#Weeding the Pumpkin Patch; Housekeeping

[josephkitchen0]

10 Homesteading Blogs That Inspire and Educate

Are you on the hunt for helpful homesteading blogs? You’re in luck. The Countryside Network features some of the most influential homesteading bloggers today. You’ll hear from these knowledgeable bloggers (and many more!) on our site daily.

These modern homesteaders also share their personal experiences on their own websites.

Check them out below.

10 Homesteading Blogs We Love

Lisa Steele of Fresh Eggs Daily With an audience that spans the globe, Lisa is well recognized as the creative force behind Fresh Eggs Daily, a popular homesteading blog for natural chicken and duck keeping. A fifth-generation chicken keeper who has been around chickens most of her life, Lisa has been raising her own backyard chickens since 2009 and sharing her chicken farming adventures. Lisa is an aspiring herbalist dedicated to raising her own animals as naturally as possible. She offers practical, natural advice for raising chickens using herbs, and other holistic preventives and remedies. In addition to chicken keeping tips, Lisa shares DIY projects for the chicken coop and run using repurposed materials, natural household and personal products, gardening ideas, and recipes using fresh eggs, vegetables and herbs. Lisa is the author of Fresh Eggs Daily and Duck Eggs Daily.

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  Janet Garman of Timber Creek Farm If you are looking for encouragement while starting your homesteading journey, Timber Creek Farm is the homesteading blog for you. Janet and her family raise vegetables for their own table as well as animals for fiber, eggs, meat and companionship. Their goal is small-scale farming with a goal of sustainable living — wasting less and being more self sufficient. Follow along for glimpses into their love of tractors, photography, recipes, and family farm dogs and cats. Learn about raising chickens, ducks, dairy goats, sheep and whoever else needs a home from Janet and Timber Creek Farm. Janet is the author of Chickens From Scratch.

Pam Freeman of Pam’s Backyard Chickens A gift of four Silver Laced Wyandotte chicks from the Easter bunny started Pam’s backyard flock. Since then, Pam has enjoyed raising a variety of chicken breeds and even a few roosters. As a journalist by trade, it was second nature for Pam to write about her experiences with chickens and poultry, herb gardening, gardening for nature and life in the country. She started Pam’s Backyard Chickens as a way to share her experiences and connect to the poultry community. And, as the digital content coordinator for Backyard Poultry and Countryside, Pam has a great time working with a passionate group of contributors and editors to bring the print magazines to life online and create a community where we can stay in touch and learn from each other. Pam is the author of Backyard Chickens: Beyond the Basics.

DaNelle of Weed ’em and Reap DaNelle is a self-proclaimed “wanna-be farm girl who convinced her husband to buy goats.” One day she decided her life wouldn’t be complete without a farm, despite the fact that she was battling a chronic illness. She “lovingly persuaded” her husband to buy some land and create an urban farm in Phoenix, AZ on just one acre. Together with their children, DaNelle and her husband are living the dream milkin’ goats, raisin’ lambs, chasin’ chickens, and growin’ all sorts of stuff in our garden. Follow DaNelle for down-home advice with a humorous twist (think goat Cross-Fit). She’s a wonderful resource for anyone interested in living the homestead dream in an urban environment.

Rusty Burlew of HoneyBeeSuite Rusty is a master beekeeper living in western Washington. She has been interested in bees since she was a child in Pennsylvania where, every spring, her grandfather took me on long woodland hikes along Fishing Creek in Columbia County to visit the “bee trees.” These gnarly behemoths were abuzz with activity and vibrated with the sound of industry. The bees seemed to “arrive” as soon as the weather warmed, and — with no human intervention whatsoever — set up housekeeping and kept the local farmers in apples, cherries, cucumbers, and pumpkins. Honey Bee Suite is dedicated to honey bees, beekeeping, wild bees, other pollinators, and pollination ecology. It is designed to be informative and fun, but also to remind readers that pollinators throughout the world are endangered. Although they may seem small and insignificant, pollinators are vital to anyone who eats.

Rhonda Crank of The Farmer’s Lamp Rhonda is a Southern farm girl transplanted to the wilderness of Northern Idaho. Rhonda shares old-timey, down to earth, common sense knowledge and experience for homesteading today, while striving to offer encouragement, direction, and strength to anyone interested in self-sufficient farm living. Rhonda loves going barefoot in the garden, working with animals, and all things farming. Rhonda lives as close to nature as is possible in a modern world. She uses organic, non-GMO practices based on the wisdom and skills of her grandparents, with a little modern ingenuity mixed in. Rhonda’s family has always been attached to the self-sufficient lifestyle of a farmer.

