DIY Archives - Page 6 of 9 - Homesteader DepotHomesteader Depot

[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 […]

Solar Energy Options for Homesteaders

You want to live off the grid, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need electrical power to operate your lights and appliances. You can use a generator, but generators require gasoline. A generator is a good backup solution for people who are on the grid when they lose power. However, if you want to be independent, the best way to do it is to invest in solar energy options for your home and property. It used to be that solar panels were prohibitively expensive. That’s no longer the case. In this post, we’ll detail some of the solar energy options […]

Simple 5 Step Homemade Salsa Recipe

One of our favorite things about homesteading is that it has allowed us to reconnect with food in a new way. Let’s face it, a lot of the fruits and vegetables we buy at the supermarket are grown using chemicals and harsh fertilizers. They’re harvested before they’re ready, as a result, they don’t have the rich, delicious flavors as they do when fresh. By contrast, home-grown produce is bursting with flavor. Once you’ve tried growing vegetables and cooking with them, you’ll never want to go back to boring supermarket produce again. Are you looking for ways to use the vegetables […]

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 […]

Tips to Stockpile Food for the Winter Months

Growing up, one of my favorite things to read were the Laura Ingles Wilder books. Not only were they entertaining, but she also went into great detail on how their food was grown or raised, butchered or harvested and then processed to keep all winter long. Thanks to modern conveniences, most of us don’t really need to take these steps to ensure a comfortable winter, even on a homestead with electricity and appliances. However, it doesn’t hurt to prepare for a worst-case scenario to ensure you won’t get caught during a bad winter storm or power outage. Fortunately, when proper […]

5 Ways Pigs Are Valuable Beyond Just Meat

When you are living off the land, owning animals that can provide you with food can be extremely beneficial. You may grow plenty of crops and fill your pantry with canned vegetables, but if you aren’t getting enough protein, you won’t have the energy to tend to your farm and home. While there are some homesteaders who don’t want to commit to raising a large farm or a herd of cattle, there are plenty of other animals such as chickens or turkeys that can ensure you have meat and eggs throughout the year. They are also low-maintenance so that […]

5 Step DIY Soap

Making your own soap can be a fun and creative experience. You have the advantage to create a product that is safer than those available in stores and something that is free of perfumes or chemicals. You can also save money over time by making your own soap when compared to products in stores that contain the same natural ingredients. Need another good reason? You can sell it and make a reasonable profit to help you buy the things you need. If you are creative with making soap, you can use molds to make natural skin care products into tiny […]

5 Natural Medicines You Need to Know

More and more people are turning to natural remedies, especially for day-to-day injuries and ailments. The concept of antibiotics goes back well before the discovery of penicillin. In fact, some of the natural medications used most have good antibiotic properties. Whether you are suffering from a cut or scrape, or a classic cold, flu, earache, or UTI there are remedies that can assist your body in getting rid of it and getting you back on your feet. Natural Aspirin The most commonly talked about Salicylic Acid, or natural aspirin, is Willow Bark. Used for thousands of years, modern-day aspirin was […]

3 Effective Sheep Shearing Techniques

Despite some claims from animal rights groups, shearing is necessary to maintain the health and comfort of your sheep. There are 2 main reasons you need to have your sheep sheared once a year. If the sheep’s thick wooly coats are not removed before the summer months, they can become very uncomfortable. Additionally, the amount of dirt that can amass and become matted to their bodies could develop into a health risk. The wool from certain breeds is a valuable commodity and a good source of annual income. When raised correctly with a proper diet, a single sheep can grow […]

Can Rabbits Contribute to a Homestead?

Not just for pets, including rabbits on a homestead can be a great way to contribute to your food supplies, both as a food source and a natural fertilizer for your garden. If you’re into fiber arts or want some extra money, angora rabbits give an additional benefit just by growing their fur. Rabbits for Manure A single rabbit can produce approximately a pound of dry manure each week. That’s roughly 50 pounds a year. This high-quality soil conditioner is usually low in weed seeds thanks to the prepared foods typically used to feed them. It also contains an excellent […]

7 Steps for Easy Canning

If you decide to get into the wonderful world of canning, be prepared to experience some of the more flavorful food you’ve ever experienced at a fraction of the cost. Canning allows you to pick or buy produce when it’s at its peak maturity and preserve that flavor year-round. The simplest canning process is Water Bath Canning. To get started you’ll need a few inexpensive basics, many of which you may already have, or be able to find at your local thrift store or flea market. The absolute essential musts are: A pot that holds enough water to cover any […]

DIY Animal Shelter

Many structures you see on larger farms will often rival a designer house in style and amenities. However, if design awards are not what you are looking for but only to keep your friends protected from the elements, this basic structure will do. A simplified shelter with basic material will satisfy all of these requirements. What You’ll Need 3 Posts = Eight-Foot (8’) Long Pressure Treated Four-Inch by Four-Inch (4”X4”) 3 Posts = Ten-Foot (10’) Long Pressure Treated Four-Inch by Four-Inch (4”X4”) 6 Roof Boards = Eight-Foot (8’) Long Pressure-Treated Two-inch by Six-inch (2”X6”) 17 Roof Joists = Ten-Foot (10’) […]

3 Keys to Choosing the Perfect Livestock

A farm or homestead without livestock seems unusual, to say the least. Whether you see yourself with a flock of cheerful chickens, a herd of graceful goats or a few calming cows, livestock are a valuable food source that should be planned for carefully, then cared for consistently. Are You Ready to Be Available Every Minute of Every Day? Are you prepared to be “on-call” for your animals 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year? When you enter the world of livestock, a few things to be aware of are: Newborns usually come in the […]

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 […]

Tips For Raising Your Own Holiday Turkey

If you’ve considered how cool it would be to raise and cook your very own Thanksgiving turkey, then we at Homesteader Depot fully encourage you to do this. We are all about raising and growing your own, and this is a very fun way to get started raising poultry and save some money over the holidays! That being said, there are a couple things you should know. It’s not quite as simple as buying some baby turkeys, known as poults, and feeding them until November, then slaughtering and serving. If your goal is to have a freshly slaughtered turkey for […]

8 Health Benefits of Green Tea

Green tea is much more than the complimentary beverage offered at Chinese food restaurants! Whether you love or hate the taste, it’s worth knowing about its amazing health benefits. Green tea has been used for centuries in China and throughout Asia to treat a number of maladies and diseases, everything from regulating blood pressure to killing cancer cells. It is a wonderful natural supplement to take because it’s list of benefits is long, but it’s also quite affordable. You can get a month’s worth of green tea for a few dollars! That sure beats a lot of other expensive herbal […]

Cooking Skills Every Homesteader Should Cultivate

One of the primary reasons many people homestead is to have a closer relationship with the source of their food. You yearn to grow your own vegetables, raise your own meat and dairy, forage, and hunt; essentially, to be independent of the increasingly complicated globalized food system. These are certainly noble aspirations, and we share them here. Going back to a simpler time, to our roots, is something many of us are striving for in this modern world. Only a few generations ago, many people lived much more self-reliant and independent lives, and with the precarious situation our whole planet seems […]

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 […]