Make A Coon Skin Hat – Easy, Start To Finish Instructions
Making a coon skin cap is not as difficult a project as it would seem and here we have it broken down step by step, starting with the animal to be skinned and ending with a finished cap. You can even...
View ArticleAcorn Cap Whistles – Fun Nature Activity
Everyone loves a fun kid’s activity, especially one that you can participate in and that sparks a child’s appreciation for simple pleasures. We live in an area with gigantic chestnut oak trees and for...
View ArticlePine Resin Drawing Salve
In the winter months there is nothing quite like the smell of conifers. As the light of spring and summer shifts to the darker, dormant months, so does our need to focus on these fragrant and readily...
View ArticleMake Your Own Wood Ash Lye Soap
Almost two years have gone by since I originally set out to document our process of making soap from wood ash lye. I’m not always sure where the time goes and I often don’t have anything tangible to...
View Article9 Forgotten Hacks That Grandma Used
One of the things I’ve learned from starting this site is that there are way more people out there than I expected that still appreciate and practice the old way of living. It’s been wonderful finding...
View ArticleMake Your Own Vinegar “Mother”
As our website name eludes to, we work hard toward putting ourselves in a position where we are completely self sufficient. For regular readers of this site, I know you all have heard me say that a...
View ArticleSewing 101 – Handy Sewing Tricks
Both my Mother and two Grandmothers were extraordinary seamstresses. They sewed new clothes with or without patterns, reconstructed all varieties of used clothing to fit like it was tailor made and...
View ArticleRedbud Blossom Tea Sandwiches
The beautiful Eastern Redbud, or Cercis canadensis, blooms in our region as one of the first flowering shrubs of spring. It always blooms just before the Dogwood tree and is often referred to as the...
View ArticleHow To Determine The Gender Of A Rabbit And Why We Free-Range Ours
In this video we demonstrate how to determine the gender of a rabbit, commonly referred to as “sexing”. I also give a brief description of how and why we free range our colony. If you want to skip...
View ArticleQuick & Easy Old Fashioned Clothes Pin Bag
If there’s any “luxury” in hanging clothes out to dry on the line, it’s got to be having something to make your clothes pins easily accessible as you work. Bags for your clothes pins used to be pretty...
View ArticleWild Onion or Wild Garlic? A Pictorial Identification Guide
The lines are sometimes blurry when it comes to these two forage foods and the names are often merged so that it’s referred to as just “Wild Onion/Garlic”. Even botanists and seasoned foragers...
View ArticleMaking The Switch – Electric to Wood Cooking
Click here to see this article and others like it on the Homestead Blog Hop! We caught a lot of flack online when I shared the first picture of our “new” wood cook stove that took the place of our...
View ArticleCanning Iced Tea – An Old Fashioned Trick For Making Homemade Tea “Instant”
Recently someone from a canning group I’m in shared their “Instant” Iced Tea method. It’s basically making a concentrate that is canned in pint portions so that it keeps in your pantry like a jar of...
View ArticleHome Canning – Signs of Spoiled Food
Read this and others like it on this week’s Homestead Blog Hop at SimpleLifeMom.com Home canning has really made a comeback and if you do a lot of it, chances are you’ll run into the situation at...
View ArticleUsnea – The Antibiotic That Grows In Your Yard
One of my favorites, Usnea ssp. is a lichen that is revered for its antibacterial properties and its ability to clear multiple types of infection. Since it’s classified as a lichen, it’s not...
View ArticlePressure Cooker Lasagna – From Freezer to Table in 20 Minutes
I have tried and tried to find the angle where this fits into “living the old way” but no matter how I turn it, it’s a stretch at best. This post probably belongs on a food blog somewhere but this...
View ArticleHomestead Blog Hop 148
Welcome to the Homestead Blog Hop! Now on to the hop… Homestead Blog Hop will take place every Wednesday and is for all things homesteading: real food recipes, farm animals, crafts, DIY, how-to’s,...
View ArticleHomestead Blog Hop 149
Welcome to the Homestead Blog Hop! Our latest batch of chicks have hatched and it looks like there’s 10 of them. We let our hens do it all themselves and this one was a surprise. We suspected she was...
View ArticleHomestead Blog Hog 150
Welcome to the Homestead Blog Hop! Don’t Miss the Giveaway! You have a few more days to enter the giveaway to win The Natural Soapmaking Book for Beginners. If you already have a copy you can still...
View ArticleHomestead Blog Hop 151
Welcome to the Homestead Blog Hop! Homestead Blog Hop will take place every Wednesday and is for all things homesteading: real food recipes, farm animals, crafts, DIY, how-to’s, gardening, anything...
View Article