Living in the Country on Our Small Farm
Hi, I’m Sue Knight the creator of the Pure Country Liv’n blog. My husband and l enjoy living in the country on a small farm, with several dairy goats, chickens, our Tennessee Walker Hound Walter, and Lily the cat. We live in the southwest portion of Florida, in a small, but growing, rural town called Arcadia. (Zone 9b).
Over the years I have bred the dairy goats and milked them, but with arthritis in my hand, it has become a little painful when my fingers lock up while milking. So now we have a small herd of lawnmowers. The chickens provide us with plenty of eggs plus enough to sell. I also hatch and sell chicks locally only. I started this blog to share insights and tips on raising chickens, best products in my opinion for chickens, and also to offer chicken items for purchase.
Little Bit of Gardening
I’ve been gardening most of my adult life. The only difference is, that I started gardening when I lived in northwestern Pennsylvania. When I moved to Florida in 2000 with my husband and children, I got a bit of a culture shock you could say. The seasons are basically reversed for growing many plants. A little bit of a learning curve to say the least. In this blog I will also be sharing my experiences and tips on gardening in general and in Florida, and when applicable, different plants for chickens. I also joined our local garden club to get more hands-on tips for growing different plants in Florida.
Below are just some of the fruits, vegetables, and trees I have in my garden and new orchard. Most of my plants are in pots to be able to move in the event of extreme weather conditions.
Going Solar while Living in the Country
With living in the country, our electricity isn’t always dependable. The joys of country living. We also live in Florida, and the threat of hurricanes and tropical storms every summer is always there. Since we have owned our current residence, since 2004, we have had to deal with several hurricanes and tropical storms. During the past two major hurricanes, Irma and Ian, we lost power for almost 2 weeks each.
We decided to go solar in 2019, and after some major issues with a couple of solar companies, we were able to get an elevated solar array installed on our property. We live in a geodesic dome home, so solar panels on the house was not an option. Unfortunately, because we are tied to the grid by law with our solar panels, if the power goes out, so do we. So we now have battery storage for our solar, and are about 99% off-grid as of this writing.
Going All Electric
Our first electric vehicle, the 2014 Tesla Model S, became a reality in 2018, which had been my husband’s dream for a couple years. During Hurricane Ian in 2022, our property experienced record flooding. In addition to flooding our house, it damaged our vehicles, completely submerging and totaling the Tesla Model S as well. Since then we replaced the Tesla Model S with a Model 3 and also purchased a Tesla Model X. With the two Tesla cars now, and even with charging, we still can remain off the grid at least 99% of the time. When we travel, we are able to charge at the Superchargers, which we really appreciate. We are on the list for a Tesla Cybertruck which will be able to go through several feet of water. Plus we also love the fact that we no longer have to buy polluting fuel and can charge our all-electric Teslas up for free with our solar panels.