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4 Nifty Alternatives to the Standard Root Cellar

If you have your own garden and: You’ve used all your canning supplies Your freezer is full Your friends refuse to take any fresher produce off your hands Chances are you may need to consider an alternative method of storing your crops rather than just letting them all rot in their earthy homes. In cases like these, a good root cellar is an excellent alternative to mass vegetable homicide. However, unless you already have a handy hole dug in the ground complete with a door to keep out foraging animals. You may need a viable alternative. Fear not! Alternatives do […]

Powerful Spices You Need In Your Pantry

Whether you choose to stock up on canned goods or live off the land with your own garden of fruits and veggies and a storeroom full of meat and fish you’ve hunted yourself, you can give your taste buds more variety with the addition of different seasonings. So, take some advice and make sure you maintain a supply of spices, herbs, and other seasonings to your pantry. These may be especially useful if you happen to run into a “lean winter” scenario and need to break into your stock of canned meats and veggies or other prepackaged emergency supplies […]

7 Little-Known Miracles of Beeswax

Bees are amazing creatures. Well organized and extremely productive, they are able not only to make their own food (honey) but also the custom facilities they live in and store the food (honeycomb). In addition to pollinating naturally occurring and farmed produce, they do more for us than we can imagine. Beeswax is literally bee’s wax. It is the waxy secretion their bodies produce to make their honeycombs. And, it has as many health benefits and other uses as the honey that makes them so popular with us. Beeswax has been used for millennia. It has appeared in Egyptian tombs […]

What Does “Free Range” Really Mean?

With an increase in animal rights and animal cruelty awareness, the words “free range” has become a more common sight on packaging at the grocery store. It labels animal products from animals that are farmed in a way that gives them access to outdoor spaces and free access to grazing for food. However, since there are no government regulations for the term “free range, ” the images you may have in your mind of wide open chicken yards and pastures dotted with happy cows communing with nature may not be exactly what is happening. So, what does the term […]

5 Things to Consider When Building an Aquaponic System

Setting up an aquaponic system, although quite an easy task, requires some basic knowledge of aquaponics. If you have decided to install such a system in your house, then you probably know what this is and how it could help you. However, there may still be things which can interest or help you. Below you will find 5 essential things which you should know in order to obtain spectacular results. 1. Location The place where you put your aquaponic system is highly important for the way in which the plants and the fish will develop. In order to obtain great […]

Advantages of Aquaponic Farming

Aquaponics is a new way of approaching farming. Unlike traditional agriculture where you needed plants to grow vegetables, with aquaponics you need water and fish in order to have healthy food on your table each and every day. Basically, aquaponics relies on the interdependence between fish and plants: the fish produces bio-nutrients for the plants, while the plants clean the water, creating a perfect environment for the fish to grow and develop. It is a blend of aquaculture and hydroponics that has plenty of advantages. If you need some reasons to get your own aquaponic system started, then here are […]

Harvesting Your Own Maple in Just a Few Simple Steps

Tapping maple trees for sap may seem like a daunting task. However, it really is not hard to do. In fact, this outside activity can be fun as the days get warmer in anticipation of springtime. But what if you are not sure which trees are maple? Or which maple trees are the best to tap? Be assured that being self-sufficient doesn’t mean you need to be a pro at tapping. Why not start out with tapping just a few trees? You could join in with neighbors or homesteading friends to see if it is something you want to do […]

Easy Checklist to Winterize Your Garden

As a homesteader, you may be wondering where you’re going to get the energy for preparing your garden for winter after all the hard work of harvesting the vegetables from your garden. Remember how happy you were when you realized that you wouldn’t need to buy any vegetables all winter long? Keep that in mind along with the fact that it will now be cooler to work outside. You can print out the below list to check off items as you complete them and before long you’ll be done so you can take a break for a few days. Those […]

Your Guide For Need to Know Bullet Information

When it comes to bullets, there is a LOT of information out there. Basic knowledge can be very useful when determining what type of firearm you may want to try out or eventually purchase. Ammunition itself can be extremely intimidating to the novice. Selecting the right ammo for personal defense or hunting is a very important decision that can affect performance and safety. In this article, we’ll discuss some basic terms and then go into more detail on common ammo types. First, let’s take a quick look at the most common types of weapons used by civilians for sport, home […]

Treating Your Homestead Wounds the EASY Way

As the name suggests, an open wound is an injury that has resulted in an opening in the skin. Minor versions are commonplace and can be treated at home with over the counter first aid products. Fundamental wound care is a useful skill to have in any situation. Keeping a First Aid Kit handy can go a long way to ensuring they don’t develop complications. In this post, we’re going to take a quick look at the different types of open wounds that can happen as well as basic instructions on how to care for them. TYPES There are four […]

