Tips and Advice on all things Homestead related

I have been horse crazy since I can remember! Just the smell of them has always been intoxicating to me. When I was a kid, I could spot a horse far in the distance and would dream of riding it and galloping across the pasture as one with the horse. When I was 14 I finally had saved up enough money by very hard work, to buy my first horse. I knew nothing except what I had read in every single horse book I could get my hands on. I practically memorized every book and whenever I could get a new one I would read it cover to cover. I read all the books in our small library that had anything to do with horses. Everyone I'm sure thought I was quite nuts. Buts for some reason I couldn't help it. That's all I could think about every waking second of the day. My first horse was the best first horse an inexperienced kid could have. He was an old, worn out ex-cart horse with saddle sores on his back and a tumor on his shoulder. But he had the heart of a saint and he endured my very l...

Many people ask us what we use to help keep the grasshoppers in check with our huge garden. It is difficult because we don't want to put the chickens there for fear of them eating the garden. We discovered something called Nolo Bait a few years ago and although it doesn't completely get rid of the grasshoppers it sure puts a huge dent in their population and we totally recommend it and use it every year. Here is a link to it if you are interested in purchasing it.

Spring has officially started in this year!. Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. The trees are all budding and becoming green again. The flowers are beginning to bloom. And my favorite of all, the animals are being born. Here on my little farm I raise Shetland Sheep. I love that breed because they are small, gentle natured, good looking, and provide wool for spinning and adorable lambs to watch! I only have 5 ewes and one ram so far but as of right now 2 of my Shetlands and one random Katahdin ewe that I have, have given birth to a total of 4 babies. They are now at the age where they share mothers, jumping up on whoever might be laying down. They butt heads, play tag, play race, chase and king of the mountain. It is so much fun to sit out in the pasture with them and watch them frolic and play. We have 2 more ewes that should be lambing soon and I'm excited to see their babies!

At my small farm I recently purchased two half grown female turkeys to be mates to my tom turkey that I already had. They are somewhat nervous birds, compared to the tom who loves attention and will come up to you and let you pet him. They are beautiful, but nervous. They live in the shed with about 8 geese and 3 ducks. The geese are bullies and always picking on someone. They think they rule the whole farm and have even attacked the pony while it was being ridden. That's another story though. Frequently I let the geese and ducks and turkeys loose in the great outdoors so they can graze, swim in the larger sized tub and run around and eat bugs. They love it and get so sad when I don't let them out. A few days ago, when I let them out, the two female turkeys decided to jump (or fly) to the roof of my rabbit shed and then to the tallest branches of the tree that shades the rabbit hutch! I was so surprised. I had no idea that turkeys loved to be up so high. The first day they ...

My family eats dinners cooked from scratch. Growing up in another country, we didn't have the facility and ease that most Americans currently enjoy. We had to plan, prepare, and make everything we wanted to eat. There were no pop tarts, instant potatoes, frozen dinners or already chopped up frozen veggies or things like that. So, we had to make do. We cooked from scratch. We rolled our own pie crusts, even for things like quiche and chicken pot pies. We ate simple meals for the most part. We chopped, boiled, baked, fried, sauteed and made our own meals, all three of them each day. My own journey into cooking started when I was a girl. My mother was always frustrated with me because I wanted to be creative in the kitchen and didn't want to follow a recipe. I would concoct things that were at times edible and more often than not, I was the only one brave enough to actually eat it! Thankfully I didn't traumatize or poison anyone in my learning curve of young girlhood! One of...

Our family has recently decided to start attempting to go gluten free. Not because of allergies or anything like that, but because of what we have recently learned about the higher content of gluten found in today's wheat compared to even ten or fifteen years ago. The gluten induces inflammation in cells and causes so many other health problems that we have decided to start limiting the amount of wheat and wheat products we consume. We already naturally eat very healthy food, mostly all homemade and mostly homegrown too, almost all organic. But we do all really love bread and enjoy making bread and things like that. I found this Gluten Free cookbook on Amazon and thought that maybe it might help others like us who are in the pursuit to eat more healthy and care for the needs of your body. When your cells have inflammation, all sorts of problems occur. Hopefully this book will help you!

Whether you're a novice or well-seasoned gardening enthusiast, I suggest you take a look at a new 300 page how-to guide that has hundreds of creative ways to save money in all aspects of caring  and tending for your the garden. *********** " The Shoestring Gardener " PDF eBook - Instant Download  Hundreds of answers, remedies, solutions, techniques, and how-tos for a multitude of gardening obstacles, dilemmas and headaches! *********** Everything in the eBook keeps an emphasis on environmentally friendly  and non-toxic gardening techniques, methods and procedures. All the projects and techniques in " The Shoestring Gardener " are presented in a way that allows for almost anyone to be successful. You'll learn how to become a more successful and eco-conscious gardener PLUS with all the tips and how-tos in this eBook you'll save lots of money at the same time. We all like to save money! " The Shoestring Gardener "...

These are some Kindle books that at the moment of posting were free (can't guarantee their price forever though :) Maybe you will enjoy reading something from the list I put together!

This video was done by some good friends of ours who run a tree company called New Leaf Tree and Shrub Care . Their website is:  http://www.newleaftreeandshrubcare.com/ They are a very good ethical company that work hard and stand behind their services! Check them out if you are in the north Texas area.

I have long been thinking about a house to build to replace my very old mobile home and have considered frequently the idea of building a container home. It sounds strange at first but when you think about it, they are solid and strong and you can make them look nice with some work. Here's an ebook I found that talks about the pros and cons of building a house out of a shipping container.  Click Here!  to see the book!

We ran out of laundry soap and I've been making our own for quite a while now. It cleans just as good. The only downfall (if you want to consider it a downfall) that I can tell is that your clothes don't come out smelling like flowers. They do however come out clean and if you add enough essential oil to your mix then it smells nice too.

I was all excited about putting up my favorite recipe for quiche but then realized that it wasn't in my possession unfortunately, so you will have to wait till next time! So.... since we grow lots of greens and collards and other things like that I figured I would share with you my favorite way to eat them. I have never ever been a fan of boiled greens but I love them cooked the way I'm about to tell you! Take a huge handful of collards (other greens work the same way). Wash the dirt off, because hopefully you are eating them fresh from a garden. Cut the rib out of the middle of the leaf. I just slice alongside each side of it up until you get where it isn't so hard, then pull it off the leaf. Stack your collard leaves in a neat pile and roll them tightly into a roll, as tight as you can roll them works best. Take a sharp knife and start at one end of the roll and slice as thin as you can slice it so you end up with thin little strips of green collard leaf. Cut the whole r...