One important aspect to keep in mind when looking for livestock for homesteading is that animals you choose should be self-sustaining. Once again, chickens top the list of great animals for self-reliance. They are small and take up less space than most meat animals, they produce both meat and eggs, they are easy to feed and require very little in the way of housing, and best of all, they usually breed and reproduce easily and without intervention. Newcomers to the lifestyle are sometimes a little dismayed at the end result of dressing out some of
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Living off the grid is a great choice that families across the world make day in and day out, but not everyone has the opportunity to move to a spacious plot of land and leave the city behind. For those who love the tenets of living off the grid and running self-sufficient households, there are a wide variety of strategies that can be employed in a crowded urban environment to start your home on this path. Don’t fool yourself— it is impossible to transform your city home into a self sufficient, green space overnight. It
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The vulnerability of the power grid is one of the primary motivations for thousands of Americans who have become preppers or opted for a homesteading lifestyle. Secret Garden of Survival-How to Grow a Camouflaged Food-Forest author Rick Austin recently talked about what life would be like after the lights go out with Off The Grid News. Austin’s homesteading advise is designed to help his fellow man not just survive a natural or man-made disaster, but to thrive in the face of adversity. Mainstream media outlets are leading the evening news with a plethora of North
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March 1, 2013 Here I give my list of Top Ten skills for preppers along with in-depth analysis and explanations. 1. Organization 2. Frugality 3. Risk Assessment 4. First Aid 5. Cooking 6. Gardening 7. Food Preservation & Storage 8. Basic Construction & Home Maintenance 9. Communications 10. Interpersonal Skills Previous Video

February 25, 2013 Part Two of a new series showcasing some Homesteading and Pioneer living skills. We recently attended a public festival demonstrating some of these “old school” skills. This second part shows some blacksmithing. Later parts will cover candlemaking, sugar cane and other homesteading/pioneer type skills. In these videos we toured the festival and
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February 22, 2012 Part One of a new series showcasing some Homesteading and Pioneer living skills. We recently attended a public festival demonstrating some of these “old school” skills. In this video we toured the festival and talked with some of the folks demonstrating these skills. With some of these people we had to kind
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January 2, 2012 Follow Mike around his rural Pennsylvania property as he describes the various flora and fauna utilized to help bring him closer to self-sufficiency. Part 2. Previous Video

January 1, 2012 Follow Mike around his rural Pennsylvania property as he describes the various flora and fauna utilized to help bring him closer to self-sufficiency. Part 2. Previous Video

December 31, 2012 Follow Mike around his rural Pennsylvania property as he describes the various flora and fauna utilized to help bring him closer to self-sufficiency. Part 1. Previous Video

December 28, 2012 Here is a video taken of the second year, when I started my garden after working the soil the year before. We have to start somewhere, and this is my start. Previous Video