Self-Reliance
Stocking Your Food Pantry with Emergency Essentials
When planning your emergency food pantry, you should first ask yourself two questions: If an emergency occurs, what are the things I will most likely lack; and, what cooking facilities will I have in an emergency?
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How to Make a DIY Barrel Smoker
Barbecue competitors know all about building a DIY barrel smoker. Smokers can be built from many different humble beginnings.
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Collecting Wild Mushrooms
Collecting wild mushrooms is a fascinating hobby rewarding us with tasty wild food. Nature’s bounty is endless.
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Fire Evacuation Procedures for Your Livestock
The year 2013 was an informative and challenging year for Half Creek Farm in Bickleton, Washington. In late July and early August, we got our first “opportunity” to give farm fire evacuation procedures a try.
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What Size Generator Do I Need for My Farm, Ranch or Off-Grid Home?
When most people think of Connecticut they envision a state covered in pavement and cramped little houses stacked on top of one another, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Surprising as it may seem, the majority of New England is rural in nature, dotted with farms and homesteads averaging from five to 100+ acres per parcel.
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Build a Backup Off-Grid Water System
Add to Favorites By Robert Sulek – Whether natural or man-made, rips in the fabric of modern civilization can occur with devastating consequences. Disasters seem to be happening more often, …
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Elderberry Offers Edible and Medicinal Benefits
My first experience with elderberries came when my husband and I moved to the country to build our first home. We purchased land that was pretty much untouched as far as wild edibles went.
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Your Guide to Farm Pond Design
You can create an effective farm pond design, whether you live on a few acres or 500. The water from a small stream is sufficient.
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Fire Evacuation Procedures: Do You Have a Plan?
Add to Favorites Our recent fires in the state of Washington have been a lesson in preparing fire evacuation procedures. The fires swooped in so fast that there was little …
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Alternative Heating Ideas for Price Hikes and Power Outages
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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Farm Pond Maintenance to Prevent Winterkill
Ponds and lakes in the northern United States have in the past experienced what I will term a “fish kill” related to lack of dissolved oxygen present in the water. Oxygen is essential to the metabolism of all aerobic (air breathing) organisms.
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Know Your Firewood Moisture Content
Knowing firewood moisture content can make the difference between creating steam or heat. Most folks agree that water doesn’t burn, not unless you break H2O down into H and O, both of which are highly flammable, and that doesn’t happen in your stove or furnace.
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How to Process a Deer: Start with Sharp Knives
Deer hunting and processing has been a family tradition for as long as I can remember. As kids, my brother and I would joke that this was our family’s “quality time.”
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Firewood Management 101
Wood-splitting tools have enabled homesteaders to survive and thrive for centuries. Just like many of today’s tools we use on the homestead, there have been some marked improvements since the days of yore.
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Battery Maintenance Tips
In this article we discuss the common types of lead acid batteries you have around your farm or homestead, their uses, and battery maintenance tips for optimum life.
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