Tag: DIY projects

Missouri Homestead Lifestyle: Ain’t No Place for the Weak

On By The.Daily.ChristianIn Missouri, Missouri Homestead Lifestyle, Missouri PreppersLeave a comment

Let me tell you something straight out of the gate — living on a Missouri homestead ain’t some picnic under the big sky. If you think you’re gonna stroll out here, plant a garden, and sip lemonade while watching the sunset, you’re dead wrong. This life is tough. It’s grit, sweat, and blood, day in and day out. Missouri’s got its charm — fertile soil, rolling hills, four seasons that don’t quit — but it’ll chew you up if you don’t know your business.

Now, before you go dreaming of your rustic cabin and bountiful harvest, listen up. You need to earn this life. No fancy stores, no delivery apps, no running to the corner for a pack of smokes or a gallon of milk. You’re the boss. You’re the farmer, the handyman, the cook, the nurse, and the defender of your patch of earth.

So, here’s what you need to stop whining about and start mastering if you want to survive and thrive on a Missouri homestead.

15 Homestead Skills You’d Better Learn — Fast

  1. Garden Like Your Life Depends on It
    Missouri’s climate means you get a decent growing season, but it’s not forgiving. You better know how to prepare your soil, rotate crops, and fend off pests naturally. Plant hearty vegetables — beans, tomatoes, corn, squash. Learn to save seeds because every seed counts.
  2. Preserve Food to Last Through Winter
    Can, dry, ferment, pickle — if you don’t know how to store your harvest, you’re screwed come January. Missouri winters may be cold, but they’ll starve you faster than a summer drought if you don’t have food stored.
  3. Raise Livestock Like a Pro
    Chickens for eggs, goats for milk, hogs for meat, and maybe a cow if you’re really committed. You better know how to build shelters, feed, and care for these animals. Sick animals don’t wait for the vet to show up; you’ll need to diagnose and treat them yourself.
  4. Basic Carpentry
    Your homestead isn’t a fancy hotel. You’ll be fixing fences, building coops, mending roofs. Nail that board, saw that timber, and don’t half-ass it. Missouri’s weather will tear apart anything shoddily built.
  5. Fence Building and Repair
    Nothing keeps predators or wandering critters out like a good fence. Electric or barbed wire, learn to stretch it tight and keep it upright. A broken fence is an open invitation to disaster.
  6. Water Management
    Know how to find, store, and purify water. Missouri has creeks and springs, but they’re seasonal. Rain barrels, cisterns, wells — make sure you can access clean water every day.
  7. Firewood Splitting and Stacking
    Winter comes, and when it does, you better have wood stacked and ready. Don’t expect to run to a gas station to heat your home. Learn to fell trees safely, split logs, and stack for good airflow.
  8. Herbal Medicine
    You can’t call 911 for every cut, bruise, or stomach ache. Know your herbs — echinacea, yarrow, mint, comfrey — and how to use them. Nature’s medicine is your first aid kit.
  9. Food Foraging
    Wild blackberries, ramps, morel mushrooms — Missouri’s woods and fields are a pantry if you know where to look and how to harvest safely.
  10. Canning and Jar Sealing
    Nothing says homesteader like a pantry full of jars. Learn to water-bath can or pressure can meats and low-acid vegetables. If you mess this up, you risk poisoning yourself and your family.
  11. Basic Plumbing and Electrical Repairs
    Sure, modern homesteads may have power and running water, but outages happen. Fix leaks, patch wiring, and troubleshoot systems. Don’t wait on a stranger to get your lights back on.
  12. Composting and Soil Building
    Healthy soil means healthy crops. Learn to compost kitchen scraps and manure, turn it into black gold, and keep your land fertile without chemicals.
  13. Animal Butchering and Processing
    If you raise animals, you better know how to process them for meat respectfully and efficiently. It’s not pretty, but it’s necessary.
  14. Mechanical Skills
    Tractors, mowers, generators — keep them running, or your life grinds to a halt. Know your machines inside out and keep tools sharp.
  15. Weather Forecasting Without an App
    Cloud formations, wind direction, pressure changes — learn to read the sky and ground. Missouri weather can switch on you fast, from drought to flood in days.

3 DIY Missouri Homestead Hacks You’ll Wish You Knew Yesterday

1. Rain Barrel System with Mosquito Screens
Missouri gets plenty of rain, so don’t waste it. Set up rain barrels with fine mesh screens on top to keep mosquitoes out. Use this water for irrigation and washing — save your well water for drinking. Bonus: position barrels near downspouts and connect multiple barrels with hoses for bigger storage.

2. Solar-Powered Chicken Coop Door
Early mornings in Missouri are brutal — freezing cold or sweltering heat. Build a solar-powered automatic door for your chicken coop. It opens at dawn and closes at dusk, keeping your birds safe from raccoons and opossums without you having to run out in the dark or mud. A cheap timer, small solar panel, and some scrap wood can do the trick.

3. DIY Root Cellar Cooler with Earth and Straw
Missouri summers can get brutal, but your food doesn’t have to spoil. Dig a shallow hole on the north side of your house, build a small wooden box, and insulate it with layers of earth and straw. Use old window panes or shutters for a door. This cool spot keeps veggies crisp without electricity. Perfect for potatoes, carrots, apples — all the staples.

Why Missouri Homesteading Is No Joke

Missouri’s landscape may look soft — rolling hills, river valleys, oak forests — but this land demands respect. Tornado season will blow your fences to hell. Winters will freeze your pipes if you’re careless. Summer humidity breeds bugs and mold that will test your sanity.

But the people who stick it out here — they’re tough as nails. They rise before dawn, face the sweltering sun or freezing cold, and get their hands dirty every single day. You don’t just “homestead” here. You live it, bleed it, and swear to defend it.

If you want to be a real Missouri homesteader, don’t expect kindness or shortcuts. Expect hard work, constant learning, and adapting every season. Master these skills and hacks, and you’ll stand a chance. Ignore them, and this land will swallow you whole.

So quit dreaming, get out there, and do the work. Missouri homesteading is for the strong, the stubborn, and the relentless. And if that’s not you, best find another place to chase your fantasy because this is the real deal.

North Carolina Homestead Lifestyle: A Gritty, No-BS Guide From an Angry Homesteader

On By The.Daily.ChristianIn North Carolina, North Carolina Homestead LifestyleLeave a comment

Listen up, folks! If you think homesteading in North Carolina is all sunshine, sweet tea, and Instagram-perfect farm pics, you’re dead wrong. Out here, it’s sweat, dirt, bugs, and hard-earned grit. You want a life where you grow your own food, build your own shelter, and live off the damn land? Then get ready to work harder than you ever have in your life, because the North Carolina homestead lifestyle is not for the faint-hearted or the lazy.

I’m sick to death of hearing people whine about how hard it is to keep a homestead running. Newsflash: You don’t move to the country to sip lemonade on the porch all day. This is survival and self-sufficiency, and it demands skills, grit, and a hell of a lot of patience.

