Vegetable Planting “Tips” That Ruined My Crops
People give all kinds of tips on how to grow vegetables; unfortunately, sometimes it’s terrible advice. Most of the time, people give advice that works very well in a particular climate and soil type, but they fail to specify their conditions. So, when people with...
Stop Making These Dangerous Pest Control Mistakes
Pests in your home and on your outdoor adventures are troublesome and can be downright dangerous, so naturally, we want to control them. From mosquitoes buzzing in your ears to ants marching over your kitchen counters to cockroaches scurrying away when you turn on the...
Plant These Now For An Early Summer Harvest
The sun is finally shining, and spring is in full bloom—making it the perfect time to harvest vegetables for the summer. However, achieving an early summer yield requires strategic planting and most importantly, the right selection of vegetables. So, which vegetables...
What Happens When You Use Backing Soda In Your Garden?
Baking soda in your garden? Yes, you can use baking soda for many things in the garden. There are also times when you shouldn’t use baking soda. We will explore both. Baking soda is the common term for sodium bicarbonate, a natural salt used in baking, cleaning, and...
How To Keep Raccoons Away From Your Property
Perhaps you've come out to the horrifying sight of raccoons on your property after they've invaded your chicken coop overnight. Everyone who's experienced this is well aware of what I'm talking about (and we aren't going to get more graphic than that for the people...
How To Start A Regenerative Garden
Homesteaders and regenerative gardens connect closely through their shared focus on self-sufficiency, sustainability, and resilience. To start a regenerative garden, use sustainable farming practices. These methods help replenish the soil and boost biodiversity. They...
15 Medicinal Plants You Need To Start Growing This Spring
As spring approaches and infuses the earth with new life, now is the time to create your very own healing garden with a variety of medicinal herbs. Nature has blessed us with an unlimited supply of botanical treasures, each containing its own unique restorative...
Avoid These 7 Common Greenhouse Gardening Mistakes
There are several common mistakes people make when they first start greenhouse gardening. Many of our mistakes encourage plant diseases to thrive in the warmth and humidity of the greenhouse, while others lead to poor plant growth. Let’s look at these seven mistakes...
Never Store These 10 Foods Together
Whether you're storing your food in a chilly root cellar for the winter or you're simply looking for tips as to what not to do in your kitchen, you've come to the right place. Today, we'll be looking at foods that detract from one another by being forced into...
Ingenious Ways To Preserve Cheese At Home
Perhaps you've had an extremely bountiful milking season and you have nothing to do with the excess milk as you clean out your freezer (probably in preparation for hunting season). What do you do? And how do you turn it into something that won't go to waste? There's a...
Fermenting vs Pickling
Fermenting and pickling are food preservation techniques that have been used for centuries to boost the flavors and shelf life of certain foods. They are often mistaken as the same, while both methods preserve food, they are significantly different in terms of the...
How To Make Long-Lasting Tallow For Survival
Beef tallow is fat that’s cooked down from rump roast, ribs, steaks, or any other cut of meat of the cow. For this article, I use leaf fat from my local butcher shop which usually surrounds and protects the organs in the abdominal cavity. You can use any type of fat...
No Electricity Cooking Techniques You Need To Know By Heart
When the power goes out, it can be a little problem or a big one, depending on why it happened, when it happened, and how long it lasted. Even though we can't control those things, there are some things we can do to make the problem smaller. One of them is learning...
You Never Thought You Could Pickle These
As a homesteader, I always look for different ways to preserve any food in excess. I believe I used every way of preserving food from fermenting, pickling, or canning food will never go to waste. These different ways to preserve food didn't have to be only during the...
Why Haven’t You Canned This?
Canning is a great way to preserve food and make it shelf-stable. If you are like most people, you think canned foods are primarily jams, jellies, soups, and vegetables. But there are many more foods that can be canned. Let’s look at some of these foods that are sure...
Foods You Should Never Keep in a Root Cellar
Root cellars have been a convenient storage facility for food for centuries. They provide a dark, cool, and humid environment that helps prolong the shelf-life of fruits, vegetables, root crops, and other foods. While root cellars are excellent for preserving many...
Better Than a Faraday Cage
My dad is living with me and my family. He just had his 80th birthday, but he’s very sick and bedbound. To top it all off, he also needs dialysis three times a week and because he cannot just go to a hospital, we have an at-home dialysis device. I can’t afford to have...
12 Types of Wood You Should Never Burn
Most homesteaders plan on using wood for heating and cooking, in the event that the power goes out. That makes sense, as mankind has been using wood for cooking and heating ever since our ancestors first harnessed fire to their use. Wood is a renewable resource and...
How To Purify Water Off Grid
There are various ways to purify water off the grid, which means without relying on a centralized water treatment facility. How to purify water off grid? The choice of method depends on the specific circumstances and available resources. Here are some common off-grid...
Don’t Throw Away Your Wood Ash! Do This Instead
Some people make a habit of cleaning out wood ash from their fireplaces and their fire pits and throwing it away. This blows my mind; wood ash is so useful in day-to-day life. Are you raising your brows yet? Think I've lost my mind? Join me for a journey into wood ash...
Off Grid Water Heaters
Living off-grid for a decade, I've tested various off grid water heaters. Solar ones are great on sunny days, though not so effective when clouds roll in. Wood-burning heaters warm us up and cook our meals, but gathering firewood takes effort. Geothermal systems are...
Native American Tips for Living Off the Land
Native Americans mastered the art of existing in the wild long before modern conveniences, but how was that even possible? In the past, Native Americans have been the rulers of the land since ancient times. They had unique skills to live off the land and always kept...
Modular Backyard Power Plant Review
I’ve always been a fan of Ron Melchiore. The guy has been living completely off-grid for the last 43 years, relying on systems like a modular backyard power plant to generate his own energy. And in all this time, a wire from the grid has never been connected to any of...
Livestock In Winter: Mistakes Even The Most Advanced Homesteaders Make
Winter can be super fun, but it's a cold challenge for people who live on farms! Whether you're new to homesteading or a pro, this season can really test your skills. Fields snuggled under a snowy blanket, water turning into ice—just another day on a winter farmstead....
