Chickens, Livestock, Homesteading & Gardening

Fall and Winter Vegetable Gardens How to

Series of posts on fall and winter vegetable gardens. We included lots of info on planting, structures, great pruning shears review and winter garden care. Many of you were inspired to keep your summer gardens going longer or to plant seeds just for fall and winter harvesting. Again this fall, there has been a lot of interest in extended-season gardening. Fall and Winter Vegetable Garden Think about growing fresh vegetables in fall and winter. Many of … Read more

Path to Sustainability is Preserving Fresh Food

Path to sustainability, what does that mean? These days many people rely highly on packaged mixes, precooked dishes, ready-to-serve meals, and dining out. Some don’t know how to prepare anything much from scratch. It’s really not their fault, since our culture has veered in the direction of fast food and easy meals. Home economics classes are no longer required in many schools. The majority of TV commercials for food are selling products wrapped in plastic … Read more

Path to Sustainability is Gardens and Orchards to Supply Food

Path to Sustainability is Gardens and Orchards – We’ve been talking about various steps along the path to sustainability. That is, practices that will carry us over from year to year, even if our outside resources fail us. Like sustainable production of livestock, ongoing success growing fruits, vegetables, and herbs depends on a few specific factors. We can keep gardens and orchards going year after year without outside resources by establishing perennial plants, saving seeds … Read more

Raising Livestock is the Path to Sustainability

Path to Sustainability is Raising Livestock – When it comes to living a more sustainable lifestyle, raising our own food plays a key role. Dependence on grocery stores just won’t do! We’ve been disappointed in the quality, freshness, and availability of many commercial food products anyway. Even though we are big supporters of other local producers and farmers, we don’t want to totally rely on them, either. Besides, we happen to enjoy gardening and raising … Read more

Affordable Living Off the Grid Guide How to Live Cheap

Affordable Living Off the Grid – Our last post, The Challenge: Affordably Living Off of the Grid, got so much response that I decided to tell a little more about our backstory. This is a detailed post with lots of experience and lessons we learned about moving from a fast-paced lifestyle to a remote location. I want to share our “get to the country” plan and how things changed and developed along the way. Affordable … Read more

Building and Living Off of the Grid Homesteader Life Affordably

Affordably Building and Living Off of the Grid, As many of you know, my husband and I have been working and planning towards our homesteader life for many years now. Affordably Building and Living Off of the Grid While many people don’t start on their rural living journey until after retirement, or spending several decades building a nest egg, we opted for a different route. Living off of the grid We did not want to … Read more

Holiday Gift Ideas From Rural Living Today

Holiday Gift Ideas – Is it that time of year again? Our family truly enjoys this special month of December. We celebrate Christmas in many ways, from a birthday cake for Jesus to special holiday menus, from stockings on the mantle to a fragrant Christmas tree. But our favorite facet of the month has to be the warm and festive gatherings with family, friends, and neighbors. And some of those get-togethers involve gift giving. Though we try to be … Read more

Raise Chickens and eggs 1918 ad...AND YOU WILL NEVER GO HUNGRY! We have our share of eggs and chickens!

10 Realistic Ways to Overcome Food Crisis

Overcome Food Crisis – Prepare for rising food prices and potential shortages—starting right now. Our well-being is dramatically affected by things we can’t control: weather, inflation, supply chain, politics, etc. More immediately, now there are worldwide concerns. Many popular processed foods are based on corn and soy. These two products and other grains are the foundation of commercial livestock feeds. Ways to prepare for food crisis Taking easy steps to prepare for a food shortage … Read more

What’s the Big Deal GMOs?

You may be hearing a lot about Big Deal GMOs. Most likely, you eat them regularly. The acronym GMO stands for “genetically modified organism.” Bayer’s Monsanto, with the support of many businesses, organizations, and agencies, has been steadily increasing its use of GMOs since the first GMO tomato was introduced over a decade ago. It’s gotten out of control. Ever eat a product containing soy or corn products? If you eat any type of packaged … Read more

Escape to the Country ~ 10 Things to Love About Rural Living

Escape to the Country – Things to Love About Rural Living, After living for a long time in urban and suburban environments, I am now living a rural lifestyle. Is this for everybody? Maybe not. But I sure do enjoy rural living 52 weeks a year in a place where I used to vacation for two weeks a year. Why do people Escape to the Country Apart from a few years that I spent as … Read more

