Saturday, November 16, 2013

DIY Old Shirt Mat

Home Made Moist Chocolate Cake

This cocoa-based cake is deeply chocolaty and incredibly moist. It surprises me every single time with how good it is for something so easy. It is a great emergency cake to have in your repertoire for forgotten birthdays, last-minute visitors, or urgent Friday night chocolate cravings. Click the link below to see how to make this great looking cake.

Home Made Moist Chocolate Cake

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

12 Questions to Ask Before You Buy a Homestead Property

The Prairie Homestead website shares ” 12 Questions to Ask Before You Buy a Homestead Property “.

Ok, raise your hand if you one day dream of moving to the country and acquiring a homestead ?

Yes, there are things you should ask yourself before making the big leap.

This article will get you started towards the right direction.

What questions would you add to the list ?

Click here to read the article:

http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2013/08/12-questions-to-ask-before-you-buy-a-homestead-property.html

Thursday, February 28, 2013

BALL AMERICAN HERITAGE COLLECTION VINTAGE JARS

I am so excited for these to be released! I have so many plans....

BALL AMERICAN HERITAGE COLLECTION VINTAGE JARS

Monday, February 25, 2013

Treadle Sewing Machine Advice

Working By Natural Light & With No Electricity

More Than A Little Advice & An Extensive Bonus Sewing Rant

You love to sew.
Or perhaps you are looking for a sensible off grid sewing machine and think you’d like to buy a treadle sewing machine but don’t know where to start or what to look for?
Maybe you are worried that all treadle sewing machines are expensive antiques and you can’t afford one?
Or you’re concerned that you’ll have to do without a zigzag stitch or machine made button holes if you use one?
Or maybe you don’t know how to sew but would like to learn?
Well grab a spool of thread and get ready to sew – because I’m about to give you some practical and very basic advice on one of my favorite off-grid topics – treadle sewing machines!
WHAT IS A TREADLE SEWING MACHINE?
A treadle sewing machine is simply a sewing machine that is powered by what you ate for breakfast instead of electricity.

Read more about them here....

How To Make Your Own Pain Relief Lotion Bars

February 25, 2013 by admin Leave a Comment

Make sure you like Herbs & Oils World on Facebook to be updated every time we find a fantastic tutorial for exciting and innovative ways you can use herbs and essential oils.

Got sore or tired muscles? Then we have the perfect solution for you!
These DIY pain relief solid lotion bars are packed full of ingredients that help to relieve pain such as Arnica oil, menthol crystals and peppermint essential oil. Plus, it also contains wonderful moisturizing ingredients such as coconut oil, Shea butter and beeswax.
Pain Relief + Moisturizer + Smells Amazing = WIN!
Click the link to find out how to make your own pain relief lotion bars

How To Make Your Own Pain Relief Lotion Bars

How to Make Rhubarb Wine Recipe

Country Living In A Cariboo Valley blog share a great way to make Rhubarb Wine.
The article is filled with a lot of great details and pictures along through the whole process.

Click here to read the recipe:

http://www.countrylivinginacariboovalley.com/how-to-2/how-to-make-rhubarb-wine/

The Many Health Benefits of Diatomaceous Earth

I Breathe I’m Hungry blog shares how Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth helps with food intolerances. Diatomaceous Earth has so many benefits for humans and pets alike.

Click here to read the article:

http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/2013/02/foodless-friday-health-benefits-of-diatomaceous-earth.html

Medicinal Moonshine to cure coughs

Ingredients
You will need three things to make this cough syrup. Moonshine, Honey and a lemon.

Get the recipe here....

A Plant Propagation Tip: Make a Mini Greenhouse

Click here for more info...

Seed Starting Heat Mat – Make It Yourself Project

Vegetable Gardener shares a step by step picture tutorial how to make a seed starting heat mat frugally.

Click here to see how to create this easy but highly functional project:

http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/11658/diy-heat-mat-speeds-seed-starting/

How To Pan for Gold – Step By Step

Instructables website shares how to pan for gold.
I love being out in nature and enjoying all it has to offer … so finding a hobby that puts me out in what I love is a bonus.If you have experience panning for gold, please share and tips you may have.

Click here to read:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How_to_Pan_For_Gold/step1/Equipment-Needed-for-Gold-Paning/

Canned Chuck Roast and Carrots ~ Quick and Easy Beef Bourguignon

Use your own canned beef as a base for making Beef Bourguignon

Before passing along the recipe and the processing instructions I just want to say that if you want to can anything at home,always refer to a canning manual. Canning, especially pressure canning is not something you want to mess around with.

Do not consider the internet or blogs to be a tried and true resource. That being said I am not responsible for mishaps that may occur in your kitchen as a result of canning projects. Nor can I be responsible for lids that don’t seal, an exploding canner, a messy kitchen, spouses or children that refuse to eat the end result.

