With so many individuals and companies building tiny houses, how are you supposed to know who to choose? Some tiny house builders can build and ship homes nationwide or send their design plans across the world. Other, smaller builders, focus on their region and work primarily with locals. Choosing a Tiny House Builder The thing
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Tiny House Builders
The Best Amazon Prime Day Deals For Homesteaders
Amazon’s massive Prime Day promotion started Monday, July 15th at 12 am PT. They’ll be announcing deals throughout the day. This year’s Prime Day will last for 48 hours. Each deal will be one of four types: Prime Day Deals: Deep discounts on top products that last until Amazon runs out of stock (in some cases,
How to Incorporate a Wildlife Habitat on Your Homestead
Many homesteaders are lovers of the beautiful, nonhuman, natural world and want to see this world thrive on their land. They put bird and squirrel feeders, birdbaths, and perhaps, salt licks on their property to encourage birds, squirrels, and deer (among others) to feel welcome. These are great ways to attract wildlife to your homestead.
Outdoor Coffee Tables
Not only are coffee tables one of the biggest focal points of any room, but they’re a highly functional piece of furniture that should be chosen wisely. They serve countless functions; holding books, magazines, cups, glasses, dinner, and let’s be honest, sometimes laundry. Related Post: Rustic Coffee Tables There is no reason why we shouldn’t
Electric Fireplaces
There’s no denying that the ambiance of a fireplace has almost no equal. There’s something special about sitting in front of a fireplace that invites us to linger a little longer. However, having the maintenance of a real fireplace, along with it not being terribly environmentally friendly, makes some people reconsider having one at all.
11 Steps to Minimize Indoor Pollutants and Live Greener
The Environmental Protection Agency states that, “The average adult breathes 13,000 liters of air per day; children breathe 50 percent more air per pound of body weight than adults.” And, because children’s respiratory systems are still developing, they are much more vulnerable to the health dangers of airborne and other pollutants or allergic particles in
Emergency Kits for Families
The recent tragedy in Japan and the vast number of weather-related power outages across the US this winter have many people concerned about what to do in case something like this happens to them. If you and yours were caught in a disaster and had to shelter inside your home for three or more days,
81 Awesome Documentaries for Homesteaders
From honey bees to tiny houses to TEDTalks on Capitalism and Humanity’s Future, we’ve assembled a complete list of documentaries and shows on Netflix & Hulu that would interest our fellow homesteaders. Leave a comment below and let us know which ones are your favorite, and which programs we missed! Topics Food & Agriculture Documentaries
Hundertwasser Architecture
Hundertwasser Architecture
Farm to Table
Inspiration Green. Farm to Table School Lunch Links and Reports. Green Gardening links and food/nutrition links.
The 4 Types of Solar Cookers
Downing trees or gathering sticks to fuel stoves is a major cause of deforestation and desertification. But if you could get that fuel free from the sun… The Panel Solar Cooker The Panel Solar Cooker uses reflective panels to focus sunlight onto a pot. These work best in tropical climates or in the warmer months
Bento Box Inspiration
Bento Box Inspiration
Perfluorinated Compounds
Perfluorinated Compounds
Vertical Herb Garden: What Is It, DIY Plans, And Photos
What can you possibly do for your ailing green thumb when all that is allotted to you is a patio, a balcony, or a postage stamp of an urban backyard with little room to roam? Don’t grow out…grow UP! With a vertical herb and vegetable garden, you can make a mountain of your molehill and
Hundertwasser Paintings and Textiles
The Colorful Hundertwasser. No straight lines, please! Friedensreich Hundertwasser- Red Streets- amazon.co.uk Hundertwasser Poster- pic source: sanfchorn.wordpress.com “The work of the artist is very difficult, because it cannot be done by force, diligence or intelligence.” Hundertwasser- Irinaland over the Balkans, 1969. hundertwasser.at Hundertwasser- Blobs grow in beloved gardens. hundertwasser-kalender.de “We are in need of magic
Omo Valley Tribes
Imagine growing up without artwork on the walls, minimal paper and no pens but surrounded by bodies, nature, colored minerals and all sorts of animals with amazing designs. The Ultimate Canvas: The Human Body In the remote Omo valley in Africa, where the earliest known Homo sapiens remains have been found, indigenous tribes have been
Best Electric Cars For City Drivers
Wheego Whip Life All electric. 100 miles per charge, 5 hours to charge, top speed 70 mph. MSRP $32,995. Qualifies for Federal and possibly State and Local Tax Credits. ($7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles.) Final assembly in California. Company is based in Atlanta, Georgia. www.wheego.net MiEV (Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle) Mitsubishi’s electric version
Telephone Wire Art
Telephone wire as an art medium. Telephone cord sheep by Jean Luc Cornec. jeanluc.cornec.de Telephone cord sheep at the Communication Museum, Frankfort, Germany. jeanluc.cornec.de Telephone wire Guinea Fowl by Celia Smith. celia-smith.co.uk Walking Puffin. Telephone cabling and copper wire. celia-smith.co.uk Telephone wire robin. celia-smith.co.uk Telephone wire Peacock. celia-smith.co.uk Telephone Wire Head by Hilary J. Baker.
10 Killer Quinoa Salad Recipes
There’s nothing like a good quinoa salad… it’s filling, refreshing, and makes you feel awesome knowing the goodness you just put in your body.
Gorgeous Recycled Glass Surface For Tiny House Bathrooms
What’s more natural? A surface with texture, or one that’s flat and plastic? Even better is a textured surface made from recycled glass. One of the most compelling things about building a tiny house is that you can consider materials that would be prohibitively expensive in a “normal” home. Salvaged tin ceilings, vintage hardwood floors, solid
Earth Overshoot Day
Like a child devouring a batch of cookies, we humans are using Mother Earth’s resources faster than she can replenish them. But just how fast? The Global Footprint Network created Earth Overshoot Day to help us understand. Ideally, humans would finish December 31 having used no more resources than the Earth’s oceans and forests can
Rustic Coffee Tables
Redecorating with Rustic Coffee Tables Moving into my new home, I sadly realized that a cottage by the greenbelt was going to look pretty strange with the sleek modern coffee table I had on my wishlist. In trying to stay true to the architecture I’ve got, I started shopping for some rustic coffee tables, especially
Natural Insect Repellent
If backyard barbecues, camping trips, yard work, or sporting adventures have you reaching for cans and bottles of commercial bug spray to ward off irritating insects, pause and think twice before you douse your children and yourself with noxious chemicals concoctions that often contain poisonous ingredients such as DEET. Consider safe, chemical-free alternatives that do
Best Chicken Breeds For City Living
By the time neighbors acknowledge that you grow the most vigorous tomatoes and bake the tastiest bread around, you’ve probably thought more than once that raising chickens might be for you. Having done your homework, you know that more cities throughout the U.S. are permitting as many as four or six chickens in a backyard
6 Reasons To Raise Sheep
My parents raised sheep for several years when I was a kid. They were my favorite of the animals we experimented raising on our hobby farm. Watching the sheep give birth was absolutely amazing and the baby lambs made the most adorable pets! My siblings, friends, and I also got a lot of entertainment attempting
Malay
Characteristics To see a Malay chicken is to see its history as a fighting bird. With its muscled, powerful legs, strawberry comb, tightly-held, hard feathering, small wattles, angry-looking glare and curved, strong beak, it is not to be trifled with. Even the sounds they make are atypical! Rather than a gentle cluck, these birds make
The 25 Most Gorgeous Garden Stools You Can Buy
You know how you sometimes have a dead space in a room, or on your deck or patio? You needs something that takes the place of furniture, but won’t eat up much space. Garden stools are the answer, and they’re having a moment right now. Their resurgence means we can solve the problem of dead
How To Build A Headboard
Your bed is your second home—a place where you’ll spend one-third of your life dreaming up your next DIY project. The bed is your safety zone, a lovers’ sanctuary, a creative child’s train, boat, or horse-drawn chariot. Yet, a bed is also just a soft and characterless loaf in need of textiles and furnishings to
Growing Cucumbers
Growing cucumbers is a rewarding experience. Nothing is quite as satisfying on a hot day as that juicy crunch when you bite into a fresh cucumber. These delicious vegetables can be a little tricky to grow, especially in cool climates, but there’s no looking back once you find the varieties and practices that work for
Rain Chains
You know what’s perfect on a rainy day besides a good book and a roaring fire? Listening to the soothing sounds produced by a rain chain. There is something very zen-like about hearing the trickle of water during a light rain, or the roar of whitewater during a downpour! Rain chains were originally created in
Making Homemade Kombucha
Kombucha, the fermented, sweetened tea that has caught the attention of many, has actually gone through several phases of popularity over the years. The traditional tonic is quite trendy right now, but the natural probiotic drink has a number of health benefits and tasty flavors that date back to 221 B.C when it was known
Tips For Winter Emergency Preparedness
Winter blizzards can be life-threatening. Are you prepared to survive winter’s wrath? Millions of people in the United States live or recreate in isolated areas, away from the amenities of city services. If emergency services are not readily available, self-reliance is required. In an emergency scenario, your life and the life of loved ones may
Bartering 101: How To Start A Babysitting Co-op
A babysitting co-op can help to ease the financial burdens of a babysitter by allowing parents to barter for services they need.