15 Essential Homestead Skills You’d Better Learn — Fast

  1. Gardening Without Whining
    If you can’t dig a proper garden bed and keep it weeded, you might as well give up now. North Carolina soil can be stubborn, full of clay and rocks, so you better know how to amend it with compost and mulch. Know your planting zones — Southern Appalachians to the Coastal Plain, they all differ!
  2. Raising Chickens Without Losing Your Mind
    Chickens are the lifeblood of any homestead. You need to know how to build a predator-proof coop because coyotes and raccoons don’t give a damn about your fancy plans. Feeding, watering, and collecting eggs? That’s daily labor, not a weekend hobby.
  3. Canning and Preserving
    If you grow it, you better learn how to keep it. North Carolina’s growing season is long, but it ends — and if you haven’t canned, pickled, or froze your produce, you’ll be eating ramen in the dead of winter.
  4. Basic Plumbing Repairs
    Water is life, and your homestead plumbing won’t fix itself. Pipes freeze or leak; pumps break down. If you can’t replace a washer or unclog a pipe, you’re stuck waiting on a plumber — who’s probably hours away.
  5. Firewood Splitting and Stacking
    Winter nights here can get chilly, especially in the mountains. If you don’t know how to chop, split, and properly season firewood, you’re wasting time and money buying propane or worse, freezing.
  6. Basic Carpentry
    You don’t get to complain about a broken fence or a leaky shed if you can’t swing a hammer and saw a board. Fixing your own structures is the difference between a flourishing homestead and a wreck.
  7. Animal Husbandry Beyond Chickens
    Goats, pigs, cattle, bees—each has its own needs. You better learn how to feed, shelter, and treat common ailments because vets in rural NC aren’t coming for every little thing.
  8. Composting
    If you think trashing everything is an option, think again. Composting is essential for enriching your garden soil and keeping waste manageable. It’s basic ecology, people.
  9. Water Catchment and Management
    Whether it’s rain barrels or pond management, you have to know how to collect and store water, especially when summer droughts hit.
  10. Foraging and Wildcrafting
    North Carolina’s woods are full of wild greens, berries, and medicinal plants. Know your poison ivy from your pokeweed and you might just save your own life.
  11. Basic Blacksmithing or Metalwork
    Fixing tools, making hooks, or even shoeing a horse — a little metalworking knowledge saves you from shelling out cash for everything.
  12. Soap and Candle Making
    Nothing fancy, just the basics for cleanliness and light. Store-bought ain’t always an option when the power goes out or stores close.
  13. Seed Saving
    If you don’t save seeds from year to year, you’re enslaved to the seed companies. Learn to identify and preserve your best plants.
  14. Solar Power Setup and Maintenance
    Electricity outages happen. If you’re off-grid or want to be, you need at least a rudimentary understanding of solar panels, batteries, and wiring.
  15. Fence Building and Maintenance
    Predators and livestock escape artists are everywhere. Building and maintaining fences isn’t optional; it’s survival.

3 DIY Homestead Hacks for North Carolina

Hack #1: The “Chicken Tractor” That Works Year-Round
Build a portable chicken coop with wheels (or skis if you must) so you can move your chickens to fresh pasture daily. This reduces parasite loads, fertilizes your garden on the fly, and saves you hauling manure all day. Use reclaimed wood and chicken wire from old fencing — no need to buy new materials every time.

Hack #2: The DIY Rain Barrel System
Don’t pay for fancy rainwater collection systems. Take old 55-gallon food-grade barrels, cut them to fit beneath your downspouts, and rig a simple valve and overflow pipe. This gives you gallons of free water for your garden during the dry spells. Bonus: add a screen to keep mosquitoes out.

Hack #3: Make Your Own Worm Bin
Kitchen scraps piling up? Instead of stinking up your trash, build a simple worm bin out of stacked plastic totes or wood boxes. Worm castings are black gold for your garden, and worms reduce your compost volume drastically. This little system is perfect for year-round composting in NC’s temperate climate.

Why the North Carolina Homestead Lifestyle Isn’t For Everyone

If you want luxury, you’ve got the wrong idea. This is sweat, dirt, and sometimes tears. North Carolina’s climate is a blessing and a curse — humid summers bring pests, rot, and fungus, while winters in the mountains can freeze pipes and freeze your butt off. Every day is a battle against the elements, critters, and sometimes your own exhaustion.

This state’s geography means you’ve got to know your land intimately. Whether you’re in the Piedmont with its rolling hills or the coastal plains with their sandy soils, each region requires different strategies for growing and maintaining. If you think planting tomatoes one way will work everywhere, you’re in for a rude surprise.

And don’t get me started on the neighbors. Out here, some people don’t get the homestead way of life — they want city conveniences, county services, and paved roads right up to their doorstep. Guess what? That’s not homesteading, that’s suburbia.

The Mindset You Need

You need grit, stubbornness, and a willingness to get your hands dirty. Mistakes will happen — crops fail, animals get sick, fences fall down. But you don’t quit. You fix, you rebuild, and you keep going. The homestead lifestyle is about independence, but it’s also about community. Find your tribe, trade skills, share labor — or you’ll drown in work alone.

And if you don’t have time for these 15 skills, don’t bother starting. You’ll burn out faster than a cheap candle on a windy porch. Homesteading in North Carolina demands all you’ve got, every day.

Final Word (Because I’m Fired Up)

So, if you’re thinking about the North Carolina homestead lifestyle, quit dreaming and start doing. Learn your skills, build your tools, get your hands filthy, and embrace the hard work. No one’s handing out free homesteading awards for “Most Instagram Likes.” This life is real, raw, and relentless.

If you want to sit back and enjoy the peace and quiet, fine — just don’t call yourself a homesteader. That title belongs to the fighters, the makers, and the stubborn souls who stare down the challenges of this beautiful, rugged state and say, “I’ll thrive here, or I’ll die trying.”

Now get out there and start building your damn homestead.

Enough Is Enough: The Real North Dakota Homestead Life

On By The.Daily.ChristianIn North Dakota, North Dakota Homestead Lifestyle, North Dakota Survival PreppingLeave a comment

Let me tell you something right now—this lifestyle ain’t for dreamers. This ain’t some Pinterest-fueled fantasy with mason jars full of lavender lemonade and backyard goats wearing flower crowns. This is North Dakota. It’s -30°F in January, the wind will skin your face like a rabbit, and the ground freezes so solid you’d swear God himself bolted it shut. And yet… we homestead.

Why? Because we’re stubborn. Because we’re tired of relying on broken systems, poisoned food, and city folks who wouldn’t last five minutes without a Wi-Fi signal. We do it because we remember what it means to live by our own hands. But let me be crystal clear: if you’re not willing to bust your back and bleed for your freedom, you don’t belong out here.

Skill #1: Firewood Management (aka Survival)

If you don’t know how to cut, split, season, stack, and actually burn firewood efficiently, you’re going to freeze to death. No joke. Out here, we don’t talk about “winter vibes.” We talk about keeping the family alive.

Skill #2: Canning and Preserving

If you’ve never pressure-canned 40 quarts of green beans while sweating in a kitchen hotter than hell’s waiting room, don’t talk to me about food prep. We preserve everything. Tomatoes, pickles, meat, even wild game. Come winter, that pantry is our goldmine.

Skill #3: Raising Chickens (Meat & Eggs)

I hear city people cooing over their “pet hens.” Cute. Out here, chickens are tools. You learn to hatch ‘em, butcher ‘em, and fix ‘em when they’re egg-bound. Otherwise, you’re just feeding predators.

DIY Hack #1: Heated Chicken Waterer

Tired of water freezing solid at 3 a.m.? Here’s a trick: take a metal cookie tin, stuff it with a low-wattage bulb and plug it into a thermostat switch. Place your metal waterer on top. Boom—no more frozen water and no $150 Amazon gadget.

Skill #4: Fermenting Foods

We ferment more than just sourdough and kraut. Ever had fermented carrots with garlic? That’s gut health that’ll knock the antibiotics off your shelf.

