The Prairie Homestead

Homesteading | Self Sufficient Living | Living off the Land

Jill Winger

13 Comments | |    Last Updated: January 28, 2025

French Dip Sandwiches Recipe

Living in a rural area comes with lots of perks: A slower pace. Friendly neighbors. Charming, smaller towns. And lots of room to breathe and think. I love all of those things and treasure them daily. But the food, y'all. The food can be a challenge. Our nearest town is about 60,000 people, and while that's not a metropolis by any means, it's a decent-sized town by Wyoming standards. However, our food options are ...Continue Reading

35 Comments | |    Last Updated: February 26, 2022

5 Easy DIY Chick Brooders You Can Make

It's physically impossible for me to plan ahead when we buy chicks. I just can't. Even the years when I know we will be adding to the flock, I still seem to always jump the gun and run to the feed store last minute without much pre-planning. It's a sickness y'all. Take last week, for example. I called the feed store on a whim in the midst of a morning of homeschool to ask if they had chicks. I don't know why I called. It wasn't ...Continue Reading

49 Comments | |    Last Updated: March 5, 2024

Homemade Corned Beef Recipe

Have I ever told you how horrible of a cook I used to be? It was bad, you guys. Really bad. So bad that when Christian and I got married, my speciality was broiled spam sandwiches. (For realz.) So bad that it was years before I fed my family pork chops that weren't reminiscent of corrugated cardboard. So bad that once I cooked a store-bought corned beef for only a few hours (without added seasonings) and then proceeded to ...Continue Reading

21 Comments | |    Last Updated: March 17, 2018

How to Disinfect Seed Trays

Sometimes I have a hard time being flexible. I've been like that for as long as I can remember... If we had something on the calendar growing up, it was gonna happen. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. And if it didn't? Well, I pretty much had a meltdown. I've grown out of the meltdown part (although my husband might try to argue that point...), but dang it-- if I put something on the calendar, you can bet I'll go to the ends of the ...Continue Reading

30 Comments | |    Last Updated: July 22, 2025

5 Minute Homemade Mayonnaise Recipe

Why go to the trouble of making stuff? Good question. I've ask myself that on occasion, especially when I find myself spending precious time deciphering a recipe for something I could grab at the store in two seconds flat. Sometimes it's to avoid toxins or artificial ingredients (like in my homemade fly spray or from-scratch BBQ sauce). Sometimes it's because I end up with a superior product than the store-bought version (like in ...Continue Reading

41 Comments | |    Last Updated: October 13, 2021

Homestead Homeschooling: Year 3

"Eh... So... Are you still homeschooling?" I hear that question a lot. And I get it. I mean, doing school every single morning. With three kids (one being a wild toddler). While running a blog and our doTERRA business. And writing a real, published cookbook. And keeping up with a homestead, etc, etc, etc. It sounds crazy. Well, it IS crazy. Maybe I'm crazy. But regardless, the answer is 'yes'. We are in the thick of our ...Continue Reading

Nice to Meet You

I’m Jill. I’ve never been very good at following prescribed paths.

For the last 15 years, that instinct has led me through homesteading, entrepreneurship, and creating a life my younger self could have only dreamed of.

These days, I’m less interested in living the perfect "old-fashioned life" and more interested in knowing which ideas are worth carrying forward. The first half of this story was about building a homestead. The next part is about building a life that actually fits.
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