Winter TIPS & TRICKS for your Homestead | OFF-GRID

[@johnlagrega4435]

You guys have a hell of a storm heading your way, stay safe 🙏🏻

[@florencestaheli7459]

Wishing a wonderful 2025, health for you and the animals. God protect and bless you richly. Greetings from Switzerland!

[@Freedomunplugged]

Winter on an off-grid homestead sounds like a real adventure! I love hearing tips from those with experience-it makes tackling the challenges feel more manageable. Can’t wait to try some of these ideas on my own homesteading journey!

[@maxiumgolf1]

09:55 fish tank heater! I use one for my chicken’s, of course power for their constant red bulb with additional option for white warming during time change season so that production maintains constant. Doesn’t have to be a warming light could be a led like my red bulb, use a timer also.

[@Voradox]

I really appreciate y'all's channel. My daughters and I are trying to move to Tennessee and homestead as we speak. I'm so happy I stumbled upon your channel. God bless y'all. You're doing awesome!

[@DanaKing-uf6oy]

I bought a 40 volt Ryobi 14 inch chainsaw and I know that you are already into Ryobi 40 volt tools,this will be a nice back up saw just in case something ever happened to your stihl chainsaw,that way y’all would not be stranded.This saw will cut that wood on your firewood sawing jig with no problem. I think that y’all will like this saw so much that it will be used more often than your gas chainsaw.$259 at Home Depot with a charger and a 4 amp hour battery.😊

[@paulawilliams7030]

your cutting fire wood hack is a real good idea!

[@ShadowSpirit-h4q]

The ping pong ball is GENIUS !! Wow !!the stuff you learn with homesteaders, priceless !!!

[@kst357]

I'm a big fan of electric blankets and found that it works best for us to have it on top of the mattress with a thin blanket & top sheet over it. It warms the bedding underneath you & the heat rises up to your comforter making it more efficient at keeping the heat where you need it. We used to have the heat setting at 4 to 4.5 when we used it as a top blanket but when it's underneath the perfect setting is around 2 or 2.5. Anyway, try it for kicks and see if you like it & if it allows you to run it at a lower setting. We're in a much colder zone so our water bowls will freeze no matter what but out of curiosity I'm going to try Matt's ping pong ball trick to see how much lower the temp can be before freezing.

[@kassandrawilliams-bey1654]

Good tips. Stay safe and warm!❤

[@heleneminger]

Our family is off grid and these are all pretty good tips and while you did express how hard it is to live off grid, the trade off for your hard work is how mindful you become. Our first year we lost so many hoses in the winter because all of the "warm" places we stored them were not warm enough of we would tell a child to make sure the water was drained before storing the hose. Year three of off grid life we aren't having the hose problem anymore!

[@beckypennington79]

Thanks for your video I hope the weather doesn't get too severe where you live❤

[@paulawilliams7030]

You two are fun to watch. When I lived in the Midwest we used to turn our water faucet on to just a drip and it helped our water from freezing.

[@_BostonMatt]

$160 diesel heater will use 1 gal every 14 hrs

[@stevemack7270]

Bluetti has been like a rock for me even though it's an older system. Quality is what I see for mine. Solid. Thank you for your tips.

[@ShadowSpirit-h4q]

So glad you enclosed the goat pen...

[@vonheise]

When we canp in the winter we leave our camper winterized and carry our water in gallon bottles to flush with and drink. When we want a shower, we go to a campground for a night. We use weighted blankets instead of electric blankets and with a sheet, a normal blanket, and a 15-pound blanket on top of that, we are as warm or warmer than with an electric and don't have to fiddle with a thermostat or wake up too hot or too cold as our body temperature takes care of that.

[@GoodwaysHomestead]

Great tips. I have a tip for outside water troughs/pails or bowls. Wrap in insulation and put inside rubber maid totes. Cover everything but where they reach in to drink. I live in northern Canada, the land of -30-46 C. It is hard in the winter homesteading as a 72 year old gal now. I have modified my farm by having winter chicken and turkey yards, goat barn and rabbit runs all under a roof so do not have to walk thru and shovel snow. In the spring I remove green house panels from the fenced walls of rabbit barn and bird run. And everything has access to free range areas again. I am adding solar string lights for illuminating the barns and pathways. I have a 55 gallon barrel of water wrapped in heat tape and isulation trying to keep from freezing. And using electric tank heater as last resort. On the farm we had an old metal water tank with a built in wood stove to keep the water from freezing. Isnt it fun figuring out how to make homesteading easy.

[@michaelwhitewolf10]

Good show stay warm !😊😊❤

[@williamirelan9332]

If you can get a b300s battery, they are self heating and put it on the bottom of the stack all three would charge. Until then, a 2 inch piece of foam insulation under the stack to protect from the cold floor might help. I have a thermostat attached to a relay that disconnects my solar panels when the temperature falls below freezing. It also disconnects if the power goes out to the relay because it requires power to connect the panels. For animal water, solar power tank pumps for water features are self-contained .

[@jerrydunmire8653]

That’s a great jig, you might consider,if you place a 5 gallon bucket or something similar under each edge as you cut it it’ll automatically fall into a container that you can easily carry into your home ,,keep on keeping on

[@15halerobert]

I agree with you about protecting your water. I've had several times in my life where I've lost power for several days, not a big deal. I have gas appliances and camping gear, so again not a big deal. But water is a whole nother thing. I've lost water for several hours, but it set in me an absolute desire to find a new source immediately. I even now bought a 13 gallon still just for potable water. I have zero intention for anything else, just potable water

[@KevinChristiansen-i2q]

Great video Matt and Cass

[@ecybernard-com]

Have you considered trenching your water lines? The frost line is 4-6 feet in the US depending on how cold you get, but below 6 feet it will never freeze once you rebury the lines.

[@hdjohnk]

Happy New Year!✌️❤🍻

[@rudyfisher7660]

I think if you go around the inside, put 2 inch close cell phone boards around it and build a the wall. Oh, plywood around that hold the close cell phone and then put a ceiling of closed cell foam over the top of that to where it's in a case in close cell phone and then mount close sill foam on the door of your Battery cat up cabinet. You will have a very efficient the system. It won't get too hot It won't get too cold. It won't get too soon. Anything, it'll be just right for the belt. Because the batteries will keep it. Warming up in the winter and the foam will keep it cooling up in the summer

[@SnakeBitBob1982]

Great tip on the firewood small splitting. Thanks!

[@VirgilMuirhead]

Hope y’all had a awsome holiday!! Been lookin forward to a video update. I recently caught a wood splitter on a huge discount at harbor freight. Slowly checking off one item at a time getting prepared t go off grid. There is a solar farm popping up less than a mile from me and I’m gonna try to sweet talk some guys for some scratch and dent panels 🤣. Lookin for an update video on the little wood stove and how it’s working out for yall and burn time. Keep at it yall!! My dream is moving to Tennessee and going off grid!! I’ve got the camper, generator, chainsaws, four wheeler and many more things. Keep at it I’ve been following and watching yall since yall got the property in Tennessee!! I love and look forward to the notifications of new videos!

[@SugarCreekOffGrid]

Great video guys We are not looking forward to this next round of storms looks like big snow event. Stay safe ya'll

[@ivegottabeme1]

Ive heard of the ping pong ball idea but forgot about it. Thank you, gonna try it! Truly enjoy your channel and watching your progress 😃❤️

[@patthornton1212]

Thanks for sharing winter tips.

[@Robertbush-s7t]

In your case you can use 2"" fome ins to help keep temp up

[@valfunk4669]

Great video!!!! Great info!!! Thank you!!! I hope u guys weather good thru the storm!!

[@jamiereynolds3407]

As an off gridder myself, those little batteries in the heated vests can be charged up and used to charge a flash light or your phone. My husband got 2 heated vests during a terrible winter and we found that better than using the vest is to keep the little battery storages charged up for those nights when power is down and you don’t want to lose your phone. I think our winters here in Wyoming might be a lot worse than yours.

[@utes-herbal-corner1916]

Great Info Matt & Cass, 💜💜💜 Love & Light to you 💜💜💜

[@PapaBolbol-j9x]

Your trip was amazing.

[@mikejones-vd3fg]

Cool tips, love seeing these clever hacks. And thanks for the clarification about the cold charging, they made it sound like lifepo was weatherproof and lithium couldnt be used in freezing weather, both extremes arent true. The fact your charging a battery thats getting colder and colder maybe it would be worth it to heat the room with a space heater. Have it kick in at a certain temperature. Theres modules on aliexpress that do that for under $5(just searth 'thermostat'). They turn on your load at a certain temp, turn it off at another. I actually found some of these modules in the garbage that looked like it came from a grow op of some kind and never thought what they could be used for. They also got these mini digital thermometers for a few bucks, tell you temp/humidity run on a coincell battery forever it seems, and they also connect to your phone bia bluetooth if you want to get data form it that way, not sure how long the range is, im assuming its short like bluetooth. The screens they use are just not that visible in low light conditions ive found, but the battery life makes up for it, you never have to worry about it. For fun I made a DIY thermometer module using a microcontroller, temperature module and mini oled display, that came to under $5 too. But it took a vape pen battery to run and only lasted about 48 hours , not as good as the almost 1 years it took the commercial version to run out. But at leaste you could see the thing, and on a cool display that could do animations and other things if you wanted it too. Lots of opporunity for microcontrollers to automate offgrid life i think ands its getting more accessible for hobbyist to do it, rather then just engineers. I basically got chatgpt to write me the code for it, i just has to wire it up, but i did make an effort to understand some of it. But if that isnt youre thing they got ready to use modules, they're just more generic. With custom solution you could have automatic feeders for the animals, watering for the plats etc, you just sit back and watch the robots do everything. Thats after you spent a lot of hard work getting other robots to program them for you of course, it still takes some work.