Skill #5: Composting (The Right Way)

I don’t care what your gardening book says. If you can’t manage hot compost through a North Dakota fall, you’ll just end up with a frozen pile of raccoon buffet. Layer it right, keep it warm, and keep turning.

Skill #6: Winter Gardening

Yes, winter. With a good cold frame and some guts, you can grow spinach, kale, and carrots under the snow. Anyone who says gardening ends in September has already quit.

Skill #7: Livestock Butchering

This ain’t Whole Foods. You learn to kill, skin, gut, and cut. It’s bloody, it’s heavy, and it’s real. When that steer goes down, you better know what you’re doing, or you’re wasting a whole damn year of feed.

Skill #8: Building Fences That Hold

Not cute split rails. I mean real fences. Cattle panels, T-posts, electric lines. If your fence blows down in a blizzard or your goats escape again, you’re wasting time and money—and losing sleep.

Skill #9: Seed Saving

Who’s going to feed your family when the feed store shuts down? Save those heirloom seeds. Learn to dry ‘em, store ‘em, and germinate like your life depends on it—because it does.

Skill #10: Solar Power Basics

We’re not off-grid because it’s trendy. We’re off-grid because the grid fails. Panels, charge controllers, deep cycle batteries—you better know how to rig a solar system, especially when the power company abandons you in February.

DIY Hack #2: Passive Solar Greenhouse Wall

Line the north interior wall of your greenhouse with black-painted water barrels. They absorb heat during the day and radiate it at night. It’s a poor man’s heater, but it works, and it keeps the greens alive.

Skill #11: Making Tallow and Lard

You ain’t lived until you’ve rendered beef tallow over a wood stove in January. Throw away your Crisco. We cook and preserve with the fat our animals gave us. It’s ancestral, it’s nutritious, and it works.

Skill #12: Water Collection & Storage

If your only plan for water is a rural well pump, you’re asking to suffer. We harvest rain, melt snow, and store in food-grade barrels. Every drop counts when it’s -40° and your lines are frozen solid.

Skill #13: Breadmaking Without a Machine

It’s not “cute” or “rustic.” It’s necessity. Your solar might not run a breadmaker, and the propane might run out. You better be able to make a perfect loaf with nothing but flour, water, salt, a fire, and your two hands.

Skill #14: Making Herbal Remedies

I’ve watched neighbors drive 50 miles for cough syrup. Out here, we make our own. Elderberry syrup, comfrey salve, calendula tincture—we grow our medicine in the backyard, not some CVS shelf.

Skill #15: Hunting and Trapping

If you can’t drop a whitetail in one shot or snare a rabbit in the dead of winter, you’re not homesteading—you’re camping. We fill freezers with game, and we know how to process every bit of it, nose to tail.

DIY Hack #3: Rocket Mass Heater

Want real heat without burning a cord a week? Build a rocket mass heater out of clay, brick, and a steel drum. Burns hot, uses a fraction of the wood, and radiates heat for hours after the fire’s dead. Best damn invention since fire itself.

Here’s the truth—if you’re not learning these skills, you’re just pretending. This isn’t a “lifestyle.” It’s war against dependence, laziness, and apathy. It’s the refusal to be controlled by grocery stores, gas lines, and corporate nonsense. And no, it doesn’t always feel good.

Your fingers will crack until they bleed. Your animals will die sometimes, even when you’ve done everything right. You’ll get up at 4 a.m. to shovel snow just so you can reach the barn, only to find the water line frozen anyway. But when you sit down to a meal grown with your own hands, lit by a lamp powered by your own system, warmed by a fire you built yourself—it all makes sense.

I don’t want your pity or your praise. I want you to wake up. Start learning. Get uncomfortable. And if you’re gonna homestead in North Dakota, drop the fantasy and pick up a shovel.

Because out here, comfort is a weakness. And self-reliance? That’s the only luxury we can afford.

The Pennsylvania Homesteader: A Cold Reality Check for the Soft-Handed Dreamers

On By The.Daily.ChristianIn Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Homestead Lifestyle, Pennsylvania Survival PreppersLeave a comment

You think you’re ready for this life? Really? You saw a couple TikToks of someone in a Carhartt jacket holding a mason jar and now you’re a “homesteader”? Let me tell you something: homesteading in Pennsylvania ain’t no aesthetic daydream. It’s grit. It’s weather that turns on you faster than your cousin during deer season. It’s learning to live without modern conveniences—not because it’s cute, but because the power’s out and the propane truck got stuck at the bottom of your half-mile dirt driveway. Again.

You want the truth? This lifestyle will chew you up and spit you out if you come into it half-hearted. If you’re not ready to work like your life depends on it—and out here, it does—you might as well go back to your overpriced rental in Philly.

Skill #1: Firewood Management

Cutting, splitting, stacking, drying. Then doing it all over again because winter in Pennsylvania doesn’t care about your schedule or your feelings. You better learn how to read wood like a book and how to swing a maul like your ancestors are watching.

Skill #2: Canning and Preserving

We’re not talking about “fun jam day with the gals.” I’m talking about turning 60 pounds of tomatoes into shelf-stable food so you don’t starve in February. Pressure canner knowledge is non-negotiable. Botulism isn’t a joke.

Skill #3: Livestock Care

Chickens, goats, pigs, and if you’re brave (or stupid) enough—cattle. That means feeding, watering, birthing, butchering, doctoring, and yes, digging graves when things go sideways. Nature is cruel. So is this life.

Skill #4: Carpentry

You’re not calling a contractor every time something breaks, which is every day if your structures are older than your grandpa’s shotgun. Learn framing, roofing, and basic joinery—or get real comfortable watching your barn collapse.

Skill #5: Fencing

Good fences aren’t just about neighborly etiquette; they’re the only thing keeping your goats from demolishing your garden and your pigs from wandering into Route 6. Build it right, or build it again with fewer animals.

Skill #6: Gardening

This isn’t container gardening on a balcony. This is rows and rows of hard soil, invasive weeds, and groundhogs with a vendetta. You’ll battle blight, bugs, and burnout. Still want that heirloom tomato?

Skill #7: Butchering

You eat meat? Learn to process it. Know where your food comes from—right down to the blood, the guts, and the time your pig screamed like a banshee when it figured out what was happening. Respect the life, honor the death.

Skill #8: Beekeeping

Honey’s not just for tea; it’s medicinal and long-lasting. But you better learn fast, because if you don’t know how to manage mites or read a hive, you’ll lose them all before the first frost.

Skill #9: Food Fermentation

Sauerkraut, sourdough, kefir—if it bubbles and smells funky, you’re doing it right. Fermenting is not a trend out here. It’s preservation, nutrition, and flavor in one jar.

Skill #10: Seed Saving

Why keep buying seeds every season like a chump? Learn how to collect and store your own. It’s insurance for your food supply and a big ol’ middle finger to corporate agriculture.

Skill #11: Herbal Medicine

Healthcare’s a joke out here. Got a fever? A gash? A weird rash? You better know how to make a tincture, salve, or poultice, because the ER is an hour away and closed on Sundays.

Skill #12: Welding

Yes, welding. Because you will break things that can’t be fixed with screws and duct tape. Being able to fabricate or repair metal saves time, money, and your whole operation.

Skill #13: Weather Reading

If you wait for a forecast, you’re already screwed. Learn cloud types, wind direction, animal behavior, and that special smell the air gets right before a downpour. Your crops, animals, and firewood depend on it.

