DIY UV Water Sterilizer That Kills Every Pathogen
The traditional methods for water purification have usually involved boiling the water for at least 3 minutes or treating it with chemicals with either a chlorine or iodine base. They all work, but they have some downsides. Chemical treatments often leave a chemical...
Plant These Herbs Once and You’ll Have Them Forever
The first time I planted thyme, I spent $4.99 on a tiny plant from the hardware store. That was eight years ago. The same plant is still out there in my garden, and I haven't bought thyme since. If you’ve ever gone to the supermarket and thought the prices for herbs...
2026 Spring Medicinal Planting Guide
You’re about to discover something most people never learn: the most powerful medicine doesn’t come from a pharmacy—it comes from seeds you can plant in your backyard this spring. While your neighbors are planting petunias and decorative bushes, you could be growing a...
9 Plants That Grow With No Water
I lost an entire garden in 2021 during the Western drought. Everything from tomatoes to squash gave up and I was desperate. All my hard work was gone and since then, I’ve kept wondering if there is a better way to do this. The secret lies in the plants you grow....
Recycling Gold and Copper from Electronics
Some people actively prospect for gold and other precious metals across rivers, creeks, and streams. Images of Alaska Sourdoughs and California 49ers come to mind as they swirl their gold pans in freezing waters and look with hope for a speck of gold. But you don’t...
7 High-Yield Crops for Small Spaces
You don't need a big piece of land to grow real food for you and your family. What's more, you don’t even need special crops. Basic crops, the ones everyone is planting in their gardens, do just fine in containers, raised beds, and other places you might believe are...
7 Things You Never (Ever!) Need in Your Pantry
A well-stocked pantry is the heart of any homestead. You already know the drill and that's why you are canning your harvest, drying herbs, and also filling every shelf you've got in your pantry. But one thing that is extremely overlooked, even by experienced...
You Don’t Need More Plants, You Just Need These 4 Simple DIY Projects
Every spring it's the same thing. You pick up more seedlings, start more trays, squeeze in one more row, and somehow the harvest doesn't change at all. The garden gets bigger, but the results stay the same. This is incredibly frustrating! If this is something you...
Bee Balm – How to Grow, Harvest, and Use It On Your Homestead
I put my first bee balm in the ground along the edge of my herb beds mostly because I wanted more pollinators around the vegetable garden, and it delivered on that in the first summer. What I did not expect was how much use I would get out of it beyond the bees. Once...
These 10 Watering Mistakes Waste 50% of Your Water
There’s a high chance you water the garden, walk away, and maybe think the job's done. But a lot of the water you use never gets near a root because of some basic but incredibly common mistakes even the most experienced homesteaders make! In many cases, the water runs...
Organic Weed Killer – The Complete Guide to Every Method That Actually Works
I gave up on chemical weed killers years ago, not because of any single scary headline, but because I did not want that stuff anywhere near the garden that feeds my family or the yard my dogs roll around in every day. The problem is that going organic does not mean...
How to Grow Bell Peppers – The Complete Guide From Seed to Harvest
Bell peppers earn their spot in my garden every single year, and if you have ever paid grocery store prices for a bag of three peppers, you already know why. They are slower to get going than tomatoes or squash, they ask for a little more patience with heat and...
Planning a Cottage Garden – A Practical Guide from My Own Backyard
When I started planning my own cottage garden, I made every mistake you can make with a wheelbarrow and a stack of seed packets. I bought plants first and figured out where they'd go later. I crammed a six-foot delphinium into a spot that got four hours of shade and...
Calendula Oil – How I Make It and Use It
Calendula is one of the first things I planted when I started my homestead garden, and it's never left. It reseeds itself, it keeps blooming from late spring straight through the first frost, and the bees love it almost as much as I do. Somewhere around my second...
Why Your Garden Wilts in July Even When You Water Every Day
It’s such a beautiful summer day and first thing in the morning, you walk into the garden to see what’s happening over there. Everything seems fine, so you go about your day. You come back at two in the afternoon and your tomatoes are flopped over like they have...