Jeremy Chartier of Flock Answers Jeremy is focused on helping the backyard chicken keepers and rural homesteaders of the world through his work with Countryside Network and through his homesteading blog. Jeremy Chartier started his foray into the world of farming at the age of 12, and has never looked back. Growing up in rural Northeast Connecticut, Jeremy was raised on a small homestead with tractors, trucks and farm animals being part of everyday life. Jeremy spent his early years exhibiting goats and chickens in 4-H, along with shadowing his father while building barns and chicken coops, fixing tractors, and creating cool contraptions out of scrap metal or spare parts. Jeremy learned the skills of a self-reliant farmer such as welding, mechanical repair, fabrication, fence and gate installation, hydraulic systems, how to operate common farm equipment and a myriad of other useful things. Needless to say, he’s been driving a tractor since he could reach the pedals.

Rita Heikenfeld of  About Eating and In the Garden Rita Heikenfeld is a CCP (Certified Culinary Professional) and CMH (Certified Modern Herbalist), an award-winning syndicated journalist, inductee into Escoffier Hall of Fame, President’s Medal ACF, Appalachian herbal scholar, accredited family herbalist, author, cooking teacher, media personality and the founding editor of About Eating. Rita lives “in the sticks” outside of Batavia, Ohio near Cincinnati with her family, where they heat with wood, raise chickens for eggs, and grow their own produce and herbs.

Erin Phillips of Phillips Farm Erin is a teacher by trade but has always found joy in making things with her hands. She comes from a long line of gardeners. Her grandmother had a tiny city lot in Cleveland where she utilized every square inch of land to grow something edible: pears, currants, tomatoes, peppers, apples and��melons. Some of Erin’s fondest memories of visiting her grandmothers as a child include steaming pies and choosing which cans to take home with us from her cellar. When the Phillips settled into their new home on four acres in Batavia, Erin decided she wanted to continue the legacy in her own way, by growing and making food to share this feeling of home with others. She makes everything she sells in her own kitchen.

Angi Schneider of Schneider Peeps Angi and her “peeps” recently moved into an older home on 1.5 acres in south Texas. They are in the process of turning this small patch of earth into something that can supply many of their needs for years to come (that includes gardens, fruit trees, chickens and bees so far.) They’re also turning this house into a home (that includes sewing, cooking, home decorating and homeschooling). This homesteading blog is Angi’s attempt to help chronicle their family’s days, share information about things they enjoy and are learning about, and encourage others to try new things.

What are your favorite homesteading blogs? Leave your suggestions in the comments!

Originally published in 2016 and regularly vetted for accuracy.

  10 Homesteading Blogs That Inspire and Educate was originally posted by All About Chickens

[erraticprojectjunkie]

