From Our Off-Grid Modern Prefab House To You, Tips On Pantry, Prefab Project Construction Updates and Edible Weeds
I hope you are well.
We are busy at the off-grid prefab house enjoying spring's approach, with the never-ending work on home projects... even after building the off-grid prefab house over ten years ago, we have lots of items on our Honey Do list!
So yeah, once you build your modern, energy-efficient prefab house, that doesn't mean household projects will stop!
There will ALWAYS be stuff to work on around the prefab house!
There's the garden! Powerwashing the galvalume! Tractor repairs and fencelines to fix and cutting wood for crop tree release while gathering next winter's wood! Teens wanting to change their bedrooms! Vintage camper restoration! Green horses to work on! Pickles to make! Trails to clear!
By February, as the pandemic neared, I finished the usual pantry preparations and then buffered more than usual at our off-grid prefab home. See, I have a lot of friends in design, and watch them circuitously flit between NY -> LA -> China's factories and back, so it was not a great mental leap to trace flight paths. Being two hours south of DC, with a small southern city closest to us at the off-grid prefab that has several businesses dealing with military / security-related goods to China... it was not a leap for even my small mind...
Note: Before reading this understand I have NO knowledge of medicine, am not a medical professional, and am just sharing, in the spirit of The Four Thieves recipes passing on of information, what I have found and think.
We are busy at the off-grid prefab house enjoying spring's approach, with the never-ending work on home projects... even after building the off-grid prefab house over ten years ago, we have lots of items on our Honey Do list!
So yeah, once you build your modern, energy-efficient prefab house, that doesn't mean household projects will stop!
There will ALWAYS be stuff to work on around the prefab house!
There's the garden! Powerwashing the galvalume! Tractor repairs and fencelines to fix and cutting wood for crop tree release while gathering next winter's wood! Teens wanting to change their bedrooms! Vintage camper restoration! Green horses to work on! Pickles to make! Trails to clear!
![]() |
They are crammed into the same camping chairs they have used since they were one and two...! |
![]() |
Not a medical professional!!! |
Note: Before reading this understand I have NO knowledge of medicine, am not a medical professional, and am just sharing, in the spirit of The Four Thieves recipes passing on of information, what I have found and think.
If you don’t know The Four Thieves story, and the modern lawsuit, it is a very interesting tale on trademark law, business, and communal property!
Before the Chinese New Year I was sick. Sick sick sick sick sick.
There was no vaccine or prescription anywhere, not for a long while... so...
Raised in modern medical culture (I actually joke that I was raised running wild in the hallways and cafeteria of a local hospital, which is kind of true, while on weekends my dad did charts and my mother, the accounting), a doctor's daughter with an interest in research, I started with the SARS research published in reputable medical journals over ten years ago, then looked at China today, then found what protocols respected naturopaths were recommending.
In February, knowing a vaccine would be 18+ months out, I researched, ordered the herbs, and made tinctures.
If I had told you even two months ago that you should have a two year plan, would you believe me? So yeah, that is done, let's move on!
Let's lighten up a bit.
The upside of this is that now you can follow our escapades eating weeds and Pantry Food.
If you would like to follow what we do for pantry creativity, if you are interested in seeing how we forage healthy delicious food, and our own off-grid thoughts and tips, follow us on Instagram at @OffGridPrefab.
Prefab house projects continue, and I have an update from the Pacific Northwest.
But I'll write about that next week.
I also had a bright spot this week from a couple in DC, as I can share more I will, but basically they, like other clients, remind me of why I keep doing this.
We quickly diverged from the reason for the call, to purchase a prefab house, and instead spent a lovely while catching up on how they journeyed from Ethiopia to a Sustainable Agriculture Program in North Carolina to DC... and now, newlyweds, are searching for their own place to farm.
I never began this business as "Just A Business."
Each time I connect with someone, THEY are why I do this.
As I have mentioned frequently these past two years, I have lost my joy of writing.
Yet clients like Little Lab or Wolftrot, clients who have to postpone their prefab dream, or a lovely discussion with these newlyweds make me want to write again, because I *do* have thoughts on many things not even remotely related to a prefab house, from how to look for land, what systems work well, lifestyle considerations...
When I have zero desire to write, it is people telling me they read something I wrote long ago that make me collect myself and write more.
Ironically, after grudgingly, trying to rise to the occasion and post bright spots around the prefab on Instagram for the past two years,
when we went on lockdown
I suddenly
started writing.
Not to write, which I now don't enjoy, but because I thought people might need to know certain things.
See, we are rural AND urban in our culture, and I have noted that BOTH need a little help in some things each might not know.
