"Millions long for
immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday
afternoon." - Susan Ertz
What's New:
Tai-chi or Golf - The Zen and Sport of ScythingNot too much is written
about the American scythe and less so about this technique of scything.
What I have found in print has always been negative. Finding that
irksome, I refused to believe it, so I had to find out for myself. It
seems to me there are just too many American style scythes around and
about in old farmhouses to warrant such a bad reputation. I figured they
wouldn’t have made so many of these tools if they didn’t work. So I
bought one. By Chris Devaney
Why Don't Juke
Boxes Offer "None of the Above"? Living in a very rural
location, I can easily slip out into the forest and spend a few hours
among the chirping of frogs and the twitter of birds but, I can’t get my
wheels aligned out there, so try though I may, I can't spend nearly enough
of my time where it’s quiet, and like most everyone else in the modern
world, I wind up spending a lot of each day watching television with the
family, or shopping, or having tech support pump tripe into my ear or just
minding my own business going from one place to another, and I can tell
you, friend, that music is EVERYWHERE! By Neil Shelton
Chickens
From Scratch If I purchase my little chicks at $2 each, and eggs
sell for $2 per dozen, that hen has provided me with over $100, while
costing me…chicken feed, and precious little of that. Considering
that my personal flock free ranges and I offer up hen scratch once a day
but it’s mostly ignored by them in favor of bugs, weeds and other stuff
chickens were made to eat, my hens just retire here. They’ve earned
it. By Sheri Dixon
Report from Wonganoo Station, Western
Australia My husband’s
grandfather took up the lease on “Wonganoo” Station in 1925. I have always
admired his wife because she was a city girl raised in comfort, and when
she came out here, there was nothing but a tin shack with dirt floors to
call home. By Kathy Boladeras
The
Missouri Journal - Part 11
Dan got the big hole in the roof covered with metal and installed the
stovepipe and the mangled flashing, but it we too dark to see on the roof,
so we left it as it was and will pray it doesn’t rain tonight. In
the morning, Dan will look it all over and screw it all in place. A
generous lashing with roof tar should take care of any leaks and a home
made storm collar and chimney cap ought to finish things off. By
Mark Chenail
A Day
in the DeltaRushing, not knowing
what to expect, I opened the door; it blew out of my hands and banged
against the wall. A solid sheet of rain instantly drenched me and
the children. An icy wind began to blow. My husband pointed at
the sky where a green eye glared balefully down at us. By Gwen
Miller
Highland
Cattle - A Breed Apart At first sight, the shaggy, comical and
toupee-like hair that tumbles down into their eyes and faces is the most
notable distinguishing characteristic of the gentle and almost “woolly”,
Highland Breed of Cattle. By Victoria Vargas
A Homesteader Visits
Sudan
Juba, the capital city of South
Sudan, is very likely like nothing you’ve ever seen before. It was
certainly new to me — despite working on HIV/AIDS issues for several years
and a having Master’s degree that focused on international development,
I’d never set foot in Africa before. By Tanya Balsky
Homesteader-cise: Lifestyle
Health, Fitness, and Fun on the HomesteadWe, as homesteaders,
are on the right path to improved physical fitness and health. The
chores of the homestead, the daily routine, the normal lifting,
stretching, carrying, hauling, and pushing are an easy way to ongoing
fitness and health. This is fitness as a lifestyle choice. By
Jan R. Cooke
Easter Chicks Gone Bad: The Unexpected Menace
Thirteen brightly
colored chicklets arrived at our place in a large cage. They were cute,
they were fluffy, they were hungry. They made endearing little noises when
we fed them. We loved our chickens... By Sheri Dixon
Predator-Proofing
the Place (Or as Close as One Can Get) Folks, the odds of this
happening are so close to zero that it is almost not calculable.
“Rare” doesn’t even suffice as descriptive. And in many ways, it is
my fault. That is why I am writing this, because 99.9999% of the
time, predation can be prevented. By John Molloy
Grub in a Tub: How to Fight the High Cost of
Groceries This Summer, Starting Right Now
Last night on NBC Nightly News, I listened to a story about the rapidly
sinking American economy and the rapidly escalating cost of food.
