Search Results for: self sufficient

50 ways to become more self-sufficient in 1 hour or less

Self sufficiency is pretty high up on my list of things to work on. I love learning new ways to do things on my own. It almost always ends up saving money, and it always makes me feel better that we don’t have to rely on other people for everything we need.

There have been a few times in my married life when things have happened that make me realize just how UN-self sufficient we are. Like last year when our well pump went out, and we had to figure out how to get water somewhere else for several days. Or when we first got married and I didn’t have any food storage set aside, it got pretty stressful when our grocery budget ran out. I hate the feeling of being completely helpless in a “crisis” situation, no matter how small the crisis is.

When things like that happen, I usually kick it into high gear and try to figure out one or two more ways to be just a little more self sufficient. I am sure Farmer and I will be working on this until the day we die, but hopefully we can keep moving in the right direction.

Sometimes to do that, we all just need a few ideas to get our wheels turning. So for anyone out there that wants to be a little more self sufficient RIGHT NOW, here are 50 ways to become more self-sufficient in 1 hour or less.

Plant fresh herbs in pots in your windowsill
Cook a meal from scratch
Research how and what to forage in your area- CLICK HERE for an article I found on learning the art of foraging
Start a compost pile
Set up a clothesline or drying rack inside- CLICK HERE for an easy DIY tutorial
Start a seed vault- CLICK HERE for an impressive 10 year heirloom seed vault already put together for you
Get rid of your tv
Order cloth diapers for your baby- CLICK HERE to learn how I use cloth part time
Set up a rain barrel with a hose to water your garden- CLICK HERE to see a simple one made out of a garbage can
Learn how to use herbs for medicinal purposes- CLICK HERE for a really great list of herbs and their medicinal uses
Make your own butter- CLICK HERE to see how to make butter in a mixer
Set up a quick straw bale cold frame/green house- CLICK HERE for a little tutorial on how to put one together
Learn to sew- anyone can sew something simple, like a baby blanket in less than an hour. Little House Living gives a tutorial for a 10 minute receiving blanket RIGHT HERE.
Buy some baby chicks
Make your own all natural cleaners- CLICK HERE to learn how to make four all natural cleaners
Make homemade jam- CLICK HERE to learn how to make raspberry peach freezer jam
Plant something edible, anything!
Cut your families hair yourself
Save seeds- CLICK HERE for a great tutorial on how to save seeds
Order a dehydrator and learn how to dehydrate- CLICK HERE to read about the dehydrator I highly recommend
Sew your own napkins, paper towels, wipes etc.- CLICK HERE for a DIY paper towel tutorial
Put up a windmill
Make a plan to get debt free- you can’t be very self sufficient when you owe other people money. CLICK HERE to see some of the ways we save money
Plant a fruit tree
Plan your meals and grocery list for the next week/month
Order a flour grinder and learn how to grind your own flour
Make your own soaps- CLICK HERE to learn to make milk and honey soap
Put power bars wherever things are plugged in and turn it off when your done- Even when you aren’t using those things that are plugged in all the time, they are still using power.
Put solar lights outside
Exercise- you can’t be self sufficient if you aren’t in good health
Walk or bike to town if you live close enough
Chop your own wood
Cook over the fire tonight
Learn to can your own food- CLICK HERE to learn how to can raspberries in four easy steps
Freeze your left overs or excess produce- CLICK HERE to learn how to freeze asparagus
Learn to change your own oil
Wash your own car, at home
Make your own herb mixes- CLICK HERE for 14 homemade spice blends
Start a cash fund somewhere in your home
Make your own greeting/birthday/wedding etc cards- CLICK HERE for 25 beautiful handmade card ideas
Start an emergency kit- CLICK HERE for an easy emergency candle kit tutorial
Learn how to patch clothes- CLICK HERE to learn three different ways to mend clothing, and they actually look good!
Store water
Go get some raspberry/strawberry/blackberry starts from a friend- CLICK HERE for how to transplant raspberries
Get a calendar notebook and address notebook and use it- we rely so heavily on our phones these days, if you drop yours in water or run over it with your car on accident, all of that information is lost. Back it up with an actual pen and paper.
Make a food storage plan- CLICK HERE for a good food storage plan idea
Make your own 100% juice- CLICK HERE to learn how to make organic grape juice
Start a journal
Plan a “no power night”
Learn to make your own bread- CLICK HERE to learn how to make nutty chocolate zucchini quick bread
Put together a first aid kit- CLICK HERE for a DIY dollar store version

Every little step counts so keep moving towards self sufficiency even if it’s as slow as I do.

