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DIY – Page 21 – Homesteader Depot

Homesteader Depot

Category: DIY

  • 8 Simple Ways to Earn Money From Homesteading

    8 Simple Ways to Earn Money From Homesteading

    Homesteading is sustainable, self-sufficient and rewarding. But it’s also not free! Unfortunately, in our modern economy, there’s so much more involved in running a homestead than simply working the land and feeding your family. Especially if you are a new homesteader, costs can pile up and it can really help to find a way to not just save money by homesteading, but earn money back on your hard work and labor.

    Even if you are an urban homesteader, there are still many creative ways you can earn money from homesteading! Here is a list of some of the easiest ways to bring prophet to your homestead project.

    1. Eggs: this is classic of course, but if you’ve got prolific layers, you can probably make a nice return on your investment into raising chickens by selling farm fresh eggs. You can sell to friends, at your farmer’s market or even through local buy/sell groups on Facebook

    2. Chickens: If you have quite a few chickens, you can sell them at various stages. As chicks, as laying hens, or even full-grown broilers.

    3. Preserves: if you like to can or make preserves, why not bring some to the farmer’s market?

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    4. Sell young: Whenever your goats, pigs, rabbits, or cows have babies, you can sell them! You can keep your milking animals in fresh milk every year and make some money on the side this way!

    5. Honey/Beeswax: Beekeeping is a wonderful way to help the environment and make some extra money. You can sell raw honey, which is a coveted health food, or make and sell candles with the beeswax!

    6. Fresh or dried herbs: herbs are typically easy and cheap to grow and require minimal care and overhead. They’re easy to harvest and process and you can sell fresh or dried bunches.

    7. Seedlings: starting seedlings in 2″ pots in the springtime to sell as seedlings is a great way to earn some extra money, especially if they are organic and heirloom

    8. Rent land: if you have extra land you are not using, you can rent out parts of it for hay, pasture or farming

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  • Tips to Keep Rodents OUT This Winter

    Tips to Keep Rodents OUT This Winter

    As the temperature drops and food sources diminish, rodents are likely to want to relocate, and your home is going to be high on their list.  They might start out in your garage, attic, or crawl space, but with the reproductive rate of rodents, they will soon be spreading out from there.  Allowing these furry freeloaders to share your space isn’t only likely to lead to property damage, but it will also put you and your family in proximity to diseases like the hantavirus and the bubonic plague.  Here are a few steps you can take to keep rodents where they belong this winter.

    Restrict Access

    The first step should be to make it harder to gain access to your home.  Trim back tree branches that would give them easy access to your roof, use metal wire mesh to cover attic vents, and seal cracks around doors and crawl spaces.  Hopefully,  they will move on if it’s hard to get it.

    Protect Food

    If they do make it inside, they are less likely to stay, or worse, breed, if there isn’t access to food.  Keep your home clean, what is a small amount of food for a human can be a feast for a mouse.  Store your food, and feed for your animals in containers that are sealed.  All animal feed that you keep outside or in areas that are easily accessible should be kept in containers that rodents cannot chew through.

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    Fight Back

    There are a number of ways to kill your rodent intruders on the market these days, but they all fall into one of two categories.  Poison or traps.  Poison has its conveniences, but your animals might ingest it, predators like owls might eat exposed rodents and die (which would lead to greater numbers of pests in the long run), or they could die in your walls where you can’t get to their rotting carcass.  Traps, especially electronic traps are probably a better option in most cases.  They also make live traps for mice and squirrels, but then you have to figure out what to do with them without getting bit.

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    Clean Up

    If you see signs of a rodent, clean up after them.  Especially after you have eliminated them.  Cleaning up the area will not only make your home healthier by removing their waste, but it will also decrease the chances of further invasion.  Mice and rats leave urine trails where they walk, a urine trail will tell other mice and rats that there is a home with potential food here.

    Rodents can damage your home and spread serious illness.  Take the proper steps to keep your home and your family safe this winter.

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  • Coffee Grounds For Your Garden

    Coffee Grounds For Your Garden

    Coffee grounds are a common cheap and easy form of organic material to add to your compost pile or garden. Here are a few tips for how, and why, to use them in your garden.

