Featured Stories

A Lesson In Outdoor Survival
March 13, 2019 · · Self-Reliance

Add to Favorites By Mike Dishnow, Wisconsin A simple outdoor excursion that will quickly bring you in touch with the basic needs universal to humanity uses three tenants: food, water …

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A Primer About Solar Electric
March 13, 2019 · · Self-Reliance

Add to Favorites By Dan Fink, Colorado Back when I was a young teenager, I saw something that changed my life forever — a solar electric panel. My parents had just bought remote, …

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Building Bridges With Basil, Rosemary And Yarrow
March 13, 2019 · · Self-Reliance

Add to Favorites By Judith Andrews Starting a medicinal herb garden in early spring of 2013 was the beginning of bridge awareness—the bridge between fresh herbs and their equivalent essential oils, between traditional …

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Wildlife Habitat On The Homestead
March 13, 2019 · · Homesteading

Add to Favorites By Anita B. Stone, Raleigh, North Carolina With an abundance of rural development, only smaller habitats remain for wildlife to thrive. As homesteaders, we can maintain the balance by serving the …

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A Guide To Planting Banatka Wheat
March 13, 2019 · · Growing

Add to Favorites By Benjamin Hoffman I ran across banatka winter wheat, a Hungarian landrace variety, in the FEDCO catalog, and it sounded like an interesting variety to play with. So I …

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Full Moon Names And Meanings
March 13, 2019 · · Self-Reliance

Add to Favorites By Shirley Kelly, Colorado Full moon names date back to Native Americans, of what now is Northern and Eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive …

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Is Homesteading Important To Kids?
March 13, 2019 · · Homesteading

Getting our youth involved in homesteading is about far more than preserving our heritage, knowledge and self-reliance, but it is about teaching our children moral lessons, how to manage emotions and get involved in real life.

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We Had So Much Fun Building The First Cabin, We Built Another
March 13, 2019 · · Self-Reliance

Add to Favorites By Chris Bordeleau OUR OFF-GRID ADVENTURE started in 2007. Little did we know that building cabins was fun and that our place would sprout four additional structures in the next …

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My Experiments With Milking Plants
March 13, 2019 · · Canning & Kitchen

Add to Favorites By Daniel Strauss This cartoon was my first exposure as a child to the concept of non-dairy milk alternatives: After all the milk wells on the planet of Felina had gone …

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We Came To Our Senses And Now Live Within Our Means
March 13, 2019 · · Self-Reliance

Add to Favorites By Kimberly Hansen, Wisconsin You don’t have to live in the middle of nowhere in order to live the “backwoods life” that most of us dream about, but …

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Preventing Fires On The Homestead
March 13, 2019 · · Self-Reliance

Add to Favorites By Eric Witter RESPONSIBILITY Starting a fire is a huge responsibility. You could burn friends or family members. Your property or your neighbor’s property could be damaged …

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Protesters And The Eucalyptus Trees
March 13, 2019 · · Growing

Add to Favorites By Christopher Nyerges Eucalyptus has been in the news because naked protesters are unhappy with the University of California-Berkeley’s plan to remove thousands of these Australian natives. When …

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Family Trees
March 13, 2019 · · Growing

Add to Favorites Ron Kelley and his family are enjoying their orchard business in southern Idaho, near Weiser. “My father and grandfather were citrus growers in southern California, growing oranges …

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Building With Straw Bales and Adobes
March 13, 2019 · · Self-Reliance

Add to Favorites By Karin Deneke “This looks like the inside of a barn,” a friend of  mine exclaimed when she visited my unfinished straw bale  house years ago. And …

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How To Make Your Own Work Shirt Apron
March 13, 2019 · · Self-Reliance

Add to Favorites By Sally Anderson, Niagara Falls, NewYork Recently it coincided that my husband needed new work shirts and I needed new aprons. I use full aprons because while I …

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