after the first U.S. case of mad cow disease was confirmed in December of 2003 that it became clearer to me than ever that my diet needed to consist of more natural, organically produced meat. That was also the first year my folks took a step into a more eco-responsible diet as well. My family collectively purchased 1/2 side of Angus beef and a 1/4 side of hog. Both animals… Continue

The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

What a start to the new year. I can hardly believe today is the first day of February. In just a couple of weeks Crystal and I will have been married two full years. We will have located… Continue

Back in early May 2009 Crystal and my daddy and I wrapped up work on our first chicken coop. I had been wanting to raise chickens for some time and it seemed like the time was right.



Now folks with a minimalist mindset are familiar enough with reduction. We reduce. We recycle. We repurpose.… Continue

Our Tiny House will sit on the unofficially named Tiny Lane. There we will raise Tiny Goats and this year, have a Tiny Farm.



Unlike last year, we simply aren't ready to have multiple…

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Carhartt Men's Arctic Quilt-Lined Sandstone Traditional Jacket

For 120 years, Carhartt has manufactured premium workwear known for exceptional durability, comfort, quality of construction, and fit that you can feel in the fabrics and see in the performance. This particular coat is not only the one I wear each day from mid-November to early-March, it is also a pretty…

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After reading about the $50 greenhouse I quickly decided I needed to make one of my own. The summer season was winding down and I knew I wasn't over my newly found lettuce addiction. I need to grow well into the autumn and even winter. Time for a simple hoop house.



Part of all my homestead construction is an element of recycling and reusing.… Continue

As we move from Odom's Idle Acres in Barnesville, Georgia to Pink Hill, North Carolina and our own little plot of dirt, the one thing that we intend on intensifying (even while downsizing) is our goal of self-sufficiency. We're not vegans or even vegetarians so we have to think about our source for milk, eggs, and meat. Even if we were vegan though, keeping… Continue

(The following post is about our experience making a cob oven. We built in the middle of the summer and that presented a multitude of problems. But today we fired it up and it worked and we are getting ready to have homemade pizza for lunch. So it does work. The construction details have been trimmed back a bit. However, feel free to contact me for more detailed instructions on how to build an Earth Oven that costs less than the 24 beer bottles I used in construction.)



I… Continue

To borrow a line(s) from Midnight Oil, "The time has come / A fact's a fact / It belongs to them/ Let's give it back"



And so with winter on the wing, we have realized the soil is not really ours and we have given it back to the earth for a few more months. What am I talking about? Well, this morning I harvested the last of the… Continue