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How to Secure Food When Your Garden Fails

Gardening is the first place to start if you’d like to be more food-independent on your homestead, and for good reason! There’s nothing quite as satisfying, healthy, and cost-effective as growing your own food. But, sometimes crops fail, or your garden doesn’t produce as much as you want. It’s always important to have a plan B, especially when it comes to food, as well as supplementary and alternative options for food. If your homestead is for the purpose of being totally self-sustainable or prepared for when SHTF, you’ll need to make sure you have multiple sources of food beyond your […]

Tips for Growing Herbs Indoors

Herbs can be a helpful addition for any homesteader. They can be used for flavoring food, and in some cases, the herbs will even have medicinal purposes. Depending on where you live, you will not be able to have a garden all year long, and this would normally mean an end to your herb production until things warm up again. However, if you still want to grow your herbs throughout the year, it is possible. You just need to grow them indoors. Types of Herbs to Grow When you are growing herbs, think about the best types for your needs. […]

Are Fish Antibiotics Safe for Humans? (Video)

Fish antibiotics are a really popular item for preppers who want to stock up on crucial, life-saving medical supplies. Antibiotics can be incredibly crucial when disaster strikes, and might be particularly appealing for homesteaders, especially those that live in rural areas who might get caught with an infection, miles away from the nearest hospital. For this reason, it’s worth looking into whether or not fish antibiotics are a viable option for you. Being concerned as to whether or not fish antibiotics are safe for human consumption is a reasonable concern, so this video from one of my favorite YouTubers, Patriot […]

Are You Making Prepper Mistakes?

If you are into learning how to survive and prepping, you read as much as you can on the subject, and you are generally willing to work hard to make sure you have everything you need when it comes to living after the SHTF. Of course, many out there do not take any steps beyond buying some “cool” and interesting gear, some freeze-dried food, and maybe some water. Those who fall into this latter category could be making some serious prepper mistakes. One of the big issues is people buying supplies and then never bothering to rotate through them. If […]

Tips for Surviving a Tornado

Tornadoes cause devastation across Midwestern states each year. Unfortunately, people die in these storms, so it makes sense for you and your family to be as prepared as possible if you live in or are visiting states that are in the path of tornadoes. Although you might not have too much warning before the storm hits, the experts are getting better at predicting tornadoes. Always listen for tornado alerts and messages and follow the instructions provided. Keep aware of the way the weather changes and stay inside. You can often tell that a storm is on the way by the […]

Survival Skills You Need Now

Do you have all the survival skills you need? Would you be able to survive if the world as we know it were to implode tomorrow? While you might have some skills that others are lacking, you might not have everything you need to survive. Just because you know how to read a compass and fire a rifle doesn’t mean you are going to live. You need to start acquiring more skills, and you need to start sooner rather than later. Medical training is very important. You don’t have to become a doctor or a nurse, but you should learn […]

Growing Calories for Survival

One of the biggest reasons people want to homestead in this day and age is to be prepared for some kind of disaster. But what should you grow that would actually help you survive? Obviously, you will need food, and not just edibles, but calories. And rows and rows of herbs and kale are probably healthy, but they’re not going to keep you alive for very long. You need dense calories, high yields, and hearty crops that can grow through winter. Potatoes are an ideal long-term survival plant. You can grow them discreetly, they are high in carbohydrates and calories, and keep […]

How to Plant a Hidden Survival Garden

For regular life, it’s great to have a neat little garden, with divided rows and beds, cleared of weeds and with plenty of sunshine. But if you want to plant a garden for post-disaster survival, you might want to consider hiding some plants on your property or nearby your house, so that looters (or even government officials) cannot easily find your precious food supply. There are a few tricks to camouflaging plants that might help: 1. Grow plant barriers Hide a garden behind a row of thick, brambly hedge. A thorny plant would be ideal, as most people will probably not […]

3 Ways to Purify Water

If you are homesteading or in a survival situation, water will always be your primary need. If you have a source for fresh water on your homestead, that’s a huge advantage, but you also might need to purify the water. Whether you are collecting water from a stream, spring, rainwater, or what have you, it’s important to be able to make the water drinkable using one of many possible purification methods. Here are a few of the easiest and most popular purification methods for your consideration: Boiling By far the easiest way to purify water, it is not always the […]

