Tips and Advice on all things Homestead related

How to Build a Chicken Coop!  I thought it might be time to throw out some homesteading tips since that is the actual purpose of this blog!  One of the first animals most people get when they buy some land or decide to try their hand at homesteading is chickens. They are the starter animals. If you can succeed with chickens you have the good chance of doing well with raising your next animal. Plus they have the benefit of providing plenty of eggs for the family and depending on how many chickens you have you might have enough to sell to family or friends or co-workers. This helps the self sustainability by allowing the chickens to pay for their own feed.  The first thing you need before you get the birds is a place for them to live. There are plenty of options for chicken houses but you can find some plans  here . Some ideas that I have personally used have been a hoop house made with cattle panels, a bit of chicken wire, a tarp and some 2x4's That was a easy, couple of hours and

My current journey in homesteading and farming as a single woman now include a small business making goat milk soap from the milk from my goats. It started because I had way too many milk goats and too much milk and not having a licensed dairy I was unable to sell the milk. So my creative thinking had to work overload and I decided to give the soap making a try. Since I wanted to be as natural and from the farm as  possible, my focus became using the goats milk and as many herbs and natural colors as possible.  Currently I have a list of over 20 types of goat milk soap that I regularly keep in stock, plus some that I try once or twice or seasonal scents. The goat milk makes such a wonderful bar of soap with so many qualities that benefit the skin. My soaps are now located in about 5 different local shops, plus local farmers markets and craft fairs, plus my new website: www.goatmilksoapsandstuff.com  This is one of my personal favorites. It is Citrus Sage and has ground sage gro