I always start with a lengthy list from the catalogs, thinking I should try this and try that, but after I add up the cost of it all, I decide to stick with what I know and I start sowing my seeds from last year’s plants.

If you live in an area, like me, where winters can be cold, dark, and long, it’s now time to find things to keep ourselves occupied, making the long days not so unbearable. Maybe that includes crafting, reading, cooking, or getting outside and making the best of it.

Christmas has always been a special time for my family and me. The holiday season officially began the first Saturday in December. My dad, mom, sister, brother, and I would travel to our favorite tree farm and tromp through what, some years, was feet of snow, to find that perfect tree. After much deliberation, we finally would decide which tree was coming to spend Christmas with us.

With autumn just around the corner, it’s time to start preparing the homestead for the dreaded winter ahead. Your chicken coop will need to have some special treatment to get ready for the winter season. Janet Garman shares what she does in the fall to be sure her feathered friends will have a safe and secure home for winter.

There’s always so much to do during the summer months. Whether that means working in the yard, pens, coops, gardens, or other activities such as camping, fishing, picnics, weddings … there’s never a dull moment.

We at Countryside have created this special issue consisting of good ol’ homesteading hacks. After all, who can’t use a good hack now and then? These are some of our favorites and we hope they’ll become some of yours too.

I’m so thankful and proud to call my parents my own. I have thousands of memories that I cherish just as much as I do the two I shared with you.

I’d like to introduce myself as the new editor of Countryside, although I’m hardly new to the Countryside universe. I was hired by JD and Diane Belanger in January, 1996 and have done a little bit of everything