Torn

Some friends and I were Facebook chatting about the lure of the Homestead. Self-sufficiency. Pride. Good For The Children. But then, there’s indoor plumping. Electricity that you don’t have to generate, or understand. Skors bars. My daughter and I had this conversation as well–how hard it is to live the life that seems appealing when [...]

Read Full Post »

I’m a Grandma!

Yes, i’m just 30 years old and a new grandma…. to a little baby chick! Although we moved away from our Austin homestead in June and had to sell or give away each of our 4 pet hens, we’re luckily still in contact with some of the lovely people who re-homed them, and even get [...]

Read Full Post »

Growing Real Food in the Farmyard

The term “Real Food” definitely applies to the vegetable garden, but here at Tanglewood Farm I’m using this year to try to find ways to grow and preserve more than just our own veggies and fruits. I know this month is our month of gardening posts, however at the core of it, we’re really blogging [...]

Read Full Post »

Harvesting Pork

Warning: To all my vegetarian and vegan friends and otherwise sensitive viewers, this post is probably not for you. There are vivid photos of our experience “harvesting” a hog last November. Please know that I do respect you equally and hold you just as reverently as I do meat eaters! Completely inspired by authors like [...]

Read Full Post »

September Planner

So many of us are working our way toward a more self-sufficient lifestyle. With that in mind we wanted to share some general guidelines of what to plan for on a monthly basis. Whether you’re a gardener, a beekeeper, a forager, or you keep animals, hopefully our monthly guides will help you plan ahead for [...]

Read Full Post »

Homesteading 101 – Livestock on the homestead

One of our first goals when we began this adventure was to produce our own milk and meat.  We had gardened for a while, but we didn’t really feel like we had taken a major step until we could also produce our own milk and meat.  Many folks I talk with list animals at the [...]

Read Full Post »

Homesteading 101 Kitchen Efficiency and Organization

I cook our family’s food from scratch, every day, 365 day a year.  We don’t go out except on very rare special occasions.  I am too cheap and as a vegan to finicky to eat out most places…besides we live in the sticks! As I covered in my last post about food storage.  Being prepared [...]

Read Full Post »

Homesteading 101 Your pantry

Nothing is as essential to being self-sufficient as food production and storage of food.  Today I’m going to touch on some ideas for stocking the basic must have pantry.  My goal in my pantry stocking is to have enough of the staples put up so that in the case of emergency I am set at [...]

Read Full Post »

New Friday Series Starting Next Week – Homesteading 101

Next week we will be starting a new series of posts to fill both an information need that has been expressed and our currently empty Friday writers slot.  The series will be called Homesteading 101.  We will try to explore some of the challenges people face when starting out on a homesteading adventure or when adding new [...]

Read Full Post »