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How to Read Antique Cookbooks

Antique cookbooks are a wonderful relic of the past, and yet, if you’ve ever tried to make any of the recipes contained within, you might find yourself scratching your head. Just as lifestyles have changed drastically in the last half, even quarter century, so have the way we cook, talk about, and interact with food, and the cookbooks of yesteryear might be a bit cryptic to today’s modern cook. However, if you are a homesteader, these antique cookbooks might be very appealing to you. They are written for people who had access to the kinds of things homesteads produce, and […]

Living Simply in a Tiny Off-Grid Cabin (Video)

Would you be happy living with less? This family certainly is. Living in a tiny cabin on a piece of land in New Zealand, instead of paying rent, they do work-trade for the opportunity to live off the land. You’d be amazed at the simplicity of their dwelling, and yet, they’re clearly very fulfilled. I found this to be such an inspiring look at just how fulfilling a more reduced life can be. I lived in a similar way for some time and relate so much to their experiences. It really is amazing just how much easier life can be […]

Why You Need to Rest if You’re a Homesteader

Homesteading is a lot of work. It’s definitely work that’s quite worth it, and if you are a homesteader, it’s probably what you signed up for. You are probably the kind of person who was willing to sacrifice the ease and convenience of modern life to roll up your sleeves, pull on your work boots, and get dirty doing what you love most. If you’re a type-A personality and absolutely live to work, that’s great. Or maybe you get stressed out easily, and overwhelmed by all the spinning plates of homestead life. The thing is, regardless of how naturally hard-working […]

Goat Crossfit (Video)

Regular Crossfit is all the rage, but now…there’s goat Crossfit! When this urban homesteader’s friends all started going to Crossfit down the street from her house, she knew she didn’t need to go, because she already had goats. This very cute and funny video shows the brilliant invention of goat Crossfit! It has yet to take off, but it looks like such a fun, great workout, we’re confident it will very soon… 😉 If you enjoyed this, you might also like…. Long-Term Survival for Homesteaders… Natural Healing Secrets You Need to Know… Effective Primal Diet Hacks…

Survivalist or Homesteader? (Video)

This is a great video from a popular homesteading and survivalism vlogger I really enjoy. He poses the questions: which will survive longer, a homesteader or a survivalist? Are they the same thing? Does one come before the other? I think this is a really great topic since, while homesteading and survivalism are not necessarily synonymous, there’s a lot of overlap. The ultimate goal of homesteading is self-reliance and independence, and survivalism is all about preparing for any number of scenarios in which you will not be able to rely on others to save or help you. If you’ve ever […]

When the Garden Doesn’t Grow: How to Increase Food Supply

As a homesteader, you will typically put a lot of faith in your garden when it comes to having enough food to last your family. You will learn how to plant and keep the plants healthy and strong, how and when to harvest, and canning techniques, most likely. When everything is going well with the garden, this can be a great method to take care of the bulk of the food you and your family need. However, it is not always enough. Sometimes, the garden can fail, too, and that means you need to have some other ways of procuring […]

Make Money on Your Homestead

You love the idea of living simply and living on a homestead. However, you probably also love the idea of having some extra money coming into the household. Fortunately, you can combine these two loves and find some interesting ways to make money from your homestead, and it is easier than you might imagine. Here are just some of the different ways that you can start using your activities on the homestead to earn more to supplement your life. Grow and Sell Excess Food If you are already growing a nice garden, and perhaps some fruit trees to provide for […]

The Reality of Homesteading: What No One Tells You

Homesteading is a noble pursuit, and we obviously strongly encourage everyone to try their hand at it! Growing your own food, raising livestock, and living off-grid are a wonderful way to enrich your life, get healthier, and truly embrace self-reliant living. But it’s not all puppies and sunshine! There are some harsh realities of homesteading that a lot of people won’t tell you. Here’s what you need to know if you want to face the music. You Will Make a Lot of Mistakes Homesteading is all about trial and error, and it is through these errors that you learn. It is just […]

Building a Tiny Home

We recently posted an article on the tiny house movement, and I wanted to elaborate a bit more on what it takes to actually build yourself a tiny house. This is one of the biggest appeals of tiny houses, of course, that the initial building materials can be cheap, the construction easy. Many people are able to do it themselves, even if they don’t have a whole lot of construction experience. You can use foraged, repurposed, or discounted materials, and make it your own. All these factors contribute significantly to reducing the overall cost of a tiny home, so it’s […]

Are You Ready for Livestock?

