The old, almost falling apart building that we bought seems more and more like a house with each passing week of hard work. The last weeks have been fun to see how each layer of cement and sand changes the complete feel of a structure. Here are some pics of the before and after from the last couple of weeks. It is going to be a real treat to compare the initial pictures of the house to the finished one, if we manage to ever finish the house at all 😅 #buildstr #construction #building #offgridlife

We seem to have solved the puzzle of making our water reservoir. The vertical wall where the tube is coming from is a natural source of water. There is a rock bed within the wall and water drips from multiple places there. So making a tank was somewhat a puzzle. What we did now was make an "extension" if you will using bricks and cement in the side and along the rock bed to guide all the water to one single point. There we made a kind of a basin with a tube that guides the water away from the structure. We wanted to see if the ground would then stay dry. Laters we plan to cut the tube so that the water fills up the tank. Will keep you posted on the updates. #buildstr #construction #water #offgridlife

GM people! Our little bundle of joy is one today. Although we have no oven, I absolutely had to make her a cake 😁 So grateful to the universe that we got to experience parenthood. Its funny how it seems impossible to imagine life without her despite having had a wonderfully full life before her. P.S. I used dates as a sweetner for the chocolate cake and the icing is butter, yoghurt and coconut sugar. #grateful #blessed

You get so used to your surroundings that you forget just how magical the evening hue is. The blueish sky painted with the remnant of sun's rays is just spectacular. #sky #nature #offgrid

The septic tank is done fellow nostriches!! Now onto making the water reservoir for our natural spring water which is a challenge because of how wet the ground is. But we have a plan. Fingers crossed ! #buildstr #construction #offgrid

The septic tank is almost done. It should be done by tomorrow afternoon. Then we can move on to a bigger challenge of making a water reservoir near our natural spring. But one day at a time!! #buildstr #offgrid #homestead #construction

Late September blooms in our small corner in this world. Life is so beautiful ❤️ #flowers #garden #homestead

We got this unit today to dig us a big hole for making us a septic tank. Even though our land is not super accessible by vehicle, this unit managed to go through our terrain. #building #offgrid #construction

It has been a great day in the garden. The fruits are literally the fruit of the previous owner's work but the veggies are all us. We even managed to get some popcorn kernels. Feeling pretty good about life in a village today! #garden #growyourownfood #foodstr #offgrid #homestead

We have run out of some bathing soaps. We exclusively use Bastille soap for our hair but for the rest, we try to experiment with different colours and oils. This one is made with extra virgin olive oil, Shea butter and coconut oil. For colour we used charcoal powder and indigo powder. Now off to curing it for a month. #soapmaking #coldprocesssoap #offgrid #homestead

After a brief period of "cooler" period, the high temperatures have returned once again. So it is time to make some probiotica soda. We have tons of lemon still and the neighbor was kind enough to give us het leftover oranges. In also added some hibiscus and rosehip tea to the orange and lemon juice. #pribiotics #foodstr #homestead #offgrid

We finally have some tomatoes. We still have loads of green ones but luckily these ones are ripe now. Looks like tomato soup is on the menu for dinner tonight 😀 #growyourownfood #garden #offgrid #homestead

We had to come up with a lot of different ideas for the ground floor. As much as love the natural big stone walls, we have had to cover up one side completely. Because the house is made on a natural slope, in winter underground water seeps in and it's worse during heavy rain. So we built in a gutter along the wall and attached a pipe for water outlet. Also, as the wall is not even everywhere and has some entropy, we had to cover it up on one side. Fingers crossed that we solved the water issue. #offgrid #construction #building #homestead

GM Nostr! We are blessed with another beautiful morning. The sun is shining bright, the birds are chirping and the flowers bloom with all their glory. We have each other in this small piece of land that we are trying to befriend and work with. Truly blessed! #grownostr #offgrid #homestead #garden

GM. Searching for moments of tranquility in the garden this morning. Starting the day in my garden is the best way for me to start the day. #growyourownfood #garden #offgrid #grownostr

We have started working on the ground floor. This was originally used for making wine and for storage so the construction work is very poor. The floor is completely slanted so we had to tear down the old floor and redo the whole floor. We also decided to keep the elevated part because taking that out would mean a lot of extra work and time and we need to focus on getting the basics done right now. #homestead #construction #offgrid

Today my heart is heavy. I usually stay away from news and events but when something happens back in your home country, you kee an eye out. The government of Nepal has today reached a new low and although I did see it coming, I had hoped that it would not be this bad. Gen Z had organized a massive nation wide protest today against the pervasive corruption in all levels of Government offices. Following the Phillipines' social media trend, videos show casing the lavish lifestyle of politicians' kids started trending alongside the sad reality of most civilians. This was slowly churning years of silent injustice and people started sharing more and more of these videos. In response, the government banned all social media platforms, except tiktok under the guise of needing local registration. Cut to today, the peaceful protest turned to a shooting ground and young adults were killed in the street for wanting accountability from their government. Rest in peace dear brothers and sisters! #nepaliprotest #corruption #nepal

We got a lot of toys for our daughter from friends and family and she plays with none of them. Her interest rather lies in everyday objects like a vacuum cleaner and kitchen utensils. So the question is, are there children that love toys or is it just an industry catering to adults' desires to buy something for kids rather than catering to kids? #parenting #homestead

Our very first sunflower harvest. Our daughter's hand for scale 😜. We are leaving smaller sunflower heads in the garden for the birds for winter. The seed was actually bought from a tiny store for eating and we just wanted to see if it would work. It is amazing how much joy small things like this can bring! #garden #flower #homestead #growyourownfood #grownostr

Good morning people! We have had a nice garden run this morning. The tiny green watermelon was a nice little surprise. We were way late to plant them and the vine was so tiny and lost under all the tomatoes that we did not expect to see anything come of it. We somehow still managed to get one. So, watermelon is added to the list of plants for next year. #foodstr #growyourownfood #offgrid #homestead