The Prairie Homestead

Homesteading | Self Sufficient Living | Living off the Land

Jill Winger

31 Comments | |    Last Updated: February 16, 2020

Preparing Our Raised Beds for Spring Planting

I FEEL SO BEHIND. Except I'm not. At least not yet. Wyoming is horribly deceiving this time of year. We've been getting lots of 70+ degree days the last week or two, and I've been spending all day outside piddling out in the garden and getting sunburns, which is quite heavenly after a long winter. My perennials are slowly awakening. The lilacs and ash trees are budding. And the prairie land all around is gradually turning a ...Continue Reading

20 Comments | |    Last Updated: October 13, 2021

Practical Ways We Save Time On Our Homestead

Time and I have always had a complicated relationship. There have been seasons of my life with never enough time, seasons where I had too much time, and seasons where time seemed to expand to fit my to-do list perfectly (I like those seasons the best, by the way). Over the years, I've received bunches of emails asking how I "do it all" as a homeschooling mom of 3, doTERRA leader, blogger, author, homesteader, and horsewoman, among ...Continue Reading

52 Comments | |    Last Updated: January 29, 2025

Does This Homesteading Thing Really Matter?

A couple weeks ago I found myself talking to someone who didn't have the faintest idea what homesteading was. It's been quite a while since I've been around anyone completely unexposed to this lifestyle, which I think is fairly remarkable, considering homesteading was still a fringe concept ten years ago when the notion of chickens and goat milk first entered my consciousness. It caught me off guard so much, I was only able to ...Continue Reading

19 Comments | |    Last Updated: November 24, 2020

Peanut Butter Pie Recipe

This weekend was supposed to be pretty laid-back, at least by Winger standards... I was planning to finally clean my neglected house, do a little computer work, and make our favorite peanut butter pie to go with our Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup for Saturday night supper. And then just like that, it was Sunday morning and there I was, mopping up a lake of liquid yellow cow manure in my mudroom. Welcome to my life... ...Continue Reading

44 Comments | |    Last Updated: February 20, 2023

What We Learned by Having Our Garden Soil Tested

My brain is bursting with the possibilities of SPRING on the homestead. The birds have started chirping, there's the faintest green tint to the prairie when you look out across the wide open space, and the air smells alive and fresh after many months of BLAH. Are we done with snow storms? No way. But we're getting closer. I repotted the tomatoes and peppers this week, and they're happily growing under their lights in the basement. ...Continue Reading

38 Comments | |    Last Updated: March 26, 2021

How Much to Plant Per Person in the Garden

I'm about to say something very controversial. Sacrilegious, even. Well, at least in homestead circles. Like always, a part of me is stoked for spring. STOKED, I tell you. The seedlings are growing in the basement, and I walk through the dormant garden about once every 3 days dreaming and planning. But a part of me is (gulp) is entirely OK with the fact I have two more months until we're really ready to plant.  I heard ...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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