Tips to Homesteading

Posts Tagged ‘homestead’

More tips to winterize around your homestead…

Inside the home:
Specific to your Furnace…

• Call an HVAC professional to inspect your furnace and clean ducts.
  Stock up on furnace filters and change them monthly.
  Consider switching out your thermostat for a programmable thermostat.
  Remove all flammable material from the area surrounding your furnace.

Outside the home:

• Trim trees if branches hang too close to the house or electrical wires.
  Ask a gardener when your trees should be pruned to prevent winter injury.
  Plant spring flower bulbs and lift bulbs that cannot winter over such as dahlias in areas where the ground freezes.
  Seal driveways, brick patios and wood decks.
  Don’t automatically remove dead vegetation from gardens, as some provide attractive scenery in an otherwise dreary, snow-drenched yard.
  Move sensitive potted plants indoors or to a sheltered area.

In the Garden:

• It’s time to rake leaves and dispose of them, preferably in a compost heap. Failing to rake leaves can result in a dying or diseased lawn and garden.

For the Animals:

• Clean the floor of the pen daily or design it in such a way that it drains properly.
  Consider using translucent fiberglass roofing to allow maximum heat retention, if your budget allows.

Until next tip –
Best Blessings!
The Millers

Donna Miller is an author, teacher and entrepreneur. Her favorite roles are that of wife and mother to three home-school graduates. The Millers own and operate Millers Grain House which offers Chemical Free and Organic Grains, Grain Mills, Bread Machines, Grain buckets, Bosch Mixers, the NutriMill, instructional tutorials, recipes and more.

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It’s satisfying to spread your table with your garden produce when you’re an avid homesteader and gardener. Your organically grown vegetables aid in enhancing your health and provide you with excellent nourishment. The following ideas can improve your homesteading and gardening:

1.   Cultivate Potatoes in Barrels

Potatoes can be grown in plastic 50 gallon barrels, which are difficult for rodents to chew. Stack the barrels on a raised platform, then drill a few holes at the base for drainage purposes. Take a few potatoes, which have begun to sprout, and slice them into squares. Dry them out to prevent wet rot, then plant them in the barrels with some soil and compost. As the plant reaches the top of the barrel, plant horseradish or bush beans as a companion plant to ward off pests. When the potatoes are ripe for harvest, kick over the barrel and collect your crop.

2.    Plant Herbs and Flowers with Your Garden Produce

You can attract pollinators to your vegetable garden by inter-planting your crop with a variety of herbs and flower species. Flowers in rich hues of blue and yellow lure bees, which encourage pollination. You’ll be assured of good crops in your harvest of tomatoes, eggplant and peppers. Herbs such as dill, fennel and parsley entice beneficial insects like ladybird beetles. These feed on the pollen and nectar of flowers and lay their eggs on the crops. The larvae will gorge on pests that threaten your vegetables.

3.    Mulch Your Garden

You can prevent weeds from insidiously destroying your vegetables, and retain ground moisture, by mulching. Additionally, mulching permits you to moderate the temperature of the soil. It’s best to resort to material that decomposes, thereby adding organic matter to the soil. Your mulch material can range from shredded leaves to newspaper and cardboard:

• Shredded leaves. This nutrient-rich mulch is ideal for vegetables, flowerbeds and fruits.  Shred the leaves with a lawn mower before covering the ground.

• Newspapers and cardboard. Smother the weeds around the pathways and plants with several layers of newsprint and cardboard. Blanket the material with shredded leaves or bark in a thick covering. Replace the paper as your garden grows.

• Tree bark. The most common form of mulching, you can obtain them by the bag from gardening stores. Take care that you purchase real bark. Then spread the pieces over the soil in your garden.

Adopt these recommendations for better homesteading and gardening, and observe your crops burgeon.  Live happily off your land!

Technorati Tags: gardening tips, homestead, homesteading and gardening, mulching, potatoes

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One tip to homesteading is not so much being a ‘pack-rat’ (although I am guilty of that with glass jars), but looking at ways to reuse something that might otherwise be thrown away. Today I want to share a pictorial tutorial of just what I’m talking about when it comes to saving ‘trash’ and making good use of it.

Thanks to when our dog, Chewbacka [nicknamed 'Chewy'], was a puppy, a chewed up hose has been coiled in our shed for months, almost 2 years. I wouldn’t throw it away because I just knew there was something I could do with it, eventually.

