The Prairie Homestead

Homesteading | Self Sufficient Living | Living off the Land

Jill Winger

67 Comments | |    Last Updated: September 25, 2018

How to Milk a Cow

Today I'm inviting ya'll to put on your muck boots and come down to the barn with me! I'll introduce you to Miss Mabel and walk you through my basic cow milking routine. Are ya ready? Let's go! How to Milk a Cow What You Can Expect to See in this Milking Video: Me getting whacked in the face with Mabel's tail multiple times. My super high-tech milking stool. Mabel perfectly illustrating how fidgety cows can be... ...Continue Reading

103 Comments | |    Last Updated: March 17, 2018

20+ Homemade Insect Repellent Recipes

Poop. It's a fact of life on a homestead. And poop brings flies. Lots of 'em. Back in the days before I got all crunchy, I used to use loads of chemical fly sprays on my horses... And even though I hadn't fully "awakened" to the world of chemical-free living at that point, I remember it would still bother me when I could taste the fly spray in my mouth after dousing the horses... I've seen questions about homemade insect ...Continue Reading

66 Comments | |    Last Updated: June 13, 2023

Homemade Breakfast Sausage Recipe

Breakfast sausage is definitely something that is on my list of "Never Buy Again Foods": Most store-bought sausage rolls contain all sorts of icky things like MSG or corn syrup. Homemade breakfast sausage is super simple to mix up at home, so there is really no reason to buy the store-bought versions with all the added junk... We acquired a large meat grinder a couple years ago, which has definitely been worth the ...Continue Reading

109 Comments | |    Last Updated: March 17, 2018

Homeless Chickens: An Old-Fashioned Solution

Everyone has a chicken coop in their backyard these days, and like I've said before, I think it's a good thing. Sure, it might be considered a "fad" by some, but hey- you can bet I'll be the last one to complain about more people waking up to the issues with our current food system. And if that awakening means that folks are bringing home chickens in their mini-van, then good on them! But, I recently came across an article that ...Continue Reading

105 Comments | |    Last Updated: March 17, 2018

Goat’s Milk is Gross… Or is it?

I must confess. Before we started milking our own goats, I had never had goat's milk. Risky? Perhaps. I guess there was that chance that I would absolutely despise the taste of it and then be forced to halt all dairy goat operations. But, I like to live on the edge... After hearing multiple people passionately explain why they thought goat's milk was utterly disgusting, I started to get a little nervous... And then the ...Continue Reading

64 Comments | |    Last Updated: April 29, 2020

Lemon Whey Pie Recipe

Three reasons you should make lemon whey pie: 1. It is a mouth-watering way to use up extra whey- a very common problem if you make a lot of cheese or own dairy goats or cows. 2. It's delightfully old-fashioned and just happens to come from the 1965 edition of the Farm Journal's Complete Pie Cookbook which belonged to my grandmother. 3. It's really, reeealllllly good. Really. It has officially earned a spot in my recipe ...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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