2 Kids Off-Grid

This week we are continuing to learn about the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, hitting tenets 42-72 and going back over the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People in order to better understand the context of this next section. We'll be finishing off this overview of the Calls to Action next week. 

This week it's Canada Day which brings us all the memories of last year's breaking news- the discovery of hundreds of gravesites at the locations of residential schools in Canada. I am relatively new to most of this information, so it seemed appropriate to take some time out to learn about the 94 recommendations made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This week and next we will be going through the document in detail to read it all, clarify the parts we need some background on and talk about how we can make our own contributions to help our Aboriginal neighbors. 

Are we preppers? What is a prepper and why is it going mainstream? I share whether we'd consider ourselves preppers and how we want to work with our community to build climate resiliency through farming.

This week I share our experience taking the Non Registered Firearm Safety Course so we could obtain our Possession Acquisition Licence (PAL). I share a little about our motivation as farmers to get our license, some details on how a firearm is useful around the farm, what permits are required and the next steps for us on our journey to grow and process the livestock we raise on the farm for meat.  Content Warning: This episode contains content that discusses Firearms, Pest Control, Butchering and Slaughtering Livestock. 

Spring has fully arrived at Duskwood Farm! This week I talk about all the wonderful opportunities we have had to get involved in our new community including a seed swap, a welcome event for newcomers and all the perennials we have kindly received from friends and neighbours. 

We're continuing to celebrate our first year here in Nova Scotia with a full review of all the 15 things that came our way unexpectedly over the year, with our solution, how much it cost us in time and money and what the lessons were that we learned for the future. We don't like to focus on the negative more than we have to, so look for this recurring theme once a year. 

This week brings us to the first anniversary of our big move to Nova Scotia. In honour of all the CFAs (Come From Aways) who decided to pack up their lives to try something new, I polled our community on Instagram and Facebook on their experiences moving to the Maritimes and how it measures up to the grand generalizations or stereotypes we had before we got here. 

This week we wrap up the interview with Vic and Brynn over at Crow's Commons. In our conversation, we talk about living through their last three seasons living in a canvas tent with a wood stove, particularly how they made it work unexpectedly staying there through the coldest and snowiest winter in Nova Scotia in the last 3 years. We talk about how they are mindfully working on incorporating groups like our indigenous, differently-abled and LGBTQIA2S+ to try to make a space in our community for everyone to live healthy and intentional lives. They wrap it up by sharing their plans for the future of Crow's Commons and their plans for the upcoming year.

This week I introduce our new friends Vic and Brynn, co-creators of Crows Commons to talk about their journey from living in Edmonton to finding their new land and home in Springfield, Nova Scotia to start an accessible housing collective. This is a two-part episode to be continued May 6 when they share more about their dreams for their new home and their experience building a house with just their wits and hands and living in a tent through a Canadian Fall, Winter and Spring.

This week on 2 Kids Off-Grid, I share the recent chain of events that helped us solve our main farming question for 2022: How can we create a revenue stream without investing a large amount of time and money into our farm. Through community connections and some friendly advice from local farmers, I joined the Lunenburg County Christmas Tree Producers Association and had my eyes opened to the large industry of tree and brush producers in Nova Scotia. 

This week on 2 Kids Off-Grid, my friend Shawn and I road-tripped up 3 hours to Malagash on the North Shore of Nova Scotia to take a mushroom growing class from Kelly, the energy behind Malagash Mushrooms, Trees and Bees. We learned all about nurturing mushroom spores through the stages from a test tube to freshly cut logs to harvest. 

In this week's episode, I give a rundown of our finances for 2021. In our first year, our focus was primarily on creating a picture of our personal financial position, registering for HST and filing our first Statement of Farming Activities. I talk about our perspective on money as a tool and our personal and farm goals as they relate to money and Off-Farm income and of course, our general lifestyle of living off-grid. Check out the associated write-up with visuals over on our website at duskwood.ca 

This week's show features the second half of last week's interview with Angie Lafferty, the manager of Business Development over at Farm Credit Canada. I tie back the advice she shared to our own progress in understanding more about the farming industry as well as how it helped us focus our efforts over the past year. 

This week's show features Angie Lafferty, the Manager of Business Development at Farm Credit Canada. Angie talks with me about the resources available through her organization, which is a crown corporation that exists to support Canadian farmers. Hear about the organization, its structure, the resources available and tips for new farmers looking to build a profitable farm in Nova Scotia.

This week's show features Bill and Sarin, the creators and moderators of the popular Facebook Group "Off-Grid Nova Scotia". They started the group back in 2014 as off-grid enthusiasts. The group has exploded in popularity from 600 to over 6000 members through the pandemic. Hear about why they started the group and some of the major themes that have been popular over the years as they build a community around this unique lifestyle in Nova Scotia.

This week's show features Kelly, Kim and Teryn over at 2 Papas pizzeria in New Germany, Nova Scotia. They picked up their life in Newfoundland to relocate to Nova Scotia and embark on an entrepreneurial journey. Hear their story as they highlight working together as a family, moving to a rural community and some words of wisdom for others looking to start their own path to self-employment. 

Welcome to the first episode of 2 Kids Off-Grid. This week's episode talks about what motivated us to move across the country in a camper and buy 20 acres in rural Nova Scotia. Tune in this week to hear our story, like so many other homesteaders across Canada, who moved to find a better lifestyle and balance in our hectic world.