Seaweed Fertilizer – The Complete Guide to Feeding Your Garden with Ocean Nutrients
The first time I hauled a feed sack of storm-tossed kelp up from the tideline, my neighbor asked if I'd lost my mind. Two months later, when my tomatoes were noticeably darker and heavier with fruit than hers, she asked for the recipe instead. Seaweed fertilizer is...
DIY Closet Farming Guide
It may seem unusual, but a closet is an excellent location for an interior garden. Many people who try to create garden spaces indoors, especially during the winter, often have to sacrifice space appearances and put up with the mess of dirt on the floor and the...
How to Prevent Garden Runoff from Reaching Your House Foundation
This is one of those mistakes that you notice when it's already too late. Maybe you spent years building a beautiful garden and then you discover that same garden is threatening the integrity of your house. I'll give you a short checklist that can save you a small...
I Tanned a Hide With Nothing but Eggs and Animal Brain
If you raise livestock or go out hunting, you might already be familiar with the butchering process. The meat goes in the freezer, the bones go in a stock pot, and then you have the hide sitting somewhere in the shed doing nothing. You are aware that it’s worth...
The Most Overlooked Resource On Your Property
There is a high chance that you also have that one shed where you toss the things you don't know where else to put. Broken tools, half-empty paint cans, bags of feed you forgot about, holiday decorations and these are just a few of the things I used to have in my...
5 DIY Wax Projects for Your House
I got into all these beeswax projects purely by accident. I was trying to find a way to use less plastic. I was tired of plastic bags, plastic sheets, and all the plastic stuff you use on a daily basis in the kitchen. This is how I stumbled upon a guide that was...
Leftover Firewood? Here’s What to Do With It
I’ve been heating with wood almost my whole life and if your first choice in terms of heating is also wood, then you know that as soon as spring starts, you've got a pile of odd-shaped logs, half-rotted rounds, and branches that aren't worth splitting but feel wrong...
What Happens If You Boil Flour
I never thought much about what happens when boiling water and plain flour are mixed. I just imagined it sounds like something that makes a mess on the stove. Once I decided to actually look into it, I found out you can turn this simple mix into all kinds of useful...
How to Build a Predator-Proof Automatic Chicken Coop Door
Anyone who raises chickens is familiar with the usual list of daily, weekly and monthly chores. Clean and check the waterer, clean and refill the feeder, harvest the eggs, clean the coop and every morning and evening, lock up the coop. It can get wearying, especially...
This Unusual Trick Preserves Soup for 6+ Months
If you’re like me and you put up enough food to feed a small army, then you might be struggling with this problem: your pantry, root cellar, and freezer are full and you always feel like you never have enough space for food storage. This is a pretty common...
10 Fermentation Mistakes That Will Ruin the Whole Batch
The first time I made sauerkraut, I was so proud of myself, right up until I lifted the lid a week later. The whole crock was slimy and gray and smelled like something had died in there. I realized that maybe I don’t know how fermenting works at all. Turned out I'd...
Lactic Acid Fermentation – A Complete Guide for the Home Homesteader
Before refrigerators, before canning, before any of the modern food preservation systems we take for granted, people kept vegetables safe and nourishing through winter using nothing more than salt, water, and time. That method was lactic acid fermentation, and it...
How to Make Sour Cream at Home – Simple, Reliable, and Better Than Store-Bought
Store-bought sour cream is fine when you need it in a pinch, but once you start making it yourself, the difference is hard to ignore. Homemade sour cream is richer, tangier, and has a cleaner flavor without the stabilizers and thickeners that commercial versions rely...
Bulk Fermentation: The Complete Homesteader’s Guide to Getting It Right Every Time
If you have ever pulled a sourdough loaf out of the oven and found it flat, dense, sticky, or gummy in the middle, the problem almost certainly happened long before the oven was involved. It happened during bulk fermentation. Bulk fermentation is the first long rise...
