Homestead.org: The Homesteader's Free Library

There's Something About Rosemary "Whether you grow rosemary for the distinctive flavoring it adds to foods, for the revitalizing effect of a steaming bath, or because of the depth of color and vital growth it adds to your hair, grow rosemary in your herb garden. Even if just because its colorful history adds richness to your life." By Gay Ingram

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

Angora Rabbits: The Wool Industry's Pride and Joy "Quiet and calm by nature, these animals have been used in fiber harvest for hundreds of years, and are thought to have originated in Turkey. Turkish fiber markets throughout history have also taken credit for the origination of the Angora Goat (who produce fiber known as ‘Mohair’, not angora) and the forerunner to the Persian cat breed." By Victoria Varga

Manna From On High: The High-altitude Homesteader Bakes "Living up here, as far from town as we are, and as infrequent as our visits to town may be, we stock our pantry with bulk items like flour, sugar, powdered milk, and canned goods. We’d need a mighty large freezer if we were to keep all the bread here that we consume during the winter months, so baking bread on a regular basis becomes a necessity. I also quite enjoy it. It is simple and easy… Really! And nothing makes the house smell better than freshly baked bread. Because of our high elevation, there are often many adjustments that have to be made to allow for a recipe to work here. But bread, well, that just works well up here." By Gin Getz

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. This is not such a bad position to be in, because unlike when you're looking to purchase a car, the mere fact that the tractor you buy may be older than you are doesn't automatically mean that you'll wind up with either a museum piece or a pile of junk." By Neil Shelton

Gotta Getta Ger - The Permanent Temporary Movable Structure "Unless you have found a place with a home already on it (my last two homesteads have been one of these), or have a lot of money lying idle and can afford to build your new house while living in your old house (I’ve heard some people can actually do this, although no one in my social circle can claim such high finance), you’ll be faced with the dilemma of where to live in the ‘between time’." By Sheri Dixon

Clean Your Water With Dirt "The normal purification process uses these chemical means to kill off the bad bugs, with some filtration. It's also true that normal methods such as chlorine aren't very effective against certain viruses. So there are always trace amounts of nasties in municipal supplies, and in many cases the same is true for well water. Usually water supplies are derived from ground water, usually aquifers. This includes individual wells. Think about that. For many years, people have been dumping waste out on the ground, spraying crops, raising cattle and other livestock, and so on. That waste will eventually find its way to the aquifers." By Ted Praast

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

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

A Farm-Hand's Life: Shearing Sheep "For those of you that have never experienced sheep up close and personal, let me assure you: they are not cuddly cute animals eager to jump over a fence and lull you to sleep - they are strong, stubborn, and loud. Consider perhaps a two hundred pound toddler that doesn't speak your language. Currently, the farm I live on has about 25 sheep and several lambs. In times past, shearing was easily a multi-day affair. This year it would only take the better part of the morning and early afternoon." By Matthew Surabian

Roof-top Wind Farms - The Symphonic Sounds of a Lifestyle "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

Drawing a Circle in the Sand "The Circle of Life requires a lot more thought and care to travel than a straight line, because it’s a CIRCLE and you will be back around this way again. Judicious pruning and mulching must replace slash and burn. Attention is required to preserve the knowledge and cornerstones of the past both for use today, and for our children’s use in the future." By Sheri Dixon

Thyme Is On Your Side (Yes, It Is!) "Speaking from experience, no matter how much thyme you grow, there never seems to be enough; and there are so many interesting varieties that you could concentrate on just collecting these delightful herbs. Someday I hope to have a 'thyme lawn'. A dense covering of fragrance that needs no clipping other than the removal of dead flower-heads after its profuse blooming." By Gay Ingram

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

(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

Strange Edibles "Who would want to do without plump tomatoes and fresh watermelons cracked open on a hot day? However, there are some edibles that aren't well-known by many gardeners – plants such as ground nuts, goji berries, goumis, hardy kiwis, and medlars. These plants have some advantages over the 'traditional' veggies that make them worthy of a spot on your land." By Karyn Sweet

Successful Transplants - Uprooting Your Urban Offspring "There are cheers. There is palpable excitement. There is one child not jumping up and down and with a distinct cloud over her head. 'What ever is the matter, my dear?!' you exclaim in dismay.

