Building A Self-Sovereign Lifestyle With Karl, A Bitcoin Homesteader

This is an sentiment editorial by Captain Sidd, a concern writer and explorer of Bitcoin culture.

Bitcoiners speech a batch astir self-sovereignty, often from the position of privateness and carnal security. However, what’s little discussed is the captious facet of nutrient and income security. Through my circuit of Bitcoin meetups crossed the U.S.A. this summer, I recovered a increasing involvement among meetup attendees successful food, nutrition and self-sufficiency. I met galore homesteaders connected the roadworthy who are gathering systems to marque themselves and their families self-sufficient. Bitcoin meetups are expanding the scope of this lifestyle, allowing for the sharing of goods and services arsenic good arsenic captious cognition astir self-sufficient lifestyles.

For this piece, I interviewed Karl — a homesteader who hosted maine during my Bitcoin meetup circuit — successful bid to trial retired a caller bid connected homesteading Bitcoiners I’m considering moving successful Bitcoin Magazine. I privation these articles to assistance individuals and families grow their cognition and signifier of self-sufficient lifestyles. My anticipation is that self-sufficient individuals and families volition usage bitcoin to physique larger self-sufficient communities, and implicit clip these communities volition reshape the satellite for the better. This is the peaceful gyration that I’ve stayed successful Bitcoin each these years for.

I anticipation you bask our conversation!

Overview Of The Homestead

Sidd: Give maine an overview of your homestead: what are you producing and however agelong person you been astatine it?

Karl: I started retired successful 2015 successful the spring, and close now, I’ve yielded a batch from that journey. The archetypal happening I did was acceptable up an income watercourse with vacationers staying connected my spot — which we tin get into later. To bash that, I renovated the location to person 2 units: an flat for myself, and a portion I tin rent connected Airbnb to tourists visiting the vino state successful my area. To grow that, I'm presently moving connected a 20-foot tiny house, which volition beryllium different rental. I besides person the 20-foot yurt that you stayed in, which is presently renting connected Airbnb.

The yurt I was thankful to enactment successful during my clip connected the road!

On the nutrient accumulation side, I rapidly started planting a nutrient wood and got chickens successful abbreviated order. In the nutrient wood I works antithetic perennial vegetables, berries, seed trees, effect trees and I besides works my yearly subsistence crops similar garlic, squash, potatoes, carrots — those kinds of things. I person a rabbit colony that doubles arsenic a cannabis garden. We produced 150 pounds of rabbit nutrient from that successful the archetypal season, and astatine the aforesaid time, we produced 40 pounds of cannabis successful that area.

One of the biggest businesses we're increasing into close present is our lamb meat. I deliberation we're going to person 25 to 30 breeding ewes going into the spring. This twelvemonth our 20 ewes that we bred produced 45 lambs. That was supra average, truthful we’ve had a batch of lamb to merchantability this year. We didn't person to enactment excessively hard to merchantability them, betwixt our friends, family, neighbors and past a mates went to Bitcoiners.

Homesteading As Income Generation

Sidd: We’ve talked successful the past astir income procreation arsenic a captious constituent of homesteading. Can you explicate however you thought astir income procreation going into starting your homestead?

Karl: A batch of the homesteading resources retired determination are focused connected nutrient production, and not income generation. However, for maine homesteading means taking a portion of onshore and combining it with your skills and interests to make an income arsenic good arsenic let you to unrecorded disconnected the land. There are a batch of antithetic ways radical leverage their properties to marque income. Jack Spirko of “The Survival Podcast,” talks astir income procreation often — taking your assets and matching them to your accomplishment sets to nutrient income.

I came to homesteading with a tendency to physique this location called an Earthship, which is simply a passive star location built fundamentally retired of trash with a greenhouse wrong opening to the south. The Earthship is not conscionable a house, but a “ship” that provides your sustenance successful the signifier of energy, water, shelter, heating, cooling and nutrition. However, the regulations were limiting connected wherever and however and erstwhile I could build. I needed to find a spot with lax gathering regulations, and I needed to marque wealth portion I was moving towards gathering this house.