This Is Why You Should Add Cinnamon to Your Lard
I keep two jars of lard in my kitchen. One is plain white, neutral, and good for everything. Frying eggs, making gravy, seasoning pans, you name it. The other has cinnamon steeped into it. That jar goes into my pie crusts, biscuits, fried apples, and anything sweet...
Stop Washing Fresh Eggs! (Do This Instead)
If you are raising your own chickens, or thinking about it, this is something to learn early on. Fresh eggs are not store eggs, and they should not be treated like store eggs. The way you handle them right after collection makes the difference between eggs that last...
The Hidden Dangers Behind Vacuum Sealing Meat
Vacuum sealing has become one of the most popular food preservation methods in recent years. Walk into almost any prepping forum or hunting community, and you will find people recommending vacuum sealers as a way to make meat last longer in the freezer. The idea...
Do Cows Have to Be Pregnant to Produce Milk? The Straight Answer
This is one of the questions I get asked most often by people visiting my homestead, usually while they're watching me milk a cow that very clearly isn't pregnant at that moment. It's a fair question, and the honest answer has a little more nuance to it than a simple...
Cattle vs Cows: What Is the Actual Difference?
Most people use cattle and cows interchangeably, and honestly, most of the time it does not matter. But the moment you start planning to bring livestock onto your own land, that loose terminology stops being harmless and starts costing you money and confusion. Ask a...
How Long Do Chicken Eggs Take to Hatch? A Complete Incubation Guide
If you are raising chickens on a homestead, hatching your own eggs is one of the most rewarding things you can do. It closes the full loop of self-sufficiency, gives you control over your flock genetics, and there is genuinely nothing quite like watching a chick pip...
Goat Hooves: Everything You Need to Know About Structure, Trimming, and Common Problems
If you keep goats, managing their hooves is one of the non-negotiable maintenance tasks that comes with the territory. Neglect it and you will have lame goats, potential infections spreading through your herd, and animals that cannot move, graze, or thrive the way...
Can Chickens Have Pineapple? What Every Flock Owner Needs to Know
If you keep backyard chickens long enough, you find yourself holding a piece of fruit and wondering whether it is safe to toss into the run. Pineapple comes up often because it is a common household fruit that generates a lot of scraps, from the core to the skin to...
What to Feed Pigs – A Complete Guide to Pig Feed for Homesteaders
Getting pig feed right is one of the most important decisions you will make on your homestead. Feed typically accounts for 60 to 75 percent of the total cost of raising pigs, so what you choose to put in the trough directly affects your budget, your pigs' growth rate,...
Domestic Sheep Herding: A Practical Guide for the Small-Scale Homesteader
Sheep are one of the most forgiving livestock choices for a homestead. They ask for less than cattle, produce more than chickens, and reward patient management with wool, meat, and milk depending on which direction you take the flock. But sheep are also flock animals...
Quail Eggs: Nutrition, Uses, and Why Every Homesteader Should Raise Quail
If you have ever held a quail egg in your hand, the first thing you notice is how small it is. About a quarter the size of a standard chicken egg, speckled brown and cream, sitting in your palm like something from a different world. The second thing you notice, once...
How to Care for an Open Wound – A Complete Step-by-Step Guide
Knowing how to care for an open wound correctly is one of the most practical self-sufficiency skills you can have. Whether you are dealing with a farm accident, a workshop injury, a deep cut from a kitchen knife, or a wilderness scrape, the difference between a wound...
Amish vs Mormon – Two Self-Sufficient Lifestyles
When it comes to self-sufficiency in America, two communities stand above the rest: the Amish and the Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormons. Both have built cultures around independence from outside systems, with deep traditions of food production,...
Homemade Window Cleaner: Simple Recipes That Actually Work
Store-bought window cleaners cost more than they should, come in plastic bottles that go straight to the landfill, and are made from ingredients most people could mix together in their own kitchen in under two minutes. If you have white vinegar, rubbing alcohol, and a...
These 7 Homesteading Skills Pay for Themselves in Under a Year
You probably already know the drill. You save seeds, you preserve the harvest, you keep a compost pile. These skills are the bread and butter of the homesteader life, and I'm guessing you've had them down for years. That’s why today I'll show you a few skills that are...
