7 Trees You Don’t Want Growing on Your Property
When you buy a piece of land, you usually inherit whatever the people before you decided to plant. Then, over the years, you add a few trees of your...
Oil Canning – What It Is, Why It Happens, and How to Prevent It
The first time I noticed waviness rippling across my barn roof in the afternoon sun, I was convinced something had gone seriously wrong with the...
The Truth About Composting Toilets
For years, I had one hard rule on my homestead. Animal manure could go in the garden. Cow, horse, chicken, rabbit, all of it, once it had aged. But...
How Does a Butter Bell Work? The Complete Guide
I resisted buying a butter bell for years, mostly because the whole idea sounded like a gimmick. Butter sitting in a little ceramic cup, upside...
Better Than a Greenhouse
Every year around this time, I see the same thing happen. Someone wants to stretch their growing season, so they start looking at greenhouses. At...
How to Build a More Self-Sufficient Household Water System
Water is one of those resources that feels unlimited right up until something interrupts it. A power outage can stop a well pump. A broken main can...
Food Storage Bags – The Complete Guide for Every Job on the Homestead
I have a drawer in my kitchen that used to be a junk drawer, and now it is entirely dedicated to bags. Freezer bags, vacuum bags, paper bags, mesh...
If You See This Weed, Your Garden Is in Trouble…
Nobody plants weeds. They just show up. You pull them, you toss them, you move on, and I've done it a thousand times. But weeds aren't random. Each...
Birch Tree Syrup – The Complete Guide
We've mentioned birch briefly in our roundup of backyard trees worth tapping, but it deserves its own deep dive, because birch syrup is genuinely...
The Real Cost of Starting a Homestead (And How to Cut It)
When Mark and I bought our piece of land, I thought the price on the listing was the number I needed to save for. I had it in my head like a finish...
Plastic Water Tanks – The Complete Guide
Once you commit to storing your own water, whether for drinking, irrigation, livestock, or just backup security, you'll run into the same question...
Aged Chicken Manure – What It Is, How to Make It, and How to Use It Safely
If you keep even a handful of hens, you already have a steady supply of what old-timers used to call brown gold. Chicken manure is genuinely one of...
9 Vegetables That Grow Better in Fall Than Summer
Fall is not the end of the planting season. Quite the contrary. Fall is another planting season and you should take advantage of it because it can...
Canning Carrots – The Complete Guide
Carrots store well in a root cellar for months on their own, so why can them at all? Because canned carrots are ready to dump straight into a soup...
Why You Should Drop A Cactus Pad in Your Water Bucket
Think about how much muddy water shows up around your place in just one month. The rain barrel goes brown because the roof was coated in dust and...
When Essential Home Equipment Fails – A Resilience-First Triage Plan
Self-sufficiency does not mean repairing every machine without help. It means understanding which household systems are essential, noticing failures...
10-10-10 Fertilizer – The Complete Guide
10-10-10 is probably the most recognizable bag on the fertilizer shelf, and also one of the most misunderstood. It gets reached for as a default,...
These Crops Will Make You Rich
How would it be to cover all your property taxes, feed bills, truck repairs, and other expenses without needing to do anything other than...
Working Dogs – The Complete Guide to Herding, Guarding, Hunting, and Vermin Control Roles
Ask ten homesteaders what a good working dog looks like and you will get ten different answers, because the term covers jobs that have almost...
5 Surprising Ways to Reuse Graywater Around the Homestead
You already know graywater is worth saving. And you've seen the same short list a hundred times. Water the flower beds. Run the washer out to the...
Fur Hen – The Complete Guide to Fluffy, Fur-Feathered Chickens
If you have ever seen a photo of a chicken that looks more like a small, walking pom-pom than a bird, you have met a fur hen. It is not an official...
The Worst Mistakes You Can Make When Buying Land
Let’s say you find a piece of land that checks every box. The grass is green, the creek is running, and you can already see where the garden goes...
Easy DIY Candle Making at Home: A Complete Beginner’s Guide
Candle making is one of those homestead skills that pays for itself fast. A pound of wax and a few basic supplies turn into candles that would cost...
7 Natural Amish Soil Boosters You Can Make for Free
The Amish farms in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, have been worked for generations, and they still sit on some of the most productive non-irrigated...
How to Grow Spinach – The Complete Guide
Spinach is one of the first things I plant every spring, and one of the first things I lose to bolting if I'm not paying attention. It's a fast,...
How to Start a No-Dig Garden From Scratch
If your garden gets a little smaller every year because your back can't take what it used to, keep reading. You till in spring. You fight weeds all...
Deer Jerky Recipe – The Safe Way to Turn Venison Into Trail-Ready Jerky
A good deer season leaves you with more venison than your freezer really wants to hold, and jerky is one of the best ways to turn that surplus into...
2,4-D Weed Killer – What It Is, How It Works, and Whether It’s Safe to Use
If you have ever bought a bag of "weed and feed" for your lawn, there is a good chance you already own 2,4-D without realizing it. It is one of the...
Faraday Cage for Generator – The Complete Build and Storage Guide
A backup generator is exactly the kind of gear an EMP or major solar storm could take out in an instant, and it is also exactly the piece of...
Why You Should Bury Your Cotton Underwear in the Garden
You take a look at your garden and it looks A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! The tomatoes are heavy and bright red all the way up the vine. The beans have run to the...
How to Make Cheese Powder at Home (Safely)
I go through a lot of cheese on this homestead, and like most of you, I've had blocks go dry at the edges or shred sitting in the fridge longer than...
How to Get TV Reception When You’re Miles From a Tower
This is one of the most annoying homesteading problems. Your TV has no signal. You’re not able to watch anything without interruptions. And this...
