Modern homesteading is all about living a more self-reliant lifestyle. Your homestead can be big or small, rural or urban — some folks even homestead in apartments or on rented land.

Some people choose to raise their own food or use home remedies to avoid questionable commercial products. Other focus on taking steps to stock up on food or prepare for everyday emergencies for peace of mind. Some enjoy the challenge of learning new skills and getting more exercise and time outside.

Common Sense Homesteading focuses on nine main categories of homesteading skills: Just sign up above or on the subscription page. The homestead garden is a keystone of many homesteading efforts. Gardening is a HUGE part of our homestead. We have an assortment of annual gardens, as well as fruit and nut trees, brambles, shrubs and vines.

The garden related posts can be viewed on the Gardening page, and are sorted into the following categories:. Visit the Gardening Page for the Full List of Over 70 Gardening Posts. New to Food Preserving — Start Here.

How to Can Food at Home — 8 Steps for Safe Canning. Home Food Drying — 6 Things You Need to Know to Dehydrate Food at Home. Home Freeze Drying — The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Root Cellars Root Cellar Design, Use and Mistakes to Avoid.

Getting Started with a Home Grain Mill. View Full List of over 30 Food Storage Recipes. Live is full of bumps and bruises, tummy aches and other minor illnesses. With a little know-how, you can treat many common ailments with items from your garden or pantry. There are also many daily wellness choices that improve your quality of life. The Home Remedies and Natural Health posts are grouped into the following topic areas:. For those who have smaller spaces or need quieter critters, aquaponics or rabbits may be a better choice.

With a little more space, you may want to add larger poultry and ruminants like goats. Growing Fish and Vegetables Together. Bird Flu Busters — 5 Strategies for a Healthier Flock. An Awesome List of Homestead Chicken Resources. Top 7 Tips for First time Chicken Owners. How to Raise Chickens Cheaply — Tips for Raising Chickens on a Budget.

Hen House Plans and Best Chicken Breeds for the Small Homestead. Homestead Geese — Easy to Care for Barnyard Protectors and Weed Eaters. Getting Started with Homestead Goats — choosing the right breed, basic goat care food, water, shelter and fencingadditional goat resources. Keeping Homestead Dairy Goats — What age dairy goat should you get?

Breeding your dairy goat, Basic pregnancy Care, Kids and Weaning, Basic milking procedures and milk handling. Goats for Sale — 6 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying Goats.

Homestead Rabbits — Get Started and Find the Right Breed. Start Beekeeping — Basic Supplies and Getting Bees. Many people equate homesteading with off grid living and solar power.

You can also choose less toxic cleaners and other products to reduce your environmental impact. The kitchen is great place to start your homesteading journey, as we all need to eat. Home cooked meals help you to save money and choose good quality ingredients for your table. Along with food, we also have some recipes for personal care items like salve and deodorant, and ferments such as dandelion wine.

To make your kitchen work a little easier, I also share some of my favorite kitchen tips, such as handy substitutions and natural stove cleaners. I was introduced to the herb featured in my logo Common Plantain by my grandmother, many years ago. Thankfully, I eventually met some great mentors who helped me learn how to use wild plants for food and medicine wildcrafting.

You can read about how to identify and use over 40 common weeds in the Weekly Weeder series. Common Sense Homesteading is all about using sound judgment to be more self-reliant. There is always more to learn. I look forward to learning and growing together. Leave a comment and let me know if there's a topic you'd like covered, or share your homesteading story.

If you enjoy the post, please give it a share on social media. How to Homestead Not Quite Like Grandma Used to Do. Homesteading Resources — my favorite resources from my site and around the internet, including bulk food suppliers and online nurseries featuring cold hardy plants. Sole Proprietorship vs LLC — Are all Your Eggs in One Basket? Become More Self-Reliant — Start Here. If You Only Get One Homesteading Book, This Should Be It.

Tips for Cooking With Cast Iron. How to Season Cast Iron Cookware. Restore Old or Damaged Cast Iron. How to Make Maple Syrup.

Getting Started with Wood Heat — 5 Things You Should Know. How to Build a Burn Barrel — Burn Trash Safely. Choose a Personal Firearm. Involving Young Children in Homemaking. April 21, at 2: I love this site!!!!!!!!!!

I am excited to find a place to go for the things I have been trying to learn. I wish to be more self sufficient and look forward to reading and trying new things here. April 21, at 6: July 5, at 3: I am new at all this and am very excited to get started we have 1 acre that was a junk yard 15 years ago.

We want to replenish it and be as self sufficient as possible. I rarely have access to the Internet and have a hard time with computer screens. Is there any way to obtain a regular book? July 5, at 8: The free subscribed e-book is a pdf, which can be printed out for personal use. April 21, at June 17, at 4: My husband works and we live in Fl right now but we are also purchasing owner-financed a home and 12 acres in Tn.

