“Learn to do common things uncommonly well; we must always keep in mind that anything that helps fill the dinner pail is valuable.” –…
One man's trash is another's treasure, or in my case, his trash is my container garden. It started two years ago with an experiment.…
One of the questions that I get asked a lot is, "Why should I spin my own wool, and knit a sweater, when I…
It is exciting to consider the possibilities of taking your successful hobby farm to the next level, but there are quite a few factors…
Have you ever wondered why, when so much of the homesteading lifestyle deals with the practices and philosophies of the past, no comprehensive history…
Fine. I’ll admit it. This is a book that my husband bought for himself, having become a fan of Sharon Astyk’s online writings. We…
Amelia Stewart Knight knew the cross-country journey west would be a rough one; it was not for the weak or timid. The trip to…
No one knows, or will ever fully understand, why Caroline Boa, daughter of a prosperous Iowa farmer, graduate of Mount Holyoke College in Iowa,…
My family and I attended an unschooling conference recently. We were pumped, ready, excited to go and be with people like us, who homeschool…
Captain John Smith told the English colonists under his sway “he who shall not work shall not eat.” It was a Biblical injunction, stated…
https://www.homestead.org/homesteading-history/history-of-american-homesteading-part1/ From the earliest days in the new united states, living involved networking. As we’ve already seen in Part One, if you build a…
https://www.homestead.org/homesteading-history/history-of-american-homesteading-part2/ "Come along, come along, make no delay, Come from every nation, come from every way, Our lands they are broad enough, have no alarm…
https://www.homestead.org/homesteading-history/history-of-american-homesteading-part3/ Johnny Cash (1932-2003) attracted myths like a big, square-shouldered magnet. It’s true that he was born in a clapped-out town in northeast Arkansas, that…
https://www.homestead.org/history/the-history-of-american-homesteading-part4/ Modern American homesteading, to misquote The Bard, makes strange bedfellows. Who can deny that communists, communalists, socialists, utopians, fundamentalists, survivalists, innovators, traditionalists, hermits, poets,…
There is a taboo against eating horsemeat here in North America (as well as many other places in the world). As a horse lover…
Dreaming about living in the country is easy, even when you’re not quite there. Rural images ripple unbidden through burbling brooks of the mind…
My life has changed drastically since choosing this rural life. When I lived in the Boston area, I would have a harried list of…
If you have a television, you’ve probably seen the PBS series, Simple Living, or at least heard of it. If you’re a fan of the…
Women bootleggers put men to shame in the days of Prohibition. Women bootleggers (moonshine smugglers) were not unheard of; in fact, there may have…
Rugged, self-sufficient, fiercely loyal – despite stereotypes to the contrary, the Appalachian mountaineers were, and are, an admirable people who developed a rich culture…