Currently: October 18, 2017

Yep. Usually Currently posts are slated for Sundays. But...when have I ever been one to follow the rules (even if they are my own)? I skipped out on topics for Top Ten Tuesday and Top 5 Wednesday this week partially because they just didn't grab me and partially because the Boy and I have both been fairly under the weather for about a week. I have been a serious slug. So...partially because I didn't do this post on Sunday and partially because there is a HUGE readathon event going on this weekend, I'm posting a Currently post in the middle of the week. And because...hey...why not? Weather:  We are experiencing fairly nice fall weather this week. Word is that it will be our last one before the snow starts flying. Yeesh. Time goes by too quickly. (Additionally, I would be totally okay if the snow holds off for a bit longer.) Today it was pretty and sunny out. It stayed in the low 60s with a soft little breeze. Not too bad if you're out in jeans and a hoodie. I went out briefly when one of the pigs was threatening to escape. Other than that, I've been holed up in the house with this ridiculous cold. The sun, however, beamed pretty strongly into our southern facing windows, so it was a nice and toasty 78 in here. You'd think it was late August. I had to open a few windows to cool it down a bit. Seems like such an odd thing to do in northern Minnesota in mid-October. Watching: It took us two nights due to a cranky and sick baby and honestly not feeling so chipper ourselves, but we had a relaxing couch viewing of The Age of Adaline on Amazon. I'd been wanting to watch it for quite a while and, though I wasn't originally sure how it would go, turns out we both enjoyed it. It was nice to just unwind for a few minutes while still doing something together. Reading: I have a teensy, tiny bit of The Lauras left to read. I'm mulling over my opinion about it...we'll have to see how it wraps up. Meanwhile, I have about five (!) pages of notes on it. Apparently I'm getting a bit better about keeping a book journal. Once I finish The Lauras, it's time to get (finally) started on Slade House. It took forever for it to show up in the mail and I'm already missing out on group discussion for RIP XII. Gah! Now I have to be careful to avoid spoilers. With any luck, I'll have enough readathon time to wrap it up this weekend and get back into the RIP swing. Listening: I flipped on my Spotify yesterday while I was getting ready. I had the Boy in the bathroom with me and he was feeling a bit off, so I wanted something to soothe him. The playlist of choice? Nothing fancy...really just some Beatles tunes with a bit of solo John Lennon thrown in. It was a nice change to have some music filling the air while we got set for the day. While I won't be doing it every day, it is definitely something that can liven up an otherwise slow or painful morning. Learning: I am devouring the web for ideas on how to finally put together my own bullet journal. I've been contemplating starting one for a long while now, but just haven't gotten my guts up. I have all of the supplies: some great notebooks, some good pens, a pack of twistable colored pencils...I've just let myself get held back by the fear of imperfection. Ha. As if I would ever be fully satisfied with any form of bullet journal I managed to create. I have a feeling that I will still feel the pull towards a notebook that I can add to and remove pages from, we'll see how I do with my first foray. I will admit that I'm a bit put off by the fact that I'm starting it at a super odd time of the year, so it won't be a January - December thing, but honestly...I'm always going to look for an excuse, so it's going to be time to just jump in. Making: I'm super dragging my feet on finishing up my canning. Pathetic. I have a small pile of pumpkins, a butternut squash, and a few acorn squash sitting on the step just waiting to be processed. I also have yet to pull my carrots. It's going to have to happen in the next two days. This stuff needs to be done, dang it! It's not really "making" anything...more like getting rid of something, but I've been working on weeding through my saved Facebook posts and the pile of Pinterest emails that I have accumulated over the last few months. Holy crap, it takes forever! It does feel somewhat accomplishing to hit that unsave or delete option though. Thinking/Feeling: To be blunt, I feel like garbage. This cold is killing me. It's been nearly a week and I just feel drained. My head is pounding and my body is super achy. I have a ridiculous cough and every once in a while my nose decides to start running like a faucet. The Boy isn't his chipper self either. He's been waking up between 6 and 7 times a night because he's honestly just so miserable. Between getting up with him and being stuck awake because of my own incessant coughing, I've been averaging about 2 hours of sleep a night. Not the best when you have a cold. Luckily, his fever has subsided. Mine seems to be making intermittent returns, though of a less intense nature each time. I really hope that we're nearly fully on the mend by this weekend. It would be great if we both felt somewhat normal tomorrow since I have some plans for us, darn it. I'm also feeling some serious anticipation for the weekend. The 10th Anniversary run of Dewey's 24 hour Readathon is this weekend. For my time zone (Central US), it starts at 7am on Saturday and runs through 7am on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to it. It's one of my favorite readathons. I probably won't read through the whole 24 hours, instead treating it a bit more like the 24 in 48 readathon and reading as much as I can for all of Saturday and Sunday. It's just the way the cookie crumbles when Gary has to work all weekend and the Boy and I are running this show together. The good news is that I will have myself a bit of a readathon partner, so there will be some children's books thrown in the mix to break up my own reading. Wanting/Needing: A maid? Can I just put that out there? I really hate having strangers in my house. Even more so, ones that will judge my cleanliness or lack thereof. But after a week of not feeling up to things, I could super use a one day housekeeper to just put things back together. If they could also repair the dishwasher that currently refuses to close, that would be even better. You never realize how ridiculously fantastic it is to have a machine that cleans and dries all of the darned pots and pans and eight thousand cups and spoons until you don't. Loving: My best buddy right now is orange Gatorade. It's my go to when I'm not feeling right. It may be total crap for my teeth, but at least I'm staying hydrated, right? While I'm not thrilled that he feels miserable and is definitely more whiny and less happy than usual, it's nice to know that the Boy still wants to snuggle up. I'm the one he wants to hang out with. The clinginess makes it hard to get things done, but he's so stinking cute. And he tries so hard to be himself. He's a really good boy and I'm super lucky.  Planning: All the things. Let's see... I'm hoping to go with my little family to a pumpkin patch tomorrow. We'll see how the weather is and how everyone is feeling. It would be nice to get some more fall pictures of B. I also need to make a Costco run. I have a box of requested goodies for a birthday that can only be purchased in this area of the nation and need to be shipped back to Idaho next week. That is big, important, top priority stuff. Besides...this gives me an excuse to buy Costco candy for this week's readathon. I'm really hoping to get my bullet journal off the ground in the next week or two. Is it sad that I have to plan my planner before I can make my planner? I swear, sometimes I'm a raging disaster. And OF COURSE I'm planning on taking part in Dewey's 24-hour Readathon! I'll post a prep post a bit before start time (probably the night before) that will spell out all of my plans for the weekend. I'm still working out the details on how I'm going to manage my time and what books (and even more importantly, snacks) will be on the agenda. If you're a reader (even if you can only participate for an hour or two), go on over and check it out. Join in on the fun! I promise...this is a good one. What about you? What does your "Currently" look like? This post originally appeared on Erratic Project Junkie and is copyrighted by Elle. Find EPJ on Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads