Uncharted Heritage

Adding fruit to our little homestead. We would love to someday have a small orchard on our property. There are already a couple of large pear trees that need some care. We are working to figure out what we need to do to get them healthy and productive.  Thursday we bought a couple of blueberry bushes (we will...

Recently we made the decision to eliminate the rooster from our flock. This was a good decision for our family. I realize that everyone's experiences with having roosters varies. This simply has been our experience so far. Firstly, the pros of having a rooster: *The biggest reason we liked having our rooster was...

A couple of weeks ago I shared our tentative plan for companion planting in our garden. Now it is time to decide just where in our yard we will place each of these sections of vegetable combinations, and to make preparations to actually start planting. Time for a little more research... I learned which plants can and...

This year we are going to try companion planting. One of the benefits of companion planting is protection from pests and diseases when planting in the right combinations. I have been studying the vegetable companion guide in Storey's Basic Country Skills (picture below), as well as various online resources. To...

I debated about whether or not I wanted to share this. But this is part of our homesteading experience, so I am going to journal it. Maybe someone else is having the same issues? Maybe things can work out differently for them? When we first got our chickens a year ago, we picked up six of the "Sex-Link (Female) Tetra...

Unfortunately, our small flock of hens were beginning to lose their feathers due to an increasingly more aggressive rooster. We did some research for solutions, and found chicken saddles. This seemed like it might just work. We figured it would at least be worth trying to help protect our girls.  We...

It is almost Spring and we are excited to be planning our garden. I put together a gardening/homesteading journal - nothing fancy - just an old, unused notebook with pockets, folders, notebook paper [for notes] and blank pages [to draw out plans] - something easy to keep up with and something that doesn't matter if it...

It is not often that all of my [Dad's side of the] family is able to get together. We all live in different states, scattered throughout the country. It has been a long time since we have all seen each other, and it was the first time all the great-grandchildren were together. We tried to use this rare opportunity...

We have been quite blessed. We have four hens, and we still get four eggs every day, despite us being in the winter months. Our typical go-to ways of cooking eggs are usually simply scrambled or hard-boiled. With our surplus of eggs, we decided we needed a breakfast-for-dinner night. We also decided it was time to change...

Bannock is an easy-to-make and extremely versatile bread. Ingredients (1 serving size): 1 cup flour 1/2 cup water, add slowly/not all at once 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/8 to 1/4 tsp salt (modify according to your taste) 1/2 tsp sugar (modify according to your taste) (fruit of your choice is optional) Mix dry ingredients....

Over the weekend Dad and Daughter had a backyard adventure. Teaching Sera, practicing building a fire, cooking outside. Really just enjoying being outside together on a unusually warm day in January. Sera's bushcraft kit. Checking the coop for eggs. 6 eggs were collected! Eggs are now on today's menu. Dad's...