If SHTF lasts longer than your stored food, you will have to survive on what you can grow. The Native Americans survived and thrived on a limited diet. You can too! A key component in their diet was hominy (in…
Ancient Survival Food: Hominy
Category: Homestead
Survival Garden — Three Sisters: Happier in Own Rooms
For a “survival garden,” it’s hard to beat the Three Sisters — corn, beans, and squash. Their produce stores well and provide balanced nutrition. This year’s experiment with the Sisters turned out rather well. Each sister her own “room” instead…
DIY Battery Bank: How to & Uses
A battery bank is a hedge against power outages. Build your own for less than half the cost.
Walking Onions: Perennial Food
One way to develop a self-sustainable food supply is perennials. Like fruit trees – they produce food every year. An experiment here that is “showing fruit” is our patch of perennial onions. Maybe they’re right for your garden too. The…
Off-Grid Water: Keeping a hand pump pumping
A key component of the homestead’s preparedness is a water supply that is not dependent on the grid. A “dug” well is usually a detriment in the real estate market: not so, for me. That feature was a plus for…
Syrup wrap-up, Spring chores
The maple syrup season ended, but other Spring chores quickly fill the void that had been tapping and boiling. While that task is done, self-sufficiency always has something else to tend to. It’s far too early to plant, but there…
Coal in a wood stove?
Could you burn coal in your wood stove as an alternate fuel? The answer is a qualified yes. As an experiment, I bought a bag of coal and gave it a try. Here is what I learned. First, a little…
Maple Syrup Season Begins
It’s maple syrup time again. The days are getting longer. For sap to flow, the days need to be above freezing (and ideally, sunny) and the nights below freezing. This has been a mild winter, overall, so President’s Day weekend…
Fruit Thieves!
Even if you’re good at growing your own food, bad weather or thieves could steal your harvest: everything you planned for winter provisions. Fruit thieves struck the homestead this summer. This year, our most productive apple tree had set a…
DIY Sweetness: Maple Syrup
Producing your own food is an important goal. Gardens grow veggies and grains. Hunting (or husbandry) provide meat. Sweetener is another matter. Making your own maple syrup is useful and rewarding. Winter: everything is frozen and buried under snow. It’s…