Skill #14: Hunting and Trapping

Deer meat fills the freezer, squirrels ruin the garden, and coyotes will eat your chickens. Don’t like guns or traps? Then get used to losing sleep and food to predators.

Skill #15: Water System Management

Rain catchment, graywater reuse, well pump repair—you need to control your water supply. If you’re relying on the town water line, you’re not homesteading—you’re cosplaying.

And Now… 3 DIY Homestead Hacks (That Actually Work)

Hack #1: Gravity-Fed Watering System

Run a length of PVC pipe or garden hose from a rain barrel or elevated tank to a drip irrigation line. Gravity does the work—no electricity needed. It’s a lifesaver when the grid goes down or you forget to water because your goat gave birth in the compost pile.

Hack #2: Solar Dehydrator Built from Scrap

Got old windows and leftover wood? Build yourself a solar dehydrator. Dry herbs, fruit, and meat without plugging in anything. Perfect for Pennsylvania summers when the sun’s out just enough to make you think it won’t storm later (spoiler: it will).

Hack #3: Five-Gallon Bucket Chicken Feeder

Drill 2-inch holes around the base of a bucket, set it inside a pan, and fill with feed. Chickens peck, feed doesn’t scatter, and your mornings get easier. Bonus: it keeps mice out. Mostly.

Final Thoughts from a Fed-Up Homesteader

Listen, I’m not here to crush your dreams. I’m just tired of watching folks think this is a vacation lifestyle. It’s not. It’s a fight—every damn day. But if you’ve got the backbone to match your Pinterest board, you might just make it. Pennsylvania’s a beautiful, brutal place to build a homestead. The soil’s rich, the woods are deep, and the seasons will humble you.

You want cozy? Fine. Come winter, we’ll see how cozy you feel when you’re breaking ice out of the goats’ water at 6 a.m., your kerosene ran out, and the rooster thinks 4:15 is a good time to start screaming.

But if you survive that first year? You’ll never want to go back. There’s power in self-reliance, in working with your hands, in building something that lasts. And when the world outside feels like it’s crumbling, you’ll be here—feeding yourself, heating your home, and sleeping with a clear conscience.

Welcome to the real Pennsylvania homestead lifestyle. Now grab a shovel and earn your keep.

The New York Homestead Lifestyle: No Excuses, Just Grit and Grind

On By The.Daily.ChristianIn New York, New York Homestead Lifestyle, New York SurvivalistsLeave a comment

Listen here, city slickers and wannabe homesteaders who think this is some romantic, Instagram-worthy fairy tale. New York is NOT just the Big Apple and flashy skyline. For those of us who’ve dragged our sorry selves out of the rat race and planted roots deep in the dirt of this unforgiving state, homesteading is a fight. A daily battle against weather, regulations, and sometimes even our own stubborn selves. This lifestyle isn’t about pretty farmhouse Pinterest boards — it’s about raw grit, hard work, and skills earned in sweat and bruises.

And if you want to make it here, you better learn quick and work harder.

Homestead Skills Every New York Homesteader Should Master — Or Prepare to Fail

  1. Soil Testing and Amendment – New York soils can be tricky; rocky and acidic in some parts, clay-heavy in others. If you don’t know your soil pH and how to amend it, you’ll grow nothing but weeds and frustration.
  2. Raised Bed Gardening – Because some New York soil is just that bad. Raised beds let you control your dirt, drain water properly, and stretch your growing season.
  3. Season Extension Techniques – Frost hits early and late here. Learn to build cold frames, hoop houses, or use row covers to protect your crops.
  4. Composting – If you’re not turning kitchen scraps and yard waste into black gold, you’re wasting money on fertilizers you don’t need.
  5. Rainwater Harvesting – New York gets plenty of rain, but the city water bills and droughts in summer make collecting rain a no-brainer.
  6. Basic Carpentry – From fixing fences to building coops and sheds, if you can’t swing a hammer and saw, you’re hiring yourself out of your own homestead.
  7. Animal Husbandry – Chickens, goats, bees — New York zoning might limit you, but where you’re allowed, you better know how to care for them or they’ll die on you fast.
  8. Preserving and Canning – Summer crops don’t last forever. If you can’t can, ferment, or dry your produce, you’re wasting your harvest.
  9. Firewood Splitting and Stacking – Heat in winter doesn’t come cheap. Firewood is life, and splitting it is a brutal workout you either love or hate.
  10. Basic Plumbing Repairs – When your pipes freeze or your septic clogs in the middle of winter, waiting for a plumber ain’t an option.
  11. Trap and Pest Control – New York is crawling with critters. You’ll need to protect your garden and livestock from deer, raccoons, groundhogs, and those ever-nasty mice.
  12. Seasonal Crop Rotation – Keep your garden healthy and your soil from dying by knowing what to plant where and when.
  13. Basic Welding – From repairing metal tools to building gates, welding saves you money and headaches.
  14. Seed Saving – Don’t be a slave to the seed companies. Save your own seeds to maintain hardier, adapted plants year after year.
  15. Foraging and Wildcrafting – New York’s forests and fields have wild edibles, and if you know your plants, you can supplement your pantry for free.

Why I’m Mad: The Grit Behind Every Good Homestead

New York is a state of contradictions. Sure, you’ve got the Hudson Valley, the Adirondacks, and the Catskills, all gorgeous and rich with resources. But you’ve also got frost that will bite your seedlings in May and September, zoning laws that make raising a pig a bureaucratic nightmare, and neighbors who don’t understand why you’re raising chickens instead of dogs.

I’m mad because homesteading here means double the work and half the support. There’s no sugarcoating it: this is a place where you either toughen the hell up or pack it in.

But for those of us who stay, who fight through every problem and every bad weather day, the reward is a self-sufficient, sustainable lifestyle that the city slickers will never understand.

3 DIY Homestead Hacks to Save Your Sanity in New York

1. DIY Cold Frame from Old Windows
Don’t spend a fortune on fancy hoop houses or greenhouses. Raid your local Habitat for Humanity ReStore or thrift stores for old windows. Build a simple cold frame box and prop the windows at an angle. This baby extends your growing season by protecting your seedlings from late frost without sucking up your wallet.

2. Chicken Waterer from a Buckets and PVC Pipe
Chickens need clean water, especially when it freezes overnight. Take a 5-gallon bucket, drill a small hole at the bottom, and attach a length of PVC pipe to create a gravity-fed waterer. Add a simple float valve system (or improvise with weights) to keep water flowing without spilling. It saves you from freezing your fingers off every morning scraping ice off the coop waterer.

3. Pallet Compost Bin with Layers
Grab 3 old pallets, stand them up in a square, and fasten together to create a cheap compost bin. Layer green yard waste, kitchen scraps, and brown leaves, turning often to speed decomposition. The pallets allow for airflow and make managing your compost easier. Bonus: if you stain or paint it, it lasts longer against New York’s wet weather.

The Reality Check: No Sugar-Coating This New York Homestead Life

Forget the cute stories about waking up to chickens clucking and drinking fresh milk at dawn. Here, the chicken might have a broken leg from a fox attack, the milk goat might be sick, the snow might be piled six feet high blocking your access to your root cellar, and your well might freeze solid.

If you want to succeed on a New York homestead, you need:

  • Patience to wait out the seasons
  • Knowledge to prevent and fix disaster
  • Grit to keep working even when it all goes sideways

We’ve got short growing seasons, fierce winters, and a state bureaucracy that will frustrate the hell out of you.

But if you tough it out, you’ll grow food you can trust, create a sustainable life for your family, and maybe—just maybe—build something worth passing down.

