Alone on an Off-Grid Island – Preparing for Chickens and Pigs - Skote Outdoors Newfoundland

May 18, 2025

This is a Kelly Clarke Special... While Matty’s away in Alberta, this week’s all on me — just me, the dogs, and all the work that had to get done! We’ve got new animals arriving soon, so I kept busy getting everything ready for the pigs and chickens coming Sunday night. From chopping wood to heat the house, to refilling the water tank when it ran dry, feeding the goats, and fencing in the garden with an old fishing net — I did my best to keep things running smoothly. I made wooden stakes by hand using the axe and saw, cleaned out the pig pen, and got it all secured. And of course, we got snow in the middle of May — that’s Newfoundland for ya! I also gave Patrick a hand after his day of lobster fishing, gathered some beach rocks, and chipped away at a few small jobs in between the bigger ones. Later in the week, Gord and I started building the chicken coop using homemade lumber he milled himself with his bandsaw mill. We hauled the frame into the garden with the trike and built as much as we could before running out of wood. But true to his good-hearted nature, Gord surprised me the next day with more planks and finished off one of the coop walls while I kept things going at home. Then we added clapboard siding and built nesting boxes to finish it off. Before wrapping up the week, I took a little time to write some new music at one of my favourite quiet spots on the island, and finished the video with a solo Q&A to check in and answer a few of your questions! Thank you so much for being here — your support means the world to us as we keep building this life, one project and one week at a time. We love you all, and we can’t wait to hear from you. We Love ya, Skotes!