The child in question does not move and seems for all the world to be carved in granite. Only her eyes turn their full attention to you, burning a hole in yours for a full minute before she utters three words slowly, clearly and unblinkingly. 'I’m not going.'” By Sheri Dixon

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

Beginning Thoughts on Keeping Bees "There are a lot of good reasons to have a few hives of honey bees around. For garden and orchard crops, honey bees provide the necessary pollination so there’s something to harvest at the end of the season. For a source of a natural sweetener – honey – there’s no rival, and if the other natural products of the hive – pollen or propolis – appeal to you, then a few hives are certainly useful. Plus, there’s the added benefit of having all the light you want from fragrant and clean-burning beeswax candles. Sweetness and light in the same package." Story and Photos by Kim Flottum, Editor of Bee Culture Magazine

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

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

In Search of Authentic Homesteaders... Part Three "Hobby Farm, Small Working Farm, Family Subsistence Farm - all titles for those pieces of land that are over 10 acres, and under 50 acres. With an area this size, there’s a good chance you can plant your house where your neighbors won’t be peering in your windows, plant your veggie garden most anywhere, grow enough to feed yourselves handily, and still have room for a yard, or flowers, or a swing set, or even (gasping at the luxury) a swimming pool." By Sheri Dixon

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

How Chicken-wire and Concrete Solved My Problems

“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

Buddhist Economics - It Makes More Than Cents "A brilliant man who could have had a princely salary, could have managed an international financial institution, who chose instead to encourage people to care about their own lives enough to do good work, to divest in complex things and enjoy simple ones, to produce and consume locally – and to build planetary lifeboats, in cooperation with others. Meditating on the mega-crisis we are facing at this time, I long for the steady confident voice of Fritz Schumacher." By Barbara Bamberger Scott

Hair-raising Homestead Haircuts "In a panic only a mother can comprehend, I grab hold of what appears to be some sort of alien invader engulfing my offspring's noggin. With a shudder of horror, I brush back the tangled menacing locks and find: My son. Mildly surprised and blinking somewhat in the light, but I'd know those big browns anywhere. It's my son alright. Looks like it's time for a haircut." By Sheri Dixon

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

Got the Blues? "When I planted my most recent berry patch, I just wanted some berries for home use. Well, I got that and much more. From just a few dozen blueberry plants, I have picked several hundred dollars worth of cash-crop blueberries in the past five years. Every year I sell every single berry that I don’t want to eat." By Ed Mashburn

Livestock Guard Dogs - Just Like Lassie Only Better "Whether your LGD's charges are goats or toddlers and the predators are coyotes or burglars, these dogs will spend their lives keeping their family safe. When I have Galut filling the entire backseat of my car for a trip to the Vet, I look into those calm big brown eyes gazing over my shoulder. Even though she has never growled at anyone, I know that she would not hesitate to protect me. It's a good feeling." By Sheri Dixon

How to Save a Bundle on Loan Interest "Interest is the penalty that we pay for not being very, very wealthy or very, very destitute.

Having accepted that trauma, we can move on to ask ourselves what can be done to minimize our exposure, and as luck would have it, there are a few ways to make it easier to pay most any note off in reduced time at less expense and without adding too great a financial burden. I'm going to show you three." By Neil Shelton

Trees: Bringing It All Together "Rather than just taking from our own land, we can give back at the same time. We can plant trees. Now. What are we waiting for? Trees take longer to grow than your garden, and we all find time to dig a garden. Yet consider this: the trees will last longer and will contribute more to those coming after you, even add more value, both monetarily and intrinsically, to your land than a few tomato plants." By Gin Getz

The Real Dirt on Farmer John "The action begins with a pleasant looking chap in overalls tromping through a cultivated field. He crouches down and nibbles a tidbit of mud, announcing with satisfaction, “The soil tastes good today.” Then we see the same chap in full female drag including pink boa, in the driver’s perch of a giant combine. Switch to different drag, different farm equipment, same general idea. A voice-over tells us blandly how much fun it is to farm. Thus we are introduced to our hero in his natural habitat." Review and Musings by Barbara Bamberger Scott

Mice: Scourge of the Homestead "So the first time one makes a wrong turn and scampers across your feet, your likely reaction will be something on the order of “AAAIIIIEEEEE! (In midair, followed by a whole-body shudder upon hitting the ground), but then “AWWWWW- it’s so CUTE”, and you will not only NOT be aware of the impending menace, you will consider yourself fortunate to have had such a close encounter with a little jewel of Nature." By Sheri Dixon