The Homestead Life: Not for the Faint of Heart

So, to all the dreamers who think New York homesteading is just about planting heirloom tomatoes and making artisanal goat cheese—wake up. It’s about fighting nature and neighbors, learning hard skills like firewood splitting and carpentry, and improvising like hell when the tractor breaks down on a freezing April morning.

If you’re not ready to get your hands dirty, sweat, and sometimes curse, this life will chew you up and spit you out.

But if you are? Welcome to the wild, stubborn, sometimes maddening New York homestead lifestyle. It’s brutal, but it’s ours. And nothing tastes better than food you grew with your own damn hands.

Wisconsin Homestead Lifestyle: The Gritty Truth from an Angry Homesteader

On By The.Daily.ChristianIn Wisconsin, Wisconsin Homestead Lifestyle, Wisconsin survival prepperLeave a comment

Listen up, city slickers and armchair farmers! If you think homesteading in Wisconsin is a walk in the damn park, you’ve got another thing coming. This life isn’t for the faint-hearted or those expecting some quaint hobby to pass the weekend. No, sir. It’s a brutal, bone-chilling, sweat-drenched grind — and if you don’t respect the land and the craft, you’ll be eating your own dust before the frost even sets in.

I’ve been busting my ass on this Wisconsin homestead for years, through blizzards that’d freeze the hairs in your nostrils, mosquitoes as big as your fist, and soil that laughs at you when you try to coax a crop out of it. But if you’re stubborn enough to want to do it right, there are some damned fine skills you better master. Otherwise, you might as well pack up and hit the highway.

Homestead Skills Every Wisconsin Farmer Better Have:

  1. Timber Felling & Wood Splitting
    Wisconsin winters will kill you if you don’t have enough firewood. Chop it yourself or freeze your ass off.
  2. Soil Preparation & Crop Rotation
    Those lazy farmers who don’t rotate crops end up with barren dirt. You want a decent harvest? Know your dirt and plan your planting.
  3. Seed Saving
    Why buy seeds every season when you can save your own? Keeps the lineage strong and your costs low.
  4. Animal Husbandry
    Raising chickens, goats, or cows isn’t just feeding and petting. It’s about reading their damn behavior, catching sickness early, and keeping them alive through hell.
  5. Cheese Making
    Wisconsin is cheese country, and if you’ve got cows or goats, you better know how to turn their milk into something that’ll keep you fed and maybe sold at market.
  6. Preserving & Canning
    The harvest doesn’t last forever. If you want food in January, learn to jar, pickle, and seal like your life depends on it.
  7. Honey Beekeeping
    Bees are a pain, sure, but they’re crucial. You can’t have fruit or veggies without pollinators, and honey’s liquid gold in winter.
  8. Basic Carpentry
    Build your own fences, barns, chicken coops. No contractors here. If you want it done right, you do it yourself.
  9. Basic Plumbing & Repair
    Frozen pipes? Leaky faucets? Fix it before it ruins your house or your day.
  10. Welding & Metalwork
    Farm equipment breaks. Period. Welding skills can save you hundreds on repairs.
  11. Butchering & Meat Processing
    You raise animals for food, right? Knowing how to butcher cleanly and safely is a must.
  12. Trap & Hunt Wild Game
    There are days your garden fails. Knowing how to trap rabbits or hunt deer can be the difference between dinner or starvation.
  13. Soap & Candle Making
    Homemade soap and candles aren’t just quaint crafts. They’re essentials when stores are miles away or closed.
  14. Root Cellaring
    Wisconsin winters mean frozen ground. You better have a cool, dry place underground to store your crops.
  15. Emergency First Aid & Herbal Medicine
    Ambulances don’t come out to your farm in a blizzard. Know how to patch wounds and use wild herbs for basic medicine.

Here’s the damn truth: Without these skills, you’re just a poser playing at homesteading. And if you think you can run to Menards every time something breaks or you need supplies, you’re dead wrong. The Wisconsin homestead life is about doing it yourself — or you don’t eat.

Now, I’m not just here to bitch; I’m here to arm you with some DIY hacks that’ve saved my skin more times than I can count. Listen carefully, because these aren’t your usual Pinterest fluff:

DIY Homestead Hacks for Wisconsin Warriors

Hack #1: The ‘Double-Walled Firewood Stack’
Winter will suck the marrow from your bones, especially with the wind tunnels that Wisconsin farms catch. Instead of stacking your firewood in a single pile, build two parallel rows about a foot apart. Fill the gap with dried leaves, pine needles, or shredded paper. This creates a windbreak that keeps your wood dry and ready to burn. Wet wood is worthless and just creates smoke that’ll choke you. This hack keeps your fire blazing longer and your home warmer.

Hack #2: DIY Root Cellar Cool Box
If you don’t have a fancy root cellar, don’t despair. Dig a deep hole in a shady spot (a north-facing hill works best). Line the hole with pallets or bricks for airflow and stack your veggies inside crates. Cover with burlap sacks, then soil and straw on top. This makeshift cellar stays cool and moist, perfect for potatoes, carrots, and onions through the freezing Wisconsin winter.

Hack #3: Chicken Coop Predator Proofing with Old Tires
Coyotes and raccoons love picking off your chickens like an all-you-can-eat buffet. To keep ’em out, place old tires vertically around the coop perimeter and fill them with gravel or dirt. The tires form a buffer that critters can’t easily dig through, and the weight holds down any flaps or chicken wire. It’s cheap, effective, and keeps your hens safe.

You want to know why homesteading in Wisconsin beats the hell out of you? Because this state demands respect. You can’t half-ass it, and you damn sure can’t expect it to hand you blessings on a silver platter. You’ve got snow that stays for half the year, insects that feast like it’s a banquet, and soil that sometimes acts like it’s more rock than dirt.

And don’t get me started on the government red tape and zoning laws that make you jump through hoops just to build a damn chicken coop. It’s like they want to keep us small farmers out so big corporations can turn the land into more cornfields and strip malls.

But we keep at it. Because there’s no sweeter pride than eating the food you grew, drinking the milk from your own cows, and warming yourself by a fire built with your own hands. We’re the backbone of this land, even if the city folks don’t see it.

If you’re serious about Wisconsin homesteading, put down the latte and pick up an ax. Learn those skills or starve. Build those fences, fix that tractor, tend those animals. And when winter comes, you’ll be the one with food on the table and warmth in your bones — while the rest are shivering behind their screens.

This lifestyle isn’t for everyone. It’s hard, it’s ugly, and it’s relentless. But if you’ve got the grit to survive, the rewards are sweeter than anything that comes pre-packaged from the supermarket.

Now get out there and earn your homestead.

Enough is Enough: The Raw Truth About Utah Homesteading

On By The.Daily.ChristianIn Utah, Utah Homestead LifestyleLeave a comment

From One Fed-Up Homesteader to Anyone Still Paying for Store-Bought Eggs

Let me tell you something straight: if you’re out here in Utah talking about homesteading and you can’t gut a chicken, start a fire without a lighter, or preserve your own damn food, then you’re not homesteading. You’re cosplaying. And I’ve had it up to my straw hat with city folks pretending this life is all sunsets and sourdough starters.

We didn’t move out here to play pretend. We moved to get away from fragile systems, failing food chains, and the ever-suffocating noise of “convenience.” If you want to live this life—not just like it on Instagram—then roll up your sleeves. This lifestyle is brutal, beautiful, and not for the weak-minded.

Let me break it down for you with 15 skills you better learn yesterday if you’re going to make it through a winter in the Beehive State without crying into your cracked corn.

