Expanding Your Home Outdoors Homesteading requires creativity and ingenuity. In the depths of winter, I often find myself dreaming of days and evenings enjoyed outside. On our homestead, we have discovered opportunities to expand our living spaces by creating private areas outdoors as well as creatively using outbuildings. Wintertime is the perfect time to plan […]

Here in Vermont, trees are starting to come out of their winter hibernation as their sap starts to flow from the roots on warmer spring days. The trees stored the sap during the shortened days of autumn. In the early spring, the sap occasionally travels from the roots to the leaf buds awaiting to unfurl. […]

While homesteaders enjoy farming and may make a living off of it, there are ways you can rent out your property to earn extra cash. Homesteaders are starting to make their way into the world of weddings for this very reason. There will always be a demand for wedding locations, so if you feel like […]

Help Your Chickens Thrive This Winter Most breeds of chickens are hardy animals. Just like songbirds, they have feathers and a voracious appetite to help keep them warm when the temperatures drop. On our homestead, we choose to raise breeds that are hardy, good layers, and good mothers. Two breeds that we found represent these […]

Healthy Chickens=Healthy Profits Healthy chickens result from careful planning. Your happy hens will lay eggs regularly which you can turn around and sell for profit. Following are the practices we implement in our flock to encourage optimal health in order to produce the most amount of eggs. Ways to save money It can be easy […]

You don’t have to own a 100-acre piece of land to make an income from farm life. Below are 10 ideas on how to make money on a small piece of land. If you combine several of these, you can keep a steady income coming through your farm.   A word of advice:   Don’t […]

I’m very fortunate to live on a beautiful property that has been farmed continuously since just after the Revolutionary War. We tend 50 acres and have a barn that dates to 1894 as well as numerous outbuildings. For those trying to homestead on just a few acres (or less!), this may seem like plenty of […]

Our farm is horse powered. We don’t own or desire a tractor. We plow the fields, cultivate crops, make hay and more with the help of a mother-daughter team of Belgian draft mares, Dixie and Dolly, who were both born right here on the farm and trained by my husband. While an unusual choice for […]

From June to August, Ben and I participate in a local Farmers Market called Downtown Rising in Plattsburgh, NY. As some of you may know, a lot goes into a Farmers Market. Generally the week before is the time to make and prep new products for the following weekend. Friday evening can be a late […]

Honor System Stands One of the challenges that many homesteaders face is that they are not self sufficient enough to quit their day job. This can make it difficult if you have a product to sell at your farm location. You can’t be two places at once unfortunately. I know…I’ve tried. For many homesteaders, their […]