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 […]

You’d like to finance your new lot of land, but as you’re well aware, you can’t grow money. There aren’t seeds for that kind of crop. You need a practical way to secure funding, and it isn’t always straightforward if you’re unfamiliar with the process. In this article, we’ll detail everything you need to know, […]

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 […]

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 […]

I’m getting excited for spring, as we’re about to start hatching season here at Pleasant Valley Farm! Each spring, the poultry help to provide a boost to our income at a time when there are plenty of expenses on the farm. And while I’ve been making a modest income for quite a few years now, […]

Have you heard of Etsy? It is an online marketplace where vendors can sell handmade and/or vintage goods. Selling on Etsy has lots of benefits for us. It has a lot of name recognition and has been around long enough to be a publicly-traded company. Lots of lifestyle magazines feature  products found on the site. […]

The internet is a wonderful tool to advertise your homemade products. Whether you have your own website, sell through social media or online classifieds, or run a shop through a site like eBay or Etsy, making the sale is only part of the process. You still need to find the best way to get the […]

Live Below Your Means Shared From MOTHER EARTH NEWS  Written By: Joel Salatin Nothing stimulates creativity and motivation like being poor and hungry do. Teresa and I had limited financial resources — and I’m grateful for that. We both came from frugal families who always lived a little below their means. If every generation spends a little […]

How 6 Tomato Plants Accidentally Grew into a Booming Business Shared From MOTHER EARTH NEWS  Written by: Mort Mather I never wanted to garden for money . . . honest. Some are born into the gardening business, others have it thrust upon them. I only intended to grow what I needed. My family had just moved to […]