Tips and Advice on all things Homestead related

In this post I am going to share with you some of the easy and cheap ways that I supplement my hens especially during the winter when bugs are in low supply!  1-  Grow Chard. My hens love to eat the chard leaves and it is very easy to grow in your garden, plus if you get the rainbow chard, it is very pretty too! We pick the bad looking leaves to give the chickens when we are picking for ourselves or to sell. The chickens are our garbage disposal! 2- Grow earthworms. Well, you don't actually "grow" them but keeping an earthworm bin for all the extra scraps that the chickens don't eat is a huge bonus in more ways than one! You can use the earthworm casting for your garden and of course the chickens love the worms if you can bear to spare some. 3- Sprouts. When we don't have anything green to feed them or we want to give them a boost we make a batch of sprouts and throw them out for the hens. They love them and it seems to really help their egg production as we...

Ok, I was going to post something completely NON-Valentines but I decided that would be too depressing since I'm already saddened by my state of aloneness. So I looked in my grandmothers box of recipes that I inherited and found one that I haven't made yet but sure am going to try it. My family has always loved popcorn and I couldn't resist this recipe. Chocolate Snackin' Corn 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil 1/2 cup popcorn, unpopped 1 and 1/2 cups salted peanuts 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 cup light corn syrup 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa 1/4 cup butter or margarine Pop the popcorn in oil. Pour popcorn immediately into a buttered 9x13 inch pan; add peanuts and stir thoroughly, removing any unpopped corn. Combine brown sugar, corn syrup, cocoa and margarine in medium saucepan. Stir over medium heat until mixture reaches a full boil; boil one minute. Drizzle mixture immediately over popcorn and peanuts; quickly stir mixture to blend well. Cool, uncovered, for sev...

Most of you have cracked open a store bought chicken egg to find the yolk a pasty pukey pale color and the white so thin it spreads over the whole frying pan. The taste is worse than the appearance. And yet for most people this is their only option, they think. However, I'm going to share with you some tips for you to raise a few hens of your own and enjoy the benefits of eggs that are like nothing you ever dreamed. First, if you live in the city, you must make sure that your city ordinances allow you to keep a few backyard hens. Most cities will not allow you to have roosters but most don't mind a few quiet hens. Second you need a place to keep your hens. The ideal number of hens for a family of 4 is 6 hens.  They will provide more than enough eggs for your family and maybe enough to share with your neighbors too. This is always helpful to maintain neighborly happiness! If you are handy with building things you can whip up a simple coop in a short amount of time. There are...

I have been homesteading pretty much all my life. I love everything about country living and being able to provide my own food. I have learned a lot through trial and error, the natives we lived with growing up in the Amazon jungle, reading as many books as I could get my hands on and various other ways. I currently live at our small farm in Texas that we are trying to live as sustainable as possible. We teach classes on everything from chicken raising, to goat milking, to butchering, to gardening, to alternative cooking methods and so much more. In this blog I will attempt to share some of my homesteading knowledge and advice and hopefully help out others that desire to live off the land! Please join me in this adventure in living!