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Book Review: The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan

For the would-be homesteader, The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan, is one book I can highly recommend. Just leafing through the chapters, you’ll be astounded at the sheer quantity of information you can find in this book. I found it to be a huge inspiration to try things and learn new skills.

The author, Carleen Madigan, who is listed on the book as a gardening editor at Storey Publishing, gives an amazing breadth of information in this fairly compact book.

At 339 pages, not including the appendices, this book is packed with ideas on how to make your property produce […]

Lactofermented Sauerkraut

The awaited result…

A little over a month ago, I decided to try out making my own lactofermented sauerkraut. I had been reading about the health benefits of eating naturally fermented foods (aids in digestion and tastes yummy).

Not being sure how much we would like it, I did not go out and immediately buy a sauerkraut crock, but tried it out using what I had around here. That turned out to be an empty plastic 5 quart ice cream bucket and lid.

I started out with two large heads of cabbage purchased at the grocery store (they […]

How to Get a Building Permit

On-line Data

The first place to begin is the web. Most every locale has an official government web site which should contain most of the information you need to start your planning. For this article, I selected a town in Arizona, far away from where we are building to use as an example. I selected Yuma, Arizona. I simply entered the following search and started to explore; “Residential building permit Yuma, AZ”. The first hit took me directly to the government site which answered the basic questions for obtaining a residential building permit. I focused my search on information on […]

Easy as Apple Pie

… the finished product

It’s the season for baking and potluck dinners and parties and candy-making and warm, delicious drinks…

I’m making a homemade apple pie for a potluck dinner this evening. I know that, when I was growing up, it was already considered something a bit special to make pies well. So now, it is even more unusual for folks to make their own piecrust and pies.

Making piecrust isn’t really that difficult, but it is daunting to those who’ve never done it. Today I’m using the recipe my grandma used:

3 cups flour 1 tsp. salt […]

New Facebook Page

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The Homestead

Thanks!

Living in an RV?

Home, sweet home…

Call it counter-cultural. Call it crazy. We have decided to take up housekeeping in an RV while we build our home. We do have a history of RV-living. Since we lived in the New Orleans area when Hurricane Katrina hit, we found ourselves living in a trailer for several months. We have done it before and know how it is.

Why do it?

In 2005, when Katrina hit the Gulf coast, we had no idea initially just how long it would be until we could go home. Only a couple of days after Katrina passed through […]

Don’t be Afraid to Build Your Own Home

(Otherwise Known as: Ain’t Skeered!)

Workshop Foundation Pour

Venturing out on your own home construction project can be a daunting challenge. Depending on where you decide to build there is an unending maze of bureaucracy to negotiate before you break ground! We are fortunate that we chose to build in New Mexico, in a county where the rules have not gotten too ridiculous. Some counties of New Mexico, such those which serve Santa Fe and Albuquerque, are simply out of control. It seems that the larger the population, the bigger the government and hence the more […]

Homemade Fast Food

I’m one of those people who buy a lot of long-term storage food for the pantry. I have dried beans, rice, wheat berries, dehydrated vegetables, spices, baking supplies… you name it — if it can be stored for a reasonable amount of time on the shelves, I probably have at least a small stockpile of it.

But let’s face it. If you want to whip up a quick batch of chili for lunch, doing it with dried beans is not the answer. I discovered pressure canning a couple of years back and was reminded once again today why it […]