Click here for more info.....

A Beginners Guide to Home Canning & Food Preserving: Recipes, Jams, Marmalades, Jellies, Chutneys, Relishes Plus More

Free Kindle Book as of Now!

A Beginners Guide to Home Canning & Food Preserving: Recipes, Jams, Marmalades, Jellies, Chutneys, Relishes Plus More... (Simple Living) [Kindle Edition]

A Beginners Guide to Home Canning & Food Preserving is for anyone wanting to learn the art of Home Canning. The book cover such topics as:

History of Food Preservation
Definitions of Various Food Preservation Methods
Food Safety and Safety Precautions
Sourcing Tools, Equipment and Food
Altitude Adjustments
Water Bath Canning Details & Pressure Canning Details
Recipes Including Jams, Jellies, Butters, Chutneys, Relishes, Pickles and Meat Fish and Poultry

If you are an old hand at food preserving and canning you may even find a new recipe included in book.

Although the canning process is the most labor intensive procedure, all methods promote a sense of pride, accomplishment, and self-reliance. There’s nothing like opening the pantry or freezer door on a frigid winter’s day, where the snow - already up to the window sills - is coming down so hard you can’t see your mailbox, and finding row upon row of neatly labeled produce and meats and remembering once again that if the world ended outside your door, your family would still eat well.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

13 Pioneer Skills You May Need

Besides their obvious uses to yourself and your family, most of these skills can be used to barter with as well. So while you’re acquiring your preparedness gear, remember to add some skills to your inventory also.

1. Gardening
2. Saving seed
3. Blacksmithing
4. Shooting your dinner
5. Dressing that game
6. Cooking over a fire
7. Making a fire
8. Riding a horse
9. Building a home
10. Making fun with sticks and rocks
11. Knowing and preparing wild edibles
12. Herbal remedies
13. Sewing

Go here for more info......

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Different Types of Wood Fired Soaking Hot Tubs

Tiny Go Go blog shared a look at a few different wood fired soaking hot tubs including one his friend Doug made. This is an up close look at the project in action.

Click here to read:

http://tinygogo.blogspot.com/2009/11/doug-and-erins-wood-fired-hot-tub.html

Click here to read Mother Earth News wood fired soaking hot tub project:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/do-it-yourself/how-to-build-a-hot-tub.aspx#axzz2Leer5aAI

Fantastic Idea on Naming Your Animals So That You Know What Year They Were Born

Lambing season started here on the farm last week (February 14) with a set of twins. One being larger than the other one. As you know when I started raising sheep about 8 years ago now, I wanted an easy way to know what year they were born and how old they were. So I started with the letter "A" all sheep born my first year were given names starting with the letter A. So here we are a few years later a ton of lambs and now I am up to the letter "H".

So meet Hart and Harry

Different Stages of Ripening for Tomatoes

Tip Nut website shares tips and tricks to ripen tomatoes that are still on the vine and indoors.
Tip nut has tons of great articles, you will enjoy exploring the website for hours.

Click here to read the article:

http://tipnut.com/ripen-tomatoes/

Friday, February 22, 2013

Getting Started Vermicomposting – Raising Worms

Vermiculture composting (Vermicomposting) is the act of creating rich, organic humus for your garden or lawn by allowing red worms to help in the decomposition process. The resulting castings enrich soil by improving texture, increasing nitrogen, trace minerals, and natural growth hormones from the worms themselves.

Elsewhere on the Internet…: Honey Bee Keeping

An interesting series from thesurvivalistblog.net.

It covers raising bees and making honey.

Part 1

Part 2

Good luck and stay prepared!

HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE GREEK YOGURT: A RECIPE

This article is a guide to making Greek yogurt, something that I, as a big fan of Greek food, appreciate. You won’t need the strength of Hercules and the wit of Odysseus to follow this very simple recipe!

Greek yogurt is a delicious addition to your food, and adding it regularly will give you the appetite of Adephagia!

Click Here For More...

TOOLS Around The Garden

A list of tools, some of which you may want to consider having around for the yard, garden or for outdoor work around the homestead. You might want to get some of them before any chance of collapse…

Click here for more....

VIDEO: How to store dry foods in canning jars

There’s a whole slew of things that I want included in my food storage pantry, but many of them don’t lend themselves well to the canning process (chocolate!), can’t be dehydrated (walnuts!), or aren’t a great candidate for the classic 5-gallon bucket (sunflower seeds!).

Packing these foods in canning jars and then using a vacuum sealer, such as a Food Saver, to store them long-term is super easy.

Here’s what you’ll need:

How to make sausage, cure meat , fish & poultry

Making sausage is like making a hamburger. Meat is ground, salt, pepper and required spices are added, then it is cooked until it is safe for consumption. If this prepared meat was stuffed into a casing it would become a sausage.

Some sausages like Chorizo, Chaurice, Boudin and others are served in two ways:

As a meat patty (hamburger shape) fried on a pan with eggs or other dishes and obviously they are not stuffed into casings.
Stuffed into casings thus becoming a sausage.

In both cases it is the same meat with the same ingredients and final flavor that is prepared in two different forms. American famous Breakfast Sausage is served at McDonalds (Sausage McMuffin) for breakfast and it looks like a hamburger though called a sausage. The same recipe when stuffed into tiny links becomes Breakfast Sausage and is served in hospitals for breakfast all over the USA. The point is that you have already made and eaten sausage many times before without even realizing it as it was never stuffed into the casing.

Click here for more...

Everything you need to know to build a great Emergency Binder!

You can make your own Emergency Binder, or purchase a pre-made binder to keep all your important documents in place.

Read all about it here!

A Simple Guide to Raising & Milking Goats

Weed’em & Reap is a website that is sharing homesteading skills with city folks. I am glad to feature such a website that is teaching skills that embraces self sufficiency. It helps people get in touch where our food goes from, how to make our own, better care for animals and the health benefits of good food.

Click here to read the article:

http://www.weedemandreap.com/2013/01/a-simple-guide-to-raising-milking-goats.html

and
Click here for their Facebook page:
( Be sure to tell them we sent you )

https://www.facebook.com/WeedEmandReap

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent with the Power of TIDE!

This is safe for regular washers AND HE washers! Just make sure you purchase the HE version of Tide for the HE washing machines.

Go here for full directions Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent with the Power of Tide!

Go here for full directions

Tide With Touch Of Downy April Fresh Scent Liquid Laundry Detergent 50 Fl Oz

Dial Corporation 76Oz 20 Mule Team Borax Laundry Pretreater

Dial Corp. 04303 Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar Soap (Pack of 2)

Church & Dwight Co 03020 Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

Canning Chicken

This weekend it was time to do something not so fun, but necessary Clean out the chicken coop. We've had a problem ever since we had the skunk issues and our chickens have stopped laying completely. Well, a good homesteader knows that when chickens are no longer good for eggs it's time to find another purpose for them. We started to do just 4 at a time to make canning chicken easier on me! So after the not-so-fun part was over it was time to get on with cooking and canning the chicken! I started by cleaning the chickens very well and making sure there were no feathers or fuzzies left on them. We cut them into pieces and put them into 2 large crockpots. I turned the crockpots on low and left them overnight (for about 12 hours, maybe a little more).

See more at

Cooking with dehydrated foods

Using dehydrated foods in your recipe is as easy as pie!

There are only TWO GOLDEN RULES I follow when using our dehydrated food supply in our every day cooking.

#1. If I'm cooking soups, stews, or anything with plenty of liquid that will be slow cooked for a good period of time, I throw the dehydrated food right into the pot.

#2. If I'm making a recipe that doesn't meet the above requirement, then I simply rehydrate the dehydrated food and add it to the pot.

Here is an example of what the #2 rule looks like, step by step!

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Recipe for Ingredients Hand Sanitizer for the Flu Season

The Untrained Housewife shares a recipe to create hand sanitizer customized to your family.

Click here to read the article:

http://www.untrainedhousewife.com/diy-hand-sanitizer-for-the-flu-season

Young Living Essential Oils Thieves Spray 2 pack

Thieves Essential Oil by Young Living Essential Oils – 15 ml

Fruit of the Earth Aloe Vera 100% Gel, 24 oz (680 g)

Immune-Aid Synergy Essential Oil Blend. 10 ml. 100% Pure, Undiluted, Therapeutic Grade. (Blend of: Frankincense, Tea Tree, Rosemary, Lemon, Eucalyptus and Orange)

Today’s Free at the time of posting Kindle Books + links for the free Kindle App and a converter to change them to Nook or Sony.

http://thehomesteadsurvival.com/todays-free-time-posting-kindle-books-links-free-kindle-app-converter-change-nook-sony-7/#.USZNRlchMS4

Self Watering Plant Starters

The process is simple. Cut the bottle in half. Drill a hole in the lid. Thread a string or yarn through the hole in the lid and knot both ends. This works as a wick to bring water from the bottom reservoir up to the soil so the plants roots can drink.

Read all about it here!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

25 Ways to Naturally Clean with Baking Soda

Natural cleaning agents are easy to find. They are as close as your cabinets. Below you will find my top 25 tips for cleaning with baking soda. Also be sure to check out my 25 ways to clean naturally with vinegar and my 25 ways to clean naturally with cream of tartar. Let's get to some natural cleaning solutions. Break out your baking soda and let's get to that spring cleaning!