Illness and disease in animals can be very serious. If you keep animals on your small farm or homestead, you are responsible for keeping them well, both for their sake and your family’s. Your animals are a part of your lifestyle. Depending on what animals you keep, they may provide you with milk, eggs, meat, wool, or protection. The animals need you to survive and thrive, and in turn, you need them to meet some of your basic needs. Your animals can’t talk to you and tell you that they don’t feel well. This means
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Finding shelter in an urban environment actually gives you the advantage over shelter in a wilderness environment. Shelter is one of the most important parts about survival, as it will keep you warm in the cold, cool in the heat, dry in the rain, and free from unfriendly guests. Having a good shelter is important for your psychological well being. With a shelter, you can call that area “your own space” for a period of time. In addition to that, clothing is somewhat a part of the shelter category, as good clothing is like a
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For some homesteaders, preparing chickens for spring is as easy as throwing open the barn doors and letting them run. However, there are a lot of little things that go into getting things ready for your chickens to make the most out of your flock. Spring Chickens Nothing says renewal of life quite like a barnyard full of fluffy little chickens running about. Chicks are adorable and a lot of fun to watch. Spring is the time for baby chicks, but they are quite vulnerable, and you can do a lot to make sure they
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Spring is a time of birth around a homestead—baby lambs, calves, foals, kids, chicks and a whole lot more. It is also a time of rebirth of things not so nice: weeds and poisonous plants. There are a lot of plants you should keep an eye out for when you begin your homesteading venture so your animals are not exposed to anything that will hurt or kill them, but even when you think you have it all under control, spring can bring back the plants you thought you were rid of. Here are the top
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Sadly, the world is not a perfect place.  Because of this fact, there are many people who do bad things to their neighbors.  It is important to keep yourself well defended against such people.  First, you must keep your loved ones and you safe from unfriendly visitors.  Second, this is a check against malicious behavior.  Thieves, murderers, and rapists must know that not everyone will submit and be a victim; someone will stand up.  Thus, in society, responsible citizen defense is critical for maintaining order.  This is one aspect that is at a disadvantage for
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In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a coalition of Muslim states in northern Africa (Tunis, Algeria, Morocco, and Tripoli) carried out a sustained military campaign directed against the Christian nations of western Europe, specifically England, Spain, France, and Denmark. Essentially, this conflict was a continuation of a struggle that had originated in the days of the Crusades, and the Barbary Powers, as the Muslim nations were called, were determined to avenge past outrages against their faith. Unfortunately, American merchant vessels sailing the Atlantic were frequently caught in the crossfire of this conflict. Seeing
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Many of you might be quite concerned about protecting the property that matters most to you: your home.  Your home is where you keep your possessions, it is where your family sleeps, and it should always been seen as a safe place to go.  Of course, if you live in an area with a high crime rate or you are simply worried about future events, then you will want to do your best to protect your home. Now, mainstream thought will say that you should just buy yourself a security system.  However, if you are
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Many of us are saying “Good Riddance” to 2011 – but it’s not at all clear what 2012 has in store for us. Predictions are all over the map. Sometimes it seems as though analysts are determined to make the future better by predicting it will be so, even if the odds are slim. On the other end of the spectrum are those who predict that economics won’t matter, since the world is going to end in 2012. In the end, it’s up to you to be prepared for all eventualities. However, here’s a roundup
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While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should be concerned with protecting us from the greedy agribusiness interests that are responsible for the rampant contamination of our food supply, this organization has much smaller fish to fry. At the urging of the factory dairy farming industry, the FDA has been carrying out a relentless campaign
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There’s money in politics, even in a down economy. Despite the ongoing U.S. recession, the amount of money spent by candidates running for office hasn’t slowed down. If anything, it seems to be a race for the finish line fueled strictly by campaign contributions, with the candidate who has the most money declared the winner. Depressing and amoral? Perhaps. Unfortunately, the seeds for spending in the 2012 races were planted in the bitter contest of 2008, where the candidates collectively spent more than $1 billion in pursuit of the Oval Office. President Obama won the
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