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homesteading – Page 9 – Homesteader Depot

Homesteader Depot

Tag: homesteading

  • Seed Saving Tips (Infographic)

    Seed Saving Tips (Infographic)

    Seed saving is one of the most important skills to have for self-reliance. If done properly, one packet of seeds could last for generations. One of the biggest reasons to seed save is that if you choose the seeds from a healthy, productive plant, is that you are choosing the plant with the genes that will thrive in your particular environment, and, over time, it will become perfect for your gardening zone. “Heirloom” seeds are seeds that have been collected and re-planted each year by farmers for generations, and ideally you could create your own!

    Not every seed will be easily saved in the same way, so this handy infographic gives some tips for common fruits and vegetables that have relatively easy-to-save seeds. When you plant a crop of any of these plants next year, remember to choose seeds from the healthiest, most prolific plant, that was undisturbed by pests or disease. This plant will have the strongest genes, and genes ideal for surviving and thriving in your climate. Have you ever tried to save your own seeds? Share below!

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  • Reducing Your Electric Bill  

    Reducing Your Electric Bill  

    If you have an electric dryer you may be able to reduce your electric bill this time of year and still stay warm.  This video demonstrates and explains how get heat and a comfortable level of humidity in your home using a simple device that you can manufacture yourself at home.  The only material you need is a 5-gallon bucket with lid, dryer hose dock, and hose clamps.  The only tools you need are a box cutter and a drill.  The basic premise of the device, called a dyer lint box or lint bucket, is to use the hot air from your electric dyer to help heat your home and humidify the air by catching the lent in a bucket of water inside your home so that you do not waste all the heat by venting your dyer exhaust outside.  This simple trick can save you money and add comfort to your home this winter and in years to come.

     

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  • How to Homestead When You Live in An Apartment

    How to Homestead When You Live in An Apartment

    For many wannabe homesteaders, an apartment probably seems like the last place you’d be able to homestead. And of course, you won’t be able to grow (very much) food of your own, raise livestock, or live off the land. There are however, many things you can do to make your apartment a mini-homestead. While you’ll still be reliant on the outside world, the truth is, most homesteaders still are too, and no matter what your living arrangement, there’s always something you can do to be more self-reliant.

    Here are some tips for apartment homesteading that anyone can do:

    1. Grow as much as you can

    It might not be much, but any outdoor area or even sunny windowsill that you have is potential “garden” space. You can grow herbs, greens, even tomatoes in small pots. You can grow vertically as well, there are many ideas out there on Pinterest or products on the market for growing things from hanging pots or along a wall. You can also grow sprouts right on your counter, for fresh, insanely healthy greens year-round.

    2. DIY Everything

    Ok, so you probably can’t DIY literally everything, but learning to sew, craft, knit, mend, etc., can help you become mroe self-reliant and save money. The beautiful thing about living in the age of Pinterest, YouTube, and blogs (like this one!) is that you can learn to do and make all kinds of things yourself, learning basic skills and saving money along the way.

    3. Eat in season

    Find your local farmer’s market and eat what’s in season. This might mean some season you have less fresh produce than others, but there’s a great solution for that:

    4. Preserve food

    Canning, drying, and pickling are all forms of food preservation you can easily do right in an apartment. Buy marked down end-of-season produce and preserve it for the coming winter. It’s a great way to save money, have nutritious, homemade preserves year-round, and learn some of the skills that are the cornerstone of self-reliant homesteading.

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  • Succession Staggered Planting

    Succession Staggered Planting

    As a home gardener, your goal is to grow fresh vegetables that you and your family can enjoy from spring until fall. Regardless of whether you’re growing a traditional garden in your backyard or are among those using the space-saving raised bed style of gardening, succession planting will enable you to enjoy a more bountiful, long-term harvest. Succession planting is a simple concept that can be done in two different ways. One method is to stagger the time frame in which you plant the same type of vegetable. The second method is to harvest one crop, then plant a different crop in that same location.

    The key to successful succession planting is careful planning. If organization isn’t a strong skill for you, don’t despair, there’s an online spread sheet template you can use to create a personalized plan. If that seems too detailed for you, many online garden sites offer excellent garden design charts that can be adapted to the area you live in and assist you in selecting the most appropriate vegetables for your garden.

