HomesteadEditor

Pangs of Rural Entrepreneurship Written By: Oz Girl, Grit Blogger Many of us dream of a home business where we can sit at our computer in our pajamas and slippers telecommuting with our job or even better, growing our own home business. Self-satisfaction is high on the list of goals when starting a home business. Not […]

Forming a Community Tool Co-Op Written By: Dave Wortman, MOTHER EARTH NEWS Blogger There’s nothing like having just the right tools to help make your projects go smoothly. But, tools can be a big investment for homeowners. When money is tight, tool costs can make or break a project. And often, we only need that […]

Homestead Legalities Written By: Tasha Greer , MOTHER EARTH NEWS Blogger When I first started homesteading, I lived in a master planned city just outside Washington DC. It had many environmental and community well-being programs such as being walkable, maintaining a large nature preserve, re-wilding wetlands, lots of parks and community spaces, and free electric […]

Small-Scale Medicinal Herb Farming Success Written By: Susanna Raeven, MOTHER EARTH NEWS Blogger It’s been quite a ride and it is still going at a high speed. From the moment of realization that the world of healing herbs was calling me, to my first herbal class, to running a small-scale herb farm that grows medicinal herbs with […]

Services to Offer Shared From MOTHER EARTH NEWS  Written By: MOTHER EARTH NEWS editors BRING ON THE CUSTOMERS  Our first few queries were, naturally enough, from potential customers . . . but we soon turned most of them into repeat visitors by dealing with each one on a personal basis. We told them who we were and what […]

In the Beginning Shared From MOTHER EARTH NEWS  Written By: MOTHER EARTH NEWS editors A few years back I suddenly found myself without a job. However, what could have been a disastrous—or, at the very least, unpleasant situation—actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. You see, once we were faced with the prospect of not having […]

The Business of Mowing Shared From MOTHER EARTH NEWS  Written By: Alden Stahr Setting Your Mowing Business Rates You’ll need to establish some sort of fee schedule before you begin your first job. Start by inquiring about the prevailing charges for lawn-mowing in your locality. When I bought our first John Deere tractor, I asked the […]

Smoking for Dollars: Profit Shared From MOTHER EARTH NEWS  Written By: Buck Taylor All right. You’ve chatted with fish dealers, checked out locations, given it some careful thought, and decided you just may want to try your hand at selling smoked fish. Great! Now you’re probably wondering – and rightly so—what kind of money a person can really, […]

\Chimney Sweeps Sweep Up Cash Shared From MOTHER EARTH NEWS  Written By: MOTHER EARTH NEWS editors Chimney Problems Open Up One Heck of a Business Opportunity We can draw at least three conclusions from this short history lesson: [1] Since it now seems obvious that the “convenient” ways of heating a house — with natural gas, […]

A Nice Little Concrete Business Shared From MOTHER EARTH NEWS  Written By: Henry C. Horstig There are many alternative ways of earning some bread without getting into the 9-to-5 ratrace. A concrete business contracting small-scale concrete repairs is one that any able-bodied man can start with less than a $5.00 investment and — with a little […]