An Earthship oasis successful the desert. Source

So I started reasoning astir ways that a portion of spot I lived connected could make income. At the time, I was traveling crossed the South connected a roadworthy travel from Los Angeles to Key West. On that roadworthy trip, I recovered a schoolhouse autobus successful someone’s backyard that was listed connected Airbnb, truthful I stayed successful it for a mates nights. Once I realized you could enactment a furniture successful a schoolhouse autobus and radical would wage to enactment there, it clicked that I could likewise bootstrap this Earthship concept.

I was moving arsenic a movie exertion astatine the clip and reasoning I could enactment freelance to bootstrap the Earthship, but seeing the Airbnb conception and the tiny location craze instrumentality disconnected changed my mind. I could make income conscionable disconnected the spot if I had spare abstraction and a crushed for radical to visit. That’s wherever my thought process was starring into looking for the spot to purchase.

The spot I’m connected present is successful the bosom of vino country. At archetypal glance, that was a downside — but erstwhile Airbnb clicked for me, it made a ton of consciousness to big guests there.

Choosing Land

Sidd: What factors were captious to you erstwhile evaluating onshore to purchase? In the past you’ve mentioned gathering codes, zoning, h2o rights — what different factors?

Karl: Figuring retired those factors started agelong earlier I looked astatine land. I went down the permaculture rabbit spread astir 2012-2013, watching tons of YouTube and speechmaking articles. I was surviving successful L.A. astatine the clip playing astir with a model plot and watching arsenic overmuch Geoff Lawton arsenic I could.

All of those hours of probe allowed maine to make a checklist of characteristics for an perfect spot for me. That's however I started my search.

I was looking for the following, which from my probe would acceptable however I wanted to instrumentality permaculture:

• 10-20 acres of land.
• Existing location successful bully shape.
• Hilly land.
• Running h2o and/or pond.
• Mix of mature woodlot and tillable land.
• Around 2 hours from an planetary airport.

That was besides successful tandem with my acquisition trying to physique this Earthship successful Los Angeles. I met with an designer astir that, learned the specifics of the gathering and municipal codes successful that area, the zoning laws and each which alteration wide from metropolis to city. That gave maine a spot of an knowing for wherefore I couldn't bash the Earthship successful L.A. and what benignant of ineligible situation I needed successful bid for maine to bash it. I crossed those 2 things — my checklist for an perfect property, and what I needed from a zoning constituent of presumption to let maine to physique the Earthship. Those years of studying were akin to going down the Bitcoin rabbit hole.

Permaculture And Bitcoin

Sidd: You mentioned going down the permaculture rabbit hole. Talk to maine astir permaculture and Bitcoin: What parallels bash you spot there?

Karl: Bitcoin conscionable makes consciousness erstwhile looking astatine it done a permaculture lens. Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, who originated the conception of permaculture, wanted to make a civilization and systems that would past done clip without destroying itself from its flaws; a imperishable culture. And what is Bitcoin? Bitcoin is simply a imperishable money. In bid to person a imperishable culture, you request to person imperishable wealth too. Money makes coordination betwixt humans beyond trusted household and friends easier, truthful bitcoin arsenic imperishable wealth enables permaculture mindsets and practices to grow from the household oregon colony standard to larger scales. That's wherefore I deliberation that they're made for each other.

Because of Bitcoin’s essence arsenic a imperishable money, it creates incentives to make the aforesaid solutions you would get astatine done applying permaculture principles to your decision-making process. Take the permaculture rule of producing nary waste, for example. People accidental Bitcoin is an inefficient database, but it’s precise businesslike erstwhile you comparison it to existing systems that supply the aforesaid assurances astir security, censorship absorption and truthful on. It's overmuch much efficient.

Another permaculture rule is to integrate alternatively than segregate. In Bitcoin, you are integrating each of these antithetic aspects unneurotic from the trouble accommodation to hashing to public-private-key cryptography successful bid to make a precise robust and resilient system. This mirrors the permaculture benignant of harvest growth, wherever alternatively of onshore dedicated to conscionable apples for instance, you person a full nutrient wood with apples surviving alongside peaches, cherries, plums, nuts and much occupying antithetic levels and moving with each other. You are nary longer reliant conscionable connected the output of your apples, which makes for a much robust nutrient system.

Karl’s nutrient forest, wherever peaches coexist with galore different fruits and vegetables. 

This isn’t a rule of permaculture, but it comes retired of practicing permaculture and I employment it often: stacking functions. The thought down stacking functions is figuring retired however I tin execute aggregate goals with little work. For instance, I request to pat my maple trees for syrup successful the summer, but I person to chopped down brushwood to entree them. So I enactment my rams nether the trees, and they get to devour the brushwood portion besides clearing it truthful I tin get successful to pat the trees. With Bitcoin mining for example, homeowners with precocious energy rates request to utilize the vigor arsenic good successful bid to compete, truthful the Bitcoin web is forcing miners to stack functions. You person to inquire yourself astatine immoderate point, “How bash I usage this heat?” So miners are practicing permaculture without adjacent knowing it. Bitcoin drives this mode of reasoning naturally.

Using Mining Heat

Sidd: Speaking of mining, bash you person immoderate thought however you’re going to usage the vigor from the miner you person moving astatine your yurt?

Karl: Yeah, for discourse I americium mining with an S9 utilizing the other star powerfulness successful my yurt. Now that the days are getting shorter, I get astir six hours per time moving astatine conscionable 500 watts. I americium considering moving it wrong the location implicit the wintertime and trying to usage it arsenic a apparel dryer. We can’t bent our laundry extracurricular successful the winter, truthful it would lick the drying occupation portion paying retired sats. I don’t person state connected the property, truthful I could besides usage the electrical vigor for my h2o heater oregon location vigor alongside the rocket wide heater.

Three star panels supply powerfulness for the yurt and an S9 miner. 

I could besides stack the apparel dryer with a greenhouse successful beforehand of the house. I could vent the apparel dryer into a vestibule wherever I tin turn a fewer plants successful the winter, similar a tiny avocado histrion oregon a lime tree. I astir apt won’t usage the miner for heat, since I built a rocket wide heater that heats my location with wood. That is the astir profitable happening I’ve built truthful acold — that heater outgo maine astir $1,200 to build, and it saved maine astir that overmuch successful powerfulness bills implicit the archetypal twelvemonth that I had it. The magnitude of wood and enactment that it takes to run is minimal: radical accidental you tin provender it conscionable by picking up sticks successful your backyard, and that’s precisely what I did for the archetypal year.

Stacking Functions

Sidd: I privation to leap backmost to your cannabis plants and the rabbit pen, speaking of stacking functions. Can you archer maine however that came about?

Karl: Sure. So I planted the cannabis primitively truthful that I could spot if it was worthy it to use for a licence to merchantability cannabis wholesale. That licence costs $10,000 conscionable to apply, and past $2,000 to get the license, which needs to beryllium renewed. Once I learned the terms tag, I realized I can’t conscionable effort it and spot if I bash good oregon not. I request to truly cognize that I tin turn cannabis here. I figured if I could nutrient 4 pounds per works connected mean past it would beryllium worthy it for maine to leap done each the hoops.

Putting the rabbits successful determination was an afterthought. We were struggling to fig retired wherever to enactment rabbit cages for a colony. But we already had a obstruction up astir the cannabis, truthful I added immoderate chickenhearted ligament astir the bottommost of the obstruction and each cannabis plant. Rabbits are close astatine location and tin munch connected the cannabis erstwhile it's overgrown.

The rabbits successful their garden, eating trimmings from the nutrient forest. 

Zoning Regulations And Building Structures

Sidd: Speaking of licensing and regulations, I wanted to inquire you what regulations you ran into that made it hard to physique an Earthship?

Karl: One of the biggest was that I had to get electrical work installed connected the property. I didn’t person to really usage immoderate electricity, but I had to wage to tally it up to the distant spot I wanted to bargain successful L.A. I couldn’t conscionable unrecorded off-grid utilizing solar. I was looking for thing cheap, truthful I didn’t privation to bargain a spot with a location that had energy hooked up conscionable to teardrop down the location and physique an Earthship.

I besides had to amended a roadworthy to it, and physique a sewer line, adjacent though I would compost everything and figured I would conscionable parkland connected the thoroughfare and transportation materials to the site. The full constituent of an Earthship is to person everything you request provided by the dwelling: electricity, water, sewage handling. So I didn’t request immoderate of these costly hookups, but they were required. The improved roadworthy unsocial was going to outgo astir $100,000.

Then you person the gathering materials and systems that tally into a batch of gathering codes. An Earthship is made of tires and stucco, which doesn’t acceptable a batch of the gathering codification successful astir cities. Plus, if you’re utilizing h2o from a planter furniture to flush your toilet, and it's plugged into the sewer, they person questions astir that. I don't cognize if that's good oregon not. I didn’t privation to flush my toilet into the sewer, but that was required. I'm going to beryllium flushing it into the furniture successful the beforehand yard, watering my trees — I don't request your sewer system.

Earthships are designed to usage and reuse each the earthy resources disposable intelligently. Source. 

I started looking into zoning, searching for immoderate loophole wherever I didn’t person to inquire for support oregon explicate to immoderate inspector what I’m trying to build. I recovered retired that successful my existent country determination is nary codification for houses for workers if they’re nether a definite quadrate footage. No licence necessary. My yurt, for example, is conscionable a structure connected a deck. It’s perfectly ineligible according to my zoning. The tiny location I person is connected wheels, truthful it besides doesn’t request a licence fixed I americium successful an cultivation zone. My person who lives successful a subdivision wants to bash thing similar, but helium can’t due to the fact that determination are rules astir however agelong a conveyance similar that tin beryllium parked and occupied successful a definite area.

Labor Of The Homestead

Sidd: What benignant of labour is progressive successful operating your homestead? And however does that alteration crossed the seasons?

Karl: What we've learned is we person to make plans and schedules based connected the season. Let’s commencement with wintertime. In winter, I don't person to bash a batch of enactment with the animals. The sheep are successful their wintertime paddocks wherever we apical them disconnected with h2o and hay. The chickens are successful the nutrient wood moving away. The rabbits conscionable request feed, and we aren’t harvesting any. I'm not planting thing due to the fact that it's frozen outside.

Most of the enactment successful wintertime is gathering things. I built the yurt each done winter, and enactment enactment successful connected the tiny house. I built the rocket wide heater erstwhile I archetypal got started ironically, successful the winter. So, wintertime is erstwhile I'm drilling screws and wrenching things unneurotic and tinkering astir with gathering projects. If the crushed isn’t wholly frozen, I’ll enactment successful fencing arsenic well.

The outpouring is astir chaotic, wherever I person a cardinal irons successful the fire. However, outpouring is my favourite clip due to the fact that that's erstwhile you get to spot if the projects I was moving connected cookware retired oregon not. My grasses are blooming, trees planted past twelvemonth aftermath backmost up, the pasture effect planted erstwhile it was inactive frozen takes root. I pat the maple trees for syrup, hole the sheep paddocks and get the sheep acceptable for lambing. We works trees and perennial stuff, bash propagation and grafting. Spring is besides erstwhile guests commencement to travel successful again. We commencement doing much laundry to work the Airbnb business. We besides tally retired of fermented things successful the spring, truthful I get bare to works my plot again. I determination the chickens person to the horses truthful the chickens tin commencement composting the equine manure again.

Karl’s sheep grazing successful summer.

Once summertime hits, past our main absorption is the sheep and the guests and conscionable trying to acceptable successful immoderate small projects we can. It's mostly conscionable responding to things breaking. Summer projects request to instrumentality a maximum of 1 oregon 2 days. For me, I'm doing things the hard and carnal mode arsenic overmuch arsenic possible, without the assistance of tools and machines. The summertime is the astir physically demanding, due to the fact that that's erstwhile I’m moving the sheep fences each the time. I'm perpetually preparing caller ungraded for planting antithetic stuff, moving things around. There are besides guests present 24/7, truthful I’m giving tours. Mid-summer I’m harvesting currants and berries, past peaches, ail and more. We process and store a batch of that.

And past fall, present we are. We're harvesting, picking apples, hickory nuts and planting acorns. Preparing the lambs for the butcher. Making plans for autumn transplants, erstwhile the plants autumn asleep. And past we’re successful wintertime again.

Costs Of The Homestead

Sidd: What input costs bash you person to run the homestead?

Karl: A large 1 that ever catches maine by astonishment is the veterinary bills. Maybe we telephone the vet much than we should, but we often think, if we suffer this sheep, what’s the outgo of that down the line? How acold does that acceptable america back? That carnal could beryllium producing lambs for galore much years. So, we worth paying idiosyncratic to travel and marque definite that if there's an contented it's resolvable, and usher america to bash that. We astir apt spent a fewer 1000 dollars successful vet bills that weren’t expected this year, chiefly due to the fact that we had dairy sheep. Our horses were owed for their large vet checkup.

We besides bargain a monthly atom bid consisting of a mates 100 dollars successful alfalfa pellets for the rabbits and chickens arsenic good arsenic pellets and hay for the horses. Our accounting isn’t precise exact, but we’re redeeming money, truthful we're doing thing right. We are cutting backmost our provender implicit time, since we’ve learned that the chickens tin peck done the equine manure and the rabbits volition devour weeds and trimmings from the nutrient forest. So we made definite that we gave them a bully coagulated provender premix to start, but erstwhile we were comfy we started experimenting with however to chopped that backmost with what we person around.

Starlink for net and energy — particularly for guests astatine the Airbnb — adds up to $300-$350 per month. I cognize however to propagate, truthful we bargain caller plants sparingly. I'm turning that 1 histrion into 5 more. We bargain a caller ram astir each twelvemonth which is $400-$600. But we typically get to merchantability our aged 1 and travel retired adjacent connected that.

Every caller task is usually a fewer 100 bucks to get started, if it’s connected a tiny scale. I deliberation a batch of radical privation to spell large close away, but they extremity up with a precocious input outgo earlier they cognize what they’re successful for. They don't person capable experience.

Regulations On Selling Products

Sidd: As you’re starting to nutrient much than you tin eat, what regulations person you tally into with increasing and selling your food?

Karl: Well, I’ll springiness you 1 example. I marque fermented worldly similar pickles. My friends person eaten them and similar them, truthful I thought astir selling them. But I can’t adjacent merchantability them astatine the extremity of my driveway, due to the fact that they don't acceptable into the Michigan Cottage Food Law — which is mostly fantabulous compared to different places. I request a certified room to marque those pickles if I privation to merchantability them.

I besides cannot merchantability a portion of nutrient I chopped myself. I'm not allowed to slaughter it and merchantability it. I person to prosecute idiosyncratic to travel implicit present and termination it. Then it has to spell to a butcher to chopped it up truthful I tin merchantability it. When I’m lone trying to merchantability 30 to 60 lambs per year, it makes nary consciousness for maine to spell done each the costs and occupation to go a licensed processing facility. Or I person to instrumentality it determination to somebody, for idiosyncratic to termination it. And then, sometimes the butcher happens to beryllium successful the aforesaid spot that they termination it, and sometimes it has to spell to a abstracted butcher to chopped it up, truthful I tin merchantability it.

I deliberation immoderate homesteaders volition get to the constituent wherever they conscionable won’t comply. They volition enactment connected tiny scales wrong trusted networks, doing what makes consciousness and treating customers well. All of these problems that regulations code travel from concern scale, and tiny standard operations similar a homestead don’t tally into those aforesaid sanitation issues astir arsenic much.

Bitcoin Meetups

Sidd: We’ve talked successful the past astir sharing your goods done Bitcoin meetups. Can you archer maine a spot astir the value of Bitcoin meetups successful your eyes?

Karl: My bitcoin is much invaluable present due to the fact that I'm portion of this network. And I don't privation to hazard trading it distant to get much dollars. I cognize I person radical that I tin usage it with. People perceive astir my lamb arsenic well, and they commencement asking maine if they tin bargain 1 aft it’s processed. I’m not adjacent showing oregon selling it actively. I’ve made connections to merchantability breeding banal arsenic good done Bitcoin meetups. I find a batch of involvement astatine Bitcoin meetups successful homesteading and getting to the root of your food. It is precise demand-driven.

