In anticipation of New Year's Eve, I thought I'd do a little count down of my top off-grid homesteading posts of 2015. These are the posts that have gotten the most views and comments; in other words, they have been the most useful to my readers! I hope you enjoy re-visiting these favorites! 10. Remodeling our Outdoor Kitchen I love our outdoor kitchen even more after its remodel. We moved all of the food prep to the lower level of the outdoor kitchen, and made space for our picnic table in the shade of the upper terrace. Check out the photos in this post to see how it's laid out. 9. A Day on Acorn Hill Homestead My favorite homestead bloggers joined together to each share a "day … [Read more...]
Creating Your Off-Grid Homestead
When we moved to Missouri, three years ago, we had a lot of homesteading experience, but absolutely no experience living off-grid. Sure, we loved to backpack and camp and knew we could "rough it" for a while, but the experience of living for years with no running water, no electricity, and no refrigeration while we built one piece of infrastructure at a time. Yeah, that was new. As I shared our experiences on this blog, it became clear that others were looking for more information about this kind of off-grid homestead-building experience: the kind that starts with a modest budget and a DIY approach, and adds elements as time and money become available. The outline of a book took shape, … [Read more...]
Spring Homestead Reading List
Spring is a tough time to get a lot of reading and book learning done, with all of the hands-on homesteading action that's taking place. Still, I like to pick out a few books, read a few pages each night, and boost my homestead knowledge and inspiration. This winter/early spring I read a few great books that I wanted to share. The Nourishing Homestead by Ben Hewitt One day this winter, I opened our mailbox to find a copy of The Nourishing Homestead, sent by the awesome team at Chelsea Green. I honestly think I squealed in delight. I have really enjoyed some of Ben Hewitt’s other books, such as The Town that Food Saved, and knew that he was a real-deal homesteader. After reading The … [Read more...]
Finding your Ideal Homestead Land
Finding a piece of land on which to create your ideal homestead is a rather subjective process. Aside from a few traits that I would consider non-negotiable - a water source and some southern exposure - I’d be hard pressed to give a list of “must haves.” After all, each family’s needs will be different, and your own personal preferences and available finances will play strongly into your decision-making. When we purchased our Missouri land, we paid a lot of attention to community and neighbors. We wanted to live in walking proximity to friends with whom we could create community and raise our kids as neighbors. We were invited to live within a homesteading community land trust, on which … [Read more...]
Celebrating your Homestead Accomplishments
Did you began the year with a long list of homesteading projects to do, or homestead dreams that you wanted to turn into reality? I sure did: Yes, this is a very long list of projects and infrastructure, because really, that is where our newish homestead is at right now. But beyond just being a list of things to do, or projects to make and build, this list represented the direction that I want our family to move: Growing food to enhance our health and self-sufficiency Building infrastructure to increase our connection to our friends and our enjoyment of our natural resources Creating tools and structures to help us cook and store food in delicious and sustainable … [Read more...]
Preparing your Garden for Winter
Although October is typically gloriously sunny and warm, it signals the end of the gardening season here in NE Missouri. I've already pulled my cucumbers, cantaloupe, and zucchini out of the ground, and will soon strip my tomato vines and pepper plants. I'll let winter squash remain in the ground through the first frost, and will continue to harvest beets, carrots, Chinese cabbage and kale through the winter. Preparing my garden for winter months is a task that I actually look forward to each year. It's an opportunity for me to reflect upon the abundance of the harvest season, and yet also a chance to rest and renew my enthusiasm for next year's garden … [Read more...]
A Homestead Pantry
A few weeks ago, I shared a photo of our custom pantry-in-progress on Instagram. What a flurry of excitement it generated. And it should! In my mind, a well-organized, well-stocked, and beautiful homestead pantry is one of the best ways to store and easily access whole foods and canned goods. Plus, for our tiny 350 square foot house, it is essential that we are using every inch of space wisely and efficiently. Little by little, my carpentry genius husband Brian is creating these gorgeous, efficient spaces, and our tiny house is starting to look as divine on the inside as it always has on the outside. Details like tile flooring, a mudroom shoe cubby, plaster on … [Read more...]
Summer Homestead Reading List
When the summer heat gets to be too intense, or when I'm on vacation, I love nothing more than to sit with a good book. Some days I get sucked into a good novel, but most of the time, I'm expanding my homesteading knowledge with a book about gardening, building, caring for animals, or anything else homestead-related. I've asked some of my homestead blogger friends to join me in sharing their favorite homesteading books, for all of our summer reading enjoyment! * * * * * The Foxfire Books by Eliot Wigginton Recommended by Susan of Learning and Yearning "I've always loved The Foxfire Books which were written by high school students in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As a class … [Read more...]
Homestead Beekeeping :: Installing a New Beehive
After a fun-filled camping trip in Southern Missouri, we stopped at the regional beekeepers' meeting last Monday night to pick up a 3lb package of bees to start a new hive on our homestead. Although we had kept bees for several years on our Oregon homestead, we ended up selling the hives and most of our equipment before we moved, so essentially, we are starting from scratch. In some ways, this has been a blessing, as it's given us the opportunity to really think about what kind of hive we wanted, and how many hives we felt capable of tending at this time. While I am excited about looking into top bar hives as a future opportunity, at this point we went with what we were already familiar … [Read more...]