Do you have any self sufficiency ideas that you can do in one hour or less?

~Farmer’s Wife

Family Life Farmhouse Life

3 things you need to know before you start homesteading

Ten years ago I wouldn’t have believed it if you had told me I would be a “homesteader”. Then I married a farmer and discovered a whole new life and then, badda bing, I developed a whole different set of dreams for my life.

As a teenager I was lucky enough to spend two months in Hawaii studying permaculture. Combine that with my dad’s love for plants and the fact that I married someone who grows things for a living and you come out with a pretty obsessed gardener.

So it started out with gardening and then morphed into other areas. My dad got me a subscription to Countryside magazine (best homesteading magazine out there). Farmer and I were trying to live off of minimum wage and were already adding little ones to our family. I was gifted an entire collection of canning supplies by a friendly neighbor. I discovered my love for chickens and free range eggs. And a whole bunch of other things that added up to an attempt at a more self sufficient lifestyle.

Now fast forward several more years, and add a few more “homesteading discoveries” and here I am calling myself a homesteader. We just moved into our new farmhouse which we have built as much ourselves as possible. Farmer farms. I homeschool. We grow as big a garden as I can handle …. no bigger. I preserve as much as possible. I attempted cloth diapering, different types of animals, and a few other personal failures that I will probably try again. And we love it all, truly.

So now that you know way more about my homesteading journey than you actually wanted to, here are my top 3 things that I think everyone needs to know before they start homesteading.

1. It can’t be all or nothing

I am often times an “all or nothing” type of person. I get really excited about one thing, throw myself into it 100%, and then a few days or weeks later get burnt out and move on to another idea. That’s not a good strategy.

With homesteading, that mentality will break you because there is SOOO MUCH involved with homesteading. I mean seriously the ideas and ways to implement homesteading into your life are literally endless. If you can’t be happy with taking one step at a time, you will spend all of your time disappointed.

Homesteading is not a checklist, it’s a lifestyle change. It takes time and effort and a lot of learning. Decide right now that baby steps is the way to go.

2. The homesteading lifestyle is not “popular”

Sure it has become somewhat of a fad lately. But if you really get down to the nitty gritty, most people don’t want to be cleaning manure off their boots, or preserving sticky fruit for days on end to feed their family.

They love the “idea” of self sufficiency, but often times that turns into buying solar panels or brand new boots and wranglers. Don’t get me wrong, those are great things! But if you really change your lifestyle in the direction of true homesteading, you may have some surprised friends.

Homesteading is WONDERFUL, but not exactly GLAMOROUS. So just smile and ask them if they want to help you clean out the chicken coop later.

3. The best homesteading advice comes directly from other homesteaders in your area

Yes, I want you to read my blog, but no it is not the best source of information you have. Every place has it’s own unique soil, weather, wild animals, bugs, germs, traditions, etc. The people who know your area the best are the ones that are already homesteading there.

My very favorite place to go for gardening information is to an older man’s house who lives a couple miles away from me. He has been homesteading here since he was a young man. The secrets that he knows about our dirt and growing things in this area are endless.

THAT is where you go when you have questions. Most people love to tell you about their lives and what they know. Just find a chatty one and start asking questions. Oh yeah, and take a little something over to share like homemade bread or a bowl of fresh picked raspberries.

Are you a homesteader? What’s your best homesteading advice for someone about to take on the challenge?

