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Self Reliance – Page 25 – Homesteader Depot

Homesteader Depot

Category: Self Reliance

  • Homemade Toothpaste

    Homemade Toothpaste

    It’s really fun, wallet-friendly and healthy to make your own personal hygiene products at home. A great place to start is with homemade toothpaste! It’s really easy and cheap, and quite possibly much better for your teeth than conventional toothpaste.

    This recipe includes coconut oil, which is great for your teeth. The oil naturally attracts the bacteria that contributes to plaque build-up and decay, and leaves a protective layer on your teeth to help prevent more bacteria from settling on your teeth.

    It also includes an optional essential oil, which can kill bacteria as well, and prevent bad breath. One of the nicest sensations from store-bought toothpaste is the refreshing, minty taste it leaves in your mouth, so you can easily mimic that with peppermint essential oil! Tea tree oil, on the other hand, will clean just as effectively and is great at killing germs. You can also use clove oil, which is very effective for cleaning and helps contribute to overall gum health.

    Let’s get started!

    What you need:

    • A small jar
    • Baking soda
    • Coconut oil
    • Essential oil of choice (peppermint, tea tree, clove, lemon, or oil of choice. Feel free to play around!)

    What you do:

    1. Fill about 1/3 of your jar with coconut oil. Begin to pour in your baking soda and combine thoroughly until you get a smooth paste. Bear in mind the consistency will change based on temperature because of the coconut oil, so if your bathroom is warmer than your kitchen, it might turn into liquid, if its colder, it will get more solid. You might want to leave the coconut oil in the bathroom for 24 hours before making the toothpaste so its the same consistency it will be when made into toothpaste and stored in the bathroom.
    2. Once you have a paste that is the consistency you’d like, add your essential oils. How much you add will vary based on the size of your jar, but for a 1 oz jar, about 10-20 drops essential oil will probably be sufficient. Once you’ve added the oils, mix thoroughly again to evenly distribute throughout the paste.
    3. Cover tightly and store in the bathroom. You can apply to your toothpaste using a popsicle stick or small spoon. Use as you would normal toothpaste, adding essential oils as needed if the coconut or baking soda taste is too overwhelming.

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  • Making Pemmican At Home

    Making Pemmican At Home

    Pemmican is a dehydrated survival superfood that is nutritionally complete and incredibly long-lasting. It is made with nothing else but lean meat, tallow, and berries. It was invented by the North American Plains Indians, as a way Screenshot (36)to store the meat through the winter. It quickly caught on with early Frontiersmen and even British explorers who prized the high nutritional value and portability of pemmican. It’s effortless to make, and you can do so using ingredients that are easy to find and equipment you already have in your kitchen.

    The recipe for pemmican is from the book ‘The Lost Ways’, which is an pimmican-video-2
    eye-opening guide to survival arts we have long forgotten. The SHTF situation we are preparing for, was everyday life for folks who lived 150 years ago.

    Many DIY survival foods involve complicated ingredients and are rarely nutritionally complete. But pemmican has all the nutrients you need.

    Click the link below to learn how to make it, and in no time you’ll have yourself a hearty ration of all you’ll need to keep yourself and your family alive. 

     Watch this short video and learn how to make your own pemmican right at home:

    ultimate-survival-food

  • Making Your Own Shampoo

    Making Your Own Shampoo

    Are you sick and tired of the high-priced shampoos that are on the market today? You want to be self-sufficient, but you still keep on buying those shampoos because you need to keep your hair clean. What if you could make your own shampoo? Think about the benefits that can provide.

    Benefits of Homemade Shampoo

    First, when you have homemade shampoo, you’re not going to be spending as much money on those expensive brands in the store or at the salon. Consider howMaking your own shampoo much money you spend on shampoo each year for your entire family.
    A bottle of high-quality shampoo can cost between $10 and $15 per bottle. Of course, there are some that are much more. For the purpose of this example, we will say that you are buying shampoo that’s about $10 a bottle, and you’re going through two of those bottles each month for your entire family. That’s only $20 a month, but it equates to $240 per year. You can surely find a better way to spend that money.
    In addition to saving money, you will know exactly what ingredients are going into the shampoo. This means you don’t have to worry about unpronounceable chemicals being placed on you and your family. When you look at the recipe we’ve included here, you will see just how easy it is to keep your hair clean and to keep all those chemicals at bay.

    The Simplest Recipe

    This is going to be one of the simplest shampoo recipes – or any recipe for that matter – you’ll ever find. It’s been around for quite a while, and it works well.
    You need to have one tablespoon of baking soda and 1 cup of water. Mix those two ingredients together, and put in an old shampoo bottle. That’s all there is to it. Once you’ve made the shampoo, you just have to shake the bottle, little dab on your hand, and wash your hair just as you normally would. It’s good for any type of hair, and you don’t have to worry about stripping away the natural oils.
    Once again, baking soda has proven to be one of the best items that any homesteader can have on hand. If you want to make sure you’re saving the most money, then you might want to buy in bulk. This way, you can use the baking soda for other tasks as well, including cleaning and brushing your teeth.

    Getting Fancy

    While the preceding recipe is very simple and it is all that most people are ever going to need, you might want to treat yourself to something a little bit different once in a while. To do that, you can add a bit of essential oils to the shampoo mixture to give it some scent. You can also add in a teaspoon of honey.
    As long as you are using natural ingredients, you can add quite a few different things to the shampoo and still keep it safe to use for any type of hair and any type of skin.

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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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  • Tips for Saving Seeds

    Seed storage seems like it should be simple, but it’s actually more involved than you might think. After all, you don’t want your seeds to germinate while they’re in storage. With proper storage, though, a good collection of heirloom seeds could help you grow a full garden, complete with all of the fruits and vegetables for your cooking needs.

    Put Them in the Fridge and Leave Them There

    First of all, seeds do best when they’re stored in cooler temperatures. 40 degrees – the temperature of most refrigerators – is perfect for keeping seeds fresh and avoiding early germination, mold, and other problems. After you put your seeds in the fridge, though, don’t take them out and move them around a lot. Fluctuating temperatures are bad for seeds, as are freezing temperatures, so keep them away from the freezer.

    Keep Them in the Dark

    Whether or not you choose to keep your seeds in the refrigerator, you should never store them in a fully lit room. Seeds respond to light, so keep them in opaque bags or containers, and store them in a cool, dark place.

    Keep Them Dry

    Moisture can lead to mold and/or germination, so you want to make sure that they stay dry. Keeping them in a mason jar is a good idea, and Mylar bags work really well for this, as well. You can then place these in a paper bag or other opaque container to keep light out. You may even want to store them with some kind of desiccant or oxygen absorber to further dry them out.

    And, if you’re using your seeds in your garden each year, go ahead and rotate them, using the oldest ones first. This is a good way to ensure that you get better crops and that none of your seeds spoil while you’re storing them.

    Sources:
    http://www.backdoorsurvival.com/8-tips-for-storing-seeds-for-the-long-term/
    http://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/garden/10-tips-storing-your-saved-seeds

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