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winter – Page 3 – Homesteader Depot

Homesteader Depot

Tag: winter

  • Storing and Protecting Summer Clothes

    Storing and Protecting Summer Clothes

    Getting ready for the winter doesn’t just require getting out your warm clothes, but also packing up your summer ones.  Depending on where you live, this might mean that your clothes will be packed up for 4 to 5 months.  Improperly storing clothing for that period of time could result in damaged or ruined summer wear by the time it gets warm again.  The biggest threats are typically mold and moths.  Here are a few tips on how to fight these threats and keep your summer clothes safe all winter long.

     

    Combating Mold

    Nobody wants to wear moldy clothes.  Aside from the way they smell, mold can cause health problems.  The main way to combat mold is to eliminate moisture.  The first and most important thing to do is to get your clothes as dry as possible before storing them away.  Line drying is probably not going to be good enough if you live in a humid area.  If you do not have access to a dryer, bring your clothes in off the line and hang them near your wood stove.  When they are completely dry, let them cool, fold them up, and pack them away in a container that will not allow moisture in.  If you don’t have a sturdy airtight container you can use trash bags.  To help keep the clothing from absorbing moisture, put some dry rice or baking soda in a sachet or an old sock without a mate and store that with your clothes.

     

    Repelling Moths

    You could use traditional moth balls, but they smell horrible, are toxic, and cost money.  Hopefully, you have some lavender in your herb garden or some cedar chips, if not you can buy some and at least avoid the toxins and the smell of conventional moth balls. As with the rice, put the lavender or cedar chips in a sachet or an old sock and store this with your clothes.  Not only will this keep bugs out, but your clothes will smell fresh instead of toxic when you get them out next year.

     

    It might seem like a needless time-consuming step right now, when you have plenty of other winter preparations to see too, but taking these steps to properly store your clothing could save you from spending plenty of money next year replacing moth-eaten or moldy clothes that were stored improperly.

     

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  • Getting the Homestead Ready for the Winter

    Getting the Homestead Ready for the Winter

    Days are getting shorter and nights are getting colder. Are you and your homestead ready for the changing season? Here are a few tips on getting ready for the winter so that you don’t get caught out in the cold.

    Preparing the Home
    The first preparation should be firewood. If you don’t already have a nice big pile of wood cut and dry, then you are going to go buy a cord of wood or have it delivered. Locate gaps and cracks that will cause drafts, fill them with caulk or foam to help insulate your home. If your home is large your fuel demands are going to be high, to help conserve your fuel close off unnecessary rooms to concentrate the heat. Give it a good cleaning and out the mouse traps because your home is about to look much more inviting than it did in the summer.
    Preparing the Garden
    As your crops finish up, prepare each bed that is done for the winter. Add compost and a thick layer of mulch to insulate the ground and provide food for the organisms that keep your soil healthy. Take some compost and soil inside where it won’t freeze if you plan on doing some indoor early spring planting.
    Preparing Animals
    Make sure that your animals have a warm place to sleep. If it snows in area, make sure that the structure will stand up to a layer of snow on the roof. If you have pigs, or chickens that are older and unproductive layers, now is a good time to start butchering them since it will save you feed costs and the meat will be easier to process in the cold weather. Make sure they have lots of straw on the ground, and consider leaving in their manure since the decomposition will give off heat.

    Winter is inevitable, and it’s not too far off. Prepare now so that you can enjoy it instead of suffering through it.

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  • Super Simple Tips for Splitting Wood

    Super Simple Tips for Splitting Wood

    Having a good supply of wood for fuel is crucial for your homestead.  While using the proper technique is important for efficiency and safety, using the right tool for the job can be just as important.  Here are a few items that will help save you time and energy as you get ready for the winter.

    Maul

    A splitting maul has several benefits over a chopping axe.  Its wider angel will spread the wood easier, while a thin chopping axe can get stuck in the wood.  It is less likely to bounce off hard wood because of its weight and the momentum that it generates.  And it is usually going to require fewer swings to accomplish the job.

    Chopping Block

    Trying to spilt wood on the bare ground versus using a chopping block will be much more difficult because the ground will absorb and diffuse much of the energy you are swinging into the wood.  To prevent this from happening, get a large cut of wood with one end flat, and one end with slight irregular angles.  You want the flat end to the bottom and the end with angles to be the top where you place the wood you are splitting.  The reason for this is that the wood you are splitting is never going to be perfectly flat and the angles on your chopping block can be used to counter the angles in the wood you are chopping.

    The Only Tree Every Prepper Should Grow in His Own Backyard?

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    Bungee and Chain

    When splitting large cuts of wood, splitting into two pieces will not be enough.  This will leave you bending down repeatedly to retrieve the fallen pieces and trying to balance them again, over and over.  One way around this, and a way to help focus the energy of your swing, is to use a bungee and a chain.  Get a 12” black rubber bungee cord and a chain about 3’ in length.  Hook one end of the bungee to the chain and then wrap it around the wood you are going to split, pull it tight, and hook the other end of the bungee through a link that will keep it tight around the wood.  As you split the wood it will remain together and upright.  This will not only keep you from bending over again and again, but it will also keep your maul or axe from being deflected, and focus its energy downward.

