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Homesteading – Page 83 – Homesteader Depot

Homesteader Depot

Category: Homesteading

Dairy Cow Basics

Dairy cows are a wonderful addition to any homestead. The nourishment their fresh milk provides is liquid gold-raw milk is highly nutritious and can produce delicious, top-notch butter, cream, buttermilk, cheese and yogurt. I think when anyone thinks of farming or homesteading, they think of owning a dairy cow.

If you’re interested in getting a dairy cow, here are a few basic considerations:

Your Homestead’s Capacity

What breed of cow, how many to get, how often to breed and what to feed the cow(s) will depend on your homestead, what facilities you have, how much acreage you have, how much milk you want and how often you can milk them. For example, inn many parts of the country, cows will require a winter barn, where they can keep warm and will need to be fed, watered and have their pens cleaned out regularly. Or, how much hay you will need to feed them depends on how much grazing they can do. What breed you should buy will vary based on some of these considerations, as some breeds are small and produce a lot of milk, others produce a lot of milk with lower fat content, etc. First assess the capacity your farm or homestead has before researching what type of breed will best suit that.

Find a Mentor

If you know someone who already owns or has owned cows, they will be an invaluable resource for you (and possibly even be able to provide you with a cow!), especially if they live in your area and can talk you through the specifics of owning cows in your climate. If you don’t know anyone, there are plenty of books available on the topic and probably even dairy cow owners associations or 4H resources at your disposal.

Find an Experienced Cow

A very good place to start with dairy cows is to get a cow who is experienced herself with being milked! As you learn to milk, it will be very helpful to have a heifer who is comfortable with the whole thing. Cows get used to being milked and even come to enjoy it, so it will make the whole experience much smoother if one of you knows what you’re doing at first.

Get Prepared

Not just for all of the above-but anything that could potentially go wrong with the cow or require medical attention. Research all the common maladies that can happen to cows-mastitis and milk fever are at the top of the list-and get yourself set up to treat them properly. Most people will want to breed their cows once a year to keep a fresh supply of milk (if you continue to milk a cow after her calf is weaned she can lactate for several years, but it is best to breed her once a year to replenish her milk production), so learn everything you can about calving. Find a good big animal vet in your area.

Dairy cows pour all their heart and soul into their milk production, so its important they get the best care they can. Before you consider getting one, make sure you have the resources and time needed to care for them properly. They will certainly make it worth your while!

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August 23, 2016
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.

Suggested Article: Five Ways to Preserve Herbs

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.

Related Article: Solar Energy Options for Homesteaders

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?

[Bonus] Never Buy New Batteries Again – Try this trick to recondition and reuse old batteries>>>

August 23, 2016
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.

Advanced Gardening Course To Accelerate Your Food Production…

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!

[More] Organic Gardening Secrets – Grows Up To 10 Times The Plants. Learn More Here

Enjoy a quick video from Steve about Compost Teas and their amazing benefits for your garden…

August 22, 2016
How to Get Started Knitting

It’s only the middle of August, but apparently snow is already accumulating above some US states-can you believe it? It’s already time to start thinking about getting out that winter gear. Or, if you want to learn a new skill-making it!

Knitting is a wonderful skill to have, and it’s never too late to learn. It’s actually has some surprisingly health benefits, like improving cognitive function, memory, coordination and relieving stress. Not to mention you get scarves, hats, and or any of the many other things you can knit right at home! It’s a great way to give an original gift for the holidays that’s functional too, and wonderful alternative to cheap made-in-China goods.

To get started knitting, you only need two things: yarn and knitting needles. That’s it! Nothing else fancy required.

For needles, there are three kinds: plastic, metal and bamboo. Plastic and metal are usually very affordable, so you might want to start with a pair of those to see if you take to knitting before investing in the nicer bamboo needles. There are many different sizes of knitting needles, for different sized yarn and also desired tightness of the stitch, but size 8 is the most standard size. Packages of yarn will typically have recommendations for the size knitting needle to use with them, so check before buying.

Yarn is what you’ll want to pick out next, and with all the beautiful colors available, this is definitely the fun part! To start out, you’ll probably want to buy two or three different colors, so you have a few options and, once you’ve got the hang of the stitch, you can practice changing the yarn. All yarn is either natural fiber or synthetic. Synthetic is very affordable, but also won’t breathe very well when worn. But this is a good choice to start out with, just to get the hang of knitting, and for many projects it can be ideal.

Next, you’ll need to learn the basic stitch.

And if you have an internet connection, well, then the wide wonderful world of free knitting tutorials, patters and guides is at your fingertips. This is a great beginner video on the basic stitch.

This step can be the hardest-once you get the hang of it it’s very fun-and even addictive!

A simple scarf is a very easy and fun first project, and useful too! Make one for each member of your family for the coming winter months, and maybe even some for extended family for gifts! You’ll find you can knit in your sleep in no time this way, with lots of practice of the basic stitch, and then you can move on to more complicated projects like hats, booties for babies, etc.

Happy knitting!

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August 22, 2016
The Health Benefits of Himalayan Salt Lamps
Himalayan salt lamps have been increasing in popularity lately, and for good reason. The pretty pink chucks of salt fitted with lamps on the inside make lovely additions to any decor, but they also provide amazing health benefits. They are called the “vitamins of the air”.

