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Easy and Effective All-Natural Homemade Citrus Cleaner

There are so many reasons to make your own cleaning products at home. You can save money, avoid nasty, harmful chemicals, avoid keeping toxic products under the sink if you’ve got a small child, do less damage to the environment, the list goes on. However, one of the key features of pre-made, store-bought cleaning products is their strong smell. Sometimes it can be very unpleasant and overwhelming, of course, especially if you’re not used to them anymore, but if you’re not, you might associate that clean, sweet smell of a scented cleaning product with cleanliness itself. And it actually makes sense […]

Homemade Suet Cakes for Chickens

Suet cakes are a great treat for your chickens, especially as the summer heat creeps in and they have a hard time sticking to their normal activities. Chickens love to peck and scratch, it’s truly what they live for. If you have chickens in a coop who can’t freely forage this way, they might end up getting bored and unhappy. And bored and unhappy chickens means less eggs and less delicious meat! It is vital not just for the animal’s quality of life but also for the “services” they provide you to keep them occupied and entertained. Homemade suet cakes […]

Chicken Coop for $1 and an Hour to Make (Video)

Ever had a poultry overload on your homestead? Or maybe you’d like to get started raising chickens but have very little space, time, and funds. This video from Off Grid With Doug and Stacey shares their very easy, cost-effective chicken coop idea that takes very little time to make. This is perfect if you’re adding a few extra hens to your homestead but have no place to put them, or need to quarantine a new or a sick animal. It’s also perfect for small yards or gardens, and of course, anyone with a small budget! Enjoy: If you enjoyed this, […]

How to Make Aromatic Potpourri

If you are a flower gardener or simply love the smell of fragrant potpourri, you should definitely learn to make your own. You can harvest and process your own flower petals or buy your own and make several sachets to give to friends and family. There are few more thoughtful, easy homemade gifts than an aromatic sachet of potpourri! The most common bases for potpourri are rose petals and sweet geranium leaves. If you grow roses, this is a wonderful way to use the petals once the flowers begin to die. You can add to these whatever you like, and […]

How to Make a Silkworm Habitat (Video)

One of the more obscure “animals” you can raise on your homestead, especially if you’d like to think about making a profit in the long-term, is silkworms. These little critters are where pure silk comes from, and, like bees, it’s common for them to be raised in indoor or artificial habitats so that their silk can be harvested. Silkworms love mulberry trees, and this video shows you how to make an artificial mulberry habitat to raise silkworms in. It was actually made by a 2nd grade teacher, so she could show her students how silkworms lived in their “natural” habitat, but I […]

13 Useful Ways to Reuse Eggshells

If you raise chickens or simply eat a lot of eggs, you probably produce a lot of egg shells! And simply throwing them in the trash is a huge waste. Egg shells are loaded with beneficial nutrients and properties, and there are lots of ways to reuse them and make the most out of your chickens or grocery budget! First off, you need to make sure you store them properly. You might be able to get away with tossing them all in a 5-gallon bucket on your back porch, or, if that attracts pests or mold, you might want to […]

Homemade Non-Toxic Daily Shower Spray

When it comes to the products you clean your shower with, it’s just as important to consider possible environmental toxins. While you might only think of dish soap or laundry detergent as coming into direct contact with your skin, hot showers can expose you to plenty of toxins if you’re cleaning with conventional products. Your epidermis, or skin, is the largest organ in your body, and in hot showers, your pores open up. If you’ve been cleaning with harsh toxins, they could be dissipating through the air and being absorbed directly into your skin. And you thought you were getting […]

Homemade Cottage Cheese (Video)

I love all things homemade, especially if it’s easy! This recipe for healthy homemade cottage cheese looks totally amazing, and I can’t wait to try it myself. The cool thing about recipes like this is that they are really simple and easy, and most of the time it takes to make them is spent straining the cheese. This cottage cheese is also very nutritious and an excellent source of healthy fat and protein. Check it out: If you enjoyed this, you might also like…. Long-Term Survival for Homesteaders… Natural Healing Secrets You Need to Know… Effective Primal Diet Hacks…

How to Get Your Kids Outside With a Natural, DIY Playhouse

When I was a kid, to play out in nature for hours on end wasn’t just a privilege–it was my natural inclination! Over just a few short decades, we’ve domesticated our kids and planted them firmly in front of glowing screens and in school desks, and we wonder why so many problems crop up. For the cooped-up kid, a day outside is the best medicine. Here’s a great little project to turn a small patch of land into a seasonal, living, and edible playhouse, and it’s even easy enough for your children to help you build it! The Runner […]

How to Make Natural, Raw Sour Cream

Sour cream is a delicious staple condiment of American cooking, that can greatly enhance the taste of many delicious dishes, from potato pancakes, to baked potatoes, to nachos. Most people will be familiar with the store-bought version, a thick, gooey cream that comes in a plastic container and often with additives and even artificial flavoring. But did you know you can very easily make your own at home? Like pickles, homemade sodas, yogurt, and sourdough, sour cream is one of the many delicious, healthy, and easy home fermentation products that anyone can try themselves. And it just so happens to […]