Garden Seeds, Honeybees, You and Me "After the long, cold winter, spring does arrive. During a down time in the retail world, seed companies are thriving with sales at a record high. Rattling packets of vegetable and flower seeds are flying off the shelves at farm, hardware, and department stores all over the country as the whole nation is coming alive with the notion of tilling gardens. Community and Learning Gardens are sprouting in almost every city, town, school, and village." By Trendle Ellwood

Some People Will Steal Anything "While he played around at being the handyman, Joe would let the dogs accompany him. On weekends, he’d be so busy talking with tenants and cleaning the pool that he’d lose track of the hours. The abundant wildlife and insects were much more interesting than work. About the time he’d be ready with the pooper-scooper, the dog’s mess would be gone." By Roberta Snow

Belted Galloways: The “Oreo Cookie” Cow "Belted Galloway Cattle is certainly a breed that has garnered itself this excellent reputation, for all the many wonderful qualities in the breed description. And besides, what cattle fancier could resist the Oreo Cookie Cow?!" by Victoria Varga

Got (Real) Milk? "On your way to greater self-sufficiency, you have purchased a dairy cow or goat. You should feel proud that you are taking responsibility for your family's health and you are doing what's right for the environment and the economy. However, I would like to offer even more motivation for your daily trudges to the barn. You may not be aware of the amazing array of health benefits that raw milk offers." By Karyn Sweet

In Defense of the Weed-lot "After spending too much time in urban and suburban America, I return to the tiny speck of land that I call home, reeling from the stress that forced naturalness brings. My blood pressure drops with each truly natural sight- the wild daylilies under the chinaberry bush, wrens nesting outside the bedroom window in the overgrown untrimmed hedge, even the momentary glimpse of a coyote at the edge of the woods." By Sheri Dixon

Snakes in the Ozarks "The truth is, unlike that clown who comes on the TV screaming about detergent right after you've fallen asleep in your chair, snakes are even more afraid of humans than vice versa, and you can step on a snake without being bitten - probably." By Neil Shelton

Choke a Fish or Kill a Tree? "That question brought home the principle as to why we moved to our piece of heaven and why we changed over to homesteading, as naturally as possible in the modern world. Our greatest pet peeve has always been the mountains of packaging that accompany every outside purchase. Even as remote as our acreage is, we are still plagued with “bagpies” blowing in the breeze, alighting on fences, hanging in trees. Our vet said that half of all ruminant deaths from digestive impaction she had seen in 2008 were caused by animals consuming plastic bags, and that the problem was getting worse." By Roberta Snow

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

An Innocent's Tale "This was during a period when much of my life’s knowledge and experience came from Donald Duck. Nobody in Duckburg was what you’d call “normal”, not if “normal” meant being like Dick and Jane’s parents. (Dick and Jane were such out-of-it, goody-two-shoes losers, compared to Donald Duck)." By Neil Shelton

Will's Good Store "There weren’t many thrift shops around when I was growing up. There was a mentality, perhaps leftover from the Great Depression, that they were only for people who needed “charity.” We didn’t. But, Mother wasn’t about to waste money on an item of clothing that would be worn only once. So, one afternoon she drove me to a little house with a discreet sign on the door reading “Junior League Thrift Store.” From Mother’s secretive attitude, you would have thought we were going to a speakeasy." By Barbara Bamberger Scott

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

The $8.16 Do-It-Yourself Garden Irrigator "Figuring there had to be a better way to water a garden than tossing hose like spaghetti, I came up with my $8.16 (sales tax not included) irrigation system. I combined soaker hose, ½-inch PVC pipe, and connectors to make an irrigator that works in either raised or standard gardens. It’s a cinch to put the feeder pipes under ground (or gravel, in our case), which keeps everything tidy and impresses the daylights out of visitors." By Bruce Andis

Adventures of a Beekeeper's Wife "The whole world seems to be obsessed with bees these days. I have been informed that honeybees are second only to human beings on Internet searches. The recent Colony Collapse Disorder scare seemed to have caused the general population to realize how important bees are to our livelihood. As a beekeepers wife, bees are not only essential to my livelihood; they are a big part of my life. I have had bees in my living room and kitchen, in my hair and bed and even up my skirt." By Trendle Ellwood

Farmers of Forty Centuries by F. H. King: A Review with Musings "King could not have anticipated, though he alluded to it, the extensive exponential changes in Western technology that were to mushroom (in one case, quite literally) into a brave new world in which reliance on hand labor and natural approaches would be thought passé or impractically primitive. To stand back from and refuse to fully enjoy the benefits of those changes takes courage, and a different drumbeat." By Barbara Bamberger Scott