Lemon Balm Tea Recipe: How to Make It Fresh, Dried, or Cold Brewed
Lemon balm is one of those plants that earns its space in any homestead garden twice over. It grows fast, comes back reliably every year, and makes one of the most pleasant herbal teas you can brew at home. The flavor sits somewhere between mild mint and a soft citrus...
Cleaning the Chimney: A Complete DIY Guide for Homeowners
If you heat your home with wood, you clean your chimney. That is not a suggestion. It is a basic maintenance task that sits in the same category as changing the oil in your truck or sharpening your chainsaw chain. Skip it long enough and something bad happens. Chimney...
Medicinal Trees You Walk Past Every Day
Every child has imagined living at Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, I’m sure you have too. You might not realize it, but you live in a world similar to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Aside from buildings and concrete, nearly everything you walk by is edible in some...
Why You Should Never Throw Away Lemon Peels
Stop right there. Before you toss that lemon peel into the trash, you need to know something: you’re literally throwing away one of nature’s most powerful healing tools. Yes, that bright yellow rind you’ve been discarding your entire life? It’s packed with more...
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, nutrient-dense crop that rewards a little planning, and punishes procrastination by turning bitter and running to seed the...
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 summer. And by August you're moving like someone ten years older than you were in May. So, what if you never had to turn...
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 something you will actually reach for all winter. It is lightweight, shelf-stable, and turns a pound of meat into a...
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 oldest and most widely used herbicides in the world, and it works differently than the glyphosate products most...
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 equipment you would need most in the aftermath. That combination makes generator protection a genuine priority, but building a...
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 top of their poles and started reaching for each other. So you stand there a minute feeling pretty good about the whole...
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 I meant it to. Turning that cheese into powder is one of the best ways I've found to stretch it, and it's a lot simpler...
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 keeps repeating day after day. Why can't you hold a channel out here when a house in town pulls in twenty of them with a...
What July Says About Your Homestead
You might think the big work is done by July. You’ve planted your vegetables, the animals are settled, and all you have to do now is just water and wait, right? That’s exactly the way of thinking that helps you have a half-empty pantry when fall comes. This is a...
What Is a Homestead? The Complete Guide to Starting and Living the Homesteading Life
Somewhere between a backyard garden and a full working farm, the homestead occupies a unique space in modern life. It is a place built around self-reliance: a property where you grow food, raise animals, preserve harvests, and take direct responsibility for as many of...
How to Use Cornstarch Around Your Homestead
You probably have a box of cornstarch sitting in your pantry right now, and you probably think it is only good for thickening gravy and pie filling. But I promise you that by the time you finish this article, you are going to look at that little box differently. ...
How to Keep Deer Out of Your Property Without Building a Fence
Yes, they're cute and all, but deer are a huge problem all over the country. You might have encountered them in your garden eating your crops, and if not, I am sure you had to deal with the aftermath. Deer are some of the most stubborn visitors a homesteader will...
What June Says About Your Homestead
We started the journey of this series in the winter and here we are… It’s already June! How is time even flying this fast? This is technically the first summer month and a surprisingly busy month when you’re living on a homestead. All the work you put in back in...
How to Butcher a Pig at Home (Step-by-Step)
The modern world has led us to be dependent on stores, public services, and the grid. But you might not want to put your lives in the hands of corporations, which is why raising your own animals is a big step towards self-sufficiency. Raising your own pig and...
What May Says About Your Homestead
When May is here, you know things are going to move fast. This month comes with a lot of wonderful changes, such as rising temperatures and longer days. This combo is a gift, but it can also destroy everything you planned if you're not prepared. I've been...
How to Sharpen a Lawn Mower Blade (Step-by-Step Guide)
A dull lawn mower blade does not cut grass cleanly. Instead, it tears and shreds each blade of grass, leaving ragged brown tips that invite disease and weaken your lawn over time. The fix is straightforward: remove the blade, sharpen it, and put it back. This guide...
