Tara Dodrill 
Buying ducks can be an exciting, rewarding, and fun experience. But, keeping ducks might just not be for everyone. While duck keeping may involve a bit more space than keeping chickens, these egg and poultry birds can be kept not just on large rural homesteads but in small town backyard, suburbia, and sometimes even by … Read more Should You Really Get Ducks?
Rosemary and lemon soap is not only good for your skin, but will help eliminate odors from your skin after working in the kitchen with onions, garlic, fish, and other odoronous foods. Lathering up with a natural homemade soap with these two sweet smelling ingredients can also help repel pesky insects. Making your own soap … Read more How to Make Rosemary and Lemongrass Soap
Growing red winter wheat does not require a large homestead with double digit acres of fields. Nope, you can grow this shelf-stable food in small patches or even in 5-gallon gardening containers. By cultivating your own wheat your are not only saving money by growing your own groceries, you also know exactly what is going … Read more How and Why to Grow Red Winter Wheat
I commented to my husband the other day that it seemed like we had an awful lot of birds hanging round the farm this year. From cardinals to starlings, mourning doves to crows, we’ve had no shortage of feathered friends flitting about the place! The bluebirds, though, are some of the most remarkable to behold. … Read more Attracting Bluebirds To Your Garden for Natural Pest Control
Ducks must have access to water at all times, both for drinking purposes and to swim in. The members of your duck flock will need access to swimming water even in the chilly weeks of January and February. Keeping the water from freezing when the temperature dips below 32 degrees F (0 C) is far … Read more How to Keep a Duck Pond or Pool Water From Freezing in the Winter
Whether or not to feed honeybees is almost always a hotly debated topic among keepers. Some beekeepers opt to feed their colonies year round, others are staunchly against such a practice and only feed as necessary during cold weather months. Regardless of what breed of honeybees you choose to keep, it is really the climate … Read more Is Feeding My Bees a Good Idea?
So, you want delicious, naturally raised, farm fresh eggs on your homestead but cannot decide which is better to raise – ducks or chickens. That question is becoming pondered more and more, as duck keeping (for eggs and not just as cute farm pets), is becoming more popular. If you live in a rural area, … Read more Raising Ducks vs Raising Chickens – Which One Is Right for You?
Making the decision to officially become a goat farmer is an exciting moment for many homesteaders. A few seconds later reality sets in, and you have to actually get to work figuring out how to actually buy and raise the goat herd. Keeping goats, be they dairy, meat, fiber, or brush clearers is not rocket … Read more How to Raise Happy Goats
Cultivating medicinal herbs indoors increases the homegrown seasonings and herbal remedy ingredients available on the homestead year-round. Unlike traditional crops, herbs and medicinal flowering plants do not take up much space nor do they require deep soil to thrive. Windowsill herb gardens were once commonplace throughout America. Growing your own spices or even an aloe … Read more 20 Medicinal Herbs You Can Grow Indoors
Dandelions have gotten a bad rap for far too long. They have summarily been dismissed as mere weeds, and get sprayed with chemicals to kill them every time their cute little flower heads pop up out of the dirt. Not only are these common backyard flowers edible, they may also boast natural healing properties. Dandelion … Read more How to Make Dandelion Salve – and Why You Should
Pigs, or hogs as we call them in my neck of the woods, are omnivores. The traditional farming and homesteading type of livestock are incredibly biologically similar to people and can eat nearly anything recommended for a healthy human diet. Hogs are largely “opportunistic” eaters. The bulk of a pig’s diet is based on what … Read more 150 Things Pigs Can Eat and 43 They Shouldn’t
Olive orchards can be cultivated on nearly all homesteads, no matter where they are located or how much acreage they sit upon. While these fruit trees are subtropical, dwarf versions can be cultivated outdoors (except during the winter months when they must be moved into a greenhouse or indoors). Starting an olive orchard also brings … Read more Here’s How to Grow Olive Trees
Making floral soap is a beautiful way to not only enhance the bar you are making visually, but also harnesses any herbal benefits the flowers, herb plants, or roots they may possess. The type of soap base you are using must be considered when collecting flowers to dry to suspend in a bar of soap. … Read more How to Dry Flowers for Soapmaking
Stevia is a natural sweetener that is 200 to 300 times sweeter than sucrose – table sugar. The FDA has approved highly purified stevia for use in food, but has not done the same with raw stevia grown at home and used in the raw due to a lack of safety testing. This herb plant … Read more How To Grow Stevia… and Why You Should
Shea butter and oatmeal soap simply makes the skin look and feel great. No matter what scent you decide to use (if any) your skin will smell fresh and amazingly soft to the touch after using this simple melt and pour soap recipe. I used goat’s milk melt and pour soap base to create shea … Read more Shea Butter and Oatmeal Melt and Pour Homemade Soap
Learning to monetize your homestead not only allows you to make more money doing what you love to funnel back into the land, but can even lead to a full-time job working from home. Whether you are monetizing a homestead as a side hustle or in hopes of turning the project(s) into a full-fledged career, … Read more 33 Legal Ways to Monetize Your Homestead