Homesteading can be deceiving. When you first get into it, it can seem so quaint, innocent, and simple. After all, what can be more romantic and simplistic than building a compost pile, canning your own food, and frolicking with your goat herd out in the pasture? When we bought our property in 2008, no sooner did we sink the first fence post in the pasture did we realize: homesteading is expensive, y'all. We ...Continue Reading
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I’m Teaching My Kids to Fail
How's that for a politically-incorrect title? Failure is a pretty distasteful word in our culture. "They were such a failure..." "He totally failed at that..." "Failure is not an option." We've all heard and said those phrases and they carry an extremely negative connotation, don't they? As a recovering perfectionist, I've had a longstanding beef with failure. I hate messing up, I hate making mistakes, and I hate knowing ...Continue Reading
Beginner’s Guide to Chicken Coops
Sometimes I'm afraid being in this online homesteading world for the past 6 years has left me with some slightly skewed perceptions. Because I get to have so much contact with so many folks who so closely mirror my own ideals and goals, sometimes it's easy to think that *everyone* is on the same page when it comes to natural foods and homesteading stuff. Therefore, every so often, Prairie Husband bursts my bubble. Our conversation ...Continue Reading
I Think I Poisoned My Garden
I sure didn't want to be writing this post... But part of being a blogger is allowing you, my wonderful readers, a glimpse into my life-- and that includes both the good and the bad. I've alluded several times in my newsletter, and here on the blog, that I've had a rather bizarre, and quite unproductive gardening year. At first I just thought it was coincidence and that I simply lost the gamble this year... (Because we ...Continue Reading
Simple Mint Syrup Recipe
My mint is trying to take over my life right now. Now I'm not exactly complaining, because with the gardening year I've had thus far, I'm just happy to see something, anything, growing out there... It hasn't been a good growing season for my poor little garden. I suspect I have an issue with contaminated compost, and while I can't say for absolute certain yet, it ain't pretty... As I wrote in my newsletter last week, my carefully ...Continue Reading