15 Homesteading Skills You Need in Utah (or Get Out of the Way)

  1. Canning and Food Preservation
    If you don’t know how to water bath or pressure can, you’re a liability. Period. Winters in Utah are unforgiving, and your garden’s not doing squat in January.
  2. Animal Husbandry
    Chickens, goats, pigs, rabbits—you need to know how to feed, breed, butcher, and heal them. If you flinch at blood, go back to Whole Foods.
  3. Seed Saving
    Buying new seeds every year? That’s not sustainable. Learn how to select, dry, and store seeds, or become dependent on the very system you claimed to reject.
  4. Composting
    You’re wasting gold if you’re tossing out scraps. Learn to compost properly and feed your soil, not the landfill.
  5. Basic Carpentry
    You’re not calling a contractor every time a coop door falls off. Learn to swing a hammer, measure twice, and build once.
  6. Firewood Cutting and Stacking
    If you heat with wood, you better start chopping in spring. You think you’re tough? Try splitting six cords by hand in July heat.
  7. Soap Making
    Your ancestors didn’t smell like lavender-vanilla nonsense. Learn to render fat, make lye, and keep your skin from falling off in the dry Utah air.
  8. Beekeeping
    If you’re not raising bees, you’re missing out on honey, wax, and crucial pollination. Plus, if you’re sweet, they’ll sting you—build character.
  9. Dutch Oven Cooking
    Campfire cooking isn’t just cute—it’s survival. If you can’t cook beans and cornbread in the wild, you’re dead weight.
  10. Fermentation
    Sauerkraut, kimchi, sourdough—these aren’t hipster trends. They’re preservation techniques, gut-health gold, and power-packed flavor.
  11. Off-Grid Power Knowledge
    Solar, wind, battery banks—you don’t get a pass when the power grid quits. Know how to run lights, charge radios, and keep the freezer cold.
  12. Irrigation and Water Management
    Utah’s dry, buddy. You better know how to move water, catch rain, and keep your soil moist without wasting a drop.
  13. Butchering and Meat Processing
    Don’t raise animals if you can’t face the knife. It’s a sacred act. Learn it, respect it, and do it right.
  14. Basic Veterinary Skills
    You don’t get to run to the vet every time a goat limps. YouTube it, stitch it, splint it—your animals depend on you.
  15. Root Cellaring
    Old school and underrated. If your carrots rot before December, you did it wrong. Build it. Use it.

3 DIY Homestead Hacks That Actually Work

Because I know not everyone’s made of money, here are three homemade solutions that actually pull their weight.

1. The Pallet Palace Chicken Coop

Don’t spend $2,000 on some prefab piece of junk. Get yourself six free pallets, a drill, and some scrap tin roofing. Line it with straw, cut out a few egg doors, and boom—you’ve got a sturdy, weather-tight coop for near-zero dollars. Bonus: it’s ugly enough to keep HOA types far away.

2. Gutter-to-Barrel Rain Catch System

Utah’s water laws are strict, but rain catchment up to 2 barrels per property is legal. So do it! Run gutters from your shed or home into a food-grade 55-gallon drum. Add a screen to keep the bugs out and a spigot at the bottom. There’s your free irrigation water.

3. The Five-Gallon Bucket Milking Stool

One old bucket, a chunk of 2×10, and some screws. Boom—you’ve got a portable milking stool and storage bucket in one. Add a lid, and your goat milk stays clean while you work.

A Word About Utah Living

Utah’s no joke. Between the high elevation, dry climate, and unpredictable seasons, it’s not the place to dabble. You need grit. Snow can hit in October and the sun can cook your garden in June. You’ll be cursing the alkaline soil, battling gophers, and praying your tomato plants hold on through late frosts.

And don’t get me started on property taxes and zoning. You want to build a tiny house or live in an RV? Good luck. You’ll need to be part attorney, part rebel, and 100% unshakable to keep your homestead legal and functional.

My Final Rant (For Now)

I don’t care if you’ve got matching enamel cookware, cute aprons, or a sourdough starter named Martha. If you’re not working every single day to feed yourself, learn a new skill, or improve your land, then you’re just playing homestead theater.

The grid is fragile. The food system is bloated and broken. If you think the grocery store will always be stocked, I hope you like powdered eggs and stale crackers. The only real security you have is what you can grow, raise, build, or fix with your own two hands.

So no more excuses. No more aesthetic photoshoots in flannel while you let your tomatoes die in the sun. Get out there. Work harder than you ever thought possible. Sweat more. Bleed a little. And earn your place in the dirt.

Because this—this raw, dusty, beautiful, back-breaking life—is the only real freedom left.

Tennessee Homestead Lifestyle: A Rant from a Fed-Up Homesteader

On By The.Daily.ChristianIn Tennessee, Tennessee Homestead Lifestyle, Tennessee’ Survival PreppersLeave a comment

I tell you what, if one more city slicker rolls up my gravel drive asking if I “relax out here and drink herbal tea,” I might just go full possum-crazy on ‘em. This ain’t no Bed & Breakfast with chickens for decoration. This is a working homestead in Tennessee — land that sweats, bleeds, and gives back only what you wring out of it with busted knuckles and dawn-to-dark labor.

People think homesteading is cute until they’re waist-deep in goat crap at 5 a.m. trying to unjam a milker because the doe decided today’s the day she’s gonna kick like a two-stroke engine. This life ain’t for the faint-hearted, lazy, or Instagram filters. This is grit, firewood, sweat, and skill. And if you don’t have those, Tennessee will chew you up and spit you out next to the rusted lawnmowers.

Let me break it down for you folks who think this is some whimsical “back to the land” fairy tale. If you want to live the homestead lifestyle in Tennessee and not get run off by mold, wild hogs, weather tantrums, and your own damn ignorance, you’d better sharpen up the following 15 homesteading skills. Memorize them like gospel, because out here, they’re the difference between thriving and begging your cousin in Nashville to let you crash on their couch.

15 Homestead Skills You’d Best Learn (Or Quit Pretending You’re a Homesteader)

  1. Basic Carpentry – You’ll fix everything from the chicken coop to your own roof. Can’t swing a hammer? Go back to Target.
  2. Canning and Preserving – If you don’t know how to can tomatoes, pressure can beans, or make pickles that won’t botulize you, you ain’t eating come January.
  3. Animal Husbandry – Goats, chickens, rabbits, pigs. Know how to breed ‘em, feed ‘em, and treat ‘em when they get foot rot or coccidiosis. Don’t just Google it after they drop dead.
  4. Butchering – Yes, you need to know how to turn your animals into food. Respectfully. Humanely. Efficiently. If you cry too much to do it, buy your meat at Walmart and leave us alone.
  5. Seed Saving – Ain’t no guarantee that the feed store will have heirlooms when the next supply chain fiasco hits. Learn to save, dry, and store your seeds.
  6. Composting – If you’re tossing kitchen scraps in the trash, you’re wasting gold. Compost feeds your soil and your future crops. Learn the green/brown balance or enjoy your slimy, stinking pile.
  7. Basic Veterinary Care – Out here, the vet ain’t 15 minutes away. Learn to pull a calf, stitch up a wound, and treat worms yourself.
  8. Chainsaw Operation and Maintenance – You’ll be clearing trees, cutting wood, and maybe building a cabin with it. Dull chains and bad fuel mixes will ruin your day and your saw.
  9. Cooking from Scratch – If you need a box to bake a biscuit, don’t come out here. You should be able to whip up a meal from what’s in your pantry and garden.
  10. Foraging – Learn your local wild edibles and medicinals. Chickweed, plantain, morels, wild garlic. This land offers more than you realize, but not if you’re too blind to see it.
  11. Basic Plumbing – Gravity-fed water, rain catchment, septic systems — you’ll be your own maintenance guy or gal. And guess what? Pipe bursts don’t wait ‘til it’s convenient.
  12. Electrical Know-how – Solar panels, generators, battery banks — off-grid power takes brains and patience. Don’t blow yourself up.
  13. Tanning Hides – If you hunt or raise livestock for meat, don’t waste the hides. Learn how to tan them and make use of everything the animal gives.
  14. Firewood Management – Cut, split, season, stack. Know what wood burns hot and what smokes like a wet rag. Heating your home is a year-round job.
  15. Weather Reading – The weather man don’t live in your valley. You’ll learn to read the sky, smell the air, and feel when the storm’s coming.

