When someone buys a gun for home defense, they tend to fall into one of three categories. These categories are based on the amount of thought an individual puts into their planning. Although you may find yourself falling in between two categories, these distinctions should help you see any improvements you can make in your
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You’ve likely got most things taken care of in the garden and most of your garden tools put away for the winter.  If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to begin thinking about what you want to grow next year! Here are some tips to help you decide what you should grow. On Your Mark: Records For Remembering It’s always a good idea to keep some sort of record as to what did well in your garden from year to year, as well as what didn’t do well. Here are some things
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As a homesteader, you probably have a goal of growing most of your own food. However, the road to self-sufficiency doesn’t appear overnight. Perhaps you started with a small garden with a few tomato plants and a box of lettuce. Later, you expanded your garden to a plot large enough to grow enough food for your summer produce needs. To be truly self-sufficient, though, requires a more intensive approach. Several years ago, my husband was unemployed for an extended period. During this time, we relied mostly on our food storage to feed our family. From
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The first six things I wrote about brought so many new thoughts to my mind that I just had to sit down and write six more. While they may seem like basic common sense, it is easy to overlook one or all of them. I just hope it might nudge someone in the right direction. A Plan Of Action Do you know what you would do if you awoke to find your house on fire? If you live near the coast, do you know your hurricane evacuation route? How about a plan of action for
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While many of us think only of spring as planting time, there is much gardening to be done throughout fall. Officially, fall begins with the autumnal equinox, but a much better description of fall comes from master gardener Paul James: “… fall weather varies from one part of the country to the next. Basically, the ideal period of fall planting is roughly six weeks before the first hard frost …” That being said, the period of “fall” planting may actually begin in late summer, but in general, “the window of opportunity for most folks is
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“Plan your work for today and every day, then work your plan.” Norman Vincent Peale When I was in junior high school, one of my closest friend’s fathers decided to surprise his wife with homemade fried chicken. His kids had never seen fried chicken made at home so they volunteered to help. He and the
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Whether you’re just starting to think about planting a garden or a veteran of many seasons, it never hurts to return to the basics for a refresher. Gardening is possible just about anywhere there is a plot of ground that gets full sun for four or more hours daily. Even if that ground is covered with asphalt or cement, a beautiful garden is possible, so we are going to start at the beginning and discuss what is needed to have the best garden you can, regardless of where you plan to put it. Planning Your
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July and August are the glory days of the summer vegetable garden. Your tomato vines are probably waist-high and heavy with fruit. The green beans need daily picking, and your zucchini and summer squash are going like gangbusters. Then September comes and the garden starts to wane. By October, things are definitely winding down, and the first fall frost shuts down the entire production for the year. If you find yourself feeling melancholy as fall approaches, take heart. With a little planning, you can have home-grown vegetables well into late fall and early winter. Of
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My husband and I began envisioning ourselves in a prepper lifestyle at a point in our lives that looking back, turned out to be the height of our careers. Always knowing we wanted to get out of the rat race of corporate America, and Big Pharma in particular, we planned very carefully. Timing and enough money saved were as important as where we would do this and how it would look when there was no more “corporate sponsorship” coming in. I think we did a great job of planning, and although it turned out that
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Teaching one child at home while running the household, keeping a budget, and taking care of everyone’s needs is not easy. Homeschooling more than one child at different grade levels turns the difficulty up several notches. Homeschooling any number of children successfully requires patience, planning, and a lot of knowledge and research. It is not a task to be taken lightly, but if you are already doing it, you know that the reward is worth all the work. So how do you tackle the impressive job of single-handedly educating two or more children of different
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