Our budget currently allows this but we are so tight for anything else, i really need advice on how to slim down and store up. Is it advisable to do this and cash in our k or sit tight until retirement in 7 yrs.? Any advice will be welcomed and discussed Thanks Laurie H. June 17, at 9: November 13, at 5: I too, lived in Florida but moved back to the VA mountains to our homestead. I answer your question this way. What is most important to you now?

32 Ways to Earn Money from Your Homestead - The Free Range Life

This is your present moment you have to make the best choice for yourselves. You will never know if it is the right choice until you do it!. My advice, from someone who just installed a commercial grade food processing kitchen I am the extreme?

Starting a homestead first class takes sweat and MONEY. If you are broke and you try this you will HATE it unless you go barter system and are patient. I could go on but the debt free part was half of it for us. February 12, at 5: I bought a home near Sarasota for retirement. I need more space and freedom. Is this a possibility in Fl. Any thoughts would be appreciated. February 14, at Hello Steve, I left Florida for many reasons. One, I saw the deterioration of my own neighborhood in 15 years from owners to renters.

I am a catastrophe adjuster and went through many of an event so I saw Frances, Jeane, Charlie, Katrina, Sandy etc. After my experiences I saw first hand just how unprepared for disasters I decided I did not want to fight my neighbors for essentials.

I just did not feel safe. Two, I wanted to be debt free and had the opportunity to divest completely and go home to no mortgage, business loans My wife and I owned two business as well. Three, I needed to be healthier, I wanted to eat food that was not injected with drugs which meant going back to my roots and growing my own food, raising grass fed beef, hsbc malta stockbrokers pigs, trout in my river, and building commercial kitchen exclusively to process our food and an indoor aquaponic system for our talapia.

I wanted to do all of these things while I had the stamina and desire to do so as it can be a grind. I loved Florida, do not get me wrong, I fished most weekends and 4 wheeled with my modded FJ and off road teardrop trailer and it was nice being brown and tanned. Having said this, the two main drawbacks now at 53 is the winters, I dislike cold more than I used to, and the distances to by some basic things, like building supplies forgot to mention I remodeled one home that is passive solar, added square feet to it and at the same time built another square foot home in a neighboring county as my daughter plays basketball and wanted to play for a particular school, also manipulating stock market transactions started a container home.

An added benefit was that my father in law lives with us which is great for the kids! He is 83 and doing very well hunting with me, square dancing, reading and enjoying his thb forex card. I guess this may sound crazy but it is my life, our life, and we feel blessed to live it.

September 27, at 7: Just came across your site when doing a search for Kombucha. You have a GREAT site!!!. Have alot to read and meditate on as you have much info available. Make acerage earn money Question, on the page about flavoring Kombucha, you have several grolsch style bottles with the flip tops. Do you have a source for buying them. Keep up the good work. As for the grolsh style bottles, I picked mine mt5 forex robot review at a local home brewing store.

You may be able to find something similar in your area. Otherwise, Cultures for Health does sell them, or you can find them on Amazon or other online retailers.

January 10, at When I travel and one of these stores is in the area, I check them out. January 10, at 3: November 11, at 3: What are the best growing lights to use for indoor plants?

November 11, at 6: I do know that there are daylight spectrum LEDs available, and they forex bonus 250 very bright for the wattage, but expensive. November 12, at 9: Hi, I love the information on your site. I have a question I was wondering if you could help me out with. We recently purchased a 6 acre property with 4 different wells.

All the wells have manual access, BUT my issue is that the water to the house has a sulfurous content. We are binary options trading in united states sure yet if all the wells are the same, but can only assume. My question is if it is safe for consumption? We plan on getting ALL the wells tested to determine the exact content, but thought maybe you could give us a heads-up until then.

Right now we are using a 5-gallon Absopure dispenser for cooking and drinking. November 12, at Sulfur on its own is generally not a problem — our well water stinks like rotten eggs, but is perfectly safe to drink. A well test is a very good idea, as many country wells are now contaminated with various pollutants, especially on older properties with more shallow wells.

In our area nitrates are a big concern, due to so many large dairy farms. We had iron water in our well. Four years and still very good results.

April 14, at May 23, at 8: Well I just make acerage earn money your site I stumbled across. May 23, at June 23, at I just wanted to say thank you. There are a ton of things you can do to be more self-sufficient, no matter where you are, like cooking from scratch and using home remedies and homemade cleaning products.

Good luck on your journey, and thank you for taking time to leave a positive comment. July 11, at 7: Company buyback shares hope you could do me a favor and share our dream! July 30, at 2: August 13, at 7: August 13, at 1: September 5, at 3: We grow mushrooms as our business and one book that has been great for us is by: Ten Speed Press, Love your site and learning so much, Thanks!

September 5, at January 30, at 5: How about a general list of things you should think of ,about, when thinking of homesteading. Think these topics would be big helps, thanks. January 31, at Kylie — we have several posts on non-toxic pest control on the site. You can find them on the Green Home page — http: April 5, at 6: I love anything to do with homesteading. My sister and I just started blogging about lots of those sorts of things too!

May 5, at 5: How can I motivate my husband into homesteading? He keeps procrastination about the whole idea. I feel it is an urgent need to get started.