    Splitting wood is never going to be a breeze, but you can make things much easier on yourself by being prepared and using these simple tools to optimise your output.

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  • Tips for Keeping Chickens Warm This Winter

    Tips for Keeping Chickens Warm This Winter

    We recently covered how to care for chickens in hot weather, but as fall seems to be whizzing around the corner, we thought it would be a good idea to cover how to care for them in cold weather, because it’s important to plan ahead. It’s simpler than you think really-chickens can, with the right conditions, keep themselves warm surprisingly well.

    1. Let them breathe

    It seems like you’d want to make their coop completely insulated and airtight to protect them from harsh winter weather right? Wrong. While insulation is very important, and you should start fixing leaks in the roof and putting up fiberglass or foam insulation where you can, it’s also important to ensure proper ventilation in your coop. Chickens produce a lot of moisture that needs to be able to escape, and as they also produce a pretty decent amount of heat on their own, this will breed harmful mold that is more likely to kill them than the cold, so make sure there’s still some airflow through the coop.

    2. Keep them hydrated

    It’s very important that chickens have regular access to clean, fresh water throughout the winter months. Make sure to check it and refill it every day, especially as it might be in danger of freezing! This will help them keep themselves warm and keep their poop clean (eh, cleaner).

    3. Try the deep litter method

    A similar method is done for cows in winter barns with hay, this super cool natural way of trapping in heat harnesses the nitrogen in the chicken’s droppings and helps keep them warm. Line the coop with a thick layer, about six inches, of litter and/or hay, straw, wood chips, leaves, etc., then turn once or twice a week, removing wet portions, paying special attention to areas under roosts, and replenishing if necessary. (Hint: this will make some awesome compost in the spring!) You can even toss in some feed to encourage them to scratch it up and turn it too!

    4. Allow for ample roost space

    Chickens need proper roosts to be able to keep warm. If they sleep on the ground, they will loose too much heat. They need ample room to perch, and for their claws to wrap all around the roost to be able to keep them protected from frost bite. If you see your chickens sleeping on the ground or in nesting boxes, they need more roosting space.

    5. Give them room

    In the coop, if you have a larger space, you might want to section off a smaller space by hanging plastic sheeting to give them an area where they can roost and share body heat, because a smaller space will be easier to heat up. Wherever they are, make sure they also have room to scratch-because that’s almost all chickens do all day, you don’t want the poor things to get bored! If you do section off part of the coop for roosting, consider leaving another part for scratching, or make them a covered run for the daytime.

    Sources: 
    http://premeditatedleftovers.com/gardening/how-to-care-for-chickens-in-the-winter/
    http://www.backyardchickenproject.com/keeping-chickens-warm/

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  • Preparing the Homestead for Winter

    Preparing the Homestead for Winter

    I know, I know, it’s not even labor day yet, but it’s never too early to think about preparing the homestead for winter. The key to a safe winter is planning, preparation and foresight. If you’d like to homestead one day or get more off-grid eventually, here are a few basic tips for winter prep you can start considering now, for this year or the next. Even if you’re not a homesteader at all, these are useful tips for disaster preparedness through the winter.

    Collecting Firewood

    This is probably what comes to mind first when you think of preparing for winter, and it is of course vital. Fireplaces and wood stoves can be lifesaving, and even if you have gas stoves, you may want to consider a wood-burning backup for heating and cooking, in case gas lines get shut down or roads get blocked and you can’t drive to purchase more propane.

    You can purchase truckloads of firewood, sometimes find people selling it or giving it away on websites like Craigslist or other local listings, and of course cut your own. The most important factor is dryness: storing the wood while dry and keeping it dry.

    Storing Food

    As summer wanes away, take advantage of your garden harvest and also whatever harvest is going on in your community and start preserving food. Canning, drying, fermenting and packing in oil are all great options for refrigeration-free food storage in your cellar. Also if you are a hunter or know some, you’ll want to start preserving meat too. Meat can also be canned, made into jerky, and you can also render tallow too.

    Even if you are happy with your emergency supply of canned goods, preserving fresh produce through the winter is a very good idea for nutritional reasons. Throughout the winter, finding fresh, local produce can be very difficult, so preserves offer a nice alternative to irradiated Ecuadorian produce.

    Make repairs 

    Before the weather gets cold is the ideal time to check your house for any repairs that might need to be done before winter. You wouldn’t want to find out in the middle of a winter storm that you’ve got a leak in your roof or poor insulation on one of your windows. Get your regular maintenance done on your vehicles, too.

    Other ways to prepare for winter are to make sure you’ve got flashlights and/or oil lamps with spare batteries and/or oil, plenty of winter clothes and blankets for your family, and-something often overlooked-a way to dry clothes indoors. With the right considerations and foresight, you can have a very safe and prepared homestead winter.

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