Sharing Economy 101: Four Degrees of Sharing
Janelle Orsi shares four ways people are taking sharing to new levels, ranging from relatively simple applications of sharing to community-wide sharing initiatives — and beyond.
Creative Recycling: How To Revive An Old Chair
See how easy it is to transform used or broken chairs into unique pieces of furniture.
What is an Intentional Community?
Have you come across the phrase “intentional community,” but didn’t really understand what it meant? Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage resident Ma’ikwe Schaub Ludwig provides an insiders look at what it means to live in such a community.
Avoiding Mid-Life Crises With a Life Course Correction: Burning Man
Men approaching 40 often hit what is termed a “mid-life crisis”. They dump their old car and buy something they can’t afford with lots of horsepower and a sexy exterior. They start jumping out of planes. And often, they divorce their wives in the pursuit of younger women. The underlying cause is a feeling of
Broken Coffee Mug Planter (and How to Propagate Rosemary)
My kids are HARD on my coffee mugs, y’all! I don’t know if it’s because I’m a mean mom and make them do the dishes (don’t feel like you have to make your kids do this, too–mine clearly do a terrible job!), or because our kitchen is floored with a stone tile that is literal murder
Best Garden Hoe
The garden hoe is one of the most classic and essential gardening tools. No tool has surpassed—let alone matched—this ancient tool in the critical gardening tasks of tilling, planting, and uprooting. A gardener of any skill level will use their hoe on most days that they’re in the yard. A tool this essential should be
Tuna Truths: The Pros and Cons of Canned Tuna
Growing up in South Dakota, I thought there were two kinds of fish. Trout and tuna. Trout were flappy and fun to catch, with beautiful rainbow-colored skin that my mom always complained about removing. They were in bountiful supply in the lake by my uncle’s mountain cabin. Conversely, tuna were small and round, with steel
How To Tell If A Watermelon Is Ripe
To say my daughter is a melon fan is a gross understatement. This child could live on melon alone, and left to her own devices, she probably would. Her favorite melon being the watermelon, we made it our joint mission years ago to learn how to choose the best one. Even at 8 years old,
Growing Strawberries
Everyone who gardens knows that homegrown food is more delicious than what you can buy in the store. Strawberries are the prime example. Since a perfectly ripe strawberry is even more juicy and soft than a ripe peach, they are practically impossible to pick and transport commercially. Industrial farms grow hardy breeds of strawberries that
Why You Should Keep Your Dandelions
Yellow, yellow everywhere. Interspersed with the yellow, were just as plentiful white puffballs of fluff. Hardly any green. It was a dandelion haven. As a child, I recall picking dandelions as a flower bouquet for Mom or Gran. They loved them, or so they claimed, and made a big deal of placing them in water
What Do Goats Eat?
Many of us—particularly those who didn’t grow up on a farm—have some strange stereotypes embedded in our minds about what farms are like. All cows are black and white, all farmers wear overalls, all barns are painted red. One of the oddest ones I remember inheriting is the idea that goats enjoy munching on tin
Hanging Planters Perfect For Flowers And Succulents
Every spring it seems like even after the garden beds are filled and the containers are sprouting with flowers, we always want to grow more! So if all the grounds in your garden are filled, it’s time to start taking advantage of all that vertical space that you probably haven’t thought twice about. Hanging planters
Frugal Living: Everything You Need To Know
It’s no secret that modern living is a bit of a morass of consumerism, waste, and debt. In a world where the latest smartphone debuts less than a year after its previous iteration, where the Joneses are always one step ahead of you, and where mountains of plastic are clogging up waterways and oceans, the
23 DIY Chandelier Projects To Illuminate Your Space
Lighting is one of the best ways to create ambiance or set the mood in any room. It’s also one of the ways that homeowners can showcase their own style. When you go to add new lighting to the rooms of your home, however, it’s easy to get sticker shock when shopping retail to find
DIY Bookshelf: The 22 Best Projects To Try
If you’re already a DIYer, then you know the satisfaction that comes from creating something with your own hands. It’s especially gratifying when the project isn’t terribly complicated, and let’s be honest, there’s an added bonus if we can save a little money. Bookshelves are an excellent DIY project because there is an endless number
9 Of The Best Decorative & Festive Christmas Plants
Have you started decorating your house for Christmas? Hung a holly wreath? Dangled some mistletoe over the entryway, decorated a Christmas tree, and bought your poinsettia? Or did you choose different Christmas plants? Are they all real? Or plastic? Personally, I prefer real. There’s nothing like the smell of pine from a real tree to