The way they work is by emitting negative ions, which cancel out harmful positive ions. Positive ions are created by electronic devices and radiation from electronic fields such as WiFi or cellphone networks. Positive ions can exacerbate issues such as allergies, insomnia and stress.

Himalayan sea salt is the purest sea salt on earth. It contains all the elements that naturally occur in our bodies. The way the ion process works is that the salt, like all salt, naturally attracts water. When the heat from the light bulb causes the salt to warm up, the water begins to evaporate, being diffused into the air. The negative ions get released this way, and they bond with the positive ions. You know those cheesy animations in Febreeze commercials that show the happy little Fabreeze bubbles capturing and eliminating ugly odors? That’s how the negative ions bust up the nasty, harmful positive ions that mess with our sleep patterns and other bodily systems.

The health benefits are many, including:
- Increasing blood flow and circulation
- Boosting serotonin levels
- Reducing symptoms of asthma
- Improved lung capacity
- Improved mood
- Reduced stress
- Reduced symptoms of allergies
- Better sleep
- Increased energy levels
- Reduced headaches
Not all salt lamps are created equal though, so when you’re shopping for one, make sure it is pure, food-grade Himalayan salt. There are cheaper imitations on the market right now, and you simply won’t get the health benefits from anything less than the good stuff.

Himalayan salt is also great on food and a much healthier alternative to standard table salt. Full of minerals and nutrients, it’s also totally delicious! They even make Himalayan salt licks for horses and dogs.

Do you have a Himalayan salt lamp or use Himalayan salt on your homestead?

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August 21, 2016
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.

>>>Brain Training for Dogs (Unlock That Hidden Intelligence

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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August 21, 2016
3 Tips for Growing Potatoes

Potatoes are one of the best staple foods for almost any diet. They’re full of fiber, complex carbohydrates, and nutrients that can enhance anyone’s health. Better yet, potatoes are actually pretty easy to grow in your garden, making them even more attractive to homesteaders everywhere. Here are a few tips and tricks to help you grow better potatoes in your garden.

Pick a Sunny Spot

No matter what kind of potatoes you’re growing, always pick a spot that gets full sun. You should also ensure that the soil is light, loose, and slightly acidic (ideally with a PH of 5.0-7.0), but you really can grow potatoes in almost any kind of soil, so you don’t have to worry about this too much.

Rotate Your Potato Crops

Potatoes can be fairly hard on soil, so don’t grow them in the same place in your garden every year. Instead, rotate them each year and make sure that you don’t repeat the same area more than once every three to four years.

Start Sprouting Before You Plant

You should plant your potatoes early in the spring, as soon as the soil is workable, and then you can harvest them once the ground temperature reaches about 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Before you plant them, though, go ahead and cut your seed potatoes and place them inside the house in a place where they can get some sun. Do this about two to three weeks before you plant them, and they’ll start to sprout. This will help them grow stronger and larger when you plant them.

Potatoes are a hearty crop, but you do want to make sure that they don’t experience a hard freeze without protection. And you should keep their soil weeded and protected from insects and pests. Follow these tips, and you’ll be on your way to a great crop of potatoes this year.

Sources:

http://blog.seedsavers.org/blog/tips-for-growing-potatoes

http://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/garden/7-ways-grow-potatoes

http://www.unwins.co.uk/potato-growing-guide-ggid9.html

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August 20, 2016
The Ultimate Guide to Chicken Coops (Infograph)

Raising chickens is awesome, but you definitely need to have everything they will need to thrive. In most cases, this will include a properly constructed and well-equipped chicken coop. Even free-range chickens will need somewhere to roost at night. There are many options out there for homemade chicken coops, and this will probably be the best option for most people as you can customize it to your flock size, climate, and budget needs.

There are a few crucial components to a chicken coop, which this great infograph from Gardenaholic.com put together. They also have a great article on how to raise backyard chickens if you’re interested in more information.

The basics that this infograph covers are appropriate roosts for the chickens, as they like to perch to roost, or sleep, a horizontal bar set up in the coop is a great option. They will also need nesting boxes-they like to burrow into small, safe places to lay their eggs. Food and water is of course crucial as well, you’ll need a sturdy, easy-to-access container for both food and water that can’t be accessed by potential predators.

Speaking of predators, securing the coop from predators such as foxes, coyotes, birds of prey, raccoons and other animals who look at live chickens as a delicious meal. They will also need lots of fresh air so good ventilation in the coop is key. They are also very vulnerable to too much rain or heat, so they’ll need plenty of overhang for shade and water protection. A dust bath is also great to add to your coop so your chickens can clean off-which is really fun and cute to watch, by the way.

Overall, this is a great little guide to what you’ll need to consider for your chicken coop. You can also look at Pinterest and YouTube to see what other people have done for their ideas-this is great to get an idea of what works in real-life scenarios for a chicken coop.

Your coop doesn’t have to be fancy-it just needs what the chicken will need to be comfortable, safe and happy. Happy chickens means more eggs-so that will make you happy too!

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August 20, 2016