Now, once you’ve got those skills (and don’t lie, you don’t), let’s talk DIY Homestead Hacks. Tennessee weather will swing from biblical droughts to soggy floods in a week, so these three hacks might just save your bacon.

3 DIY Homestead Hacks Every Tennessean Should Use

1. Gravity-Fed Rainwater System Using IBC Totes
Everyone acts shocked when their well pump dies or power goes out. You fool. You need backup water. Set up an elevated IBC tote system with first-flush diverters. Hook ’em to your gutters. Rain falls, tote fills, gravity does the rest. Add a Berkey-style filter at the end if you’re drinking it. Simple. Cheap. Life-saving.

2. Solar Dehydrator Made from Old Windows and a Box Fan
Tennessee humidity is a beast, but the sun’s generous. Build a solar dehydrator using reclaimed wood, black paint, an old fan (solar if you can rig it), and some screen shelves. Dehydrate your herbs, fruits, jerky — even fish. Stop wasting your freezer space and power on what the sun can handle.

3. Heated Chicken Waterer with a Concrete Block and a Lightbulb
Come winter, the chickens’ water freezes faster than you can say “eggbound.” Place a cinder block upside down, put an incandescent bulb inside (protected from pecking and moisture), and set your metal waterer on top. Boom — no frozen water and no $80 Amazon heater.

You still here? Still think this is a lifestyle for “simplicity” and “slowing down”? Lord help you. This life is about intentional hardship. The kind that feeds your soul while it breaks your back. Ain’t nothing simple about rising before daylight, bleeding in your garden, and praying your sow don’t miscarry in the cold snap. But I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Tennessee homesteading isn’t for soft hands or soft minds. It’s for folks with backbone, blistered palms, and a deep, unshakable love of land. It’s not rustic charm. It’s war — against decay, dependency, and modern stupidity. And every day you win a little ground, grow a little food, teach your kid to hold a hammer instead of a tablet — that’s a victory worth the scars.

So if you’re still dreaming of this life, put your boots on. Pick up a shovel. Get dirty. Get tired. Get smart. And for heaven’s sake, stop asking if I “name my chickens like pets.” Their names are Breakfast, Dinner, and Soup.

Now get off my porch. I’ve got beans to stake and a fence to mend before sundown.

The No-Nonsense Truth About the Texas Homestead Lifestyle

On By The.Daily.ChristianIn texas, Texas Homestead Lifestyle, Texas Survival PrepperLeave a comment

You want to know what the Texas homestead lifestyle is really like? Sit down, buttercup, because I’m about to serve you a hot, blistering plate of truth straight off a wood-fired stove. You think this life is all sunrises and jam jars? Think again. This isn’t a curated Instagram feed. This is blood, sweat, mosquitoes, goat crap, and the kind of weather that will try to kill you three different ways before lunch.

Don’t get me wrong—I love this life. But I’m sick and tired of hearing folks talk about homesteading like it’s some kind of picnic in a meadow. It’s WORK. It’s failure and lessons learned the hard way. And out here in Texas, the rules are different. This ain’t Vermont. It’s not Oregon. This is scorched earth, rattlesnake country. It’s hard. It’s wild. And it’s worth every busted knuckle and sunburn if you’ve got the grit for it.

Let’s talk about some real-deal homestead skills, not the “I grew basil on my balcony” nonsense. If you’re going to survive and thrive out here, you’d better know how to:

15 HOMESTEAD SKILLS YOU’D BETTER LEARN FAST (OR TAP OUT EARLY):

  1. Rainwater Harvesting – Texas ain’t known for gentle spring showers. When it rains, you collect it or you run dry. Build yourself a real rain catchment system, not a trash can with a screen on top.
  2. Pressure Canning – You’ve got to preserve food like your life depends on it. Because someday, it just might.
  3. Welding & Metalwork – Fences break. Gates bend. Tools snap. If you can’t fix steel, you’re going to bleed money or sit waiting for help.
  4. Chainsaw Safety & Use – Your land doesn’t care if you’re tired. Trees will fall, and brush will pile up. Know your saw, or lose a limb.
  5. Livestock Care – From goats to pigs to chickens, these animals don’t take weekends off. Know how to doctor ‘em, feed ‘em, and protect ‘em from coyotes and parasites.
  6. Butchering – You eat what you raise. If you can’t take an animal from pen to plate, you’re in the wrong lifestyle.
  7. Gardening in Clay & Sand – Texas soil is either concrete or powder. Learn how to build it, amend it, and grow in it—because you sure as hell won’t survive without it.
  8. Composting – Waste not, want not. Turn every scrap into soil gold.
  9. Gun Safety & Use – Out here, it’s not about politics. It’s about protection—from snakes, predators, and the occasional rabid skunk.
  10. Solar Panel Installation & Maintenance – The grid fails. Texas knows. Be ready to keep the lights on when the state can’t.
  11. First Aid & Herbal Medicine – Help is not five minutes away. Sometimes it’s an hour. Sometimes it’s never.
  12. Carpentry & Framing – Your structures are only as good as your worst board. Know how to swing a hammer and read a square.
  13. Fence Building (That Actually Holds Livestock) – I’m not talking about some decorative split rail nonsense. Build tight, straight, and strong—or your animals will be down the road making friends with the neighbor’s cattle.
  14. Root Cellar Construction – You want year-round food storage without paying a fortune in electricity? Dig deep—literally.
  15. Seed Saving – Learn to save your best performers. Buy once, plant forever.

3 DIY HOMESTEAD HACKS (REAL ONES THAT ACTUALLY WORK):

1. The Solar Oven You Can Build in a Weekend
Texas sun is brutal. Turn it into power. Get an old satellite dish, line it with aluminum foil or emergency blanket material, and focus the light into a cast-iron pot inside a glass or plexiglass box. Boom—free slow cooker. Perfect for summer when the thought of turning on the kitchen stove makes you nauseous.

2. Cattle Panel Greenhouse
Want a strong, cheap greenhouse that’ll survive windstorms and last for years? Use cattle panels bent into an arch and covered with UV-resistant plastic sheeting. Anchor with T-posts. You’ll have a 10×12 greenhouse for under $200—and no worries when a Texas gust tries to rip it to Oz.

3. Five-Gallon Bucket Nesting Boxes
Chickens will lay in ANYTHING if it’s dark, secure, and cozy. Cut a circle out of the side of a five-gallon bucket, fill with pine shavings, and mount sideways to a wall or rack. Bonus: easy to clean and replace when your hens get broody and poop up the place.

