So it was a wonderful weekend filled with community and all the good things but it was also filled with new house chores!

Maybe when you got your traditional house, you called the water company, you got your electricity company called and maybe you hired a landscaper…

But here at Teaberry Acres things are just slightly different when you’re living off grid!

My first chore was to put the house together (literally!). Part of my house is on casters that spin in for transport (think like bump outs for RV’s). So we had to take the trim off, spin, then reinstall allll the trim! A huge thank you to Giavanni, Brian, Mike and Dan who did all that hard work for me!

The second chore was to make sure the toilet was usable. You may or may not know my toilet requires zero water. It’s a composting toilet which meant…it needed compost!

So Saturday morning I mixed some sphagnum peat moss with water and filled my solids tank to be ready for use!

The next step…POWER! THE121 is mostly powered by solar however on cloudy days the generator is my back up so of course I had to make sure she was ready to go with fresh gas and oil.

And certainly not least…water! Did you know THE121 has no well? The water is supplied strictly through rain water and a state of the art UV filtration system. However as you know PA has had little rain and what rain THE121 did collect in Ohio had to be emptied to make her lighter for transport. So a HUGE shout out to my local fire company who came out today to fill up my house! I’m sooo happy that after 3 days I can finally shower in my own home!

And speaking of water… there’s also a need for watering plants and having an extra supply. So remember the story of the barrels on the side of the road?? The amazing Carolyn Trosky came out this weekend to finish that project (with a smidgen of some help from me). So now I have an extra 155 gallons (well when it rains..) to water plants and fill the house tank if necessary!

There is a lot of work going into getting THE121 going but it’s totally worth it knowing that I can sustain an environmentally friendly and economically sustainable living.

While I am off the grid physically, I’ll also be off of the cyber grid for a few days… another surgery tomorrow with a longer recovery time.

Until then…I’ll be cozied up on the couch, living my dream.