Horror Among the Hickories "Obviously, the girl was in some sort of dire distress. Perhaps she had rolled up the power windows with her head outside. Maybe she’d accidentally stabbed herself in the jugular with a nail-file and was spurting blood. Conceivably she had decided to change one of the tires for practice, and accidentally knocked the jack over so that the car was sitting atop her as she bent her leg double reaching up from under the vehicle and through the window to honk the horn with her toes." By Neil Shelton

Heritage Breeds on the Homestead: Oldies, but Goodies "Many people plan for years to purchase and lay out what that they desire for their dreams of homesteading. However, the potential homesteader often forgets to put very much concentration into the types of livestock that they will be raising. The breeds and types of livestock deserve as much consideration and thought as the actual layout of the homestead. If the benefits of the past are a part of your homestead plan, then consider raising heritage breeds on your property." By Regina Anneler

Buy Rural Property as Soon as You Can "One plan many urban and suburban dwellers use is to buy a place in the country but put up with city conditions as long as they can. Buy as soon as possible, make payments, then move after the rural property is paid for or when city prices appear to have peaked. City pay still averages higher than rural income so land payments are less strain with city bucks. Identify your ideal place and buy your piece of rural America as soon as you can." By Gene Gerue.

How Does a House Become a Homestead? "The back story is this: Dori Fritzinger lives on a commune, though she might not use that label. She is its most communicative member, but the center of the hundred acres, the pump that makes the blood flow, is her father, PaPa Joe Herbst. PaPa retired from a career as a mason in New Jersey and with Dori’s mother Juanita bought a campground in North Carolina. Dori, his only child and her husband Keith, moved everything – “the entire Ark” – and came south to occupy part of his estate (yes, there are eagles in Surry County, and Soaring Eagle Farm would be a safe habitat)." By Barbara Bamberger Scott.

A Backyard Market Garden "It didn’t amount to much, that garden, just a few rows of this and a few of that; just enough for my small family, with a little leftover to share with others. My plant of choice at that time was tomato, of which, I had about 16. Those tomato plants are where it all started for me. One day the store was short on an order for tomatoes. Luckily, I came to the rescue for that order. I was paid for my tomatoes of course, thus the real beginning of my market-gardening career." By Kevin Wright

Rose Mallow: Southern Belle Knocks Your Socks Off in August "I am not content to settle for the plain-Jane white Hibiscus that you commonly find growing wild, and I was also not so thrilled by such cultivars as the hybrid 'Disco Belle' a crimson floozy if I’ve ever seen one. No, I wanted the rarer blossom, the soft pink that occurs infrequently on the periphery of an otherwise white clump of mallow, a native southern belle of extraordinary beauty." By Neil Shelton

Farm Dogs - See Spot Work "Dogs have been the farmer’s companions ever since the first dogs figured out that if they helped the farmer with the livestock instead of eating the livestock, the farmer was less likely to supplement his own diet with canine cutlets. Dogs have worn many hats on the farm, and still do. Since dogs come in many sizes and forms, they are a natural for specialization." By Sheri Dixon

Bream, Bass and Butterfilies "This article focuses on ponds which are not meant to be simple livestock watering tanks. Those single-purpose ponds are absolutely vital for large scale livestock operations, but providing drinking water for large numbers of cattle is their only function. Instead, this article looks at ponds which do water some stock - usually a few head of cows, sheep, and perhaps some horses - but which also provide recreation, food, and even safety for the homeowner." By Ed Mashburn

Using a Midwife: The Ultimate Do-It-Yourself Project. Learn why hospitals are mostly superfluous to the birth event, "My interest in midwives and homebirth that my last OBGYN had sparked became suddenly extremely relevant upon learning at age 39 and 10 months that I was to become a mother again." 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

Seeds of Control - OMG! It's GMO! "I can’t control nature, or neighbors, or GMOs. But I can control my choices, and I know what I should do. Starting this year, with this garden, I will only use organic seed from select companies. I will legally and appropriately save that seed and participate with others who do so. I will ethically steward my five acres, with a healthy respect for creation and the Creator. And I will continue the dialogue at every opportunity that arises. Those are my “seeds of control.” What are yours?" By Zoe Kimmel

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.