Thanks for any suggestions. Get started without him. Cooking him a stunningly good homecooked meal also earns points. Both my husband and two boys prefer the taste of homemade just about everything at this point, and will work to get what they want to eat because they know the end result is worth it.

I am pretty much on my own as far as beginning homesteading. I started out with food preserving and then into dehydrating…and then into making my own laundry soap and hanging clothes out to dry. Food made from scratch, canning and preserving, growing or buying from a local farmer; etc. Lori the best thing is, as wtih anything—small baby steps that will eventually see you looking back over a long and prosperous walk…enjoy the journey.

When he says the yield and cost savings that may interest him. The fresh taste of food will not hurt either! November 13, at 9: June 19, at 2: Already have learned much to help improve my garden. Thank you and God bless you. June 19, at 3: The boys and I are weeding the garden today, and have discovered all sorts of nice volunteers such as amaranth, cilantro and moss roses.

June 29, at 7: I am new to gardening but would like to setup one in my yard. Mother Earth News has a nice article by Barbara Pleasant on Container Gardening. July 5, at 1: Hi my family and I are going to be picking our acreage from Homestead crossing in a couple of months. We have a three year old and 18 month old.

The land we are looking at is in Missouri. Do you know about any resources in the area around Salem or Jadwin?

10 ways to make money on your land | Backwoods Home Magazine

We do not have much for money at all and will have to start everything in September or October. Please any help will be appreciated. With two small kids, its the best and worst time to start doing this.

The Missouri Department of Agriculture appears to have some good resources on their website: This might be a good place to connect with local food providers who in turn could connect you with other resources you need.

July 6, at 7: Thank you we will even be building our house from scratch so any point in the right direction helps!! July 6, at Have you checked out the Green Home section of the site?

26 Ways to Make Money From Your Small Farm | ToughNickel

I need to get back to writing more in that content area. Not enough hours in the day! April 23, at 9: Did you make the move to Jadwin or Salem. I live in Salem. We go trail riding on the current river close to Mountauk every weekend.

A horse camp called PineCrest. November 8, at 7: You have a new follower. Love the content… high quality and I will refer your site to friends. Thanks for doing a great job. November 8, at Welcome, Frankie, and thank you. With facebook showing our content to so few people, it makes it tougher than ever to let people know about the website, so I appreciate your referrals.

November 10, at 9: I love your site! I just found this through the blendtec giveaway on the Delicious Obsessions site. November 10, at November 11, at Feel lucky found your site from the Epic DIY Kitchen Giveaway on Delicious Obsession site and it is great. So is this giveaway thanks. November 13, at Oh My…You have so much wonderful information here. I am going to be here for days and days reading and absorbing all of it. We should never stop learning.

November 13, at 1: November 15, at 9: November 15, at December 17, at We are getting our food sources and storage going and building our own solar and wind power. How do I get the free copy of your e-book on homesteading. I signed up on your site. Many thanks and awaiting your reply. December 18, at December 27, at 8: I am loving this site and all the info here. Thanks for sharing it! December 27, at The download link shows up when you subscribed, but sometimes people miss it. January 3, at I subscribed to the weekly newsletter and got the link to download the free eBook Common Sense Homesteading but there was an error in download!

January 3, at 2: January 8, at I subscribed to weekly newsletter but cannot find link to e book. I am so delighted to find your site. January 30, at 3: Can you point me to where I need to go? January 30, at 8: February 15, at 8: February 16, at March 27, at March 27, at 1: September 7, at 3: I would like to take the course of Permaculture Student but find I cannot get the audio part of the video.

Can you give me some direction? September 7, at September 15, at 7: You have done an amazing job of researching all the growing, culinary, and medicinal benefits.

Homesteading - What the Modern Homesteader Needs to Know

A great summary, thank you! September 15, at Your email address will not be published. Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting. Common Sense Homesteading Using sound judgment to be more self-reliant.

Posts may contain affiliate links, which allow me to earn a commission to support the site at no extra cost to you. Homesteading — What the Modern Homesteader Needs to Know Contents What is Homesteading? Gardening Food Storage Home Remedies and Natural Health Homestead Animals Solar and Sustainable Living Preparedness Recipes and Kitchen Tips Herbs and Wildcrafting General Homesteading.

View our full list of over 70 gardening posts. View all food preservation recipes. Comments Anne Barnett says April 21, at 2: Just found your site today. Different name, same type of bottle. Love your site, so many of your articles are helping me whip my garden into shape! Thank you for sharing all your information. Welcome to the site. What a great resource! So glad I happened upon your site!

Homegrown tastes completely different and better than store bought in most cases. Welcome, Heather, and good luck on the giveaway! We are trying to be more self reliant. Thank for all the articles and tips. It can be a lifelong journey, but a good one. Many talk, few do! This site is awesome—you go girl!!

More good things to come! I am so sad that I just discovered Weekly Weeder, will you re-run next year? Is there any way to get a pdf of all 49 of them? Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published.