    Coffee and pH

    Despite what you might have heard, coffee grounds in your garden will have little to no effect of your soil pH and will not harm plants even when applied directly as a top dressing in generous amounts.  The acid that is in the coffee you drink is there because it is water-soluble, meaning that is has been removed from the coffee grounds by the water that was used to brew your coffee.  The spent grounds themselves will have a near-neutral pH of 6.5 to 6.8.

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    Nutrients in Coffee

    That being said, there is quite a bit in coffee grounds that will have an effect on the soil in your garden.  Coffee grounds have an average NPK of 2.1, 0.3, 0.3.  And the Phosphorus and Potassium are plants available right away, while the Nitrogen will not be available until broken down by micro-organisms and worms that will be attracted to the garden by the grounds.  There is also Magnesium, Copper, Calcium, Manganese, Iron, and Zinc in coffee grounds.  All of which provide food for your plants and for soil life that contributes to the health of your garden. For those that still can’t get over the fear of applying coffee grounds directly to your garden soil, there is always the compost pile.

    Compost

    Coffee grounds will heat up a compost pile quickly which can help keep the necessary organisms alive as we head into the fall and winter months.  And worms love coffee grounds.  Like chickens, worms have gizzards and have no teeth to break down their food.  The coarse texture of the grounds and their small size are great for this.

    Availability

    But perhaps the best thing about coffee grounds is that they are available in most places, and in bulk, for free.  Coffee shops are just going to throw them away, and often times they have separate trash cans that only contain coffee grounds and coffee filters (which are also great in the garden or compost pile).  So even if you don’t drink coffee yourself, stop by a coffee shop today and get your garden a boost.

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  • 4 Crafty Ways to Reuse Mason Jars

    4 Crafty Ways to Reuse Mason Jars

    Mason jars. Are they not one of the best inventions of all time? Originally designed for canning, mason jars (or Bell, or Kerr, or other canning jars…wide-mouth canning jars are just all-around awesome) have so many uses. They’re sturdy, difficult to break, have a big capacity-well, a quart!

    Lately, the annals of Pinterest have shown us that there are dozens of ways to use mason jars, so we picked a few particularly clever uses.

    Mason Jar Herb Garden

    Probably the most homestead-applicable, a simple mason jar herb garden is pretty much exactly what it sounds like! In lieu of drainage, you simply place rocks or marbles at the bottom of the jar, then fill with potting soil, and finally your direct-sow seeds or plant your herb starts. This would make a great project for early fall, so you can enjoy fresh herbs inside throughout the winter.

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    Fragrant Mason Jar Oil Lamps

    This requires a bit of craftiness, but it would make an awesome holiday gift and is also so pretty and rustic looking it’d be a great addition to any homestead decor. There are a couple of different methods – here’s one that’s perfect for the holidays. The cool thing about this one is you can add herbs, fragrant leaves, cinnamon sticks, or citrus peels that make a wonderful smell with the lamp is burned, and also make for a beautiful display.

    Weather-proof Matchbox

    A very un-glamorous but fantastic way to use a mason jar. A great option for a bug-out bag or camping. You simply fill the mason jar with matches, then cut the strike-anywhere surface off the box and affix to the lid of the mason jar. You have your matches protected from moisture and can strike them right on the lid of the jar. Perfect!

    Solar Lights 

    Ever try out those cheap solar lights to illuminate your paths only to find they get knocked over and broken in a stiff breeze? Well, you can simply remove the tops of these and place in-you guessed it-mason jars! You’ll have to pick some that fit a mason jar, of course, but these will illuminate the solar light beautifully and look way more stylish and rustic than those cheap plastic lamps. The glass will, of course, be breakable too, but being sturdier and heavier than the plastic lamps simply speared in the ground, they’re likely to hold up better. You can even bury them in the ground a few inches to ensure they don’t get knocked over easily.

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    These are just a few ideas for ever-versatile mason jars-I’m sure if you think outside the box you can think of cool ways to use them too! Ever tried a mason jar DIY craft?

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  • Benefits of Compost Tea

    Benefits of Compost Tea

    When it comes to a thriving, healthy garden, one of the quintessential components is a good fertilizer, and homemade compost is one the best things you can make. Using kitchen scraps, garden cuttings and locally sourced organic waste like grass clippings, manure, coffee grounds, egg shells, etc., you can-and should-make your own compost pile for a consistent supply of amazing plant superfood.

    There are many different options for how to build a compost pile and what to build it with, so if you’re not already composting, you’ll want to start there.