Successful Hen and Backyard Chicken Adoption

Backyard Chicken Adoption – A few months ago, one of our hens, Pigwidgeon, went broody. She was soon joined (literally, in the same nest) by her pal Hedwig. Before long, April had taken over the nestbox in the other coop. Some hens will sit on a nest for a few days and then go back to business as usual. So I kept an eye on these girls, and they all remained on their nests. We … Read more

Keeping a Rooster Pros and Cons ~ Learn Which is Best for You

Deciding on keeping a rooster or not, that is a big question! When it comes to owning roosters, there are pros and cons to consider. There are many people making money by owning chickens and roosters as well. Pros and Cons of Keeping a Rooster Rooster has several positive roles in a flock of chickens. A rooster provides fertilization services to the hens in the flock. Fertile eggs means you can hatch baby chicks. Rooster … Read more

Creating & Building Root Cellars for Year Round Storage

Creating and Building Root Cellars – We have done some research though, and to answer your questions, we’ll share what we’ve learned. In some climates, root vegetables can winter in place in the garden, well-mulched before the first freeze. If frozen ground prevents harvest, the vegetables will usually be edible in the spring as long as they haven’t been devoured or damaged by rodents. But for storage of other produce, root cellars can be a … Read more

Do You Need a Livestock Guardian Animal? Here’s What to Consider

Livestock Guardian Animal – Before we moved to our rural property, we knew we would need some help protecting our future livestock from the local coyotes, black bears, and cougars. Here’s what we learned when deciding if we needed a livestock guardian animal. We knew that smaller mammals and rodents would also be an issue around poultry. Therefore, we started to search for ways to keep our animals safe. We were surprised to discover a … Read more

Backyard Homestead with Carleen Madigan

Backyard Homestead – A lot of the time, when people are beginning with their homestead, it’s difficult to know which direction to go in. One thing that’s usually pretty helpful is if you can get one good book that covers a variety of subjects in enough depth for you to give it an experimental try. The Backyard Homestead, edited by Carleen Madigan, is one of those books. But not only is it a book, but … Read more

How I Built My DIY Hydroponic System and Hydroponic Garden

How I Built My DIY Hydroponic System & Hydroponic Garden

DIY Hydroponic System – We did not have any garden space or soil for planting in our yard. But that didn’t let that stop us from starting a vegetable garden. Here’s how we went about building a hydroponic garden. How to Build a DIY Hydroponic Garden If you haven’t considered setting up a DIY Hydroponic Garden you’re really missing out. These gardens are the wave of the future, and just about anyone can set them … Read more

Starting a Garden Where Soil Poor

It’s natural to wonder if it’s worth your time and money starting a garden where soil poor. But the good news is, there are ways to do this. Sometimes you can improve the soil that’s there. If it’s beyond an easy fix, you can plant in raised beds you’ve filled with good soil. What is poor soil? It’s when you have soil that consists of rocks, sand, or heavy clay… or dust or dirt without … Read more

How to Be a Livestock Guardian Dog

Livestock Guardian Dog – Even though I am a very busy dog, after a bit of negotiation with myself I agreed to do it and so…here is my DIY how-to! Now where should I start. HMMMMMM. First off, you all need to know that I have a job. Literally. I get paid in many different ways, like kibble and belly rubs, but my job on the homestead is a very important one. How to be … Read more

Interview Jill Winger of “Your Custom Homestead”

One question many of our Rural Living Today readers have in common is “Where do I start?” We’ve been addressing that question in several different ways, and today we have a great addition to our tool kits.

Jill Winger of The Prairie Homestead has written an excellent book called Your Custom Homestead. Jill describes it as a “How to Organize Your Thoughts, Dreams, and Ideas to Turn Them into a Unique Homestead” book.

We knew our RLT readers would love that!

Guide to Grain Storage in Buckets and Mylar Bags

There’s a lot to know about storing grain in buckets. But the great thing is, once you learn how, it’s easy to do. Our hacks will make it even easier! Q#1: How do you go about storing grain in buckets? Q#2: Do you have to do anything to keep air out? A: We have two short answers and one long answer for that! Grain Storage in Buckets Grains can be poured directly into sanitized buckets with … Read more