I was actually surprised how not just my urban friends but also rural friends didn't know how much food is outside in their yard even before their garden is up. So I started posting on that.
I'm no chef, but I am an Affable Prepper, so I thought sharing creative journeys with Pantry Food might help, too.
And you know what?
Are y'all interested in having a Virtual Get Together?
If so, comment below, and how you would like that to happen - Duo, Zoom, Skype... and we can make it happen! You can ask me all about living off-grid in the prefab house over ten years later, being creative with Pantry Food and weeds... what else?
Y'all come on over!
In the meantime here are some beginning Pantry Food posts, if this interests you, to help you catch up.
Beginning in March, the Pantry Food And Foraging posts began.
Now, I am again getting sick with the same thing I had in January.
How do I know?
That old, immediately-recognized weird mass feeling under my ribs.
That vague headache, like when you get dehydrated, yet it takes three days to realize,
"Wait. I never get headaches, and I have had one three days."
The sore throat, aches, mild fever... and day 3, it is in my lungs.
Now that I realize I'm sick, I begin tinctures.
Whatever it is, I remember too well its previous hold, and determine to not let it, again.
Before the Chinese New Year I was sick. Sick sick sick sick sick.
There was no vaccine or prescription anywhere, not for a long while... so...
Raised in modern medical culture (I actually joke that I was raised running wild in the hallways and cafeteria of a local hospital, which is kind of true, while on weekends my dad did charts and my mother, the accounting), a doctor's daughter with an interest in research, I started with the SARS research published in reputable medical journals over ten years ago, then looked at China today, then found what protocols respected naturopaths were recommending.
In February, knowing a vaccine would be 18+ months out, I researched, ordered the herbs, and made tinctures.
If I had told you even two months ago that you should have a two year plan, would you believe me? So yeah, that is done, let's move on!
Let's lighten up a bit.
The upside of this is that now you can follow our escapades eating weeds and Pantry Food.
If you would like to follow what we do for pantry creativity, if you are interested in seeing how we forage healthy delicious food, and our own off-grid thoughts and tips, follow us on Instagram at @OffGridPrefab.
Prefab house projects continue, and I have an update from the Pacific Northwest.
But I'll write about that next week.
![]() |
BAD! He is texting and driving!!!! |
I also had a bright spot this week from a couple in DC, as I can share more I will, but basically they, like other clients, remind me of why I keep doing this.
We quickly diverged from the reason for the call, to purchase a prefab house, and instead spent a lovely while catching up on how they journeyed from Ethiopia to a Sustainable Agriculture Program in North Carolina to DC... and now, newlyweds, are searching for their own place to farm.
I never began this business as "Just A Business."
Each time I connect with someone, THEY are why I do this.
As I have mentioned frequently these past two years, I have lost my joy of writing.
Yet clients like Little Lab or Wolftrot, clients who have to postpone their prefab dream, or a lovely discussion with these newlyweds make me want to write again, because I *do* have thoughts on many things not even remotely related to a prefab house, from how to look for land, what systems work well, lifestyle considerations...
When I have zero desire to write, it is people telling me they read something I wrote long ago that make me collect myself and write more.
Ironically, after grudgingly, trying to rise to the occasion and post bright spots around the prefab on Instagram for the past two years,
when we went on lockdown
I suddenly
started writing.
Not to write, which I now don't enjoy, but because I thought people might need to know certain things.
![]() |
Since I began this blog, they have grown... |
I was actually surprised how not just my urban friends but also rural friends didn't know how much food is outside in their yard even before their garden is up. So I started posting on that.
I'm no chef, but I am an Affable Prepper, so I thought sharing creative journeys with Pantry Food might help, too.
And you know what?
Are y'all interested in having a Virtual Get Together?
If so, comment below, and how you would like that to happen - Duo, Zoom, Skype... and we can make it happen! You can ask me all about living off-grid in the prefab house over ten years later, being creative with Pantry Food and weeds... what else?
Y'all come on over!
In the meantime here are some beginning Pantry Food posts, if this interests you, to help you catch up.
Beginning in March, the Pantry Food And Foraging posts began.
Now, I am again getting sick with the same thing I had in January.
How do I know?
That old, immediately-recognized weird mass feeling under my ribs.
That vague headache, like when you get dehydrated, yet it takes three days to realize,
"Wait. I never get headaches, and I have had one three days."
The sore throat, aches, mild fever... and day 3, it is in my lungs.
Now that I realize I'm sick, I begin tinctures.
Whatever it is, I remember too well its previous hold, and determine to not let it, again.
Labels: covid cooking, covid tincture, forage, foraging, herbal remedies, modern prefab, off grid, off grid house, pandemic cooking, Pantry Food, prefab home, prefab house kits