how-to
Get An Early Start With Carrots
Carrots are one of the most versatile vegetables I grow in my garden. We plant them once a month through spring, and again after Labor Day. Except during summer’s intense heat, I harvest a continuous supply for salads or for cooking.
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Coloring Soap Naturally
Add to Favorites When learning how to make homemade soap, will you use dyes, micas, or try coloring soap naturally? There are many ways to achieve beautiful colors in your …
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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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How to Make Bath Bombs: An Easy DIY Gift
Often ball-shaped, bath bombs are dry, chalky, conglomerations that fizz and release fragrance when dropped in water. They’re sold as novelties, though additions like witch hazel and skin-friendly oils can add benefits.
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Eliminating Weevils in Flour and Rice
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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How to Make Castile Soap
Vegan, sustainable, and often organic, castile soap is highly sought after. Properties are comparable to soaps made with tallow, lard, or coconut oil but the bar made from olive oil ranks higher.
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Cold Weather Tips for Raising Hogs for Meat
Cold weather requires some planning for any homesteader raising hogs for meat. In the area of proper nutrition, thought and extra effort must be given to available supplies of fresh ice-free water at all times for all classes of hogs—the piglet, the weanling, growing/finishing, gestating and the lactating sow.
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Rat-Hunting Dogs: A Historically Organic Option
Got a rat problem? You can try traps, poisons … or rat-hunting dogs. This organic concept is the reason rat terriers exist today.
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Making Shampoo Bars
Making shampoo bars is a very different process from making body soap in a lot of ways. Unlike body soap, it is important to limit the number of unsaponifiable substances in a bar made for hair.
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Making Homemade Lipstick
Add to Favorites Learning how to make homemade lipstick is easy and gives you control over the ingredients. You just need a lip balm base, micas, and containers. In the …
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Milkweed Plant: A Truly Remarkable Wild Vegetable
Milkweed plant isn’t your average weed; in fact, I feel guilty calling it a weed at all. The common milkweed, Asclepias syriacqa, is one of the best known wild plants in North America.
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How to Make Body Butter, an Easy Recipe
Add to Favorites Learn how to make body butter by following an easy whipped shea body butter recipe. Extra dry skin is not exclusive to the winter months. In the …
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Combining the Best Essential Oils for Soap Making
f you make soap, you probably do it for one of two reasons. First, it allows artistic creativity while making something useful. And second, it allows control over all the ingredients.
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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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Prevent Sheep Bloat by Managing Your Flock
“What does a bloated sheep look like?” was the question on the phone late Sunday evening. The question brought back some nightmarish images to my mind from the first time I saw sheep bloat:
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