Featured Stories

What are Essential Oils?

By now you have probably heard mention of essential oils even if you have not yet experienced them. However, with the rise in multi-level marketing of essential oils along with the increase in popularity of natural grocers and health food stores, perhaps you also have experienced an essential oil or two.

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Fiber Festival Fun
December 12, 2020 · · Sheep

One way to maximize your wool value is to target fiber festivals which include spinners, weavers, and dyers. As a small producer specializing in fine wool sheep, our business depends upon finding innovative and profitable ways to market our wool.

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Kids and Soap: Homemade Arts and Crafts for The Holidays
December 11, 2020 · · Holiday, Soapmaking

Winter holidays often involve cold weather, hot drinks, and homemade arts and crafts. It also means the kids are out of school for one to three weeks. What homemade arts and crafts can kids do, without risk of injury, that can also serve as holiday gifts?

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Soap Scents in Home Soap Making
December 10, 2020 · · Soapmaking

Cosmetic-grade soap scents can transform the experience of using handmade soap. There’s nothing like the simple luxuriousness of a good, gentle bar of natural handmade soap.

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Top 10 List of Farm Tools and Equipment You Didn’t Know You Wanted

Over the years of setting fence posts, fixing barns, and repairing equipment, I’ve built a little collection of specialty tools to make my life that much easier.

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How to Make Honey Soap
December 7, 2020 · · Soapmaking

Honey lends many beneficial qualities to homemade soap, but it can be a touch tricky to work with.

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Eliminating Weevils in Flour and Rice
December 5, 2020 · · Canning & Kitchen

Their little legs wriggled on my spoon. How harmful could they be? Casting my eyes to each side, I watched for approaching family members as I dropped the little bugs in the sink and stirred the flour.

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Scented Geranium Plants: Fragrant Herbs Indoors or Out
December 4, 2020 · · Growing

My love affair with scented geranium plants started decades ago. The proprietors of my husband’s restaurant cultivated an herb garden on the premises.

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How to Take Care of a Poinsettia Plant for Years of Blooming
December 4, 2020 · · Growing, Holiday

The poinsettia plant has come to represent the holiday season in much of the world. Knowing how to take care of a poinsettia plant can mean years of growth and blooming.

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Using a 2-Acre Farm Layout to Raise Your Own Meat
December 2, 2020 · · Homesteading

Add to Favorites Although the idea of using a two-acre farm layout to raise your own meat is both bewitching and bewildering, by the end of this article, you’ll have …

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How to Grow a Christmas Cactus for Generations of Blooms
December 1, 2020 · · Growing, Holiday

Like my grandmother, I have a hard time keeping any houseplant alive. She did know how to grow a Christmas cactus though.

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How to Make Tallow and Lard
November 28, 2020 · · Soapmaking

Learning how to make tallow was once a regular yearly task during slaughter. The white, firm fat produced could be used in cooking, candle making, and salves, as well as soap making.

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How to Make Milk Soap: Tips to Try
November 24, 2020 · · Holiday, Soapmaking

Learning how to make milk soap provides another use for that excess goat milk. It’s not as hard as you’ve probably heard!

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Alternative Heating Ideas for Price Hikes and Power Outages
November 20, 2020 · · Self-Reliance

Growing up, I got in big trouble for turning on the heat. And we walked to school uphill both ways and then came home to milk the pigs, right? Actually, we did have a house rule prohibiting electric heat.  Firewood was much cheaper.

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A Simple Soap Frosting Recipe
November 13, 2020 · · Soapmaking

There is a lot of disagreement in the world of soap making over the proper soap frosting recipe. While some use a soap frosting recipe that requires chilling the lye water and whipping the hard oils, others prefer using soap batter that has naturally come to a firm enough state for piping.

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