Category Archives: How-To

Fresh Herbs – Healthy Option within Your Reach

Upon searching the internet you sure can find so many options for taking steps to help ourselves to better health.  But how do we know what works and what doesn’t? Sometimes we just have to try some things, but I’ve found it’s best to find a good resource.   

Shoshanna at the www.bulkherbstore.com is one great resource for natural healthy herbal solutions from improving your health to improving your recipes for cooking.  I’ve used the arrowroot powder as a thickener when making real ice cream! Some of the other herbs I’ve used as teas to calm myself after an intense day of work, and others to improve my cooking recipes, and even others just as great soothing teas. Over a year ago I interviewed Shoshanna and her mom on my radio show Beyond Sustainable and learned so much about the use of herbs, and of course about how they carefully select and purchase their products to sell to the public. 

 The reason I decided to share this info with you today was because I received their catalog in the mail and read the article about making my own tinctures. I really didn’t realize how easy it was. And there are lots of how-to’s on their site and in the catalog.   Here’s a looksee onto their site… Isn’t this just inviting… Thanks Shoshanna for all you do!


Increasing Humidity in the Winter

As a kid, I remember my dad filling the tank for the humidifier in the utility room. It didn’t smell all that good… blew out COLD air and was very noisy! I never understood the need for the humidifier until I was much older and in my own home. I was puzzled by the amount of static electricity I could create and wondered why my skin was so dry!

Our Chino Valley home had a wood stove and we used an old bread pan on the top of it to keep moisture in the air. I’d fill that pan several times a day, sometimes hourly, to keep enough moisture in the house. Now that we’re on the new homestead in Wisconsin, we have a humidifier built right into the duct work of the furnace. The furnace was already configured this way when we purchased the home and we’re very pleased with the lack of static in the air!

For those looking for a way to add humidity to their home that doesn’t involve plumbing and drainage to the furnace room, we have brought in a few new items to get you through the cold winter months…

 The Ultrasonic Digital Humidifier will run for 120 hours on a single tank of water when set to low using cool mist humidity.

This little unit will set to warm or cool mist and has a variable speed fan to adjust the amount of humidity you need in the air. This certainly isn’t my dad’s old humidifier with the big spinning filter belt and fan on the back!

We also added a less expensive 55 hour model as well as some very neat air purifiers. These items are located in our Healthy Home section on the site.

We’ve had quite a few requests for humidifiers and it’s an item that I never think of when looking for products for a homesteading store… but I have to say that it makes perfect sense to have a source of moisture whether you live in the city or the country!

I hope you enjoy your day and keep warm in this cold snap!

Happy Homesteading!!!!

Dealing With Ice Dams On The Roof


A few weeks ago, we were in the path of winter storm Draco. Our new little homestead was hit with 18 + inches of snow in a twenty four hour period. We spent all day the first day barely keeping up with the falling snow as far as driveways and access paths to the barn and pastures. We started the snow blower up at about 9 a.m. and finally went in to eat soup at about 6 p.m. that night. This photo is after the first 8 inches fell and was phase one of snow removal. The snow was a wet and heavy snow… with rain falling about mid day. Cookie and Do spent most of these two days in the barn. We had several extra barrels filled with water in their stalls just in case the electricity went out and the well couldn’t feed their automatic watering unit. We felt very prepared, knowing this storm was set to hit our area of Wisconsin especially hard. We had hay stacked up in the barn and plenty of supplies stocked to get through some time not knowing how snow removal would be up here on the ridge.

The planning and preparation were well worth the time! We were only snow bound for two days and never did lose electricity for more than a few fleeting seconds. Everyone did great. The horse’s blanket was soaked after the heavy wet snow, so we took it into the heated garage and draped it over some saw horses – by dinner time it was dry and ready for the single digit night time temps that were predicted for that evening.

The one thing we didn’t think of was how wet all of that snow was on the roof. Temps dropped so fast that night that by the next day the snow on the ground was light and fluffy. It was a week or so after the snow that we noticed the ice dam up on the roof of the house.  The snow on the shingles was so wet that when the temps dropped so quickly, the bottom layer created a thick blanket of ice over the roof.  This can cause all sorts of issues… damage to the shingles, water leaking into the attic space and with wet insulation there is the possibility of mold forming up in the attic space.  After some reading and research we went to Farm and Fleet and purchased a 22′ snow rake.

What a wonderful invention that is!!!

The pole extends to the length needed to remove snow built up on the roof. We set the length of the pole to remove 4′ of snow from the edge of each roof. Once that was done we realized the issue on the cabin. We had an ice dam of about 8″ thick at the edge of the roof line. The garage was just snow, same with the barn, but the cabin had quite the ice dam. The funny part was that it was only on the east side of the house. The west side was just snow and easily pulled down with the snow rake.

We have a spigot on the side of the cabin that is tied into the hot water heater and that was a blessing!!! Yesterday, after the snow was all raked down, we hooked up a hose to that hot water spigot and slowly worked at melting off the ice dam before it took down the gutter or started leaking into the roof of the cabin.