5 Gardening Budget Hacks

For people who are homesteading, managing expenses is a challenge. You want to be self-sufficient and yet some of the things that you need to do don’t happen overnight. They require an investment of both time and money. These things are true of gardening. It’s natural to want your garden to yield enough food for you and your family. However, you must strike a balance between pushing toward self-reliance and not blowing through your gardening budget. That’s why we’ve put together this list of 5 cheap gardening tricks to help you achieve self-reliance. #1: Pre-sprout Your Seeds This first trick […]

The Best States for Homesteading

If you’re interested in homesteading – and we assume you are or you wouldn’t be here – you might be wondering where to start your homestead. It’s a good question. After all, some states are better suited to homesteading than others. You might already live in a state with a lot of homesteaders – or perhaps you live in a city and you want some advice about where to shop for a homesteading property. We’re here to help. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but we’ll run down our top picks and explain why we like them. Oregon Our first pick is […]

Do-It-Yourself Worm Casting Methods for Compost

If you’re a homesteader, you probably know all about composting. Composting kitchen scraps are one of the best ways to fertilize your garden without chemicals and pesticides. Some of the most effective composters use worms to break down food. If you have a worm composter, then you might not know that worm castings – the black waste that worms produce – is arguably the single best fertilizer known to man. The challenge is finding a way to harvest the worm castings – also known as black gold – without disturbing or harming your worms. You also want to make sure […]

[DIY] Simple Venison Jerky Recipe

When you’re stockpiling for an emergency, some foods are easier to preserve than others. Vegetables and fruits can be canned or dried. But what do you do to preserve meat? Freezing is effective for regular use, but it won’t help you if there’s no power. One of the best and most effective ways to preserve meat is by making jerky. Jerky is easy to make, healthy to eat and has a long shelf life. Making it can extend the life of venison and provide you with a healthy, protein-packed snack to get you through hard times. Preparing to Make […]

3 Basics for Starting Your Homestead

In our modern society, many of us dream of finding a way to get back to simpler times. We yearn for the days when people grew and preserved their own food and relied more on themselves and less on technology. If that sounds familiar, then you might want to start a homestead. Whether you already own a substantial tract of land out in the country or you’re renting a city apartment, there are things you can do right now to get things underway. Starting Small Do you live in a city or the suburbs? If so, you might not […]

5 Questions You Need to Answer When Choosing a Handgun

Choosing your first handgun can be both exciting and overwhelming. Just like choosing your first car, there are a number of models, sizes, and budgets available. Not to mention new versus used, ease of maintenance and the cost of the ammunition required to use with it. To make the process of taking this big step a little easier, we’ve compiled a list of questions that will help you determine a course of action when making this important purchase. Why Are You Making This Purchase? Knowing why you are buying a handgun will help you decide what type. Do you intend […]

Super Simple DIY Fishing Net

Time is always scarce on a homestead so spending days on end catching 1 fish at a time is not the best use of your limited time. How can you catch crazy amounts of fish in a short amount of time so you can get back to doing other necessary things on your homestead? If you use fishing and fish as a regular food source, a net is basically a mandatory piece of equipment. If you find you need a larger net than you want to spend your hard-earned cash on, you can DIY it for a fraction of the […]

Felling Trees for Dummies

Removing trees from your property is a great way to clear out space for other use, or to gather up firewood for the winter. If you plan to cut a tree down on your own, it’s important that you understand how difficult, and dangerous the task can be. Especially if you have never attempted to cut down a tree in the past. Here are a few safety tips that will help you cut down trees without putting yourself in danger. Use the Right Equipment Failure to use the right equipment could result in a serious accident. Be sure that you […]

4 Weird but Effective Ways to Avoid Deadly Bacteria

The primary reason we need to stay clean is to maintain control over the harmful bacteria that can manifest itself in all the crevices of our body that make us smell bad and breed disease. The easiest way to accomplish this is to focus on the areas with the most potential for bacterial growth and go from there. What areas are those? Just follow your nose. It’s no coincidence that the areas that provide our embarrassing body odor are the areas we most need to target. Just like a clogged kitchen drain or backed up sewer system, if the smell […]

DIY Plant Propagating

Plant propagating is a common process among homesteaders where new plants are created using various sources. Seeds, bulbs, cuttings, and other plant parts are put together to regenerate a garden. This branch of horticulture deals with the production of new plants using what is referred to as “starter materials”. Some people look at it as a form of recycling while others place the seedlings in small containers for décor and display uses. How Does Plant Propagating Work? Plant Propagating uses totipotency, which allows the cells to regenerate all the missing parts which leads to creating an entire new organism. Totipotency […]