Pit Vipers Need Love Too "This story is about my father’s pal, Fred. Among many other failings, Fred was terrified of snakes, but, like a lot of people, he didn’t really have the good judgment to just stay away from them. Instead, like a lot of people, Fred hated things that he was afraid of, and saw it as his job to see that anything he was afraid of didn’t live very long." By Neil Shelton

Longhorns on the Homestead: They're Not All Ornery Varmints: "Longhorns are at least good as, and in many cases better, than your average Angus or Hereford. Now, don’t think it could work as a replacement for a Holstein or a Jersey, because if you think that, you’re in for a surprise similar to what Pa Ingalls faced when he tried to use one as a milk cow in Little House On the Prairie." By Regina Anneler

Noxious Weeds - or Are They? "Being raised in a country that is one of the largest flower-producers in the world, I loved anything that bloomed, blossomed or simply grew out of a tiny seed; so as soon as the weather allowed, the dogs and I went exploring beyond that large strip of flower beds in the backyard to see what else was growing on our acreage." By Nicole H. Brauner

Clearing Land for Pasture: "Personally, my acquired education on the subject tells me that the only amount of land where clearing by hand is worth the time and effort is in situations where machinery would not have room to work without damaging buildings or other desirable trees and plants in the process. In other words, pretty small places. Using machinery, you can go from dense forest to pasture, if that’s your goal, in about two years time." By Neil Shelton

Your Medicinal Garden: Ten Herbs to Plant This Spring: "I know, I know, it's more fun to think of spring and all its loveliness, but with the current health care issues, it's helpful to remember that winter and sickness always rolls around again. Adding medicinal plants to your garden might be the best insurance." By Karyn Sweet

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

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

In Favor of a Naturalized Lawn: "In a world where insurance costs are skyrocketing, medical expenses are out of this world, transportation and food prices are continuously increasing, wouldn’t it make sense to go back to our roots and seek the forgotten food and medicinal value of the vitamin packed, herbs that yearn to grow, wild and free, at our feet?" By Trendle Ellwood.

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

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

In Search of Authentic Homesteaders - Or, What Does a Homesteader Look Like? Part Two "Most people think of amber waves of grain and fruited plains stretched from sea to shining sea when they envision themselves on a homestead, there’s a tremendous amount to be said for the small, compact suburban farm. In fact, although they don’t live In Town, all of our three profiled homesteaders have less than FIVE acres." By Sheri Dixon

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.

Born to be Wild: North American Wild Turkeys "Although these wild birds were prolific and abundant in the early pioneer days of North America, the intensive clearing and settling of woodlands during the 1800’s resulted in a decline and eradication of these beautiful birds in the United States altogether, and the last sighting of a Wild Turkey in that century, was in 1844 in the southwestern portion of New York State." By Victoria Varga

Retirement or Rejuvenation?: Homesteading as Social Security I began homesteading somewhat late in the game and am a long way from self-sufficient. I have gray hair, a sizeable mortgage, no money in the bank, and I’ll probably outlive Social Security. I can’t guarantee that any amount of hard work can keep the ship afloat. But I’ve decided that I have the heart of a homesteader, and I’m determined to enjoy the Golden Years on my five wonderful acres of country. Since I already know that homesteading is the answer, I simply have to ask the question. Retirement or rejuvenation? By Zoe Kimmel

Dairy Goats: Anchoring Your Homestead with Personality and Ice Cream The first thing to learn is that goats are particular. They only like ONE person milking them, always and forever. I don't care if your son/daughter/husband feeds the goats every day, if you are the one milking, anyone else will be in for a Goat Rodeo lasting much more than 8 seconds, and resulting in at least as much bruising on the part of the human. This is something you need to be prepared for too, until you and your goat have an "understanding". by Sheri Dixon

Ruth Stout - The No-Dig Duchess Much as I wanted to be a good student, I was far more attracted to the "easy way," the less invasive approach of Ruth Stout – especially after a few weeks of the grueling physical labor involved in Steiner's soil building technique. The easy way was the precise antidote to all that physical hardship. American Ruth Stout called it “no dig, no work.” Even our excessively Euro-centric teachers gave grudging kudos to Ms Stout and her “permanent mulch” method. by Barbara Bamberger Scott

Dairy Breeds: Little Calves, Big Profits: "Dairy animals have a saleable by-product: offspring. If you have dairy goats, then you have a saleable crop each year, but what do you do after those kids are weaned and you still have more milk than you can drink? You can make a lot of cheese, or you can use some of it to raise other animals, such as dairy calves." By Allena Jackson

