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  • Stock Your Fishing Pond

    Stock Your Fishing Pond

    If you have a pond on your property, or you are considering building a man-made pond for the property, you might want to stock it with fish. First, you need to make sure that it is capable of sustaining fish though. You must create a pond that is as natural as possible, so it has the right level of oxygen to sustain fish. Keep in mind that ponds that are too shallow will not have enough oxygen in them over the winter, and the fish will die.

    When stocking a pond, you need to make sure that you are using fish that are common to the area and that will thrive. This is true whether it is a new or older pond you are stocking. If you are stocking an older pond, know the type of fish and their condition before you add any more to the mix.

    Why would you want to have a stocked pond on your property? Once you’ve stocked a pond, so long as it is large enough and healthy enough, it can sustain itself and the life within it. This means you can have access to fresh fish without needing to leave the property. It’s also quite a bit of fun just to head on down to your own fishing hole rather than having to take a drive or a hike to catch some fish.

    To stock the pond, you will likely have to go through a commercial source for the initial fish. As long as they take to the pond, the fish should start to breed on their own, and it should become self-sustaining. If you catch some fish from another location that you don’t plan on eating, and they are the same type of fish as in the pond, you can always add some more stock that way too.

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  • Oil Pulling and Tongue Scraping (Infographic)

    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 funny at first, but once you get going you might very well find yourself hooked!

    Tongue scraping is another great holistic dental practice that can greatly reduce any dental issues.

    I thought this was a great infographic that breaks down how to oil pulling and tongue scraping. You can check out the original article at Yoganonymous.com.

     

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  • DIY Beeswax Candles (Video)

    DIY Beeswax Candles (Video)

    Beeswax candles are a really fun indoor activity for wintertime, and a great skill for homesteading. Beeswax is one principal motivation for keeping bees, and you can use the wax to make crafts like homemade candles that will do very well at farmer’s markets or perhaps an Etsy shop. You can add essential oils or even herbs for a lovely, all-natural aroma that is far better than a toxic parafin candle with perfumes and dyes.

    But even if you don’t keep bees, you can find organic beeswax at your local health food store or online and make lovely homemade candles to sell as crafts or five as gifts (hey, the holidays are coming up!)

    This is a great tutorial video on how to make your own beeswax candles that I wanted to share, since this focus particularly on aromatherapy candles. Many people absolutely love scented candles, especially this time of year, but as I mentioned they can be toxic and harmful, not to mention expensive! This tutorial covers how to make therapeutic, great-smelling candles for yourself. Enjoy!

  • Stay Safe on the Homestead

    Stay Safe on the Homestead

    People eventually get into a routine. They do things without thinking about it because they’ve done them so many times in the past. This happens in every aspect of life, and the homestead is certainly not immune. However, this has the potential to be quite problematic, as it doesn’t exactly promote safety. If you aren’t careful, you could make some dangerous or costly mistakes. The following are a couple of simple tips you will want to employ to help reduce the risks.

    First, you always need to understand the dangers of any equipment used on the homestead. This includes mowers, tractors, chippers, and anything else that you use. You always need to pay attention to the machine. Never, no matter how tempting it might be, just hop off a tractor to open a gate. Turn the tractor off first, and then open the gate. Know how to use any equipment before you use it, and only use it in the appropriate manner.

    Second, remember that your animals have teeth, and they may bite. Even your animals that seem docile could bite, so use precautions around them. This is especially true with goats, which seem to like to chew on anything, including you if your hand gets in the way. Here’s another safety tip to remember with animals, particularly the large ones. If you are putting them on a lead, don’t wrap the lead around your hand. If they were to take off, it could break your hand or arm. At the very least, it will leave you sore.

    Third, don’t wear headphones while you are doing chores around the homestead. It can be tempting, but you won’t hear all the things you need to hear on the farm, such as animals in trouble, equipment that’s not running properly, and people calling to you. Be careful and use your common sense.

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  • Indoor Pets for Your Outdoor Garden

    Indoor Pets for Your Outdoor Garden

     

     

    Unfortunately, some people just can’t see the benefit of backyard chickens, and they can’t let others be.  You may live in an area that doesn’t allow for livestock such as chickens and have neighbors that have a lack of appreciation for self-reliance and fresh food.  But does that mean that you have to buy manure?  Or that you can’t raise animals for meat?  Not necessarily.  You could raise animals indoors or in discreet cages, animals such as guinea pigs or rabbits.

     

    • If you are wanting meat, rabbits are the obvious choice because of their superior ability to reproduce with high rates of surviving offspring.
    • Both guinea pigs and rabbits can have their diets largely supplemented with vegetable scraps from the kitchen and garden making them cheap to feed.
    • Both animals produce manure that is great for your garden or compost pile, and that smells a lot better than chicken manure so your neighbors are less likely to notice or complain if they do.
    • Both animals can be raised in relatively small pins without causing undo stress to the animals compared with chickens.
    • Neither guinea pigs or rabbits are as social as chickens are and can be raised solitarily if given attention without the animals suffering.
    • Both animals can deal with cold weather if they are kept in unheated rooms such as a garage or on a covered porch. But care should be taken to provide them with relief from the heat.
    • Neither animal makes much noise that could be heard by neighbors.
    • Both guinea pigs and rabbits are cute animals that are fun for kids to have as indoor pets that can be allowed out of the cage and safely handled.

     

    Just because you live in an area that restricts your ability to raise livestock doesn’t mean that you can’t find a way around it that could provide you with manure and even meat.

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  • 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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  • How to Build a Potato Tower

    How to Build a Potato Tower

     

    Potato towers are a way to grow more potatoes in a smaller area by growing vertical.  There are a variety of techniques to build potato towers using different materials but the basic principles are the same.  This article will describe how to build a potato tower using fencing or hardware cloth.

     

    • You will need some hog wire, no climb fence, or hardware cloth that is 4 feet tall and at least 6 feet long, at least 2 stakes to support the fencing but preferably 4, wire or zip ties to secure the fencing to the stakes, compost, straw, and sprouted seed potatoes.
    • First, drive your stakes into the ground. If you have 4 stakes, put them in a square pattern with dimensions that will allow the fencing to wrap completely around, if you have only 2 stakes you will make a round tower with the stakes on opposite sides.
    • Secure your fencing to the first 3 stakes leaving one end open for you to work in, or both of the stakes with one end open.
    • Add soil or compost in the center and straw around the outside so that the soil will not spill out. Once you have 8 inches of depth plant your seed potatoes and cover them with more soil or compost.
    • Secure the fencing to close up the tower

    Now all you have to do is wait until the potato plants have grown out of the soil to a height of 6 to 8 inches, once they have, add more soil until the plants are only an inch or so out above the surface, and add more straw to the perimeter to contain the soil.  Keep the tower wet, it will drain much more than the ground will and will need to be watered regularly.  To harvest, simply remove the fencing, no need to dig and risk damaging your potatoes.

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  • Harvesting Rainwater (Video)

    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!

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