~Farmer’s Wife

P.S. If you liked this article, you will love my 10 steps to start homesteading on the cheap. Maybe you would like this video tour of our 4,000 square foot home.

Farmhouse Garden Gardening How To's Preserving The Harvest

Start your own heirloom seed vault

Seed vaults are one of those things I have wanted to start for a long long time. I know how important it is to know how to save your own seeds, and I also understand how valuable an heirloom seed vault would be in an emergency situation. I mean what would you do if you couldn’t go to the grocery store for food? Well, you would need to provide your own, right?

Now, I don’t consider myself a “prepper” exactly. I certainly classify myself as a homesteader, and one of my main homesteading goals is being more self sufficient, but I think I am too flaky to be a prepper. Usually I see a really great prepping idea, and I truly want to implement it, but I just never get around to doing it. So I can’t call myself a “prepper” if I never get around to doing the actual “prepping” now can I?

Well every year, about this time in the spring, I have seeds on the brain. I go crazy about my seeds. I LOVE to look through all the catalogs, and I LOVE to plan my garden. Every year I think, “This is the year I am going to order all heirloom seeds, and I am going to do the work to start my own heirloom seed vault.”

And every year…. life gets in the way.

Maybe it has something to do with the four kids under 8 that I homeschool. Maybe it has to do with the fact that seed saving season is the same time as hay season on the farm, and we are working through the night to get the hay up. Maybe I am just being lazy about it. I am really good at excuses, can you tell? Let me rephrase that …. I am really good at excuses, can anyone relate?

So imagine my excitement when I came across a much easier and faster way to start my own heirloom seed vault!

Halle-freaking-lujah!

Ok I am sharing this with you guys because it seriously made my day! It made my day because it was a huge relief to have found something so useful. I was so thrilled that I immediately called my dad to tell him about it. That’s a big deal guys. Maybe it will make your day too.

I came across a BUCKET of heirloom seeds a few weeks ago. This bucket is an heirloom seed vault containing 38 different varieties of seeds. Everything from tomatoes to lettuce to beans, radishes, squash, corn, and on and on and on. It has everything you could ever need in your survival garden. Seriously I couldn’t think of a vegetable that it was missing.

The best part is it’s already grown, harvested, dried, sorted, packaged, and nestled nicely in a protected seed vault all ready to go. You know, all the stuff I was avoiding doing. Whaaat?? You mean all those years of putting it off and putting it off, I could have had my seed vault mailed right to me in a beautiful package?

Now I want you to think about how many seeds fit in a bucket. Ya it’s a ton. I was blown away by the amount of seeds in there, and the paper says it is enough to plant up to 10 acres!

Another cool part is they are packaged in these resealable packets that don’t allow any sunlight or moisture to get in. None of these wimpy paper packets that always find the tiniest drop of water to suck up and ruin all your seeds. Yeah, you know what I am talking about! These seeds have a shelf life of 10 years (especially thanks to their packaging), so they are perfect for food storage and prepping.

You get several years worth of every seed you would need, all packaged nicely in your very own seed vault.

Now I don’t know how much YOU spend on seeds every year, but if you are like me you probably end up spending at least $50-$100 every spring, and then toss half the seeds because those little paper packets just don’t keep them safe. I always end up with wet packets, torn and spilled packets, packets that get blown over and dumped out, yada yada yada. Is it just me?

These heirloom seed vaults are $250, but the bucket is full to the brim of seeds. Like FULL full. WAY more seeds than I usually purchase each year. As in, I could barely get the lid back on. And like I said before, they are in re-sealable foil packets so they will last for years. No more water damage, or spilled seed packets because you can’t close them back up.

Well I was ecstatic to say the least. I ordered one so I could start my very own heirloom seed vault, have an incredibly valuable seed collection in my food storage, and to plant a whole bunch in my garden this year. My plan this season is to try out several of the varieties, but not all. I want to see how the seeds do once the package has been opened. I also want to keep my heirloom seed vault of survival seeds mostly full, while I get a good system down to keep replenishing it.