Worrying about actually being able to put food on the table was something
of a new concept for Americans, I was told, but apparently many of us are
being brought face-to-face with the idea every day as food prices are
skyrocketing all over the world - even here. By Neil Shelton
My
Homestead Income -
$1,700 in the first 4 monthsIn
September of 2003 I made my first batches of goat’s milk soap. I
used recipes which called for lard or tallow, because the fancy butters
and oils simply are not available in small, rural markets. I
anxiously watched as the soap hardened. I was shaking with pride and
anticipation while I unmolded and cut those first bars. I think I
checked those first soaps a half dozen times every day during the three
week curing period. By Kristen
Embry
Bramble
Blood When I was eleven my family moved and we settled in the
foothills of the Ozarks in Missouri. The meadows adjoining our
homestead hosted patches of wild brambles, which in the summers became
laden with fruit. As a teenager my berry-bramble-blood proved true
and I braved the chiggers, snakes, and the notorious Missouri ticks to
claim those berries as my own. By Trendle Ellwood
Economics
of Dairy Goats Goats are fun, personable and pleasant animals
that require very little in the way of fancy housing, fancy food and fancy
surroundings. They need lots of love, a good buddy, proper diet and
good fencing to be healthy, happy and productive. By Allena Jackson
Getting
Started With Pigs Some general guidelines for raising pigs. This information does not cover
breeding. If you have never raised a pig before, it is best to raise one or
two for the freezer to get an idea of their behaviors, abilities, and
personalities. Breeding can be tricky and handling boars can be dangerous.
By C.J. Mouser
The
Missouri Journal - Part 10
Jeff and Dan tackled the front soffits and fascia and trimmed the roof
metal in front. They also installed the front cornice so we can
finish trimming out tomorrow. Jeff will do the chimney stucco for me
later this month if I can swing the money and Old Steve says he can do the
drywall and insulation on the dining room ceiling. By Mark Chenail
Acronyms to Live By
- Or WTSHTF and It’s TEOTWAWKI Will You Be
SOL Or LOL?So what to do about
this universal Call to Prep? How much is hype, how much is
true, how much is fanned by those REALLY needing to empty their warehouses
of all the stockpiled cases of MRE’s, and what is your gut feeling
reaction to the happy knowledge that we won’t have an answer till the
reality is full upon us? By Sheri Dixon
Build
and Maintain Your Own Trails, Roads and Driveways When you’ve finally got a usable road that
doesn’t turn to soup every time it rains. You’ll have a few soft spots
that may start to improve during the dry months, but never really go away.
You can drive your road every day in all weather and, if you don’t have any really
steep hills, you can get most delivery people to bring whatever you need
right to the house (especially if they're selling you something). By
Neil Shelton
Getting
Started With ChicksChickens can offer
good, home-grown food in a short amount of time. Fresh eggs are much
different than what is in the stores! For the
creative...feathers can be used in many crafts as well. You
have thought about it for some time. You think you have room.
It's time to decide and take the plunge!
By Jan Hoadley
How
a Blizzard and a Cow Fed Grandpa's Family Grandpa is gone now,
been gone for 37 years. I think about him a lot, and remember all
the great memories I have of him. He never had anything of value to
leave to his grandchildren. But, I think I got a better inheritance
than a million dollars could have given me. By Gail Jackson
Butter
'N' Eggs - Without the Manure!
...[with] an income of about $70 per week from what I think I can validly
call my "second career." I'm now contemplating cutting
down my regular work hours to have more time at home to pick and can, weed
my flower beds and smell the roses. By Barbara Bamberger
Scott
Make
Beer - Quit Paying Taxes (well, almost...) Perhaps you have a
favorite beer, ale, stout or whatever, that you would like to emulate on
your own and make yourself. You can, and there are recipes available
for emulating many popular and not-so popular commercial brews.