    But if you do already have a successful compost pile, compost tea is a fantastic way to use it to give your plants optimum nutrition, minerals, and beneficial microbes.

    Compost tea is exactly what it sounds like-except it’s for plants to drink up, not humans! There are many different methods of brewing it, but it is essentially soaking some finished compost in water for a period of time, and then using the mixture to water your plants.

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    Obviously, you can just dig your compost into the soil, so why go to the extra effort of brewing a tea? Well, the way plants drink in nutrients is through water, the nutrients bond to water molecules and are absorbed into the roots of the plants, so it just makes it more readily available to them. Also, for certain issues like fungus or blight on the leaves of the plant, there might be benefit in certain cases to being able to spray the compost mixture right onto the plant directly (although you’ll only want to do this if you know it is specifically recommended, compost tea can burn the foliage of some plants).

    To make compost tea, there are a lot of different options. Some people prefer to aerate it, with a water tank like the kind used in fish tanks, and others choose to simply let the tea mixture sit and stir once a day. But the basic principle is the same: you take a bucket or large drum, depending on your needs, and place some ready compost in it. You can make a sort-of tea bag, with something like a pillowcase, or just put it in there loose. After about a week or whenever you’d like to use it, you can either strain out the loose compost or simply pour over your plants.

    Compost tea is an excellent way to get amazing nutrients and minerals to your plants, and way cheaper than Miracle Gro! Believe me, your plants will thank you-try some today!

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  • Homemade Dog Food

    Homemade Dog Food

    Our dogs are our best friends, and they deserve homemade meals too!

    Unfortunately, a lot of store-bought dog foods have a lot of preservatives and additives that you might not be so thrilled for your canine companion to be consuming. And high-dollar dog food, with real food ingredients, can be really pricey.

    So a great alternative is to just make your own at home!

    First, you’ll want to determine what the best nutrition is for your dog. Not every dog is going to have the same nutritional needs, but in general, dogs need protein, like from meat, fish, dairy and eggs, fat, like from meat or oil, carbohydrates, calcium and fatty acids. Grains are not always good for dogs, you might want to opt for sweet potato and vegetables as a carbohydrate source.

    A good starting place is to talk to your vet. The two of you can discuss what ingredients would be best for your dog, and if he has special health or nutritional needs that should be met and how to do that.

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    Next, pick a recipe that fits your dog’s specific needs. There are a lot of homemade dog food recipes on the internet, so odds are you will find something that suits you.

    A really great basic recipe consists of sweet potatoes, frozen peas and carrots, and chicken breast, at a 1:1:2 ratio. Cook all the ingredients in a slow cooker on low for 8 hours and then stir, let cool, and distribute into bags to freeze. You can pull out a bag every few days, thaw, and bam! Easy, healthy, delicious and nutritious homemade food for your dog.

    While this probably isn’t ideal for daily meals, making sure your dog gets regular helpings of raw meat is also crucial. Once or twice a week, throw your dog some raw ground beef. Occasional organ meats are also incredibly beneficial, but should not exceed 15%. Also, bones are great for their health, but try to get them from a butcher, not the pre-packaged ones that are full of artificial flavoring and preservatives.

    Our dogs are members of our family, and they deserve healthy, whole, real food ingredients too. Consider making your own dog food today!

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  • 5 Natural Home Remedies for Treating a Toothache

    5 Natural Home Remedies for Treating a Toothache

    Those that have been fortunate enough to never need braces or dental work can hardly understand the intensity of oral pain.  The rest of us know all too well how debilitating the pain can be, and despite political promises, how expensive it can be to take care of.  While of course, you should always go to the dentist when you have serious toothache pain because it could be a sign of a potentially life-threatening infection, or could lead to one, the cost of dental work might have you postponing the trip until your budget can cover it a little better.  If this is the position you are in, here are a few things you can do in the meantime to help you deal with the pain and get done what you have to.

    Saltwater Rinse

    A common cause of pain is an abscess or an infection near the gum line.  Temporary relief can come from cleaning out any food debris in the area and drawing out the fluid in the infection by swishing your mouth with warm salt water after meals, before bed, or as often as the pain returns.

    Clove Oil

    Clove oil contains a natural anesthetic called eugenol.  When using clove oil be careful not to get it on unaffected areas like your tongue.  Dip a Q-tip in clove oil and hold it against the tooth causing the pain until the pain subsides.

