Search Results for: blog what is homesteading

Homeschool Blog Focus: Brighton Park

  Brighton Park is a 2012 Circle of Moms Top 25 Homeschool blog, a Siemens Top 50 Farm Blog, and was recently featured in the Jan/Dec 2013 issue of Hobby Farm Home Magazine. Meet Katie Katie is the face behind Brighton Park.   Katie is a pediatric speech language pathologist.  Her homeschool curriculum is a hybrid of Catholic/Waldorf, or as her kids call it “Crafty Catholic”. She is a mom of five beautiful children, including twins with special needs. In addition, she is a yoga teacher, crafter, gardener, decorator, and backyard chicken keeper.  She loves inspired homeschooling and artful homemaking. You … Continue reading →

Homesteading Skills to Learn Now

There is currently a movement toward homesteading, in which families go back to learning and practicing the practical skills that our ancestors knew. Cultivating certain homesteading skills can be very valuable, because they can prepare you and your family for living in less modern times, should an emergency or disaster strike. Why not try your hand at learning one or two of the following homesteading skills in the coming year? Gardening Learning basic gardening is an important skill to have. Through it, you can grow some of your own food, an important resource if you find that food become too … Continue reading →

What is Homesteading?

Anyone who is interested in living frugally can learn a lot from those who are living a homesteading life. But what exactly is homesteading, and how can we adapt some of the usual homesteading practices to our frugal lifestyle? Read on for the basics. While homesteading refers to anyone who wants to live a self-sustaining lifestyle and get “back to the land,” there are different degrees of homesteading. Some homesteaders choose to live completely “off of the grid,” providing for their families by raising, growing, making and trading the things they need. Others adapt some homesteading practices but do not … Continue reading →

Summer Camps for Homeschoolers

The school year is almost done, and summer is coming! Families who homeschool might choose to spread their school year throughout the year, or they might choose to take the summer off. However, kids never stop learning, and summer is a wonderful time to take advantage of learning opportunities that appear annually without fail. We call them summer camps, and they come in all shapes and sizes. There are day camps, overnight camps, thematic camps, academic camps, or run around in the woods sorts of camps. There are camps for everyone, but are there camps that suit homeschoolers? What should … Continue reading →

Clever Ideas Around the Home & Yard

Sometimes you have a problem around your home that can be fixed with just a little bit of ingenuity. How many times have we lived with an issue or paid for an expensive solution while wishing for something better? Well, most families are pretty smart and creative about coming up with great ideas. For example, in a previous blog I posted about How I heard that you could use your solar pathway lights for indoor lighting in the case of losing power. There is a magazine that we get called Living The Country Life. (livingthecountrylife.com). It is a magazine devoted … Continue reading →

Finding A Wringer Washer

Okay, so now you know all about using a wringer washer, including the great deal of savings you will get from it. Wringer washers are very popular with homesteaders, as well as with my Amish neighbors. Finding a wringer washer isn’t as easy as heading over to your local department or home improvement store. You can still find wringer washers, but they are starting to become more scarce. This is because of two reasons. First of all, the last new wringer washer was manufactured sometime in 1990, which is 18 years ago. That still mens that there are plenty of … Continue reading →

Using a Wringer Washer

In the previous article, we discussed how an old-fashioned wringer washer can save quite a bit of money, up to $80 a month! If you missed that article, click here: Wringer Washers Save Money. Now, we will talk about exactly how wringer washers work to get the clothes clean. A wringer washer looks like a round tub. It also has a wringer attachment on the top that looks like two rolling pins nestled together in a open frame, sometimes with a crank handle attached. To wash the clothes, you must manually fill the washer with water. You can do this … Continue reading →

Free Land

In the heart of American, towns from far and wide are offering free land for the taking. If you are ready to be a modern day settler, you can snatch up the opportunity to own your own piece of land for absolutely nothing. Many communities welcome the idea of new people moving in. They are offering lots of free land and other incentives in an effort to have people consider becoming part of the town. The goal for these communities is to turn rural areas into town that can be sustained and grow economically. The offers these communities make are … Continue reading →

Save Money on Canning Jars

In an early article, The Frugal Art of Canning, I talked about the money saving benefits of canning your own produce. Now I’ll offer some additional information on being frugal with canning. Although canning supplies are relatively inexpensive, it always pays to get the supplies as inexpensively as possible. You can often find items such as jars, rings, lids, labels and more used. One word of caution, though. it is not recommended that you reuse the lids when canning. There is a danger that they may wear out and not seal as well. Of course, you can still use them … Continue reading →

Real Storage Solutions Using Egg Cartons

Unless your are a homesteader, you probably have an almost endless supply of egg cartons. Why not put them to good use instead of throwing them away? Egg cartons can be used for all sorts of storage solutions. My favorite use for egg cartons has got to be to store small breakable objects. The little cavities where the eggs normally go are perfect to nest things such as Christmas ornaments, delicate jewelry, etc. In the case of jewelry, especially, an easy tip is to grab a shoe-box and insert the bottom of the egg carton into the shoe-box. You can … Continue reading →