    To assure that you get the best yield possible from each crop you plant, you’ll need to consider the differences in temperature and weather conditions as the month’s progress. For example, if you’re planting seeds, you need to keep in mind that the amount of days to maturity printed on the back of the pack is typically based on spring plantings. You can anticipate it taking more time for a plant to reach maturity when planted later in the season. This is due in part to the change in temperature. It is also generally recommended that seeds be planted about twice as deep in the summer as in the spring. If you replace one plant with another plant, you will need to be attentive to the amount of water the new plant requires in the warmer temperatures.

    You will be more successful with your succession garden if you take some time to observe your garden area carefully. As the seasons progress from spring to fall, the amount of sunlight and shade in your garden area will change. The warm sunshine that was beneficial to your plants in the spring may become a hazard for your plants in the summer. In order for your plants to survive and thrive in a succession garden, you may need to create some shade. You can do this by adding a trellis and some climbing plants throughout your garden. If you are growing your garden on a deck or patio, you might need to use shade cloths to keep the hot summer sun from destroying your plants.

    Succession planting is a gardening method that complements today’s busy lifestyle. Hectic schedules typically don’t allow for hours to be spent in the kitchen preserving vegetables that have arrived in abundance. Staggered planting means your vegetables will be ready for harvest at manageable intervals. You can enjoy garden fresh vegetables for an extended period of time.

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  • Simple Steps to Getting Your Homestead Off-Grid

    Simple Steps to Getting Your Homestead Off-Grid

    Living on an off-grid homestead is no small matter. It might take years of planning, research and hard work. Hopefully if you do own property you’ve already considered how possible it might be to live off-grid, or if you are shopping around, this is what you’re thinking about long term.

    “Off-grid” is a catch-all term that largely refers to being off the municipal and/or county energy grids. Having water on your property, either from catchment, a well, or purchased and transported to your property from another private citizen, generating your own electricity, and relying on energy sources such as gas or propane that you provide yourself.

    Most likely you won’t be able to break off grid entirely right away, so here are some simple steps to planning out what you’ll want to do to get off-grid.

    1. Know your local laws

    Every state and county has different laws governing what land-owners are able to do on their property as far as generating energy, drilling for or collecting water, etc. You are still subject to zoning laws and building codes as well, so do your research so you will be fully informed on what will be legal to do on your land. The last thing you want is to put a bunch of time and energy into something that you’ll get fined for, so make sure you’re in full compliance with the government to keep them out of your hair.

    2. Prioritize

    Figure out what would be simplest and most practical to tackle first for your off-grid aspirations. You might find that setting up a basic catchment system would be cheap and easy for your area, and suit your needs the best, or you might pay a great price for local water and would prefer to set up a simple solar power system. Only you know your specific needs on the homestead so think about the energy source that would be the easiest to sacrifice for a time to set up a new system, because that’s a possibility as well. Some people find they can live without electricity just fine but couldn’t survive without running, pressurized water, others don’t mind scooping and dumping the water for their daily tasks but can’t stand the thought of not being able to switch a light on.

    3. Tackle low-tech changes first

    If there’s anything you can do to reduce your reliance on “the grid” that involves simple, low-tech alternatives, go for that first. For example, a simple wood stove could replace a lot of your need for natural gas, or collecting rainwater if you live in a very wet area might reduce your need for local water if you can water your garden and animals with it. You also might be able to greatly reduce your need for electricity by making sacrifices; use lanterns instead of lights, read instead of watch TV, heat things up on the stove instead of a microwave, use a dutch oven instead of a crock pot, etc, and this might move you into the position of being able to use a simple generator or solar power system.

     

    You might have to change your lifestyle to get off-grid, but after all, that’s what getting off the grid is all about. Sacrificing modern luxury for energy independince might be one of the best choices you’ve ever made!

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  • Farm Chores for Children By Age

    Farm Chores for Children By Age

    It’s so wonderful for children to grow up on a homestead. Fresh air, animals, learning about nature and plants, and also, work ethic! Children are never too young to participate in homestead duties. Here’s a list of ideas for children, by age group, to get involved in farm chores. Hey, they’re another mouth to feed, why not put them to work?

    Toddlers

    Toddlers will most likely need to be closely supervised, but they’re often eager to help out and get involved. Some tasks they can do and be involved in are filling up feed buckets or water troughs, throwing scratch to chickens or scraps to pigs or goats, brushing animals, weeding, or harvesting from the garden.

