2014 has been an amazing year here on Homestead Honey. As I finish my third year of blogging, I am so grateful to have such an incredibly supportive readership, and want to say THANK YOU for joining us on our living off the grid homesteading journey. I look forward to creating informative and inspirational blog content, eBooks, and eCourses for you in the coming year.
Let’s count down the most popular off-grid living and homesteading posts in 2014!
10. Create an Instant Garden with Sheet Mulching
We used the sheet mulching, or lasagna gardening method to create our lower garden, and the results have been impressive! In this post I share how to create a garden that you can plant into immediately, using organic materials that you can source for free or cheap!
9. The Poop Scoop: Composting Toilets on the Homestead
My family has pooped in composting toilets for the past 15 years. From buckets to commercial systems, I’ve used them all, and tell of their virtues!
8. Winter Water (Part One)
When winter’s freezing temperatures strike, how does a home that relies on water catchment create systems for getting their drinking, washing, and cooking water needs met? Here’s our experiment with creating a wintertime water catchment system, and be sure to read the follow-up post to find out how we actually met our water needs last winter!
7. 5 Strategies for a Weed-free Garden
I can’t promise that my garden is 100% weed-free, but I do have a number of tricks up my sleeve for saving time and energy in the garden!
6. Beyond Maple Syrup: Tapping Black Walnut Trees
This post inspired many, many readers to re-think the value of the trees in their own backyard. Our first sugaring attempts were wildly successful and fun.
5. Making Butter in a Jar with Kids
Making sweet, fresh, and delicious butter is as simple as can be – so simple that my kids were able to make it all by themselves! Learn how in this post.
4. How to Bake Without an Oven
Baking is one of my joys, and not having a homestead oven has opened our minds to a number of creative solutions. Whether you’re going camping, or living without a home oven yourself, this post has plenty of tips, techniques, and recipes!
3. Building Soil with Lasagna Gardening
One of the benefits of lasagna gardening is that it allows you to create rich garden beds without destroying the microbial ecosystems of soil-dwelling organisms. Get tips for maximizing your lasagna garden.
2. Living without Lights (or running water, or electricity)
For almost a year and a half, as we created our off the grid homestead, we lived in on our land and in our tiny house with no electricity and no running water (well, we still don’t have any running water!). How did we make it work? This post tells all!
And the most popular post for 2014 was…
1. How Much Does it Cost to Build a Tiny House?
People are crazy about tiny houses AND they want to know exactly how much it would cost them to build one of their own. In this post, I present a side-by-side comparison of what it cost to build our 350 square foot house, vs. our neighbor Beth’s 120 square foot house on wheels. The answer might surprise you!
Are there any of your favorite posts that I forgot?
Don’t have time to read all of the posts now? Pin this image below for reading later!
WOW, it is so amazing to see all that you guys have accomplished in such a short time. I miss being there with you all. Let me know when a good time to come is, definitely not at tick season….wishing you all a very happy, healthy, growing new year–love to all, MOM