The Healing Properties of Emus: "The healing properties of Emu Oil have become widely popularized on a global scale for successful treatment of many skin and pain related ailments. Emu Oil is being reported as having healing properties making many dermatologists and general practitioners take notice." By Victoria Varga

The Economics of Being a Cheap-O Part Two: "Given the uncertain employment picture and shaky economic future a lot of people are facing, it only makes sense to protect and insulate yourself as much as possible from the impact of job loss. Toward that end we set the following: Our First Goal has been to reduce, and keep reducing, our fixed monthly cost (utilities, phone, transportation, etc.) as well as the cost of food, to the point that we could manage on one minimum wage job." By Jan Cooke

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

Rabbits: Putting Food on the Table: "Rabbits are easy to raise and can be a rewarding project for the homesteader wanting to grow their food. They take little space and time as well as being one the most inexpensive types of livestock to raise for food production. Rabbit is a true bargain in today’s economy and food market for those wanting to grow and produce healthy meals." By Regina Anneler

Paradise The Moors converted a desert into the fruit basket of Europe. Throughout the year you could tell the seasons - oranges and lemons was Christmas, figs came in the autumn, almond trees and fields thick with poppies bloomed in the spring, and cherries heralded the beginning of summer. By Barbara Bamberger Scott

The Metz 22 Non-Stop Run "I said, before I started, that I could drive a Metz "22" 1600 miles, from Boston to Minneapolis, in four days - or 96 hours. This meant, of course, that it would have to be a non-stop run. Some of my friends thought that I was cutting the schedule pretty short, and among the business enemies of the car there were those who smiled contemptuously."

Book Review: Ford Model 8N Operator's Manual

Perhaps you’re wondering what sort of character would write a book review about an owner’s manual. Well, I have to admit that I don’t have a very good excuse for this behavior, except for three things... By Neil Shelton

Medicinal Herbs: Kitchen and Field Odds are good that you've got at least a few staple medicines in your kitchen, cleverly disguised as cooking spices. While sticking cayenne pepper up your nose might not be the first thing most of us think of when we get a bloody nose, doing exactly that can help to stem the bleeding quickly. If you've been cut, sprinkling cayenne on a cut will quickly step the bleeding, too. Once the wound has stopped bleeding, you can use honey, with its natural antibiotic effects, to help keep it closed and clean if necessary. By Lisa Maloney

Cutting the Utilical Cord Sheri Dixon's three-part primer on providing for your own power, water and sewage disposal. "If you are looking for a really good, technical article on the science of photovoltaics, there are hundreds of them on the web and whole shelves of books devoted to that, but this ain't it. I don't necessarily need to know How this stuff works, I need to know Why it will work for my family and our tiny fragment of Earth. This is one country gal who barely made it through high school science trying to gather enough basic knowledge to make sense and make a difference."

The “Swiss Army Knife” of Homestead Tractors We are heading back to those hard-scrabble times of yore, and I do pity those who folks who live in town. The possibility of soup kitchens and bread lines is not as remote as one might think, but then, the mind is adept at denying the obvious. It's a peculiar sort of survival mechanism until you actually need to survive. And that is why I wrote this, because the Gravely Convertible Tractor is a real survival mechanism, and you may well need one to survive. By John Molloy

Obtaining Self-Employment Being self-employed and happy does not require a lot of money. If you are reading this, chances are you are someone who thinks a little differently about life and also enjoys the thought of self-sufficiency, so you are one step ahead of most people. To be self-employed, you need time and a willingness to go without for now for a big payoff later. By Tracy Breen

Half-Caff Country: A Chicken Comedy The ensuing scene looked like Green Acres Does Keystone Cops… multiple laps around the run, flailing of arms, a serious breakdown of communication and on-the-job training on how to catch and hold a chicken. All we needed was the background music. By the time we got done, we were laughing so hard we couldn’t stand up. Fortunately, Buckeyes – ours, at least – really are fairly docile, and we got them into the run without serious insult or injury to them or us. Day One of our chicken farming was complete. By T. Zoe Kimmel.

