Becky: In this episode of Becky’s Homestead, I’ll be showing you the second part of installation job in my log cabin and I’ll be sharing some of your letters with you. Stay tuned.
Hi! I’m Becky and I’m a homesteader. I love the rat race and built my own log cabin because I wanted to enjoy a simple life. Homesteading is being a self-sufficient as your present situation allows, such as growing your own food, making some of the things you need, building your own home and trying to live in harmony with nature. Now, I’m going to show you how you can do it with my show. In every episode, I show you how to escape from the consumer rat race. I’ll give you encouragement, ideas, how-to’s and what not to do, so you can live your homesteading lifestyle too. Welcome to Becky’s Homestead.
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Becky: Hi! I’m Becky, welcome to the Homestead. In this episode, we’re going to go inside and look at the finished product of the insulation job in my log cabin. I’m so excited and it’s so wonderful, I love it. And I’m going to be sharing some of your letters with you. I get nice, nice letters from the homesteaders out and about in the country and the world. So I’ll be sharing those with you.
I interviewed Mike who sprayed the foam on my roof. Let’s go talk to him now.
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Becky: I’m here with Icy Mike and he just got finished spraying my cabin roof with Icynene foam spray, so I’m just going to ask him a few questions about it.
I wanted to know why the Icynene is better, why do you think it’s better?
Mike: I think it’s better than fiberglass beds because it just, over 20 years of time, things become more down, melt it down and loses their R-value. With Icynene, they could stay up after 20, 30 years and not move an inch and keep your R-value where it needs to be.
Becky: I’m so excited, I just been so happy we did it. And how is it that more and more popular lately with people putting it their houses?
Mike: Lately with Icynene versus the Fiberglass beds, yes, it’s been more popular. It’s more of the expensive material but you know, everybody has seen the benefits in it, in the long term and how you can save money in your energy and everything else.
Becky: Yes and that was my third question I was going to point out and ask you. Is there a quasi benefit with the Icynene versus the Pink insulation?
Mike: Well the benefit in it is say, your house calls for three ton A/C unit. I’ll come in your house, spray your roof deck and now your engineers are figuring out to where you’ll only need two tons, which you’re saving money on that then you’re saving money on electrical uses then you’re saving from it just doesn’t take it much to heat and cool your house.
Becky: Yes, so that’s a big saving over a long period of time and that’s what people are looking for nowadays. Everybody wants to go greener so Icynene seems to be the way to go. At least I’m convinced though I did it.
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Becky: HI, now I’m going to share some of your letters with you. This first one is from John, and John writes,
Dearest Becky, I was so pleased to come across your internet video stories. You’re so much fun and give plenty of good information and inspiration. Keep them coming.
I’ve got one foot in the city and one foot in the country but I’m slowly making a transition from a mini farm status. I started my homestead project ten years ago when I bought a little plot of land in the country. I built the smallest house I though I could get away with. All cash, no mortgage. It’s furnished with and furnished it with salvage yard, sinks, countertops, tables, you name it. I like telling people that very few of the items in my cottage cost more than $5.00 and many were entirely free, the trade off is time and effort hunting the stuff down and fixing it up. Now that the house is basically done I’ve moved on to working on the garden. I started planting fruit trees early on and now have more oranges and mangoes than I know what to do with. Now, I’ve graduated to other crops like bananas, pineapples and papayas. Animals will have to wait until I can live in the country full time. My water supply comes from rain water catchment off the roof and I’m working on how to generate my own electricity without spending a fortune on solar panels. Little by little I’m getting there. In the mean time, I’ve established a vegetable garden on the roof here on the city to satisfy my need to grow at least some of my own food while in town. Keep up the good work.
Well, right back at you John. You should keep up the good work. It sounds that you have a great thing going and it does take a long, long time to establish a homestead and it really is little by little but it’s so much fun while you’re doing it and you always have something interesting to talk about.
Okay, next we have, let me see, Diana and she’s from Mexico and she writes, I became your fan since the day I saw you on YouTube. I was surprisingly looking for information about how to build a cabin by myself and I found you. My name is Diana and I’m writing you from Mexico.
I have some questions about the installations, how did you put them in? Because I just saw you just stick every log one over the other. Was it with the foam tape or with concrete or something else?
I guess she means that holding it down. The logs, the way they’re installed on my particular cabin is, they’re cut flat on the bottom and the top, the foam tape goes down the middle and then they’re bolted down with big gigantic bolts. So that’s what holds them in place and they’re locked together in the corners.
Okay, so if I can build a house, you can do it too Diana, just go small that would be my advice to you.
And the next letter I want to share with you is from Star and Star writes, Becky, I really enjoy your videos. How do you limit the smell and the flies in your coop?
Well so, I think the biggest, biggest point when it comes to a coop is, do not overcrowd the coop. If you overcrowd the coop, you will have a stinky mess and you will have a lot of flies. You can always just get like a garden rake and rake the poop out and take the droppings out and then put them in your garden or your compost. My coop which is behind me is 8 x 16. So it’s a pretty big coop and I only have seven hens in there, so it’s not very crowded at all so I don’t really have a problem with that many flies or smell. I do let my chickens out a lot to free range.
Okay, next, this is a letter from JP, JP says,
Hello Becky, I found your video series on YouTube about a week or so ago. I have watched every episode you have so far. I absolutely love your setup you have going and how your journey is taking you. I too want to raise most of my food including milk, meat and crops. I’m only 16 years old so I have a long time before I get the chance to actually get to live out my dream at my grandfather’s farm. I just like to say, seeing your blog has helped me by explaining by how much better the horses were than the tractor. The noise, the smell and how they affect your land made me really think about it. I mean, I’ve thought about using the horses for plowing but I thought it would be too hard. But after seeing the difference with using the horses or tractor, I believe I’m sticking to the horses.
Well JP, good for you that you want to be a homesteader. That’s just so nice to hear that the young people have an interest in homesteading. I don’t think you’ll regret it. I think you’ll have a very happy healthy life and when it comes to the horses, you just go ahead and use those horses because the horses like it, you’ll like it and you’ll really enjoy your farm and nature.
So that’s all the letters I’m reading today. Keep your questions coming and we love to share the comments back with you. So keep them coming.
Thanks for watching! If you have any questions or suggestions, please email me. Happy Homesteading! Bye-bye!
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