My pile of empty jars is growing... The larder is emptying... It can only mean one thing: Canning season is right around the corner. As the tomatoes ripen and the cucumbers grow, it's wise to take a quick inventory of your canning supplies. (Because there's nothing worse than being mid-canning project, only to realize you're missing jars or lids!) I've had a lot of questions about canning lids lately. After the Great Lid ...Continue Reading
Top 10 Tips for Building a Chicken Tractor
I've become a huge fan of chicken tractors in recent years. A few years ago, I shared about how I've been changing my relationship with our chickens on the homestead. I've been shifting my viewpoint from seeing chickens as a chore and instead thinking about various ways to use the natural inclinations of a chicken to minimize our work load. One of the ways to use a chicken to minimize the work on a homestead is to use them as part ...Continue Reading
The Best Garden Trio for Building Healthy Soil
Stillness. As I sat down to write this, I was trying to think of a word to sum up the hours I spent in my greenhouse and garden over the weekend. That was all that came to mind. No grand revelations. No long-winded observations. Just blissful quiet. A peaceful, settled brain. It’s taken me a long time to get to this point with my garden. In years past, my growing seasons were defined by stress. Overwhelm. Never feeling ...Continue Reading
How to Fix Tainted Soil
I'm not stranger to dealing with poisoned and tainted soil in my garden. I wish that I could say that tainted and damaged garden soil has only happened to me once, but it's actually happened multiple times... --> The first time was when we accidentally bought contaminated non-organic hay for our Deep Mulch garden method (read more about that story here). --> The next time was when we accidentally tainted our compost pile ...Continue Reading
What I’ve Been Reading Lately…
Last week the ground was covered in a blanket of white. This week, it’s 70+ degrees and my kids are “swimming” in the buffalo wallow. A tinge of green is appearing across the prairie that’s been brown for an eternity. It’s coming. I'm looking forward to sun, soil, and long evenings spent outside. Although... a part of me will miss the peaceful nights curled next to the fire with a good book. But I know that time will come ...Continue Reading