Experimenting is part of the fun. By Chris Devaney
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
Missouri Journal - Part 9
The woods everywhere are devastated as if God simply waved his hand 10
feet below the tops of the trees and cut them all off. There is a
great deal more sky and the woods seem more open though they are littered
with broken branches and dead standing trees. By Mark Chenail
Hens Are
Birds, too Chickens are just as interesting and worthy of
respect as any other breed of bird. And when providing them with
housing and nesting sites, careful attention needs to be paid to their
preferences. Just because they will accept poor quality when nothing
else is offered, doesn't mean they like it. By Faith Drummond
Goats:
The Diversified Farm Stock While many animals work well and have
a defined purpose on the homestead, goats have most definitely proven
themselves to have very diversified purposes, and deserve considerable
consideration when choosing what types of livestock to purchase and raise.
By Regina Anneler
Classic
Tractors I have to admit that my beloved Ford needs every one of
it's 23 horsepower just to mow the tall grass in the meadow in early
autumn, but it does the job the way I want it done, and while none of
these old classics can really compete with some of the enormous monsters
being built today, you can certainly get all the power you'll need on a
homestead farm. By Mary Beth Woods
Selling
What You Make, Online
I believe there is a great deal of opportunity out there for the
homesteader and would-be business owner. I find more and more that I
am buying my goods and services from small home businesses. The
internet offers a growing marketplace and a chance to compete. In my
own life it has become the perfect compliment to low-tech simple living.
By Jeremy Pellani
Woodland
TracesEdged
by a formal progression of walnut trees planted in the days when it served
as a carriage row, the lane was rutted, well traveled, and sadly lacking
in mystery. On its right side a bramble of blackberry bushes extended for
some twelve feet, while on the left lay a large pasture, where the scent
of mixed grasses and clover hung in the heavy air.
By Mary C. Trejo
Honey Health - Using Honey in Home
Remedies, Baking, and Skin Care Honey, which the bees have been
producing for 150 million years, contains all of the substances necessary
to sustain life, including water. And if that (in addition to its
delicious taste) wasn't enough, honey provides us with a myriad of health
benefits and can be used in home remedies, baking, and beauty recipes.
By Karyn Sweet
The
Ideal Country HomeLocated
amidst chosen natural beauty, the ideal home provides mental and
psychological well-being and it stimulates and nurtures our spiritual
explorations. The ideal home place inspires us to become more than
we are. It elicits light, truth, and joy. By Gene Gerue
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
Ticks!Well, I have
to admit that, when it comes to Not Knowing Any Better on most subjects,
the Ozarks can field a team whose world-class naiveté is a match for any
region on earth. However, if there’s anything, ANYTHING Ozarkers know,
it’s ticks... and the avoidance of same. By Neil Shelton
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
Wooly
Lawn Mowers for Fun and Profit We certainly could never afford
to have the lawn cut for us, and with the cost of gas, plus the minimum of
96 hours in labor -- much of which is hot, sticky and quite unpleasant --
we were looking for an alternative. Sheep can, and do, provide a very
good solution to this problem. By Allena Jackson
Lightning! Together, in the growing darkness we watch the
lightning fork it’s way across the steel gray sky, flinching with each
crash of thunder, blinking with every bolt of lightning. I believe that Snoball wonders the same as I wonder... Her widened blue eyes ask, “Are
we safe? Can you do something to make us safer?”
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
Home-schooling for Homesteaders - The One-room Schoolhouse is Alive and Well
Each family has their own personal reasons to home-school, but whether
those reasons are religious, political, or having to do with the child’s
needs not being met by the public school system, the gist of the matter is
basically the same as why we homestead - we want to KNOW what’s going into
our children's heads is as pure and true as what we are so careful to put
into their tummies and their lungs. By Sheri Dixon
Getting
Started with SpinningWhen someone says
"spinner", your first thought may be of an older lady, sitting sedately in
front of a beautiful Saxon style spinning wheel. She has a cup of tea
nearby on a table with some lovely cookies and baked goods. That’s a nice
image, but is not the reality of modern spinners. Today’s spinners are
very young as often as not (I’ve known more than one with pink hair and
tattoos). By Allena Jackson
Bridges
Burned, Fingers Crossed - My Homesteading Adventure Begins
I have high hopes, and I have confidence in my own ability to work hard,
to learn what I need to learn, and to do what I need to do within my
physical limitations. It remains to be seen whether, and to what extent, I
succeed in my homesteading adventure. By Julie O'Neil
The How and Why of Free-Range Chickens
Free-range chickens are definitely worth the effort needed to take care of
them, as the fresh eggs and meat are by far the best that you can obtain
anywhere. There is also the satisfaction in knowing that you raised
and cared for it all on your own – not counting the entertainment value as
you learn just where the nickname “birdbrain” came from! By Regina Anneler
Nanosolar Solar Cells: Cheaper than Milk?