    Ages 4-5

    This age group can probably do everything toddlers would do with more independence, as well as help plant seeds, let animals out in the morning or back in in the evening, collect eggs, help with food prep and food processing, hang laundry and care for chicks or other small animals that require constant attention.

    Ages 6-9

    This age group can again probably do everything younger children can do with more and maybe even complete independence, as well as learn how to milk animals, do basic landscaping and gardening such as digging, raking, and maybe even tilling, watering the garden and have regular chores that they earn allowance for and can be relied upon to do regularly.

    Ages 10-12

    By this age group children can be expected to have much more responsibility, including for the above tasks as well as regularly milking animals, bathing and grooming, helping with business aspects of the homestead like going to the farmer’s market or learning about keeping track of expenses and income, giving medication to animals and/or monitoring conditions of pregnant or sick animals.

    Ages 13+

    By this age, they’re pretty much official farmhands! They can handle all the above tasks and by this age should be held accountable for them. They can also learn to handle animals such as horses or cows, operate light machinery, help with more serious garden tasks like digging or pickaxing, begin to assist with live births of animals, and should be learning more and more about what adults handle as the years go on.

     

    These are guidelines, of course, you as a parent will know what your child can reasonably handle. But giving children responsibilities and independence where they can learn what it’s like to have people rely on them is a wonderful character builder, and will help them become assured, hard-working, reliable adults.

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  • Harvesting Sugar Cane (Video)

    Harvesting Sugar Cane (Video)

    Sugar is a huge part of the American diet, and yet a lot of people don’t even think about how it grows or how it’s harvested. Entire nations and states have had their entire economies centered around sugar, a very valuable commodity that is pretty labor-intensive.

    These days, big agro sugar cane fields have plenty of industrial equipment to make this labor-intensive crop easier to plant, tend and harvest.

    I thought this video of harvesting sugar cane on a homestead was pretty cool. I love seeing how things are/were done without big industrial equipment, especially by small homesteaders. Check it out!

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  • Best Animals to Raise for a Homesteader

    Best Animals to Raise for a Homesteader

    You want to become truly self-sufficient. Even though you might have a beautiful garden with all the vegetables you need, if you are still buying meat and dairy from the grocery store, you aren’t very self-sufficient at all. In this post, we’ll be looking at some of the best animals for a small homesteader to raise that can do more than just provide meat.

    Goats

    Having goats on the property is always a good idea, as even just a single goat can provide you with between two and four quarts of milk each day. The milk can be used to drink, naturally. However, you could also use it for a host of other things, such as making butter and cheese. You could even put it in the soap you make. Those who have large herds of goats may also use them for meat if they choose.

    Sheep

    Like goats, sheep don’t take up a lot of space, and they can provide you with some great benefits, namely wool. With the wool, you can then make clothing, blankets, and much more, which makes you even more self-sufficient. Sheep’s milk might not be something that you commonly think about, but you can use it to make some great cheese. As with goats, you can use the sheep for meat if needed. However, the other benefits they offer tend to make them more valuable in other areas.

    Poultry

    Of course, you certainly want to consider raising poultry, and chickens are probably top on your list. It’s true that chickens are a great option. You can raise them for eggs or meat, and again, they don’t require too much space. Even the chicken feathers are useful. You can clean them, and then you can use them to stuff pillows, for example.

    You certainly have some other choices with poultry as well, including ducks and geese, as well as turkeys.

    Hogs

    If you raise hogs, you will have a substantial amount of quality meat on your homestead. You can make bacon and sausage, and you will have plenty of pork chops and roasts. Hogs will eat many different things, including some of the table scraps that you have and that you might otherwise throw away. Just make sure there isn’t too much protein in their diet. Also, you can use hog manure in your garden.

    Learn About Your Animals

    Regardless of which type of animals you choose to raise as a homesteader, you need to do your due diligence. This means learning about the different animals and the various breeds that are available. You want to choose the best animals for your lifestyle, and you need to know how to care for them properly. With a little bit of research, you will have no problem when it comes to raising and keeping these animals. Of course, these are just some of the good options for homesteaders out there. You can find plenty of other good animals that might work better for you, such as rabbits, or even fish.

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