More and more people are deciding to get proactive about maintaining electrical power at their home, cottage and businesses during an outage, and that’s why home standby generators are gaining in popularity. They provide a secondary source of electricity with…
When it comes to exterior siding for homes and cottages in rural locations, it’s not easy to find a durable option that works visually. For some of us at least, choices such as vinyl or aluminum siding simply look too…
This is chapter 11 in my book The Bailey Line Road Chronicles, the 30-year story about moving from the city to live a modern homestead life deep in the country on Manitoulin Island, Canada. Missed Chapter 10? Click here to…
I’ve used work gloves almost every day for more than 30 years, so I was surprised to find that it took me until late 2017 to discover the story of Canada’s largest, oldest and most interesting work glove company. In…
I often get asked for advice about choosing a portable tablesaw, and if I had to choose the best, safest and most widely available model, it would have to be a unit from Bosch. To understand why, you need some…
The website you’re on now – BaileyLineRoad.com – is named after the little country road where my wife, Mary, and I live and are raising our kids. When people find out both Mary and I grew up in the city…
In part 1 of this blog, I talked about the reasons I see would-be homesteaders change their minds and give up on their homesteading dreams. This often involves rejecting too much technology, but there are other reasons, too. Mistaken ideas…
This is chapter 10 in my book The Bailey Line Road Chronicles, the 30-year story about moving from the city to live a modern homestead life deep in the country on Manitoulin Island, Canada. Missed Chapter 9? Click here to…
Drying fruits, vegetables and even meats is a great way to preserve food without a freezer or the hassles of canning, and building your own electricity-free solar food dryer is one of the best ways you can equip yourself. Using…
As far as I can tell, the height of my physical fitness happened in November 1982 when I was 19. Or at least that’s one time I noticed a particular pinnacle of fitness. I’d been going to college for a…
When COVID lockdowns first appeared in early 2020, the weather was getting warmer in a lot of areas, providing at least some opportunity to spend time in isolation outdoors. But with the unfolding of second-wave lockdowns, we face what amounts…
This is chapter nine in my book The Bailey Line Road Chronicles, the 30-year story about moving from the city to live a modern homestead life deep in the country on Manitoulin Island, Canada. Missed Chapter Eight? Click here to…