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    Beeswax

    If your pain is caused by a cavity, loose filling, or a crack in your tooth rinsing and treating with clove might not be enough to stop the pain.  Every time food or even liquid comes in contact with the opening the pain can be excruciating and the risk of infection increases.  After cleaning the area, take a bit of warm bee’s wax and press it over the cavity of crack to form a temporary seal.

    These remedies are only going to treat the symptom and not the cause.  They are meant to get you through the pain until you can get the professional medical treatment that you need, not to replace it.

    As you’ve built your homestead, you’ve no doubt tried to think of everything you’ll possibly need for healthy, comfortable living. As a result, you no doubt have an herb garden where you grow delicious herbs that have numerous healing properties. Your garden could also be the key to relief.

    Ginger and Cayenne Paste

    Grab some ginger root and cayenne pepper from your garden. Chop and mash-up equal parts of each, and mix them with enough water that the mixture becomes a paste. Apply the paste to a piece of cotton and hold it against the tooth. Be sure to avoid touching your tongue or gums with the paste, as you’ll be crying for cold water if you do. Leave the paste-laden cotton in place until the pain starts to fade away.

    Apply a Tea Bag

    Black tea is full of tannins, which have astringent qualities and can reduce swelling and inflammation. Soak a tea bag in warm water, and then hold it in your mouth over the affected tooth and gums.

    Most toothaches come from infection in the gums and/or teeth, or from cavities. If you can, it’s best to see a dentist for permanent relief and to ensure that the infection doesn’t spread. If you can’t see a dentist, though, these natural remedies should give you relief at least temporarily until you can seek out medical help. In addition to these, be sure to keep your diet clean and brush and floss regularly, and you’ll avoid most dental and oral health and hygiene problems.

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  • Skills to Build While You Wish You Could Homestead

    Skills to Build While You Wish You Could Homestead

    Whether you’re stuck in a cramped apartment in the city or living in a suburban starter home while you save up to buy land, there’s no reason you can’t start building your homesteader skills now, as you dream of more self-reliant times ahead. You can check out our guide to how to homestead in a city if you can’t wait to free yourself from the grid, and also start developing the following skills to be ready when the time comes to fully escape the plugged in life:

     

    1. Bake your own bread: We tend to take our packaged, fluffy white supermarket loaves for granted, but there is nothing as delicious or satisfying as freshly baked homemade bread. It’s not too difficult to master, and doesn’t require anything more than what you can buy from said supermarket. And in addition to delicious bread, it will provide you with more of a sense of control over what goes into your food and a whole lot of respect for homesteaders of yore-who grew, milled and baked to get their daily bread.

     

    1. Pickling and Canning: There’s no reason you need to be growing your own crops to start preserving food. It’s always good to have a nice supply of foods that don’t need to be refrigerated, and really rewarding to make them yourself. Pickling is great because pickled and fermented foods are actually an amazing source of probiotics, and canning your own food is a great way to take advantage of marked-down produce at the supermarket as well as a healthy alternative to most GMO, BPA, toxin-ridden store-bought canned products.
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    1. Render tallow and lard: Mostly a forgotten homesteading art, rendering tallow and lard can be both greatly rewarding and cost-effective. Using often-times free scraps from butcher shops, or, if you’re lucky enough to know a hunter or farmer, the remains of a deer or cow after butchering, tallow and lard can be used in place of conventional oil or store-bought butter and tend to be far more delicious and nutritious.

     

    1. Make your own soap: The cost-effectiveness of making one’s own soap is probably the best reason to try it-homemade-soapbut, like making your own bread or canned products, also gives you a sense of control over what is going in your soap and knowing it’s safe. If you can get over the fear of working with lye, soap-making can be a blast, and odds are you won’t go back after you’ve tried it. Just make sure to follow basic safety precautions and you’ll be making all your family members homemade vanilla-lavender-coconut suds in no time!
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    1. Butcher a chicken: OK, so odds are, if you live in the city or suburbs, you probably don’t have access to a live chicken, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start practicing butchering now. Most supermarkets and butchers sell whole chicken, and they’re always much cheaper than chicken cuts. It’s a great way to whet your pallet for butchering, and you can use the giblets for gravy and bones for tallow-learning how to use the whole animal will give you a great taste for proper homesteading!

     

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