… and easily trade cost and environmental impact, for time! “Do laundry”… what does that mean to most of us? It means carting a large pile of clothes in a bin or basket to one’s home washer and dryer, or if you’re one of the many unfortunate bunch like me, you cart it to a […]
Search Results for: bathroom/bedding/sheets
Thrive Market Review
Editor’s Note: We’ve been hearing awesome things about Thrive Market, but before we plunked down the $59.95 membership fee, we needed to know: Is it better than other online and local organic food options? We decided on a two-part strategy: Our writer road-tested the service, which she wanted to try anyway. Meanwhile, we compared the […]
20 DIY Wall Art Ideas To Give Your Home Some Personality
Wall art provides the finishing touch to a room and can pull an entire space together. The addition of wall art creates a focal point, adds texture, offers a splash of color, and shows the unique personality that makes your space feel like home. Here are 20 amazing DIY wall art projects to spruce up
Rodent Control Without Poison
As the weather starts to cool, rodents such as mice, rats, chipmunks, and squirrels attempt to find a warm place to stay well fed during the cold winter months. While these rodent pests are small, they can cause huge problems for homesteaders. Rodents contaminate food and indoor surfaces with salmonella and a diverse array of
7 Ways To Mouse-Proof Your Homestead
For homesteaders, the common house mouse is one of the most troublesome of pests. A small brown or gray rodent with little beady eyes, large ears, and a skinny three to four-inch long tail, house mice flourish under a diverse array of conditions in and around homes, sheds, barns, and outbuildings. The unwelcome intruders consume
Melting Ice Could Lead to Massive Waves of Climate Refugees
As the earth warms, the melting of the earth’s two massive ice sheets—Antarctica and Greenland—could raise sea level enormously. If the Greenland ice sheet were to melt, it would raise sea level 7 meters (23 feet). Melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would raise sea level 5 meters (16 feet). But even just partial melting of these ice sheets will have a dramatic effect on sea level rise.
Making Homemade Soap
I started making my own soap out of necessity, but eventually it became one of our farm products. Around 2000, I started having severe rashes. I had combination allergies, which made me allergic to soaps, shampoos, laundry detergent and even toothpaste! I started out making my soaps with melt-and-pour glycerin, but that proved to be
Why You Should Start Using A Clothesline
When I think of using a clothesline, I think of a conversation I had when I still lived in the city. While hanging my laundry, my neighbor’s little boy poked his head through the fence. ”Whatchoo doing?” “Hanging up my laundry.” “Ain’t you got a dryer?” “We got rid of it. The sun and the
How To Raise Pigs
Pigs are by far my favorite homestead animal. They are curious, affectionate, and incredibly smart. Those are also the characteristics that make them uniquely challenging. The first time I ever saw a pig I was 12, travelling in Eastern Europe. The pig had gotten out and was being chased around a courtyard by four or
Raising Goats
Goats are sweet, social, mischievous and stubborn. They are a favorite of urban homesteaders who want fresh milk but can’t keep a cow. Homesteaders favor milking goats as a food source because of their milk’s mild flavor and moderate output. Even people (like me) who don’t like “goat” flavor in milk and cheese are startled
You Need Chickens: Backyard Chickens and Why They’re Great
Fluffball and Arrow, our two urban chickens, are pretty much the greatest pets ever.
Pet Waste Management Tips For Homesteaders
Many rural homesteaders faced with a continual problem of dealing with pet waste, ask “can pet poo be composted?” The answer is a resounding yes. Dog poop can be easily composted in a backyard composter bin containing red worms where it is readily converted into rich compost. Composting pet waste prevents these materials from reaching
The Scoop on Organic Fertilizer: Is It Right for Your Garden?
Nothing could be simpler, or more complex, than organic fertilizer. Garden stores make it seem like it’s something that you buy in bags. Big Agriculture makes it seem like it’s something that’s less efficient than chemical fertilizers, and therefore useless unless you have a special interest for using it. Online, the options for organic fertilizer
Raising Pekin Ducks
When you think “duck” what image do you see? I bet for a majority of people, the endearingly chubby, orange-billed and white-feathered barnyard duck leaps (or rather waddles) into your mind’s eye. That duck is the Pekin. This duck breed is by far the most popular of the domesticated duck breeds, and its popularity has
Grow Healthy, Flavorful Fruit With The Best Fertilizer For Tomatoes
“You get your tomatoes in yet?” My neighbor smiled with his usual good-natured grin, but there was no denying the competitive edge to his voice. This was no mere neighborly exchange. It was the opening to a summer-long challenge where plants were pawns and bragging rights, the prize. As a newcomer to the Ozarks, I
How To Add Nitrogen To Soil & 5 Natural Methods To Try in Your Garden
When you just start gardening, your knowledge of how to do it may be deceptively simple. Take a seed, put it in some soil, add water, and voila! Couldn’t be easier, right? And while this approach is a wonderful way to start, the beginner may notice that some sprouts do better than others. Surely there’s
12 Garden Tools to Start Spring Right
Can you feel it? That shift in the wind? The faint whiff of waking soil resounding with the chorus of sprightly spring peepers in the forest? Winter’s losing its grip, and for those of us with gardens and itchy green thumbs, the final thaw can’t come soon enough. It’s time to bust out the tools
Introduction to Worm Farming
If you’re interested in cultivating dynamic, healthy, nutrient-rich soil, and are keen to incorporate nature’s natural composters, worm farming may be a perfect option for you. While rather less common than most soil invigorators, worm farming may be the most beneficial option (and in the long run, the least amount of work). Interested? Read on
14 More Tough Plants That Can Survive Drought
This summer has been unusually hot (in case you haven’t noticed). In my part of the Ozarks, it’s been bone dry to boot. That deadly combination of searing heat and clear skies has sent my state and many others into a serious drought that ceaselessly claimed vegetal casualties. Though many of us tried to water
How To Deal With Egg-Eating Chickens
Is there any image more quintessentially “homestead” than a coop surrounded by clucking chickens? Being able to walk to the coop, basket in hand, and return with tomorrow’s breakfast, is a true homesteader’s delight. But what happens when you go to the coop and find the nesting boxes unexpectedly empty for days on end? Your
Can I Compost Pizza Boxes?
Learn about compostable pizza boxes, how to prepare them, and the optimal composting conditions using this guide. Explore alternative disposal options, recycling tips, and creative upcycling ideas for pizza boxes.
Can I Compost Paper Plates?
Learn which paper plate types and sources are compostable. Correct preparation, and optimal composting conditions are crucial factors to produce the best compost quality from compostable paper plates!
Can I Compost Egg Cartons?
We discuss how to compost egg cartons, the optimal conditions, and other composting alternatives to sustainably handle egg carton wastes. If you’ve been wondering whether you can compost your egg cartons, this richly detailed guide provides the answers.
An Introduction to Kunekune Pigs
Pigs are eccentric animals to have as pets, and they’re interesting animals to have on a farm. Considering their size, one might think it’s crazy to have a pig for a pet. However, you can find smaller breeds with incredible attitudes and huge personalities — if you have suitable accommodations for them. The kunekune pig
Can I Compost Avocado?
Avocado is a popular fruit, flexible for various dishes. The resulting avocado wastes, however, can be used for composting, instead of contributing to landfill wastes.
Paper Matters
Paper appears to be high on the agenda of a number of organizations this week. It’s necessary. Paper is so ubiquitous – from tissues to toilet paper to memo pads to catalogs to the mess on your desk – that it is easy to forget, or perhaps more convenient to ignore, that paper manufacturing has
12 Ingenious Everyday Borax Uses
Inexpensive and readily available, powdered borax, also known as sodium tetraborate, is a naturally occurring common boron mineral salt. Borax is a component in a diverse array of laundry soaps, bath salts, hand soaps, cleaning products, and cosmetics. It’s a product homesteaders have used for more than 100 years. First discovered in dry lakebeds of
21 Essential Off-Grid Tools We Love
We recently asked our Insteading Community and YouTube viewers if they had any questions about homesteading that we might answer. You all replied with some great questions, and gave us a lot of ideas on material we can pull together to help you! Watch The Video So for our first installment in what we hope
Cordwood Homes
Cordwood Homes and Barns
Masonry Heaters: Benefits, How They Work, And Photos
When you think of heating with fire, the first image that might leap to your mind is a crackling wood stove, the mainstay of cozy homesteading living rooms everywhere. But despite it’s current ubiquity in back-to-the-land imagery, the wood stove is a relatively recent invention, having been invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1742. If you
Tiny House, Big Living
One look at this tiny house and you feel as if you are about to enter a doll house! With bright pink walls, Villa Hermina clearly stands out from the rest of the cottages in the area. Situated outside the southern Czech town of Černín, it was created by HSH Architekti, which unfortunately is now defunct.
Shed of the Year
Shed of the Year Contest
Tiny House Kitchens
The design of a tiny house kitchen is a personal matter. Your final design will depend on your own individual needs and the needs of those who’ll live with you. If you want to build or buy a tiny house but don’t know a lot about design, there are some things you should look out
World Water Week: 10 DIY Conservation Tips
Although Americans have access to some of the cleanest, most prolific water supplies, we waste more than anyone in the world. Let’s change that today!
Washing Your Hands – Just Do it, Already!
Why will you not wash your hands? Seriously, it’s not that hard. It doesn’t take that long. And everyone else in the bathroom is going to give you the side-eye if you don’t do it. Also, you need to use soap. That “running your hands under the water and then drying them” thing doesn’t actually
Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products
Too many cleaning products contain chemicals that are extremely harmful to the environment and its inhabitants, including humans. Eco-friendly cleaning products are an easy alternative and solution! The ozone, water, air, land, and the entire ecosystem are all affected by the choices we make as humans, including what products we use. Today I am going
Pendant Lighting: 30 Rustic, Modern, And Farmhouse Options
We’ve all been there. You move into a new house or apartment, and everything seems perfect until you realize just how dark certain parts of your home are. Or, you find your dream home, but the 90s light fixtures are begging for an update. When you’re lighting your home, your options include recessed lighting, chandeliers,
20 DIY Countertops For Your Kitchen Remodel
When you first bought your house, the kitchen might have been the selling point. You loved the open layout, the large island for entertaining guests, the wood floors, and the sleek countertops. Then 10 years later, you find yourself wondering what happened to that gorgeous kitchen you fell in love with. Though there might be
15 DIY Cabin Plans
It’s fun to purchase a relaxing cabin or cottage by the lake, but not everyone has the money to do so. Fortunately, there are alternatives, and if you are good with your hands, you can build a DIY cabin. It will save you a lot of money in the long run. Important Details to Consider
Stacking Firewood
Stacking Firewood
Unique Jewelry Made From Upcycled Materials
Reuse Jewelry Inspiration
Sustainable Living
With the effects climate change growing more and more obvious—now it’s actually shrinking the world’s reindeer—we all want to do more to live sustainably. Here’s how you can start to take action right at home. Meat-Free Kitchen The agriculture and food production industry has grown into a major environmental threat as a growing source of
Polycarbonate Greenhouses
“Plastic” and “durability” aren’t usually words that should go together, but in the case of greenhouses they can. Long-lasting polycarbonate is worth considering as the covering material for your greenhouse, especially when compared to the traditional use of glass. In the case of modern tempered glass, rocks and hail shatter the panes with little effort.
How To Choose The Best Greenhouse Materials To Extend Your Gardening Season
By extending the growing season, greenhouse growing enables the cultivation of organic, pesticide-free produce all year round. Whether you have a small greenhouse for just a few of your favorite plants, or your entire vegetable garden is reliant on a huge structure, choosing the right greenhouse materials for your needs is key to having a bountiful
17 Delicious French Macaron Recipes
First baked in Italy during the Renaissance, the macaron, now known as the French macaron, was introduced in 1533 by a noblewoman from Florence, Catherine de Medici, who later married Henri II, the future king of France. King Louis XIV of France is said to have munched on macarons at his wedding in 1660. The
How to Protect Plants From Frost: 12 Clever Methods That Work
As winter wanes and patches of bare ground open up in the fields, my green thumb gets crazy-itchy. I am eager to get back in the garden and get my eyes full of living, growing things again. With the season’s change, however, comes the age-old game of chicken that gardeners play with the weather —
Glass Bottle Walls
glass bottle buildings, glass bottle building inspiration
Gary Pickering Builds “Tiny House” Survival Pods for the Homeless (w/ video)
Gary Pickering is making the world a better place by donating a number of self-built, portable ‘micro-houses’ to Utah’s homeless people in an effort to help them survive the area’s harsh winter weather conditions. How’d he come up with that? They say that necessity is the mother of invention. For Gary Pickering, years of being
Another Man’s Treasure – Learning to Love Freecycle
The Freecycle movement, started in Tucson, has spread world-wide keeping thousands of items out of landfills and trash piles. Freecycle has taken the phrase, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” to heart by providing a forum for people with everything including the kitchen sink that they don’t need any more to find people who
Preparing for Evacuation with Pets
The Red Cross and the SPCA recommend that in addition to an Emergency Kit for you and your family, you create one for your pets. This is important step can help to save your pets live and your peace of mind. Many animal related groups have chimed in to build on the Red Cross list