Add These to Your Pantry While You Can Still Afford Them
If recent years have taught us anything, it’s that the supply chain stability we rely on every day can be disrupted overnight. Whether it’s inflation, shipping logistics problems, ships hitting bridges, trade wars, supply chain breakdowns, or global or natural...
7 Low-Budget Projects You Should Make This Winter
Summer is primetime for projects. The sun’s out, the weather is fair, and the temperatures are comfortable. Winter is another story. Windchills dip below zero, snow covers the ground and most of us succumb to varying degrees of cabin fever. That’s a good time to roll...
Ash + Meat
When you first hear it, it doesn’t seem to make sense. People for centuries have successfully preserved meat in wood ashes. It seems to contradict everything we know about how we want our food. It goes way beyond the 5-second rule but can effectively preserve meat for...
How I Saved $400 a Year by Harvesting My Garden Seeds
Throughout the growing season and into the fall our gardens often provide us with a regular harvest of fruits and vegetables. We carefully cook them, prepare them and often preserve them. But while we’re harvesting the fruits of our labor, how often do we think to...
10 Foods You Should Never Keep in Your Fridge
It's easy to assume that most fresh foods should be refrigerated. But that’s not true. Cold temperatures can have an adverse effect on the texture, flavor and believe it or not -the shelf life of many foods. There are also some foods that should simply not be kept in...
DIY Solar Food Dehydrator from Pizza Boxes and Aluminum Foil
Ancient cultures around the world have been sun-drying foods for thousands of years. It was in fact the first food preservation technique. Fruits and vegetables were the most commonly dried foods, but strips of meat were also sun dried. Think of it as the world’s...
Why You Should Rub Lard On Your Windows
You’re probably chuckling at the thought of smearing animal fat on your windows—and honestly, you should. But this idea isn’t born from quirky folklore. It comes from centuries of hard-earned, practical wisdom. The science is simple: lard is fat, and fat is a poor...
The Amish Ways: Book Review
If anyone knows how to live a self-sufficient life, it’s the Amish. When a crisis hits, they barely even notice. And that’s because they’ve built a life that can run itself, even when the world as the rest of us know it begins to falls apart. This made me wonder what...
The Native American Remedy For Mosquito Bites
Mosquitoes and other insects have been a problem since ancient times. Before the salves and topical creams, our ancestors relieved insect stings with common backyard plants. A poultice, or fomentation of crushed fresh plant leaves, may offer relief from pain and...
Why Tap Water Might Be Slowly Killing Your Garden (And What to Use Instead)
Has this ever happened to you? You feel like you've done everything right, but something is still off with your garden. You’ve followed everything by the book. You built up your soil with compost, started seeds on time, planted the best varieties for your climate, and...
How to Keep a Greenhouse Cool in Summer (10 Proven Methods)
A greenhouse is one of the most rewarding investments a homesteader can make. It extends your growing season, protects tender plants, and gives you control over your food production in a way that open-bed gardening never can. But that same enclosed structure that...
How Much Does Pest Control Cost? What You’ll Pay vs. What You Can Do Yourself
Pest control is one of those costs that can range from almost nothing to several thousand dollars depending on what you are dealing with, how established the infestation is, and whether you are paying someone else to handle it or managing it yourself. For homesteaders...
Organic Gardening: The Complete Guide to Growing Food Without Chemicals
Organic gardening gets described in two ways that are both incomplete. One framing treats it as a set of prohibitions: no synthetic fertilizers, no chemical pesticides, no herbicides. The other treats it as a lifestyle statement. Neither captures what it actually is,...
How to Grow Carrots: From Seed to Root Cellar
Carrots are worth the trouble. That is the honest starting point for any guide on growing them, because they do ask more of you than most vegetables. The seed is tiny and slow to germinate. The seedlings are hair-thin and easy to lose to weeds in the first three...
Raised Bed Gardening: The Complete Guide to Building, Filling, and Growing
Raised bed gardening is one of the most practical decisions a homesteader or serious backyard grower can make. The reasons experienced growers keep coming back to raised beds are not aesthetic. They are functional. Better drainage, warmer soil, dramatically reduced...
How to Identify, Get Rid of, and Prevent Pantry Beetles
You open a bag of flour you bought two months ago and something moves. Or you pour out a scoop of cornmeal and notice tiny brown specks that were not there before. Or you find a fine webbing coating the top of your rice bin. Welcome to the world of pantry beetles, the...
The Best DIY Water Filters
There are many variations on water filters you can buy, but in an emergency, you can improvise your own. This is especially important during a power outage or any other emergency that makes water hard to come by. But what are the best DIY water filters? The obvious...
DIY Harmless Rat Trap (With Step-by-Step Pictures)
Rats and mice are more than a nuisance. They are a genuine health hazard, a structural risk, and a food security threat that homesteaders and preppers need to take seriously regardless of how rural or well-maintained their property is. On the health side, rodents are...
8 Off-Grid Projects I Regret Building on My Property
Living off-grid looks straightforward until you are standing in a flooded root cellar at midnight in January, or lying awake listening to a ram pump clacking through your bedroom window for the fourth hour straight. The mistakes that cost the most are rarely the...