But what would you say to $0.99 per watt? That’s not a decimal error, 99
cents a watt! Dream-weaver? Living on another planet? Attacking the
cooking sherry again? Not the case, I assure you. Especially if
Nanosolar Inc. comes through with their hefty promise, this could be a
reality. Solar panels ...cheaper than milk! We could be seeing solar
panels rolling off the presses at under a dollar a watt by this time next
year. By Chris Devaney
Doctoring
on the Homestead "Here, I have collected a few remedies used by people for years
and years. You may or
may not have heard of all of them. Some I learned in school, one I learned
from my grandmother, another from my mom. Since the recipes have lasted to
be put in to this article, I find that to be a good indicator for their
effectiveness." by Lacey Thacker
The
Natural Building Colloquium of Kerrville, Texas "This is a totally factual account of the first weekend of the Natural
Building Colloquium as experienced by one tiny family. I am
confident that every other participant has a completely different story -
there was THAT much going on." by Sheri Dixon
Marketing Homestead Products
"Even the beginning homesteader hopes to find a way to make an income off
the excess products their homestead produces. Today there are
several ways to market homestead produce..." by Regina Anneler
Roof-top Wind Farms - The Symphonic Sounds of a
Lifestyle "Can your homestead do this? Hitch a ride on
sustainable energy with the author. "Meanwhile, the
powerful sounding Mallard gets some wind, and he gears up smoothly.
Initially it sounds like a large fan pushing air around. But
quickly, the fan sound is replaced with what sounds to me like a
well-tuned sewing machine. A big one. One on steroids...a 16
cylinder Bernina affixed to the top of a ’71 Porsche 917 Short-Tail
rocketing out of turn 8 and about to accelerate home." by Chris Devaney
A Computer With A View "The view is the thing.
A writer’s muse is beyond gold. When observed
gazing for long periods at wall, ceiling or sky, a writer is in fact
hard at work. Writing appears to take place with scrawls on paper or taps on keyboard but the real work happens while the mind is playing."
by Gene Gerue
Dear
Aggie "Do hens have sex in
order to produce eggs?"
Barn
Cats - Thugs of the Homestead "The fuzzy equivalent to the
relation who comes to visit, and then stays long past his welcome, not
with appreciation, but with the attitude that he’s doing you a big fat
hairy favor by consuming YOUR food and using YOUR utilities, you know, of
course, who I’m talking about." by Sheri Dixon
Keeping
the Homestead Dream Alive "What to do When the Bluebird of Happiness
Poops on Your Head. "The whole concept seems so right. Caring for the
earth while caring for your family, dying a noble peaceful death, and
being cared for, in turn, by the earth, like our ancestors did for
generation upon generation." by Sheri Dixon
“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
Do I Really Need a.....?"It’s a good
thing that you actually own an axe and a good gardening spade. You
know those will get plenty of use from day one. But is it likely you
will ever have a use for that waffle iron you got as a wedding present..."
by Mark S. Chenail
Gotta
Getta Ger- the
Permanent Temporary Movable Structure:This article is not about LIVING in a Ger
(yurt), but about the choosing, research and shopping end of the process.
The assemblage and living part will be
another story… by Sheri Dixon
The
Missouri Journal -- Part 7: Only in rural Missouri would plain
old spaghetti be classed as an International Food. I guess I better
not expect to find hummus or portabella mushrooms. And yet Lebanon has three Chinese
restaurants and a Thai place. Go figure. by Mark Chenail
The
Turkey Manure Manifesto: "That’s the sort of
thing I’m talking about. Nobody appreciates things that are just “real”
anymore. Wood and steel and leather have been replaced by plastic and
plastic and plastic. Everywhere you look, ‘real” words have been replaced
with unreal words like “chocolaty”, “cheese-product” and “your call
is very important to us”." by Neil Shelton
Becoming
a Master Gardener: "The students of the Master Gardener class
were just a bunch of boring grownups who came to class dressed in things
like slacks or jeans or even, shudder, skirts..... I spoke with other
students who where disappointed by the lack of testing of the knowledge we
were gaining and I found myself almost missing the nightly torture of
doing homework that would be graded. We all wanted to be there and
we wanted to learn. About dirt. What a bunch of geeks." by
Christi Sweaney
Paying
Attention - the Most Important Skill on Your Farm "While a lot
of the world is planning for the future, today slips away, never to
return. A homesteader must be intimately familiar with the present, or
lose everything and be left with no future. And once your brain is
trained to look for details instead of the grand expanses, your horizons
are limitless." by Sheri Dixon.
The
Missouri Journal -- Part 6 "Heaven only knows what possessed Jay and me to attempt Christmas in
the Missouri House, but the Fall and early Winter had been extremely
mild, and we figured it was worth the chance. ...by Christmas
Eve we would have welcomed a stocking full of coal. Christmas Eve
Day dawned to snow, bitter, bone-numbing cold, and frozen water." By
Mark Chenail
How
to Buy a VERY Used Tractor "If you're shopping for a tractor, if you've
never owned a tractor before, and if you're reading the pages of Homestead.org,
then I'm going to assume that you're in the market of a pretty cheap
tractor; a VERY used tractor." by Neil Shelton
Dear
Aggie returns "...This is driving me absolutely crazy. Other than this, she is a perfect neighbor who causes me no problems,
but these dogs appear to be all she lives for and I don't think she
would consider getting rid of them.
What can I do?"
The
Simplest House of All - The Dacha Series "That first house should
provide all the bare necessities, but few frills. It can be built easily and economically
if you follow these few rules. The modified pole method will make it
possible for even one person working alone to build a first home in
perhaps a weeks time, if they are sensible and diligent about the work.
Then the homesteader can stop and rest on the front porch in the twilight
and dream about the big house they will build in the future.
Meanwhile the family is safe, warm and secure, supper is on the table and
all is right with the world." by Mark S. Chenail
Book Review: Making Your Small Farm Profitable by Ron Macher
"When so much of small farming is left to the
whims of nature and other seemingly random acts of divine intervention,
having something in print and in front of you that is solid and orderly is
comforting, soothing and panic-quenching." Review by Sheri Dixon
The
Homestead Cookbook Try our newest feature, a
searchable online cookbook loaded with homesteader's recipes and growing
every day.
Planning
the Homestead Orchard
Homesteaders must remember always that planting fruit trees is a very
labor intensive effort. Fruit trees are even more time
intensive. Think about this: Plant the wrong peas, and you've made a
three month mistake. You lose a planting season. Plant the wrong fruit
trees, or plant them in the wrong place, and it may be a ten year
mistake, and you may never really get to make it right."
by Ed Mashburn
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
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.
Curious...
My house was up ahead of me by about 100 feet."
by Sheri Dixon
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
Chickens
From Scratch
Report from Wonganoo Station, Western
Australia
A Day
in the Delta
Highland
Cattle - A Breed Apart
A Homesteader Visits
Sudan
Homesteader-cise: Lifestyle
Health, Fitness, and Fun on the Homestead
Easter Chicks Gone Bad: The Unexpected Menace
Predator-Proofing
the Place (Or as Close as One Can Get)
Economics
of Dairy Goats
Hens Are
Birds, too
Classic
Tractors
Woodland
Traces
Lightning!
Dear
Aggie
