| Alternative Energy |
| Book Reviews |
| Construction |
| Cookbook |
| Ecology |
| Flowers |
| Frugality |
| Fruit |
| Land |
| Lifestyle |
| Livestock |
| Machinery |
| My Neck of the Woods |
| Nostalgia |
| Outdoor Lore |
| Personals |
| Pets |
| Poultry |
| Politics |
| Self-Employment |
| Vegetables |
| World |
| Write for Homestead. org |
| Copyright © 2003-2008 Homestead.org |
 |
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
"It is easier to fight for one's
principles than to live up to them." - Alfred Adler What's New:
The Journey Porkchop was blissfully unaware that we were the source of his pain, I however was not, and at that moment I was the most wretched creature on earth. It felt like the worst kind of betrayal. It was only moments, but it seemed an eternity before the pig was finally still and I let out a low sigh of relief. By C.J. Mouser
The Economics of Being a Cheap-o... I set out to prove to myself and my wife, that if we kept doing the things we were doing, with some effort we could, over the next few years, rid ourselves of all debt, mortgage, power and natural gas bills, as well as a large part of the grocery bill. That I could, in fact, retire comfortably with only a small pension and without having to be a greeter at Wal-mart until I am 90. By Jan R. Cooke
the U of I library on May 31. No regrets really, and I went with no fanfare. I will miss a few people, but it was time to go. And now the real adventure begins!!!!! By Mark Chenail
Those frightened blue eyes tell me that it’s time to face the danger. To learn what lightning is all about and proceed to maximize our safety. By Chris Devaney
“Any fool or his mother can put the stuff up,” he observed, over the rim of his coffee mug. “I’ve even seen little kids working the stuff, patching foundations and making little dog coops and such. If you can make mud pies or throw cow patties, you can do chicken wire cement.” by Mark S. Chenail
Bottle Lambs: Reality vs. The Cute Factor: "Whatever the reason for the lamb needing to be bottle-fed to survive, most shepherds have a strong motivation to keep these young lambs alive. We keep sheep in order to, with hope, make money each year. We raise meat lambs. Everything born here is destined for the meat market, except our breeding stock and any ewe lambs that we consider good enough to include in our herd. In order to get them to market, they first have to survive. " by Anita Gerber Book Review: The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure: "A book about sh*t. Who’da thunk it? And not only that, but it’s in it’s third printing… For a while now, I’ve been leery of the way we "civilized folk" take care of our body waste. While no person in their right mind would purposely and willfully defecate into drinking water, that’s just what we do, collectively about a gabazillion times a day." Review by Sheri Dixon
The Missouri Journal
- Part Five: "After waiting most of the summer to get our plans and work crew
together, we finally left for Missouri today to spend at least 10 days
on the house. Jon, Levi, and Sam drove in the car and I went
with Jason in a truck full of materials... Big changes at Jeff and Adrianna's since the
fire. Their barns and animals are still in place, but they opened a
new house lot in the land opposite our lane, way back in the woods,
with a long curved lane into the yard...
Our house is just as we left it, but the yard is really overgrown.
Unpacked, and Sam and I started clearing the area after supper before
it got dark. Quiet night and early to bed." by Mark Chenail Earth Stewardship 101, Part Two "However, there is a vast, enormous, totally un-spannable difference between your MOM telling you something, and Heidi the uniformed, blond biologist, who drives the new pickup with the seal of Texas on it, telling you something. Alec can now tell you that the spikey ball is the seed of a Sweet Gum tree, can point out a Sweet Gum seedling, and show you the adult parent Sweet Gum tree. Whatever." by Sheri Dixon Homestead.org in the Former Soviet Union "So, on the face of it, this would seem to be an ideal place for homesteaders using any definition of the word. If you are a citizen of Belarus and you want some land to farm you can make application for it and have some expectation of getting it if the powers that be find no reason to deny you. You will be given a plot where you may build a home and buildings, make a garden and tend a farm. All you need to do is pay modest taxes on the land." by Neil Shelton Missouri Journal "Jay and I up early to relight the fires. A nice clear morning, but temp was 28 degrees and frost on the ground. Went out to clear the post holes before Jon and Levi got up. By 10 a.m. we were putting up the posts, which took no time at all. You can now see the shape of the the final house as a skeleton. The living room will be huge and the approach will be just right along the lane." By Mark Chenail, Installment Four: Pages 16-20 Drawing a Circle in the Sand - Teaching Awareness to A Consumer Society "Americans have always been farmers. Most of our founding fathers had huge farms and spent at least as much time in the fields and barns as thinking up Important Documents to sign. Then something happened." by Sheri Dixon Going to the Birds! " I learned many valuable lessons that first summer in the chicken business. Some, however, were costly, as well as