Raising livestock is one of the great appeals of homesteading. If you’ve just bought your own land or have plans to, or have considered raising goats or chickens in your backyard, you should be careful not to get too far ahead of yourself. The prospect of raising livestock is so appealing, the decision to dive into serious animal husbandry is no small consideration. Here are some important factors of making this big decision: Space Do you really have the room? A lot of animals need much more space than you’d think. Most animals simply won’t thrive if kept in a […]

18 Ways to Become Food Independent

The ultimate goal of homesteading for many is to be completely self-sufficient, and entirely food independent. There’s nothing as empowering as growing and making your own. While getting 100% of your food from your own land might be setting one’s sights pretty high, there’s nothing wrong with aiming for it! The thing is, while most people will always rely on at least some outside sources for their food (even homesteaders back in the day did, too!), any degree of self-sufficiency you can achieve is a step in the right direction. If you are wondering what would be involved in having a […]

Simple, Effective, and Affordable Insect Trap

One of the most important elements of living as a homesteader is learning to live a simpler life. For many, the thought of “living simply” is very alluring, but making the leap to homesteading, and being successful and happy with the lifestyle, is not as easy as many wish it would be. They do not have any idea of just how they can capture the simple life that they crave. Here are some simple tips to help you with homesteading, and to help you live better. Plan Your Meals Do you tend to wait until the last minute to decide […]

How to Make Kombucha Tea (Video)

We’ve covered a lot about culturing in the past, and kombucha tea absolutely needs to be mentioned. It is one of the easiest home cultures to make and a great place to start if you’d like to get started with culturing. Kombucha is created using a fermentation process, it contains a large number of healthy bacteria known as probiotics. These bacteria strengthen your digestive tract and support your immune system, as they absorb nutrients, fight infection, and illness. Your digestive system is the second largest part of your neurological system and with 80 percent of your immune system located in your gut, it’s no surprise […]

5 Warnings for the New Homesteader

It might seem contradictory, but starting on the path to a “simpler” life can actually come with a lot of complications. In pursuit of all our hopes and visions for our homestead, we can become overwhelmed pretty quickly, or simply fail to anticipate common problems. Let me share with you a few key lessons I’ve learned over the years that will help to take the growing pains out of your homesteading journey! Realize that this lifestyle is “simple”, but it’s not easy. The best things in life come about as a result of plenty of hard work. If you’ve been […]

Growing Strawberries In Gutters (Video)

Spring is here, and I’ve definitely got gardening on my mind! I’m starting to see fresh, delicious, American-grown strawberries in the grocery store again, but as with anything else, I’d love to grow my own. Strawberries can be tricky, depending on where you live, but these clever off-grid gardeners figured out a pretty cool hack: using gutters! It’s just the right time to give this a shot if you’ve got the right space and equipment, and I’m definitely considering trying a scaled-down version myself to see if it works out. What could be better than fresh strawberries picked from your […]

Simple Steps to Greater Self-Sufficiency

The goal of everyone who is interested in homesteading is to become more independent and less reliant on the “machine” that seems to run the lives of most people. Many today have no real idea of where their food comes from or what would happen if they no longer had easy access to electricity. They need the modern conveniences of the world to live. You do not want to be like those people, and you do not have to. The following are some easy things that you can start doing now, and expanding upon later, to help increase your level […]

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 […]

Amish Barn Raising (Video)

The Amish are famous for their incredibly speedy “barn raising”. This is when the whole community comes together and builds a barn in a day, sometimes even a matter of hours. I’ve always wanted to see one done, so I was thrilled to find this time-lapse video on YouTube recently that speeds a barn raising up to three minutes. It’s amazing to see the amount of men at work, and how quickly they’re able to erect the structures and finish them off. It’s so cool what can happen when community comes together and is willing to work just out of […]

Ways to Profit Off Your Land

When you invest in a homestead property, it probably won’t be cheap. You won’t want to buy cheap, useless land to get started, after all, since it won’t be much use to you. So how can you offset the cost of settling on the perfect slice of property? Well, there are a lot of possibilities. Here are just a few, to be followed up with more as time goes on. Be sure to let us know how you’ve made money off your homestead, so we can add it to the list! Vegetable Gardening Build additional beds to what you will […]

Off-Grid Cabin Security (Video)

When you live out in the country, it might seem safer than an urban environment, and in many ways, it definitely is. Those low crime rates aren’t misleading; way less people means way less crime. That being said, there’s still a risk of your property being vandalized or stolen if you aren’t at home, especially if you live far away from other houses. They say locks are to keep honest people out, and if you don’t feel safe simply locking your gate and front door, you probably want to take additional measures to secure your homestead when you’re not there. […]