Raising Earthworms Earthworms are most accommodating livestock. They do not need daily tending; they will thrive with minimal supervision, providing their modest needs are met. These needs are a sufficient supply of organic matter for food and to be kept moist. Unless you want to keep your worms indoors, they do not require much by way of equipment, bins or boxes. By Mary Hysong

Winter Preparedness Officially, WINTER starts on December 21st, the shortest day of the year. But here winter starts the end of October, if not earlier. Once the snow arrives in October, it is here to stay until April. Those of us who live in the Northern States or Canada know all about winter. You can tell a lot by the jokes, such as: "Here we have 9 months of winter and 3 months of poor sledding." By Jan R. Cooke

Can You Double-Dig It? Rudolf Steiner, born in 1861, is generally pictured in a dark velvety suit, gazing, it seems, into the far distance (or more likely, into some inner, astral landscape). He was the child of ambitious class-bounders who had the good sense to put their only son into a science school. Perhaps they hoped to drum some common sense into the lad, as they were less than comfortable with his apparent ability to see through the physical world into a parallel, ethereal universe. By Barbara Bamberger Scott

In Search of Authentic Homesteaders - Or, What Does a Homesteader Look Like? In the last few years, my family and I have had the good fortune to travel and meet a number of folks who share our homesteading dreams and visions. Some of these homesteaders have had the graciousness and good humor to fill out a survey I sent to them in search of The Real True Homesteaders. By Sheri Dixon

Buying Your First Horse You’ve been bitten by the rural lifestyle bug. Maybe you’re living on some acres, the kids are nagging you to buy a pony or you’re thinking about acquiring some old-fashioned “horsepower”? Don’t know what to buy or where to find it? I’d like to let you in on the best kept secret in the horse world, the Standardbred! By Lisa Wiseman

Growing Tomatoes and Peppers in Winter You will be able to experience the taste of produce you would otherwise be unable to have during the winter. It is a great feeling to know that while there may be frost outside on the ground, there is homegrown freshness waiting at your table. A little care and planning can go a long way in providing summer freshness in the winter. By Regina Anneler

Robbing the Bee Tree Knowing how important it was to most people of the Ozarks for the breakfast table to be adorned with fresh honey, I had always wanted to be part of the crew that brought in the honey. By M. J. Nutter

45 Ways to Save Money on Groceries #16 You’ll be wealthier and healthier if you buy basic commodities that only have one item in their list of ingredients - things like potatoes, beans, apples. Not only will you avoid lots of chemicals and preservatives, but you’ll save a ton of money. Just remember, if it has a trademark or a brand name, you’re paying more and probably undermining your health in the bargain. By Neil Shelton

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

The Missouri Journal - Part 13 I got out the map and instead of being in western New Jersey driving west on the New Jersey Turnpike, parallel to the Pennsylvania border, I discovered we were “down the shore” cruising the New Jersey Parkway. We were just outside of Atlantic City. OOOPS! My bad, but an honest mistake. By Mark Chenail

Add a Pond to Your Property The potential benefits to the landowner are far too valuable to express in terms of mere money. If you have the right soil and location, you can provide yourself and your great-grandkids with food, recreation and beauty for lifetimes to come. By Neil Shelton

Making Cheese is Fun If you are lucky enough to own a dairy animal, then you probably have excess milk on your hands and wonder, "What could I do with this extra milk?" Extra milk can be processed into delicious cheeses. It is fun, easy, and doesn't require a lot of expensive equipment to get started. As you will see, you don't even need a kitchen, although I do highly recommend one. You can also use store-bought milk for the cheese I am making today, Fromage Blanc. By Allena Jackson

Are You Sure You Really NEED a Job? Personally, I haven't held a steady job in 30 years, but I can tell you that it was one of the most soul-scarring experiences of my life: not only was I expected to show up at the same time and place every morning, but I had to stay there and pretend to be doing something for eight long hours every day, with no consideration whatever for what I REALLY wanted to be doing. By Neil Shelton

Setting Up a Website A website gives you a whole new platform from which to market yourself. Got a ton of extra produce this year? Goats outdoing themselves in milk production? Want to clean the extras out of the attic without junking perfectly good stuff? Your website can help get the word out. By Elizabeth Connick

Making Alcohol Fuel Only a few foresighted people realized the disadvantage of using a fuel that had to be searched for and mined from underground. Henry Ford was one of these. He fought long and hard for the use of alcohol as fuel. By Lynn Doxon

The Missouri Journal - Part 12 My dear, dear mother had passed away this afternoon around noon, our time. Karen had tried to call so that Mom and I could talk one last time, but because of the bad signal, I hadn’t gotten the message. When Mom had been passing away, I was outdoors in the sunshine, cutting firewood and talking to Dan while he worked on the soffits. By Mark Chenail

Guinea Fowl: Something Different in the Garden If you are interested in keeping something a bit different in the coop, and would like to eradicate the possibility of ticks and other harmful pests in the farmyard or garden, perhaps a pair of Guinea Fowl would be a successful addition to your own spread. By Victoria Varga

