When the nights get longer in the fall, there is more time to spend dreaming. It's the perfect time of year to pile extra blankets on the bed, get out those warm flannel sheets, and prepare for our winter slumbering. A tradition I enjoy in my house is sewing dream pillows for everyone in the family to slip inside their pillowcase, filled with fragrant herbs to promote restful sleep and peaceful ...
DIY
Roast Your Own! A Do-it-yourself Coffee Tutorial.
For those of us who drink coffee and subscribe to a more self-sufficient philosophy on life, there can be a bit of a dilemma. Coffee grows only in very specific regions, and North America is not one of them. While we cannot grow our own, the good news is that we can still roast our own. Not only is this a rewarding and fun venture, but much like brewing our own beer, it allows full control over ...
DIY Spring Willow Wreath
The beginning of March is a fine time to begin thinking Spring. Around this time, I always like to pack away my winter decor and get out the birds nests, vases of fresh daffodils and budding twigs, and of course, pussy willows. I've made my own evergreen wreaths for the holidays the last few years, and decided to branch out this Spring with a pussy willow wreath for the front door. I went for ...
Make Your Own Glassware Garden Art
Sometimes you just need to look at an old object in a new way, and sometimes you just need a reason to go thrift shopping. I'm always looking for ways to spruce up my garden in the winter when there isn't much to be doing with seeds, vegetables and flowers. My winter gardening skills are still a work in progress, and we haven't had time to build that recycled window greenhouse yet. There is always ...
Fairy House Follies
If gardening isn't fun, then you are doing something wrong. While this may not always be true, like those times that hard work out in the garden is more rewarding and good for you than it is fun, I still do my best. I subscribe to the "play as hard as you work" philosophy in life, and lately I have been taking advantage of any fair winter day that comes along and "working" on building fairy houses ...
Do-It-Yourself Homestead Solar Lanterns
A lack of outdoor lighting and a link posted by a friend on Facebook to these DIY Mason Jar Solar Lights at The Hand Me Down House blog gave me the bright idea to make these easy, inexpensive solar lanterns out of one of my favorite versatile things that I always have in abundance, Mason jars. I had plenty of wide mouthed Mason jars in the cellar, and some wire left from a chicken fencing ...
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors
I love having chickens for neighbors. I really do. But honestly, I do not love having them on my front porch. Having spent countless hours in the past trying to fence chickens in, the approach we took with this homestead was to let them completely free range outside of the fenced in yard and garden in the back of the house. This was working out just fine until our friendly, curious chickens ...
Decking Out the Halls
On these cold, short winter days, I have been keeping busy around the homestead getting it spruced up for the holidays (pun intended) with greenery brought in from the outdoors. Wreaths, swags, garlands and trees are an age old tradition that I thoroughly enjoy participating in every year. Evergreen trees and boughs have a long, rich history in decking the halls, and standing as symbols of life ...
Spring Equinox Eggs
To celebrate the Spring Equinox, my children and I carried out our usual tradition of naturally dyeing eggs. Even in the middle of life's busy shuffle, we managed to fit this in late last night, and I'm glad we did, because they were a cheery thing to wake up to and usher in the turning of the year towards Spring. We have been doing this for several years now, and have our reliable standbys ...
Do-it-yourself Rustic Ladder Kitchen Rack
I am happy to share a project that has been a long time in the works, and has been so enjoyed in it's completion, I haven't even had a down moment to write about it. In fact, I think it's so exciting, I have made it into a little how-to building project post. For those of us folks who spend a lot of time in our kitchens, it is well known that you can never really have too many places to ...