Major Bitcoin meetups successful the USA alone. Map courtesy of Josh.

I americium reasoning astir bringing the items I tin legally merchantability and going connected the road, conscionable visiting Bitcoin meetups. If cipher buys it, whatever, I’ll devour it. But it could beryllium the opening of a tiny distributed web of radical getting nutrient and goods from each other. Bitcoin meetups could beryllium a conduit for that. I deliberation I’m besides seeing a batch of request due to the fact that I'm truthful progressive connected Twitter. I posted a mates pictures a day, astatine least, astir what I'm doing. I don’t get overmuch engagement, but erstwhile I spell to the meetups, everybody has seen my Twitter. So I don’t person to amusement thing — they cognize what I’m doing and what I tin sell.

Resources And Advice

Sidd: What are immoderate of the champion resources that helped you get started that you deliberation a newbie to homesteading should dive into?

Karl: I tin archer you astir my journey. I didn't truly person precise overmuch entree to homesteaders being successful Los Angeles. So I conscionable looked connected YouTube for arsenic overmuch of the worldly that I was funny in, similar gathering Earthships and increasing model gardens. I was conscionable funny astir permaculture successful general. I watched each video Geoff Lawton made. I wasn’t capable to instrumentality it astatine that time, but it each built to what I’m doing now. When I yet did get this spot I’m connected now, I was filled with ideas and plans conscionable from those videos.

Once my hands were dirty, I bought books connected much circumstantial subjects similar raising sheep to deepen my cognition portion I was practicing. Then I started attending workshops and classes. For example, I conscionable went to the Kalamazoo Bee School wherever I learned a ton astir beekeeping successful conscionable a 1 time event, and they had vendors determination selling the indispensable gear. So I could bargain everything that time and get started myself.

All that accumulated cognition besides helped maine benignant retired what I needed to commencement and travel done connected projects. I watched videos connected antithetic kinds of tools, and gained an knowing for what I mightiness request when, what truly saves a batch of clip and effort versus lone a little. And I knew what I needed agelong earlier I adjacent started a project, truthful I could support my oculus retired for deals.

The beauteous spot Karl works each day. 

I deliberation the astir important constituent to my travel was conscionable being bare for information. It’s similar the Bitcoin rabbit spread — conscionable spell down the paths that involvement you. Meet the taxable substance experts and play around. Start to physique the cognition basal adjacent if you don’t usage it now. As a broadside note, 1 of the biggest mistakes I made was trying to instrumentality idiosyncratic else's strategy oregon happening that's moving truly good and conscionable transcript it exactly, shoehorning it into my situation. Oftentimes that doesn’t work. It tin beryllium a starting point, but I person to manipulate the thought to acceptable my concern specifically. I spot a batch of radical caller to this manner becoming obsessed with techniques, but what counts is the quality to utilize techniques successful a mode that fits your situation.

What’s Next?

Sidd: So what’s adjacent for you connected the homestead?

Karl: I’m reasoning astir mounting up a homestead schoolhouse oregon offering my spot arsenic a venue for immoderate benignant of classes. I privation to person a clump of chill small dwellings that radical tin rent to enactment astatine during acquisition events, larn thing and get their hands soiled connected an existent homestead.

I could connection a permaculture plan class, for instance. It could beryllium a five-to-six time intensive people with permaculture fundamentals and hands-on activities: gathering a halfway for a rocket wide heater, digging a swale, planting a tree, opening a beehive up — immoderate is disposable connected the spot to enactment with. That benignant of hands-on acquisition is simply a antithetic benignant of learning that’s hard to entree successful this tract today, particularly to acquisition it astatine a larger scale. I would adhd a Bitcoin constituent arsenic well. I deliberation that'll conscionable consciousness earthy successful the aboriginal that Bitcoin and homesteading are fused together.

To me, it seemed inevitable.

This is simply a impermanent station by Captain Sidd. Opinions expressed are wholly their ain and bash not needfully bespeak those of BTC Inc oregon Bitcoin Magazine.