Mineral-rich Weeds What had started as innocent flower flicking turned into a full-on battle with whole dandelion plants, roots and all, being tossed back and forth. I might not have participated if I'd known that I was basically throwing multi-vitamins; lobbing a little vitamin A, B and C at your buddies doesn't sound like half as much fun as just throwing flowers. By Lisa M. Maloney

Iris Pseudacorus - Exotica on the Cheap Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I not only have several large ponds, but numerous damp marshy areas. This is the domain of Yellow Flag Iris, or Pale Yellow Iris as it is sometimes called, for it flourishes in wet places and is very tolerant of low light. It will flourish around the edges of ponds and part of the way up the banks. By Neil Shelton

Don’t Quit Your Day Job - Bringing Home the Bacon So You Can Afford to Feed the Pigs Having to have a "real job" does not mean you are a failure at Homesteading. All it means is that right now, at this moment, your goal of a successful homestead requires this of you. It’s to your credit that your homestead means enough for you to do what you need to do to attain and maintain it. By Sheri Dixon

Peafowl: Plumage and Personality The peacock is a unique exotic, and raising these birds for the simple joy of their beauty is truly one of the pleasures of animal husbandry. There is a good market for these birds, as a thing of beauty and joy to their owners, and rearing and caring for them is a relative breeze compared to other types of poultry. By Victoria Varga

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

Homesteader FAQs - 10 Frequently Asked Questions You Will Likely Encounter When You Decide to Homestead There is always someone, or in some cases a lot of someones, to tell you that you have made a bad choice, a wrong choice, a stupid choice, crazy choice, or that they would have done it different. By Jan R. Cooke

Cooking on a Wood Cook-stove Last year, in the process of renovating our home, we decided to approximately double our kitchen space. This allowed us the room to keep our ceramic cook-top and electric, double-wall oven with space left over to install our new Waterford Stanley wood stove. By Karen Zlattner

Adventures of Becoming a Backwoods Girl: Bugs, Guns, Dogs, and Fire For the fish and wildlife crew at Tech, my new college, this career path was more than just some lab courses and a little hunting and fishing—it was a lifestyle. Many would be more than happy to become a hermit and never see another road in their life. Now, while I can sympathize with that feeling, I soon came to realize that perhaps this particular path—as a career—was not one I should join. Let me explain, very clearly, what led to this. By Lacey Thacker

Blackthumb! Helpful Hints for the Cultivationally Challenged Over the course of the last 25 years, I have gardened both sides of the Mason-Dixon line, and I have compiled a Gardener's List of Untruths, for those of us who have followed, to the letter, the advice of the "Master Gardeners", come up with nothing to serve our families but dust and weevils, and had our neighbors turn us in for suspected toxic waste storage (HEY, that's my garden!). by Sheri Dixon

Tai-chi or Golf - The Zen and Sport of Scything Not 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

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 was 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 Delta Rushing, 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 Homestead We, 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

My Homestead Income - $1,700 in the first 4 months In 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

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

Fiscal Fowl Alignment for the Potential Homesteader - Five Tips to Get your Financial Ducks in a Row Despite decent wages, there always seemed to be too much month left over at the end of our money. Buying land, creating a homestead, and leaving our corporate jobs looked about as realistic as flapping our arms and flying to Venus. By Andrew Mueller

Getting Started With Chicks Chickens 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

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 Traces Edged 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 Home Located 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

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

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 Missouri Journal -- Part 8  After 31 years, I retired from

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 Spinning When 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Book Review:“Mortgage Free! Radical Strategies for Home Ownership” by Rob Roy: "In this book, Rob Roy gives hope to the un-lendable and challenges everyone else to do the unusual." Review by Sheri Dixon

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

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.

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

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

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 "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

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

"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

How to Read Your Deed 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

Rudolph and Company: A Portrait of the North American Reindeer by Victoria Varga

Book Review: Raising Sheep the Modern Way

For Sale By Owner - Needs a Little Work: "The first years were like primitive camping, only not as glamorous," by Sheri Dixon

Alpacas: Still the ultimate in exotics. "The ship of the Andes". More unusual livestock from Victoria Varga

Sunny or Windy: Two alternative power sources examined, by Casey Calouette

Icelandic Sheep Meat, wool and milk all in one timid package, by Victoria Varga

Book Review: The Self-Reliant Homestead, by Charles A. Sanders