What would Otto Kilcher do????

We were first 'introduced' so to speak to Otto Kilcher when we watched Alaska: The Last Frontier on Discovery channel.

Alaska: The Last Frontier is an American reality cable television series aired on the Discovery Channel. The show documents anextended family (the Kilchers) outside of Homer, Alaska.^[1] By "homesteading" without plumbing or modern heating, the clan must subsist by hunting and preparing for the long winters.^[2] The Kilcher family are relatives to the singer Jewel.^[1] Season 4 of the show is currently in production, and is set to be broadcast in October 2014.^[3]
Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska:_The_Last_Frontier

Quickly it became something that we waited patiently (maybe!) for each week. We could relate to it and dreamed of living a life just like that.
We watched as Otto mended things, taught his family to do the same, collected or shot dinner and created what he needed out of what he had.
It began as a joke at first when one day I was working on something and Neil asked, 'What would Otto Kilcher do?' Quickly it became a motto. Neil even has it written on his to do board in the male...um...cavern? He doesn't like "man cave". And said board is made out of an old Land Rover bonnet covered in chalkboard paint suspended from the roof with bailer twine!

Anyway, with the Kilchers in mind and sooooooooo much to do we got going.

We needed a chicken house so as we could have chooks to lay us eggs for the family:

So we got some pallets and created this!

We collected more pallets today so as we can build another house for another chook and her husband so as we can rear some baby chooks to sell.

We wanted to grow our own vegetables. We have 4 apple trees at the top of the garden that gave us a great harvest last year. This year we upped the stakes. However with 3 children using the garden daily and no Alaskan homestead we didn't want to take any of their space, so...........we found more pallets!

And created this!

More on the way as.............

........... the seeds are growing!

Which is quite impressive given the up and down climate in "balmy" Northern Ireland recently!

And finally this week with Otto very much in mind. Neil mended our old faithful lawnmower after I broke it!

Whoops!

The grand spend to do all this was £3.75 for a box of screws. We haven't quite reached the stage of having old screws to reuse like Otto! Not enough old screws...or patience...hmm...
It has been a busy week here at Nice Life Hq but a great one. Finally we are starting to put the Otto Kilcher philosophy  into our everyday lives. And the great thing? We are passing it on to our kids. They will grow up learning how to feed themselves, mend what they have, create things from what is lying dormant around our yard or wherever they can beg, stea...beg or borrow just and hopefully see that money is not the be all and end all of existence. Sure, it plays a part but as the old cliché goes; the best things in life are free! We believe the sense of satisfaction from watching seed to plant to plate is one of those things you can't buy. Applying a bit of ingenuity (though we are not near Kilcher levels yet) for the purpose of saving money just adds to it.

So the next time you find yourself stuck when mending something, wanting to live a more self sufficient lifestyle.......just ask yourself........What would Otto Kilcher do?

Suzi xx