Creative Ways to Freeze Eggs

If you are ever faced with an abundance of eggs and not enough time to make something with all of them, it can be overwhelming! Eggs, especially of the farm-fresh variety, are such awesome, healthy, cheap (or free, if you have your own chickens!), and versatile sources of nutrients that it is imperative to use them efficiently. One really great option for preserving eggs with any of the following freezer methods is not only having eggs through the winter as production slows, but also to make them quick, easy, and relatively mess-free to use! Baking in Muffin Tins A really simple […]

Clove and Orange Christmas Decorations

As a kid I used to make clove and orange Christmas decorations but I hadn’t thought about them in years. I saw this video the other day and it reminded me of how sweet-smelling these decorations can be, and what a fun and simple craft for kids they are. In the winter time, indoor air can become stale really easily, especially since colder temperatures make it uninviting to open windows, but these cute and festive decorations also double as natural air fresheners. Chemical candles or Glade plug-in style air fresheners can pollute your home with toxic fumes and overwhelming, artificial […]

DIY Clones

Downtime in the garden can really kill your productivity and efficiency. Cloning plants, such as tomatoes, will greatly reduce the time, space, and resources like potting soil. It will also give you a more predictable result, since you are not starting seeds with unknown traits, but cloning only the best plants in your garden. Here’s how to get started cloning your own plants. First, you will need a few supplies: Razor blade Clone plugs Clone tray with plastic cover Root tone Directions Most important is the selection of mother plants. You want to not only look for […]

Oil Pulling and Tongue Scraping (Infographic)

Dental pain or troubling issues can sometimes be worse than anything else. And getting to the dentist, especially if you live out in the country, can be a pain, and expensive. Taking good care of your teeth and dental health is of the utmost importance, but you don’t need fancy electric toothbrushes and flouride mouthwash to do so. Oil pulling is an increasingly popular dental hygiene habit that may be good for you to consider, especially if you are having any dental issues like bleeding gums, cavities, or bad breath. And it can help with much more, too! It sounds pretty […]

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 […]

Harvesting Rainwater (Video)

I love to see how real-life homesteads operate, and of course YouTube is great for this. Seeing different rainwater collection setups is particularly appealing, and I really enjoyed this short little video on this guy’s simple rainwater catchment system. Catchment is something that doesn’t have to be too complicated and that can benefit your homestead or garden greatly, once you start to collect rainwater you’ll see every drop of rain on the ground as a wasted resource! Enjoy this short, informative video on a basic rainwater catchment system that anyone can enjoy! If you enjoyed this, you might also like…. […]

Great Depression Era Dandelion Salad (Video)

I found this awesome YouTube channel recently called “Great Depression Cooking”, which features a 94-year-old woman, Clara, going through common recipes used during the Great Depression. I thought this particular video on dandelion salad was great for homesteaders to know, or anyone really, because it’s simple, nutritious, and almost everyone has dandelion growing in their yard or nearby their house. I think my favorite part of this video, however, is watching Clara carefully pick and clean the dandelion, explaining that it’s free, and all it takes is patience. It made me think about how much more work people used to […]

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 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 […]

5 Tips for Storing Food in Harsh Conditions

Storing dry foods can be tricky. Ideally, you want to store your food at about 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit, with low humidity (less than 15%). Of course, that just isn’t possible for a lot of people, especially those who live in exceedingly warm or cold climates, floodplains, etc. So how can you improve your food’s longevity, even if you’re storing it in harsh conditions? Follow these tips. Be selective with expiration dates – Canned goods can usually last years past their expiration dates, but it’s a good idea to choose the ones with the longest dates to be sure that […]

3 Tips for Prepping When You’re Broke

Whether you’re prepping in case of a disaster, you’re preparing to be an off-grid homesteader, or anything in between, you know that prepping and learning survival skills can take up a lot of time and money. That really doesn’t have to be the case, though. In fact, there are a number of ways that you can be prepared, even when you can barely pay your bills. Focus on Learning New Survival Skills First of all, being prepared isn’t just about buying cool equipment that will help you put up a tent anywhere or stay warm outside on the harshest winter […]

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. […]