As the daylight hours grow longer, it's rare that I climb in bed until well after 11pm. Still, I try to prepare for sleep by reading and have a giant stack of in-progress books above my bed. Although I'm a sucker for a good novel, I can't read them before bed because I get drawn in to the story and won't put the book down! So homesteading and non-fiction books are my favorite way to unwind. Here are a few homesteading books and eBooks that I've been enjoying recently. Patio Raptors Meredith Skyer writes the blog ImaginAcres and heads the awesome site Backyard Chicken Project. She knows her chickens, shares amazing content, and takes incredible photos. Meredith has combined these talents … [Read more...]
When Will my Cow Calve?
When will my cow calve?? That's the question we asked each day for the past two weeks! Since Creme Brûlée had been impregnated through the use of Artificial Insemination (AI), we had a "due date" pinned down and in the calendar. Unfortunately, like humans, the due date doesn't tell you exactly when your cow will give birth. But, by paying attention to a few signs, we could anticipate when Creme Brûlée would calve, and were able to be home and waiting to greet her calf, and help if needed. How Long is a Cow Gestation? Like humans, cows are pregnant for about 9 months. According to most charts, the average gestation period is 283 days. However, smaller breeds, like Jerseys, tend to give … [Read more...]
Preventing Tick Bites on the Homestead
I've seen a lot of posts on Facebook about this being a bad year for ticks. Ticks are no fun. In addition to being disease-carrying creatures, they tend to gross people out. Honestly, I'm immune to their ick factor, having pulled hundreds out of my family. But, I do give ticks a great deal of thought, and I thought I'd share with you our strategy for preventing tick bites on our homestead. When we purchased our land it had been in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) for years. CRP land is taken out of agricultural production, and while certain management practices are allowed, like planting hardwoods, or mowing, it is essentially fallow. In our case, the non-forested areas grew up as … [Read more...]
How we Afford to Homestead
"I'm sure people ask you this a lot, I'll ask again. How do you support yourselves? I understand spending money is probably a fraction of what city people pay. But a drivers license costs money, property tax. I have no doubt that we could simply go live off the land. but, money, even if it's a smallish amount needs to come from somewhere." I love this question, posed by a reader, both because I love writing about the financial realities of homesteading, and also because the question of how we afford to homestead, and how homesteaders support themselves is an under-discussed topic in the world of "self-sufficiency." Plus, when I meet new people that are not in homesteading circles, it's the … [Read more...]
17 Tools Homesteaders Can’t Live Without
Good tools make jobs faster, homesteading more enjoyable, and tasks easier. Sure, good homesteading tools cost more money, but they are usually well worth the investment, as a quality tool will last for years. We started collecting tools when we first moved onto a rental homestead in 1999, and still use many of those same tools today. I asked some homesteading friends which tools they considered indispensable on their farm or homestead. Here are 17 essential tools for homesteading and gardening that we wouldn't want to live without. Essential Tools for the Garden and Barn Favorite Garden Tools I bet if you surveyed 100 gardeners, each one would love a different garden tool. And … [Read more...]
Train Travel with Kids (on a Homesteader’s Budget)
Because we love to travel, and because our family and dear friends live in opposite corners of the United States, we spend a fair amount of time traversing the country. Our preferred method of transportation is by train, on the Amtrak. I tend to get a lot of questions about train travel, especially how to make it work when you're traveling with kids, and how to make train travel affordable, so I wanted to share our experiences. (And yes, I am writing this on the train!) Although commuter train travel does not seem to be economical for larger families, our family of four is usually traveling long distances, such as this Missouri to Arizona trip. The train makes it possible for us to … [Read more...]
Out the Front Door
{Out the Front Door: An occasional series featuring snapshots and snippets of homestead life, right out our front door.} This spring has felt particularly full, as we've finally hit our stride as small business owners, while simultaneously increasing the food growing, making, and storing capacity on our homestead. Blogging has fallen a bit to the wayside, and micro-blogging has taken its place, primarily on Instagram. (If you're on Instagram, I'd love to connect! I'm @homestead_honey). But there are SO many projects happening that I've wanted to share! Such as this project: Fencing and mulching our fruit trees. We love free ranging our chickens, but hate that they kick up the mulch around … [Read more...]
Building a Strong Homesteading Community
When we began homesteading 16 years ago, our loosely articulated goal was “self-sufficiency.” We aimed to grow as much of our own food as possible, with our own hands, our own tools, and our own time. However, when we had children, and subsequently moved onto our own 10 acres of raw land, we re-evaluated this goal. I don’t think it was a conscious decision, but rather one born out of necessity – we landed in a new place, with only a few friends, and a daunting task of creating shelter, water, and food infrastructure. We were in an incredibly vulnerable position that forced us to ask for help (something we are very, very bad at!), and receive it gracefully. We moved to what I … [Read more...]
Five Uses for Tallow
Tallow is a saturated animal fat you’ll want to keep stocked in your pantry for its countless uses, think homemade cosmetics, candle - or soapmaking. Here are my five favorite ways to use it! As a family who loves meat but seeks to raise animals in a way that honors their life, we try to use as much of the animal as possible. For instance, when we butcher our chickens, the cleaned feet go in the stock pot, and the feathers go into our compost pile. From our pig, we use every possible cut of meat and render the fat into snow-white lard that we use for cooking and frying. In commercial meat processing situations, fat is usually collected and rendered for animal feed. Even … [Read more...]
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