DIY Ingenious Rainwater Harvesting Systems
I’ve been exploring rainwater harvesting systems, and they’re super easy to set up. They can lower your water bills and provide an emergency supply. Most folks use 55-gallon barrels to collect rain from roofs through gutters and downspouts. You can find or make...
How to Collect Rainwater Without Gutters
Collecting rainwater is nothing new. Our ancestors did it long before us. It's surprising how much water goes to waste these days, especially when the benefits of conservation are so clear. By collecting and storing rainwater, you can enjoy lower water bills, have a...
Ingenious Ways to Repurpose Old Furniture on Your Homestead
Thinking of tossing out your old furniture? Hold your horses! Here's how you can repurpose old furniture on your homestead. Those cast-offs might just be diamonds in the rough waiting for a new purpose. With a touch of creativity and a bit of effort, you can breathe...
10 Household Items You Can Use as Mini-Greenhouses
Using everyday household items, you can transform your casual gardening into an innovative one through mini-greenhouses. Mini-greenhouses are a practical way to boost your gardening capabilities and planting game. They can help you create a controlled environment for...
DIY Root Cellar In A Box
A root cellar is a storage space built underground to preserve perishable items like fruits, vegetables, and other root crops for an extended time. The root cellar’s environment provides a cool, dark, and humid environment that helps slow the natural decay process and...
15 Vegetables You Can Actually Pickle Overnight
I've thrown away more produce than I've preserved. If that sounds familiar, you know that when you have a garden, some animals, and also a house that you should take care of, a full canning day doesn't always happen. And vegetables don't wait for you to finish...
I Made Bone Broth WRONG for Years! This Method Changed Everything
I've been making bone broth on this homestead for about eight years. I used the same old method every time. I toss the bones in a pot, cover with water, add some vinegar, and let it simmer on the stove for a full day. Sometimes it even took longer! For eight years, I...
Fermented Black Beans: A Complete Guide to Making and Using Them at Home
Before refrigerators, before canning, and long before freeze-dried survival food existed, people around the world had already figured out how to make protein last. Fermented black beans are one of the oldest and most reliable examples of that ingenuity. Originating in...
$1 Potato Bread Recipe
Grocery prices keep climbing and climbing and in the near future, there is a real possibility that most of us will not be able to afford basic food. But the staples are still staples! Flour and potatoes are still two of the cheapest things you can buy, and when you...
Freeze Dried Strawberries: How to Make, Store, and Use Them at Home
Fresh strawberries are one of the best things about summer. They are also one of the most perishable crops you can grow or buy. A flat of strawberries picked at peak ripeness has maybe three days before it starts going south, and if you are growing your own, you know...
Watermelon in a Jar
That white rind of the watermelon you've been ignoring your whole life can actually be turned into all kinds of good stuff in a jar. Sweet pickles, sour pickles, and probiotic-rich snacks that are good for your gut, the watermelon rind does it all, and self-sufficient...
How to Make Garlic Cheese from Scratch: Spreads, Hard Cheese, Garlic Butter, and Homemade Garlic Cheese Bread
Store-bought garlic cheese is fine. Homemade garlic cheese is something else entirely. When you control every ingredient, you decide how much garlic goes in, which herbs you add, how long it ages, and what kind of milk you start with. The result is a product that is...
How To Keep Butter Fresh For 5+ Years
I found a jar of butter in my grandmother’s pantry six months after she passed away. The label said she’d canned it three years earlier. I nearly threw it out. My aunt stopped me. “Open it first.” The butter had separated, but after gently warming and stirring it, it...
Build a Self-Cleaning Chicken Coop
The recent spike in the cost of eggs has led a lot of people to construct a chicken coop and raise chickens for the first time. There’s plenty of information on the Internet about how to build a coop or buy one, and how to raise chickens. What some people don’t...
Can Chickens Eat Carrots?
When you raise chickens, you quickly learn that a healthy flock starts with a varied diet. Fresh kitchen scraps can be a wonderful supplement to their grain, especially when those scraps come straight from the garden. Among the most common vegetables to find in the...
Is Rabbit Manure a Good Fertilizer?
Gardeners have used animal manure to enrich soil for centuries, but not all manures behave the same. Rabbit manure stands out as one of the most valuable and beginner friendly fertilizers you can add to your garden. It is naturally balanced, rich in nutrients, and...
Livestock Guardian Dogs: The Silent Protectors Every Homestead Needs
Livestock guardian dogs have been part of traditional farming for thousands of years, and for good reason. Long before modern fencing, alarms, or surveillance existed, a well-trained guardian dog was the only line of defense between a shepherd’s animals and the wild...
Dexter Cows: The Small Cattle With a Big Role in Self-Sufficiency
If you’ve been looking for a way to add cattle to your homestead without needing hundreds of acres or a feed bill that drains your savings, you might want to meet the Dexter cow. This Irish breed has been quietly winning over homesteaders and small farmers for its...
Can Chickens Eat Celery?
