Chickens, Livestock, Homesteading & Gardening

Guide to Composting Toilets – How to Use and Maintain

With more and more people searching for ways to become more eco-friendly, composting toilets are a popular way to start in that direction. Becoming environment friendly requires more than just buying energy saving bulbs or trying to recycle everything made of plastic. Taking care of human sanitation in an eco-friendly way is also a very effective way of going green. How Does a Composting Toilets Work? Dry and composting toilets utilize a natural process, one … Read more

Renewable Source of Energy Solar Power Electricity

Solar Power Electricity Best Source That Virtually Never Runs Out

The sun is an amazing source of energy… solar power electricity. It is always there and will keep doing its job for a few billion more years. It is the best alternate source of energy for electricity, a renewable source that virtually never runs out. Even though you cannot utilize the power during night, cloudy or stormy days, it can be counted upon to be there the next day, and the days after that. It … Read more

Recycle Christmas lights to Make a Heat Mat for Seed Starting

Now that we know how to build a grow rack, let’s see how to make inexpensive Heat Mat for Seed from Christmas lights! How to Make a Heat Mat for Seed Starting This is a “readers’ favorite” post our how-to site. When you are learning to grow from seeds, often you might see reference to a heat mat for seedlings. Heat mats can really help speed up germination for many seeds, especially tomatoes and peppers. … Read more

Homesteading Skills Every ‘Prepper’ Must Learn

If you like to live independently and feel you can provide for yourself without interacting with the society around you, you can become a prepper but need some Homesteading Skills. Rural Living Today Resources. Preppers prepare for a number of different things, including economic downturns like the one the world is going through at the moment. So, if disaster does strike, they are in a good position to avert it and can easily adapt to the … Read more

Raising Roosters Guide and Important Tips

Raising roosters is tricky business, and you need all the help and advice you can get on Tips on Raising Roosters. Chicken farming is becoming more popular as an increasing number of people become more health conscious. Being able to raise your own roosters and chickens to get the healthiest eggs is a great thing. Here are five important tips on raising roosters that can help you do it. Tips on Raising Roosters Tips Give … Read more

What No One Tells You About Selling Your Home

Modernizing Your Rural Home Upgrades To Make More Enjoyable

Modernizing Your Rural Home – Just because you’ve chosen to live away from the hustle and bustle of the city doesn’t mean you have to forego all modern-day amenities. In fact, the technology of today has made it so you can enjoy almost all the things of urban life. Maybe even more without compromising the simple one. Modernizing Your Rural Home Upgrades Take a look at these modern upgrades that will make your rural home … Read more

Advice on Property Development ~ What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You

Get the real deal on real estate and before you develop property. People have often asked my best advice on property development and buying a rural property. It is: “What you don’t know is the thing that can hurt you the most.” This statement is true for many situations in life, but is especially true as you embark on finding the perfect rural home or retreat when moving to the country. The thing you don’t … Read more

Are We Living or Just Existing?

Are We Living or Just Existing – Here I am, living on 100 acres and real jazzed about it. I’m happy at night looking back at the day, and I’m really inspired when I wake up! I remember one day years ago in my corporate life. There I was, sitting in a meeting discussing TPS report cover designs, and I found myself daydreaming. The person addressing the meeting woke me up when he said that … Read more

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