How to Make Pickles at Home

Pickles are one of the most classic and widely recognized forms of brine preservation. While the term “pickled” can apply to various forms of preserving various kinds of vegetables, what most of us think of when we think of “pickles” is the classic, brine-preserved cucumber that has become a staple of delis and diners across America. It most famously made its way into the American diet through Jewish delis in New York City, and, like any classic food, it can be made easily at home. While the formula is simple, however, there can be a bit of trial and error involved, […]

Composting: Good Materials, Bad Materials, and Special Materials (Infographic)

Composting. So simple, at yet so complicated. On the one hand, I feel like it’s really easy to just throw together some biodegradable, nutrient-rich material, wet it, and let nature do it’s thing. On the other hand, there are a lot of important considerations to keep in mind when adding to compost piles, and there are items that are not great to have in your compost pile, for many reasons. While for the most part, it’s not too complicated to start your own compost pile, there are are few “what not to do” considerations to keep in mind, and I thought this […]

Making Chicken Feed: Pros and Cons (Video)

As with all things DIY, I’ve always assumed that making your own chicken feed would be healthier, and more affordable. However, I’ve been reading that while that can be true, it’s not always the case. These homesteaders and YouTubers have been making their own chicken feed, and received a lot of questions about how to do it and how it’s been working out, so they made this video in response. They break down the pros and cons of the method they’re using, how they store it, how they’re chickens like it, and the ingredients of their feed. It seems to […]

The Benefits of Homemade Soap

When was the last time you looked at the ingredient list on the soap that you buy at the grocery store? Most people never stop to take the time to look at this list, just getting what they’ve always bought or whatever marketing plan and commercials have told them a good soap should be. When you start to look at the ingredient list though, chances are good that you will find quite a few things that you can’t pronounce, including chemicals that may not be as good for your skin as you believe. It makes far more sense to go […]

Simple Yet Healthy Homemade Ketchup

Ketchup is an American staple, but did you know you can make it very easily at home? Unfortunately, a lot of store-bought ketchup is made with loads of sugar and sometimes even artificial coloring and flavoring. If you’re craving some delicious ketchup but want a healthy, whole-food version that doesn’t sacrifice health for taste, I’ve got the perfect recipe! This recipe uses all natural, easy-to-find ingredients, and instead of lots of cane sugar like regular ketchup typically has, it requires just a bit of honey and coconut sugar, which are much healthier and both have a very low GI index […]

How to Use Activated Charcoal

I’ve mentioned activated charcoal a few times on this site as a great natural first aid product to have on hand, which it definitely is. It’s probably on my top 5 list of things to have in a natural medicine cabinet, because it can be used in a number of different ways, and is great for homesteaders. Activated charcoal has been used for centuries due to its ability to absorb toxins and impurities. In many emergency rooms, poison victims may be treated using a large dose of activated charcoal, which can absorb the toxin to be passed naturally through the […]

How to Make Your Own Seed Tape

Continuing in the theme of spring from our last few posts, let’s talk about seed tape today, and how easy it is to make your own! Seed tape is a great way to easily plant your first spring crops, because you can guarantee proper placement and spreading of the seeds, as well as greatly reduce your time spent planting. Not to mention, the tape itself helps germination, by keeping the seeds protected and moist. Here is a very simple tutorial for how to make your own seed tape, that will certainly save you time and money. It only takes a […]

The Best Essential Oils to Start a Collection

There’s a lot of hype about essential oils out there, and it really is for good reason. Essential oils are a wonderful addition to any natural medicine cabinet. But it can be overwhelming trying to get yourself set up with some essential oils, and you can easily get sucked into some of the network marketing companies that sell essential oils for a very high price. or a bundle of several oils at once. You can easily spend up to a few hundred dollars on small bottles of oil that you won’t even use! There are literally dozens of types of […]

Homemade Rosewater Recipe

Rosewater is exactly what it sounds like: water infused with roses. It’s simple, but it’s incredibly effective to tone, moisturize, and give a wonderful scent to skin and hair. You can use it in many different ways, as a toner for your skin, a quick moisturizing spray, to add to homemade lotions or remedies or just as a natural perfume. You can make a bottle of homemade rosewater very easily and use for yourself or as gifts, or even as a chic and easy addition to a farmer’s market stand for your homestead. Wherever you live, if you happen to […]

How to Use Bentonite Clay

If you don’t already have bentonite clay stashed away in your natural medicine cabinet, you should. Bentonite clay, which is a sedimentary clay made up of weathered and aged volcanic ash, is an amazing natural health tool with a wide variety of uses around the homestead. It’s strong electromagnetic pull naturally draws out toxins, heavy metals, and impurities and can be used both topically and internally. Here are just a few of the ways you can use bentonite clay for your natural medicine chest Toothpaste Bentonite clay can be used as a base for natural, homemade toothpaste, including this tooth powder recipe. Deodorant […]