When you’re raising chickens, it’s natural to wonder which foods from your own kitchen or garden can be shared with the flock. Celery often comes up in these conversations because it’s common, inexpensive, and full of nutrients. But is it safe for chickens to eat? The...
How Long Are Cows Pregnant? A Complete Guide for Farmers and Animal Owners
If you’re raising cattle, breeding for milk, beef, or even showing livestock, understanding how long cows are pregnant is essential. Whether you’re a seasoned rancher or a beginner farmer, knowing the gestation period will help you plan for calving season, manage herd...
Best Automatic Chicken Coop Door Opener: Stress-Free Flock Keeping
Raising chickens can be one of the most rewarding and grounding parts of a self-sufficient life. The soft clucking at sunrise, the steady rhythm of egg collecting, and the satisfaction of knowing your hens are well-cared-for — it's the kind of peace few modern...
Turn Your Kitchen Scraps Into Medicine (It’s Easier Than You Think)
When you are living on a homestead, most kitchen scraps end up in the compost bin, or, even worse, straight in the trash can. But some of the scraps you throw away so carelessly can help you save some cash you would have otherwise spent on your pharmacy bill. For...
How to Start a Fire with a Sharpie Marker
Fire is one of the main elements that keep a homestead alive. It offers heat, purifies your water, and cooks your food. Most people rely on matches or lighters, but in a real emergency, there's only so long until you run out of those. Understanding unconventional...
EMP Proof Vehicles For Homesteaders
If you live on a homestead, your vehicle isn't just transportation — it's a lifeline. It hauls feed, pulls equipment, gets you to town for supplies, and in a worst-case scenario, gets your family out of danger. Now imagine that vehicle sitting dead in your driveway,...
What We Learned After Our First Year of Total Self-Sufficiency
The first winter morning I couldn't leave our homestead, I knew something was terribly wrong. Not with the weather, but with what we had built. Mark was flat on his back with pneumonia, our automatic chicken waterer had frozen and cracked, and Ben was texting from...
Why Homesteaders are Hanging Empty Jars on Trees
Homesteaders have been hanging jars in trees for centuries, Some of the traditions were based on superstition. It was the idea that evil spirits would be captured in the empty jars in the tree. What they did with the evil spirits in the jar after capture is a mystery...
7 Surprising Uses Of Hydrogen Peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide is one of those household staples that often sits unnoticed on a shelf, waiting for the rare scraped knee or small cut. Many of us remember its gentle fizz from childhood. Yet this simple solution has long served people in ways that reach far beyond...
Aluminum Foil for Faraday Cage
In uncertain times, many people quietly look for simple ways to protect the tools and devices they rely on every day. One question that often comes up is whether aluminum foil can be used for a Faraday cage. The idea may sound surprisingly simple, but it comes from...
Life Hacks Everyone Should Know
There is a certain wisdom hidden in small, everyday solutions. Long before convenience products and specialized tools came along, people learned to observe how things behaved, how heat softened, how moisture traveled, how time changed textures. The life hacks below...
How To Build An Outdoor Mud Oven
It all began with sourdough bread: flour, salt and water coming together with time as the catalyst to convert simple, natural ingredients into a delicious everyday staple. I discovered how weather conditions influenced the outcome; the temperature and humidity...
How To Turn Your Property Into A Fort
The average American home is built with profits in mind, focusing on minimal materials and rapid deployment. There is little consideration for home defense or security. However, with the right strategies, you can turn your property into a fort and make it far more...
How to Make Firebricks (fire logs) and Wood Stove Logs for Free
Today we’re proud to present another DIY project from a fellow Doing the Stuff Networker. Jamie Burke is a master at repurposing trash and junk. His latest project shared on our DTSN Facebook Group not only saves money, but would be very useful both now (free is...
How To Make Bio Fuel From Kitchen Scraps
If you want to live a self-sustainable and zero-waste lifestyle, then this article is going to help you in achieving this goal. The project is about turning your kitchen waste and other household scraps into something profitable and environmentally friendly. This is...
Ingenious Ways To Recycle Plastic Bottles
Our environment has had enough rejection from us in the past. We now need to join hands and take responsibility of how we take care of it. You can put a foot in by doing just one small thing a day that will ensure its future existence. That one thing may be recycling...
How To Make Your Knife As Sharp As The Devil Himself
Though I have never been or never desire to be a killer much of my life’s success was predicated on keeping a set of razor sharp knifes. Again, I am not an assassin but I was a chef for many years. On the hot line and in food preparation it is of the utmost importance...
How You Can Find Out If Your Homestead Water Is Polluted Or Clean
Environmental pollution is one of the undeniable consequences of the industrial age. And all pollution, whether soil or air pollution, ends up in our water. This article will deal with some aspects of how you can assess your homestead's water quality. There are many...
Leaving the City? Here’s What to Look For In A New Community
There has been an unexpected side-effect of the COVID-19 pandemic – single-family homes listed for sale moving outside of cities are seeing multiple offers almost immediately. The mini real estate boom comes as city dwellers begin to emerge from mandatory lockdowns in...