This is seriously the perfect way to start your very own heirloom seed vault. The little foil packages will last forever, so even if you did plant all of your seeds in a few years, you have the packets right there to refill. Keep them all in your bucket or vault, and they are protected from the moisture, rodents, insects, or whatever else may plague your area. Zombies maybe … I don’t know.

You will know for sure that all of your seeds are heirloom, non-hybrid, non-gmo, and will be perfect for seed saving. It’s that easy guys!

You can check out the heirloom seed vault a little more RIGHT HERE. These guys actually have quite a few cool survival products. Because I had such a great experience with them the first time, I will probably be scooping up some of their water filtration and storage things next. Our well went out a little while ago, and I was reminded what a terrible prepper I am. Water is next on my list, I swear!

Did anyone else find any super cool new things while spring garden/homestead shopping this year? I really do want to hear about them. Come on, share the love!

~Farmer’s Wife

Family Life Farmhouse Garden Farmhouse Life Gardening How To's

How to start a gardening blog and make money doing it

So I have had a ton of people interested in how I make money gardening.

I LOVE to garden, it’s just what I do. So for a few years I have searched for good ways to make money doing it. I am a stay at home farm wife, with four young kids, and I help out on the farm a fair amount. So finding ways to bring in a substantial amount of income is …… well …. hard.

If you would like to see my complete list of 53 ways to make money gardening that’s not selling your fresh produce CLICK HERE.

Now I don’t want to confuse you, I DO sell my fresh produce, but I wanted people to know there are other options too.

But of everything I have tried in the last 8 years of living on the farm, blogging has brought the most money in the shortest amount of time, and I get to do it on my own hours.

I have been blogging for three shorts months now and it’s already brought in hundreds of dollars. My blog is growing by leaps and bounds, and its potential makes me so excited that I want to share it with other people like me. But my favorite part about this whole thing is that it gives new meaning to the phrase “work smarter, not harder”. Blogging is the epitome of that saying. If you do it correctly, writing a blog has the potential to bring in tens of thousands of dollars every month. Someone putting in the same amount of work hours as you, could be making nothing, if they aren’t being smart about it.

I am already gardening. I already write things down and take pictures. And I have years of experience doing something that I love and something that I am good at. Blogging about it has just added a step to my normal routine. I could have just as easily entitled this post

because that is essentially what I am doing. I garden, I write it down, I add pictures, and I share it with other people.

So if you are here reading this post, it probably means you have considered, or are considering, doing the same thing.

If you are here to learn about the technical side of starting a blog, you’re in the wrong place. I am the farthest thing from a techie you could ever find, except maybe your 65 year old dad who still writes letters as his primary form of communication…. No offense to the letter writers out there! I’m just saying that’s about where I am at on a technical level. My 6 year old son knows more about computers than I do, and we didn’t even have a computer at our house until two years ago. If you need to know the computer part of blogging go to pinterest.com and search “How to start a blog” and you will have more than enough information to get you going. So ya …. now that you know a little more about me, let’s continue!

What I do feel qualified to talk to you about is the OTHER side of starting a blog. The work it requires, and the “smart part”, not the “hard part” of blogging.

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When I first considered starting a blog, I had a few different motives.

1. One was that I wanted a place to be able to write down what my family and I were doing. I think journals are important and I needed a better way to keep myself doing that.

2. Another one was that I wanted to bring in a little more substantial “extra money”. I have a whole bunch of other side hustles that bring in extra cash, but nothing that makes more than a thousand or two a year. Upon researching a little, I discovered some people making hundreds of thousands a year blogging. Well, where do I sign up??? right!!!

3. And the third reason was that I have all this gardening and homesteading knowledge that I really really love to talk to people about, and I didn’t have a good way to share it. I truly believe that anyone can grow a garden if they are willing to learn. I also believe that there are people out there who want to know what it’s like to live on a farm. And I KNOW there are other’s out there with questions about gardening, homesteading, farming, homeschooling, and self sufficient living that I know the answer to. So I wanted to find a good way to share the secrets, tips, and strategies that I know, with people who actually want to know them.