The first thing we had to do was thaw out the down spout, which was frozen solid. it took some time but soon was flowing freely and we were ready to start on melting the dam. The articles we read explained that all is needed is to get some shingle clear so the sun can melt off the rest of the ice. We raked up about four feet and then made sure to have 6″ of shingle completely melted  of ice. We took our time spraying off chunks of ice in about 2 foot sections. I cut through the sections with the hot water and Matt pulled them down carefully with the snow rake.  It was a very WET and cold job, but with insulated bibs and several changes of coats / gloves… I didn’t get too chilled. Be sure to spray the concrete with hot water to get a good grip with the ladder feet… it was slippery a bit until we sprayed down the concrete.

As of today, the snow up on the roof is still there, but what has melted is now flowing down into the gutter properly and draining off without issues.

I’m sure it was just so much snow and so wet that it created a perfect situation to create an ice dam!

Happy homesteading!

If you’d like to see more pictures from the storm… please visit our facebook page… there are tons of photos!
https://www.facebook.com/HomesteaderSupply

 

When A Bull Comes to Visit…

We had to dry Cookie cow off for the move from Arizona to Wisconsin and now that we’re here… we are all going through milk withdrawal! Cookie has had over four months to acclimate and is doing very well. We decided it was time for her to have a friend come and visit. The man we bought hay from has a nice size herd of beef cattle and said he had a few too many bulls now that everyone has bred their cows. He offered to bring a young one over for a few months to visit Cookie in hopes that we’d keep him all winter.
As bulls go… he’s as sweet as can be! That being said… HE IS STILL A BULL! We are very mindful of where he is when we are feeding, mucking stalls and scooping poop in the pasture. We have two paddocks and a cross fence between the arena and the big pasture. If we are doing anything that requires focus… we lock up the bull first.

I wasn’t always so aware of bull behavior. About four years ago I had a bull come to visit the girls and one day when I let them in for milking, he darted in right with them. In the confusion of two hungry cows full of milk and a feisty bull, I was pinned up against a metal gate and couldn’t move out of the way. The bull had stepped on the toe of my boot and I was unable to move my foot at all, let alone get away from his head. Luckily he was naturally polled so he didn’t have the horns with which to skewer me, but he did pound me into that gate a few times before I was able to get a hold of a shovel and thump him in the head to back off! It took some time to heal my lower back from that pounding and I’m thankful it wasn’t a more serious injury. Bulls are necessary for those who choose not to go the artificial insemination route and an ounce of knowledge is worth it’s weight in gold!!!!
When it’s time to breed the cow, don’t be afraid of having a bull come to visit. Instead, I’d urge you to plan ahead. Have pens available to lock the bull into so you can spend time with your cow and clean up without having to have a ‘look out’. Being safe and planning ahead will make the process a fond experience. Now, it’s time for me to go and lock up our visiting bull and clean up some poop!!! Wishing you all a great Sunday.

Happy Homesteading !!!!

Making Cheese for the First Time!

Recently, Jerri was a guest on Wardeh’s podcast with the topic being Cheese Making 101. The event went really well and Wardeh sure enjoys the Ultimate Cheese Press designed and manufactured by Homesteader’s Supply! A few days ago we received the most wonderful email from a participant to the podcast…

“Hi. I was listening to your podcast interview with Wardeh, and heard you say please send pics.

Here is my new cheese press with my first batch of queso fresco made while watching Wardeh’s video. ( easier for me to watch and do than read and do).

This press is amazingly simple to use.  Couldn’t believe made cheese on the first try!  I was even baking bread while I did it–which I found out while listening to the podcast…

Thanks so much for all those wonderful features you highlighted–the easy turning gears, the follower with the notches, the compact simplicity of the design, the beautiful cheese cloth that I just can’t find where I live… The list goes on…  Oh, and another thing–the press washed up so beautifully and easily.  I couldn’t believe it.  Thought I’d be scraping gunk off it.  Nope.  Just rinse and wipe with a sponge.  Great design.

Cindy Landskron
Cottontown (Nashville area), TN  “

We were so excited to get such personal and wonderful feedback from a fellow homesteader and new cheese maker that we just had to share it..  Cindy and her family live about 30 miles from Nashville in farming country and enjoy the self sufficiency that homesteading offers. From the photo’s I’d say that her first attempt at cheese was a great success!!!!

Thank you Cindy for sharing your experience with us and for the wonderful feedback on the press!!!!

Happy Homesteading!!!

Sincerely,

The Folks at Homesteader’s Supply

Are You Prepared Should Disaster Strike????

I’m sitting here watching the coverage of Hurricane Sandy and I’m in awe of the power of this storm! A friend of mine on FaceBook just posted this photo and it gave me some perspective when the weather folks talk about Sandy as compared to Irene… This storm is massive and that’s an understatement!!! I know it’s not expected to hit Wisconsin, but I tell you… it’s got me thinking about being a bit more prepared!!! Do we have oil for the oil lamps??? Do we have enough oil lamps? How about a store of water for the livestock until electricity is restored to run the well? What about a generator to power the well, the freezer full of beef, essentials that need to run until power is restored. What about a snow storm or an ice storm that took out the power in the winter? How would we heat this house without power to run the fans on the furnace or the blower on the gas fireplace? I certainly know it’s time to consider a wood stove to replace the gas insert in the fireplace! So many thoughts are twirling around in my mind. So many thoughts and prayers being sent out to those in the throws of the storm this very evening!

So, what do you have set up for preparedness? Do you have a way to care for your homestead should disaster strike? Whether it is a hurricane, an ice storm or the snow storm of the century… how will you ensure your homestead survives safely???