[@jimoray3]

Excellent content. Happy for your success

[@waylandmayo]

Great point on the min charging temp for lithium batteries.

[@davidasimkosr4641]

Hope the weather isn't damping your new year !! Love the channel keep the videos coming.... Stay warm and have a Happy New Year !!!😊😊

[@pawsitivity-unleashed]

Love you guys, been following since you moved there. In this video, the audio levels are all over the place. I usually watch in the morning before the rest of the house wakes up so I keep the volume low. I'll have to wait 'til everyone wakes up to watch this one. Just a friendly tip. Looking forward to seeing more about the wood stove. !!

[@sanddollar-ray9125]

Thank you for the tips God Bless

[@cokerchannel]

I don't know if anybody's comment to this about freezing water you can take a pop bottle and fill it up 3/4 with water and put a couple teaspoons of salt in it cap it off in drop it into your bucket and it should keep the water from freezing

[@oldmutt9758]

Outstanding information 👍🏻 💯. Shared with preppers friends.

[@JohnWalter-i8n]

Happy New Year!

[@rlwoods61]

Don't forget your "Black Tank" drain pipe and valve! There is nothing worse than a "Poopsicle" to have to deal with.

[@ThomasCross-b3d]

Hot Tip: Paint or Stain those ping-pong balls a dark color so they radiate heat as well as provide surface disturbance in the prevention of icing of the surface. Or Use a TINY fish tank air pump and the airline to provide the bubbles that pretty much stop the icing or keep it thin enough to easily break with little effort. ~12BlockTokie~ Detroit, Mi. 48234

[@donovanfoto3263]

Love the channel. Leaving the country in February, becoming a digital nomad. Build a SUB TERRANEAN space for the batteries, storage, etc. A different subterranean space for the animals keeps them warmer.

[@bobreesjr9501]

I enjoy your videos.

[@DanaKing-uf6oy]

Since now that y’all have a wood stove fully functional the question is are y’all going to start making biochar,see KZbin videos.😊 looking forward to the next one.

[@bobmonztr]

My second year here, I got sun on Nov7, Dec 18 ,29th and today 16KW solar lottery winner. Weather is 70f warmer, last Jan low was -27F. I went with lead carbon (not lead acid) charge discharge at -40 C/F safe for indoor use. I only have 120v electric heat, I have 8 heaters from 60w to 1500w right now only 30F I use only my 170w heater under the trailer for basic heat 60F mins inide, then I use my 350w on am ext cord drag to the room I am in. I bought the electric blanket in Oct wow game changer having a hot bed, got a heat pad too. I enclosed the entire trailer top to bottom, and insulated, the heat rises through the floor heats the inside, 2 season trailer, my 600g water tank, batteries and grey treatment are at 50F in the underworld. You 2 have to upgrade a bit, the self-feeding nonelectric pellet stoves, fill it once a day 400f over 24hrs per fill, then you get 2 or more pallets delivered every year then more time for everything else. The axe could become an art piece. I have a vid "183k to retire", shows most of what I did, at -8C with no heat on, I loose 1C per hour. Would take 24hrs to freeze inside starting at 20C. If you want to try what I did msg first I have some unreleased ideas in my head to improve performance. It is a $2500 5-day project that will protect the trailer for 15 years after 2 coats of rv roof paint. Sorry my comments get large on a phone. Have fun ty for the vid.

[@bosx]

Hope you don’t get too much snow from the storm

[@kanenjames8503]

Hope y'all come visit our homestead!

[@jillparrott3485]

Might want to use a bigger ball that floats for waters, the goats might want to eat those. Just fyi love your show

[@Rumotorizednosparknoride-w9i]

Plays I would like you to let me know what you had to do to that cabin to make it accessible so you could utilize it and not have to destroy it I'm looking in Tennessee as well and play some looking says no building codes but then it says state has building codes and you can't do it can't live in the shed can't do anything and if you decide to do something you have to get a permit so I need to know what you did in order to make it livable where you can just do it

[@johnhanselman6371]

Keep warm and produce more videos

[@melanieeaton3344]

Very informative!

[@H2Shadow]

This is a little late but it's still will help you need to get an Allodial title..Blacks law dictionary 9th edition (land patent)... your purchasing the title from the state basically taking it away from the state you're now the king of your land you don't need permits for nothing

[@jonwebb5241]

An aquarium heater would keep the water in its liquid state! Low voltage….

[@JoseValdez-tb9nf]

Ping pong balls feel like a choking hazard

[@TERRYPK]

😎

[@oldmutt9758]

My wife thinks you are a fun couple. I have 2,bluetti ac 180s and a bluetti ac200 L.

[@quinterofelixchidez]

Swamcooler microwave hot n cold resistance nature gen vtoman opus jackery senix bluetti biracial monfacial ecoflow ancrage furnace mobile home

[@adriannicholson8819]

hay ho santa suck he gave me what I get every year sweet FA

[@Bud420-r3l4v]

Hundreds of other channels have covered all these topics already.This is nothing new