Low and behold, the other day, while going to dig up some purple potatoes, I found that someone had left our pitch fork (of 15 years) out under some bushes last fall and to say it’s weathered now is an understatement:

But it’s still quite sturdy and, frankly we don’t want to buy something if we can already use what we have , so my wheels in the wheels in my head started turning and I grabbed the exacto-knife, scissors and some electrical tape:

With the scissors, I cut four equal pices of hose, then with the exacto-knife, I split them in the center: Look at that guilty culprit in the background….

I wrapped them around the weathered, rough handle of the pitch-fork by opening them up at the split:

Then wrapped it with electrical tape:

The gripes are cushioned and smooth. No splinters and less blisters now – time to get to work!

Now my husband jokes with me that there’s no room for being lazy and just working for 3 hours in the garden, with this ‘cush-handle’ I should be able to dig and pitch all day long! Oh my! What have I done??

Seriously though, reusing things that may have thought of as trash or something not worth the time to keep is one of the top tips to developing a good homestead. Of course it’s a money saver too!

By sharing these tips, I hope it inspires you to look outside the ordinary and challenge yourself to make the most of what you already have!

Best Blessings and Happy Homesteading!

Donna

Donna Miller is an author, teacher and entrepreneur. Her favorite roles are that of wife and mother to three home-school graduates. The Millers own and operate Millers Grain House which offers Organic and Chemical-free Whole Grains, Bosch Mixers, the NutriMill, instructional tutorials, recipes and more.

Technorati Tags: homestead, homesteading, recycle, reuse, save money, tips, trash

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The art of perseverance is often looked at with some type of nostalgia. History tells us stories of people during times such as the founding of the country, the Great Depression, the prisoners in camps and war zones that persevered through trial with diligence, with hope in the face of despair. These are not the stories of the movies or history alone, but need to be the story of everyone who embarks on a homesteading lifestyle. For that matter, these are the stories of our current economic times.

When it’s not fun; when it’s difficult; when it looks like it is not working: persevere and push through. These circumstances don’t mean that we need to go out and get a new ‘item’ or ‘a better model’ or give up…they are an opportunity to grow and build character.

When it’s rained too much or not enough and the garden isn’t working, keep at it and push through. Make some tweaks and learn from mistakes. When you’ve not a clue how to get the hay cut and bailed because you’re new at this and don’t own a tractor. Keep pushing through. Find a neighbor who is willing to cut/bale it for you in exchange for a few bales of hay.

Don’t give up. Push through. The feeling of satisfaction you get when you plow on through a difficult situation to a positive outcome is ALWAYS a lot better than the feelings you get when you turn tail and run from one.

Hope you will enJOY the journey!

Best Blessings!
Donna Miller

Donna Miller is a work-from-home wife and mother. She delighted to share her trials and triumphs of learning to homestead anywhere. The Millers own and operate MILLERS GRAIN HOUSE which offers Organic and Chemical-free Whole Grains, Bosch Mixers, the NutriMill, instructional tutorials, recipes and more. She also writes for The Dollar Stretcher, in the Blog Entitled: The Homestead Mindset Anywhere

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On a homestead, there is an endless list of things to accomplish. Some tasks are easily taken care of to completion in an afternoon, such as hanging out, folding and putting away laundry. Other tasks take much longer, such as putting in the garden. Often most tasks run in tandem and it is easy to get overwhelmed, especially if you are new to homesteading.  Don’t get under a giant to-do list without some sense of accomplishment each day.

Even if we have several tasks ‘in the works’ at the same time, it is important to have that sense of completion at the end of each day. So whatever you have to do, even if it takes a long time (and many days) to get some of them done, try to give yourself and your family that sense of ‘done’ at the end of a day.

So on the ‘to-do’ list, be sure some tasks don’t go into tomorrow. Tie up one long-term task each day and get at least one short-term task done as well. All the others will end up on the ‘done’ list soon enough!

Now…making that ’start’ list is another story!!

 Donna Miller is a work-from-home wife and mother. She delighted to share her trials and triumphs of learning to homestead anywhere. The Millers own and operate Millers Grain House which offers Organic and Chemical-free Whole Grains, Bosch Mixers, the NutriMill, instructional tutorials, recipes and more.

Technorati Tags: Bosch Mixer, homestead, long term, NutriMill, organic, recipes, short term, task, to-do list, Tuesday's Tips, tutorials, Whole grains

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