countryside
Water Systems For Off-Grid Living
Add to Favorites By Dan Fink A steady supply of drinkable water is the single most important factor in deciding where to settle down and live. It has shaped humankind’s …
Read More
A Primer About Solar Electric
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, …
Read More
Building Bridges With Basil, Rosemary And Yarrow
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 …
Read More
The Countryside Tale
Add to Favorites Around 1969, JD Belanger, the founder of this magazine, combined Rabbit World, which was 32 pages long, with Dairy Goat Guide, which was 12 pages, and Countryside, which …
Read More
The Catastrophic Dust Storms of the 1930s, in Retrospect
Add to Favorites By Karin Deneke — More than eight decades ago, a serious transformation took place on the grasslands of the Midwest, commonly known as the Great Plains. Thousands …
Read More
Solar Water Heating Off the Grid
Add to Favorites By Dan Fink, Colorado Solar electric systems are getting a lot of exposure these days, capturing media and public attention with massive utility-scale photovoltaic arrays covering acres, …
Read More
New Off-Grid Battery Technology
Add to Favorites By Dan Fink, Colorado The new Tesla Energy Powerwall home battery storage system made quite the media splash when Elon Musk officially launched the product on April 30, 2015. The …
Read More
Pros and Cons of Building a Pond
Add to Favorites By Joe Cadieux of midwestponds.com – So, you’re considering building a pond. Well, there are few things to think about before heading into a project of this nature. In this article, …
Read More
Safety Tips for Dangerous Tree Felling
Add to Favorites By Ben Hoffman, Maine – Straight trees are easiest to cut down, but leaning or rotting wood can make tree felling even more dangerous. Always, before cutting a …
Read More
How to Fell Trees Safely
Add to Favorites By Ben Hoffman Felling timber is one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet, but knowing how to fell trees safely can greatly reduce the odds of accidents. …
Read More
Owning A Wood-Fueled Cookstove
Add to Favorites By Sue Robishaw Steve and I knew we wanted a wood-fueled cookstove when planning our homestead so many years ago, it was in the drawings from the …
Read More
Igniting the American Homesteader Dream
Add to Favorites By Lori Davis, New York Changes are underway as the country’s demographics shift in significant ways, casting shadows on the traditional American homesteader dream and transforming it into …
Read More
How to Dig a Well By Hand
Add to Favorites If you’re a homesteader, there’s value in knowing how to dig a well by hand. Of the three main types of wells—dug, drilled and driven—dug wells are …
Read More
Tips For Farm Pond Design In Your Backyard
Add to Favorites By Anita B. Stone, Photographs by S. Tullock – Do you know the basics of farm pond design? If you’re ready to tap into a small backyard pond system …
Read More
Wind Energy Facts: Is Wind Power For You?
Add to Favorites By Dan Fink – My interest in wind energy facts started with a particularly brutal winter up here off-grid in the Colorado mountains at 8,200 feet elevation. It …
Read More