Now let’s talk about why people quit this life. Because they do—fast. You think it’s all sunsets and simplicity until you’ve spent 14 hours fixing a busted water line with duct tape, bailing wire, and prayer. And let’s not even talk about July. That heat doesn’t care about your dreams. It will cook your chickens alive, burn up your garden, and leave your goat waterers boiling hot by noon.

And yet…

Something keeps us going. Something deeper than convenience. It’s the knowledge that you’re building something real—something no corporation or politician or grid failure can take away. You make your food. You fix your home. You raise your animals. You keep your family safe with your own damn hands. That’s freedom, and it tastes better than anything you’ll find on a store shelf.

Texas isn’t easy. You’ve got fire ants, scorpions, 110° summers, and winters that drop below freezing without warning. But if you can make it here, if you can stick it out through the sweat, setbacks, and sheer stubborn work, then you’ll have something that no paycheck can buy: independence.

Don’t let the romantic crowd sell you snake oil. This life isn’t for the weak-willed or the faint-hearted. It’s for those who want to get up every day and face the land, head-on, no excuses. You’ll fail, sure. But you’ll learn. And you’ll get stronger, smarter, tougher.

So if you’re serious about living the Texas homestead lifestyle, put down the Pinterest board and pick up a shovel. You’ve got fences to mend, seeds to plant, and animals that don’t care about your feelings.

This is Texas. It’s hot, it’s hard, and it’s honest.

And it’s home.

—An Angry (But Proud) Texas Homesteader

The Rhode Island Homestead Life: Not for the Weak, Lazy, or Whiny

On By The.Daily.ChristianIn Rhode Island, Rhode Island Homestead LifestyleLeave a comment

You want the truth about homesteading in Rhode Island? Fine. Sit down, shut up, and listen. This ain’t some Instagram-filtered fantasy where you grow lavender in a teacup and get paid in likes. This is real life. This is New England grit. This is Rhode Island, baby—where the summers are muggy, the winters are ruthless, and land doesn’t come cheap. But guess what? If you’re tough, stubborn, and about half-crazy, you can build a life out here worth its weight in heirloom tomatoes.

You want a homestead in the smallest damn state in the Union? Then you’d better be big in skills, big in heart, and not afraid of breaking your damn back.

Let me tell you something first: homesteading is not a hobby. It’s not something you do because you saw a cute TikTok with someone in overalls making sourdough. It’s a lifestyle. A choice. A full-contact sport. And around here, it requires a thick skin, a sharp mind, and a chainsaw that starts on the first pull.

Here are 15 skills you’d better damn well learn if you want to make it here:

  1. Canning and Food Preservation – Your garden might explode in July, but if you don’t know how to can, dehydrate, or ferment, you’ll be eating sad supermarket mush all winter.
  2. Seed Starting – You think you’ll just buy plants every year? Not at $5 a seedling you won’t. Start your own, indoors, in March. Get a grow light or watch them get leggy and die.
  3. Composting – You’re gonna make a lot of waste. You can either send it to the landfill or turn it into black gold. Your choice.
  4. Basic Carpentry – Chicken coops, rabbit hutches, raised beds, fences—get used to cutting wood and smashing your thumb with a hammer. Don’t be a baby.
  5. Animal Husbandry – Chickens aren’t “easy pets.” They’re walking targets. Know how to feed them, deworm them, and protect them from hawks, foxes, and your neighbor’s stupid dog.
  6. Beekeeping – You want honey? You want pollination? Then suit up and get buzzing. And yes, you will get stung.
  7. Butchering – If you can’t stomach killing what you raise, go back to Whole Foods. Around here, we respect the animal by doing the hard part ourselves.
  8. Firewood Chopping and Stacking – Rhode Island winters don’t play around. Learn to wield a maul or invest in a log splitter. Stack it right, or your pile will rot before Thanksgiving.
  9. Rainwater Collection – Our water bills are outrageous. Set up a gutter system and start collecting rain in barrels before you cry over your next utility bill.
  10. Cooking From Scratch – You’ve got 20 pounds of squash. Now what? Better know a dozen ways to cook it or you’ll hate the sight of it by January.
  11. Wool Spinning/Knitting – You raise sheep? Great. Now learn what to do with all that fleece. Winter is long, and wool socks are gold.
  12. Cheesemaking – Got goats or a milk cow? Learn to turn that milk into something edible before it curdles in your fridge.
  13. Maple Syrup Tapping – You got sugar maples? Good. Drill those suckers in February, boil for days, and end up with half a pint of syrup. It’s worth it.
  14. Cold Storage Building – A root cellar is your best friend. You can’t can everything. Sometimes, you just need a cool, dry place to stash potatoes.
  15. Fence Repair – Rhode Island is wet. Wet means rot. Your fence posts will fail. Your goats will escape. Learn to fix it quick or kiss your veggies goodbye.

Three DIY Homestead Hacks that Actually Work:

Hack #1: Pallet Power Raised Beds
Find a stack of free pallets (they’re everywhere if you know where to look—ask your local hardware store). Tear ’em down, pull out the nails, and build yourself raised garden beds. Slap on a coat of linseed oil if you’re feeling fancy. Boom—free lumber, less backache, and no tilling nonsense.

Hack #2: 5-Gallon Chicken Waterer
Winter sucks. Your chicken water freezes solid. So take a 5-gallon bucket with a lid, install a few nipple waterers on the bottom, and place it on a heated base (cinderblock + heat lamp works in a pinch). No more lugging frozen pails. Your birds stay hydrated. You stay sane.

Hack #3: Trash-to-Treasure Cold Frame
Old windows are gold. People throw ‘em out constantly. Grab one, build a slanted box with scrap wood, and bam—you’ve got a cold frame. Start your spring greens 4 weeks early, extend your fall crops, and rub it in your neighbor’s face.

Now listen. Homesteading in Rhode Island ain’t like Montana or Texas. You can’t just buy 50 acres for a handshake and a case of beer. You’re gonna pay through the nose for an acre, and the zoning board might make you fight for every goat, rooster, and shed. So get familiar with local ordinances. Learn to schmooze the town clerk. Show up to meetings. Be the “crazy farm person” who knows the law better than the law.

And don’t even get me started on the pests. Deer? Everywhere. Groundhogs? Little demons. Ticks? Ubiquitous. Your garden needs fencing like Fort Knox, and every animal needs a roofed pen or they’re lunch. Coyotes don’t care if it’s cute. They’re hungry.

Then there’s the weather. Rhode Island gives you everything. Blizzard in March? Check. Hurricane in September? Check. A heatwave in May? Absolutely. If you don’t have backups on backups—extra tarps, a generator, a sump pump—you’re gonna get wiped out.

But here’s the flip side. The reason we do this. The reason we keep going even when our hands are cracked and our knees ache and we smell like manure:

We eat like kings. Real food. Fresh food. Food with soul. We drink coffee with cream from our own cow. We eat eggs so orange they look fake. We walk outside, grab dinner from the garden, and sleep like rocks under handmade quilts.

We live outside the system, at least partly. We don’t panic when the store shelves empty. We don’t need to door-dash crap food. We don’t care about trends—we’re too damn busy planting, building, harvesting, living.

So yeah, I’m angry. I’m angry because too many people think this life is just “cute” or “aesthetic.” It’s not. It’s dirty, it’s hard, and it will chew you up and spit you out if you’re not all-in.

But if you are? If you’ve got guts and you’re willing to earn every bite of food and every moment of peace?

Welcome to the real homestead life.

Here in Rhode Island—we may be small, but we’re fierce as hell.