valuable. Technically, in our climate, one should be able to raise three or four batches of chickens like these before freeze-up in October. A little math shows that one can start chicks in mid-April, butcher them at seven weeks of age; start another about the first of June, another the first of August, perhaps even start new batches in stages before the others are done. In theory, that works. In actuality, working with the facilities at hand, I found out the hard costly way that it didn’t." by Anita Gerber Living Upscale Downhome "But there are those few times, luckily, no more than several a year, that I must, for whatever reason, pick out a Sunday-Go-To-Meetin’ dress (no pantyhose, I draw an indelible line there) that covers my tattoos, find a pair of shoes that has NOT seen the inside of a chicken house, paint on the L’Oreal Soft Fern eye shadow and the Naked Ambition lipstick (yep, got it just for the name), and break out the Dressy Velvet hair scrunchie. Once all gussied and at whatever social event merited such foolishness, I then have to be SOCIAL. With PEOPLE." by Sheri Dixon Be It Hereby Resolved "We did NOT plan this to happen this way! It was an accident: the horses rubbed open the gate to the pen where our bucks had been quite content…until then. It had shade, plenty of grass and water. The temperatures that day reached well in excess of 100 degrees F. It was silly of them to venture away from it, but they are, after all, sheep." by Anita Gerber Earth Stewardship 101, Part One "Neither one of us has ever OWNED a place that could provide for us almost completely. And how to accomplish our goal of a sustainable, flourishing farm has as many answers as folks with an opinion to offer. So, we are calling in the ‘experts’, gathering all the information, deciding what makes the most sense to us, and will do what seems the best for our speck of Earth." by Sheri Dixon Missouri Journal "Finally after so many false starts and postponements, the truck is loaded and we are ready to head back down to Missouri. Frankly, it will be a relief to finally get all the materials and supplies out of the house in Champaign. The truck is packed with lumber, siding, windows, 4 sets of doors, mantelpieces, furniture and bric-a-brac. We are set to go at last." By Mark Chenail, Installment Three: Pages 11-15 Lilac Moon - Homesteading in Northern Minnesota "Exiting the Interstate highway, for the four lane, through mid-sized towns, thence to the two lane that wanders through smaller hamlets, and onto the gravel road into the bosom of the state forestlands... it’s very easy to drive right past the unassuming gate marked with the tiny, lovely sign “Lilac Moon”." by Sheri Dixon Farm Dogs - See Spot Work "Every once in a while you will find, by accident, a dog who is completely suited for a job on your farm - my four pound poodle is a good example." by Sheri Dixon Basement Bunnies and Grow-box Gardening: Challenges of Urban Homesteading "How many tomatoes can one family eat, can, sell or give away? Answer: in my case, not too many. The year my husband and I decided to go heavily into tomato growing, using little more than stakes and cages and haphazard weeding, we were bombarded with tomatoes, had far too many tomatoes to eat or can or give away, and most fell neglected to the ground to be consumed by birds, beetles, and slugs." by Barbara Bamberger Scott Successful Transplants - Uprooting Your Urban Offspring Giddily and even a little tearily, you call your beloved brood of loin-fruit to the tender circle of your parental embrace and announce “Kids, pack your stuff. We're moving to the country”. by Sheri Dixon Missouri Journal "Jon now has a better idea of the actual layout and is picking up my excitement. Posthole man is coming around noon. So we should have posts up by tonight. Yeaaahhhh!!!" By Mark Chenail, Installment Two: Pages 6-10 Holy Days of the Farming Year "Beltane falls on the gibbous moon, when buds are forming, and farmers are in a highly ambitious frame of mind calculating the profits to come. The harvest is underground and we leave it to the dark feminine principle to heave the plants toward the potent masculine sun." By Barbara Bamberger Scott. Black Walnuts: Pennies from Heaven "... This year shelled walnuts are bringing a heady $13 per hundred pounds so, theoretically at least, I should be able to make $1.15 per bushel or about $9.20 per hour with virtually no overhead expenses." By Neil Shelton Missouri Journal "In the summer of 2000, we finally got electricity hooked up to the cottage... I kinda miss the lantern light, and we still use a lot of candles, but now we can have a refrigerator and a real stove for cooking." By Mark Chenail, Installment One: Pages 1-5 (Living in the Sticks) and the Single Girl "Say you are a single FEMALE, perhaps after a divorce. If you announce to your family and friends that you are going to move out to the sticks and apply yourself to the pursuit of a simpler life, they will be coming after you brandishing anti-depressants and a straight jacket." by Sheri Dixon How to Save a Bundle on Loan Interest "... at the end of the loan you’ve saved $280.95 in interest paid, and you’ve retired your debt three months early! All this for a hundred bucks." by Neil Shelton
The Importance of
Being Surveyed "I playfully paced out
my east lot line... I started at the north corner and counted out paces.
I looked up when I reached what should've been the end. How Does a House Become a Homestead? "Whether the woods and meadows, the lake and the stream, were wasted on campers and fishers is a point that could be argued, but Dori found her dreams being sucked dry by the exigencies of management. She had a house, but no homestead." Profile by Barbara Bamberger Scott. Hair-raising Homestead Haircuts How to save money and beautify your homestead all in one easy lesson, by Sheri Dixon. Farmers of Forty Centuries "In fact King fell into a dispute with the head of the USDA Bureau of Soils, Milton Whitney, who insisted on publishing papers in support of the indefinite productivity of all soils.... King was sure that healthy soil was dependent on the interaction of many complex factors, including water retention, aeration and mulch, and would not infinitely produce without careful husbandry." Review and Musings by Barbara Bamberger Scott. Where are you, already? Stick a pin in the Homestead.org Guest Map A Pansy for Your Thoughts "To the pre-modern horticulturalist, the fragrance of the garden was as important as its appearance was as important as its usefulness. Imbibing fragrance was reckoned to be healing in itself, an experience we moderns mimic, rather pitifully, employing electric odor-spritzers to bring pleasaunce into our stacked and crowded enclaves." by Barbara Bamberger Scott. In Defense of the Weed-lot An argument in favor of leaving some wilderness areas on your homestead by Sheri Dixon “The Real Dirt on Farmer John” John Peterson, a member of the Community Supported Agriculture movement, wrested victory from certain and disastrous defeat after the farm crisis of the 1980s by becoming a biodynamic organic small-holder whose business, Angel Organics, is all the buzz. , Review and Musings by Barbara Bamberger Scott Mice: Scourge of the Homestead "Mice will nest anywhere, but their preferred places seem to be inside a favorite pair of shoes in your closet, smack in the middle of a new roll of paper towels in the cabinet, or nestled snugly in a fluffy bed of the cloth that coats your electrical wires in between your walls." By Sheri Dixon "Heading Home" Lawrence Scanlan’s informative and realistic portrayal of the move from city to country and the beginning of a new life. Book Review by Victoria Varga The Unsung Benefits of Homesteading "Men with homesteading wives do not have to enter a jewelry store or Victoria's Secret for holiday gift buying, but can head to the Tractor Supply or local hardware store- places they want to go to anyhow, and nothing screams Romance like a brand-new, shiny, two-man saw" by Sheri Dixon. How to Read Land Descriptions Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Rectangular Legal Description and Perhaps a Tiny Bit More by Neil Shelton.
Wilderness Homesteading and the Patriot Act "When my partner and I sold our home and moved to our dream homestead parcel, we had no idea we were about to run headlong into the 'War On Terror' and the 'USA Patriot Act'" by R. B. Salter Paradise What happens when the modern world intrudes upon a remote village, by Barbara Bamberger Scott Rudolph and Company: A Portrait of the North American Reindeer by Victoria Varga Noxious Weeds - or Are They? "But worst of all, the milky stalks I had been removing from our acreage, were part of the one plant that would feed the butterflies I so longed to provide for," by Nicole H. Brauner Using a Midwife: The Ultimate Do-It-Yourself Project. Learn why hospitals are mostly superfluous to the birth event, by Sheri Dixon Angora Rabbits: These little bits of fluff are the the wool industry’s pride and joy by Victoria Varga Dairy Goats: Anchoring Your Homestead with Personality and Ice Cream by Sheri Dixon Clearing Land for Pasture How to turn a forest into a field, with a few words about why you maybe shouldn't. By Neil Shelton Book Review: Raising Sheep the Modern Way Obtaining Self-Employment Having a wood-pile, garden and a fruit cellar don't make you self-sufficient if you still depend on your job for cash. By Tracy Breen Livestock Guard Dogs - Just Like Lassie Only Better Something got your goat? Here's the solution. By Sheri Dixon Sprouting Your Next Meal: Sprouting seeds not only substantially increases the usable nutrition, but also increases the quantity of edible food. During sprouting , many seeds increase in volume as much as 20 times. A tablespoon of seed can expand to fill a pint jar by the time the sprouting is done. By Dorothy Cady Raising Earthworms: Maybe the easiest and most profitable ‘livestock’ on your homestead, by Mary Hysong For Sale By Owner - Needs a Little Work: "The first years were like primitive camping, only not as glamorous," by Sheri Dixon Sunny or Windy: Two alternative power sources examined, by Casey Calouette Alpacas: Still the ultimate in exotics. "The ship of the Andes". More unusual livestock from Victoria Varga Adding a Pond Adds a Lot Nothing enhances a small farm like a small farm pond. The $8.16 Do-It-Yourself Garden Irrigator Save water, time and maybe next year's garden with this simple and inexpensive irrigator, by Bruce Andis Cutting the Utilical Cord part three: Straight-forward septic strategies by Sheri Dixon Can You Double-Dig it? Learn about Rudolph Steiner, biodynamics, and beyond, into the abyss. Wildly eccentric good sense by Barbara Bamberger Scott Icelandic Sheep Meat, wool and milk all in one timid package, by Victoria Varga Buying Your First Horse: Sound equine advice and a "secret" tip, all with an Aussie accent, by Lisa Wiseman. Cutting the Utilical Cord part two: Water. Where to get it and what to do with it when you're done, by Sheri Dixon Belted Galloways: The “Oreo-cookie” Cow by Victoria Varga Ruth Stout - The No-Dig Duchess Why gardening doesn't have to be so much work, by Barbara Bamberger Scott Cutting the Utilical Cord Solar Power for Dummies. by Sheri Dixon The Healing Properties of Emus The healing properties of Emu Oil has become widely popularized on a global scale for successful treatment of many skin and pain related ailments. by Victoria Varga Born to be Wild: North American Wild Turkeys Get your wattles runnin'... pull out on the flyway... by Victoria Varga Almanac: My Life After The Chickens - Living in an abandoned chicken-house isn't all peaches and cream as you'd suppose. by Neil Shelton Making Alcohol Fuel: The basic recipe to steer your internal combustion needs from fossil fuels to a renewable resource. by Lynn Doxon Guinea Fowl: Something Different in the Garden Guinea Fowl have proven most successful in organically controlling pests by eating most bugs in the garden, while leaving the green foliage virtually untouched. by Victoria Varga Cooking on a Woodstove. Learn to slow down and enjoy the process, by Karen L. Zlattner Peacocks: Plumage and Personality Where the phrase, "strut your stuff" probably originated, by Victoria Varga Blackthumb! Helpful Hints for the Cultivationally Challenged In which Sheri Dixon shatters the dreams of the beginning gardener Iris Pseudacorus: Exotica on the Cheap by Neil Shelton Highland Cattle: A Breed Apart Hardy in cold climes, fuzzy and loveable everywhere, these Scottish immigrants may be just right for your small spread. by Victoria Vargas Robbing the Bee Tree: Free honey if you're careful and skillful, otherwise, there's a small price to pay. by Sensei M.J. Nutter Easter Chicks Gone Bad: The Unexpected Menace: They're young and restless and they haven't been debeaked yet. by Sheri Dixon Build and Maintain Your Own Trails, Roads and Driveways Smooth your journey down life's road, literally, by Neil Shelton Dear Aggie: Answers to your questions on a plethora of topics. By Agnes Pettibone Planning the Homestead Orchard, by Ed Mashburn "Plant the wrong trees, or plant them in the wrong place... you may never really get to make it right." Getting Started with Pigs a succinct syllabus of hog husbandry by C.J. Mouser $1,700 in the first 4 months Got goats? Here's one way to put them to work for you, by Kristen Embry Book Review: The Self-Reliant Homestead, by Charles A. Sanders Homesteading Around the World: Report from Wonganoo Station, West Australia First in a series. Remember self-sufficiency on five acres? See what it's like when you have to manage 1,500 square miles. Article by Kathy Boladeras. Are you Sure you Really Need a Job? Suppose that instead of going to work you started working to replace your salary? By Neil Shelton Kindred Spirits Personals Back by popular request - and that's a considerable understatement. Buy Rural Property as Soon as You Can Timeless real estate advice from Gene Gerue. Bush-hogging More rural ramblings by Neil Shelton All materials Copyright © 2003-2008 Homestead.org
|
|
Cost of the War in Iraq (JavaScript Error)
Friends of Homestead.org
The Homesteading Information Directory Savi- ning põhuehitajate foorum
Special Thanks to by far the best web host we've ever had |
|||
|
|
|||||
Hens Are
Birds, too
Woodland
Traces
Lightning!
Dear
Aggie