It turns out, blogging has satisfied all three of those wants. And it all happened in a very short amount of time. Blogging has quickly turned into

and

So where do you start if you want to start a gardening blog? Well, in your garden! The best way to prepare yourself to blog about gardening is to start writing everything down and taking pictures when you do it.

People are smart. They know when you’re full of crap and they know when you’re pretending. The best advice I can give is to write about things you KNOW and things you DO.

The rule I made for myself when I started blogging was that I would only write about things I had done myself and knew to work. If you follow that rule, the things you write down will be authentic and full of emotion and passion. Your readers will love what you write because you will be sharing things that truly help them and are interesting to read about. No one wants to invest time in reading a blog where someone just regurgitated what they looked up online.

You might feel like you’re not enough of an expert on anything to create a blog about it, but you are! You just have to find out what that thing is. Maybe it’s not gardening, maybe it’s raising horses, maybe it’s coaching soccer, or maybe it’s doing laundry. Whatever it is, your readers want REAL stuff.

That’s actually one of the reasons I named my blog The Real Farmhouse. I wanted people to know that it’s not sugar coated, and I don’t write about things that didn’t REALLY happen to me. I write things I know a heck of a lot about.

Like my tomato academy. I have grown and sold tomatoes for long enough that I knew I had something to share that other people would want to know. I have tried a bunch of different varieties, all kinds of growing methods, fertilizers, cages, watering approaches, and anything else you can think of. And then on top of that, I found a way to sell them that makes me good money and doesn’t require a bunch of time. Now would I really have been able to write an 8 day e-course detailing all of that information if I hadn’t ever done it? Not a good one that’s for sure!

So when you are trying to decide what to write about, keep that in mind. And also remember that “it’s not about the quantity, it’s about the quality”. Man, I am full of all sorts of quotes today aren’t I?

Would you rather read a blog that has 100 posts with pretty good information, or 10 posts with “knock your socks off” information? Ya …. that’s what I thought.

Once you figure out what to write about, and you start writing down what you’re doing and taking good quality pictures of it, then you can start creating your vision for your blog.

What do you want it to look like?
What do you want your readers to get out of it?
Do you want to make money from it?
How much time do you want to spend on it?
What are your long term goals for it?

I found it really helpful to write things on paper, and actually draw pictures of what I wanted things to look like. That’s probably because of my general lack of know how when it comes to computers, but it really helped me make a plan. Then when it came time to create my site, I had a good idea of what I wanted to do, what categories I would have, and how I wanted things to look.

However you decide to do it, make a plan. It will save you time, headaches, and money.

Now I am also going to assume that you want to make some money with your blog.

There are a lot of conflicting opinions about this part. Some people think everything should cost money, some think nothing should cost money, and some people don’t really care.

First, let me tell you my thoughts, and then you can decide how you feel about it. I felt like with a gardening blog, it was better to offer all of the information for free. I didn’t feel like the people looking at my stuff were people that would want to pay big money learning how to grow a tomato. In general, gardeners are of a more frugal nature, and therefore are not going to be too excited to pay money for gardening information.

Also, I am happy to offer the information that I have for free, because I wanted a dedicated following that would come to me for all of their gardening needs. One of my original purposes of the blog was to share my knowledge remember??

That being said, there are other topics that would be more suited to charge for the information. It’s entirely up to you to decide whether or not you will charge for some of the stuff you write or not.

On The Real Farmhouse, all subscriptions and information will always be completely free.

So now you are wondering

The short answer is ads. When I launched my blog, I simply signed up with adsense, which is an ad agency. I put a few ads on my blog and then every time someone looks at my blog or clicks on an ad, I get paid. Like this ….

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It’s an excellent way to make money and be able to offer all of your information for free.

The negative part about ads is that you have to have enough traffic coming to your blog or you’re never going to make anything. Which is why what you write is so important. See, we are circling back around now …. If you write really great stuff, more people read your blog. The more people read your blog, the more you get paid. See how that works?

Another way I am starting to make money is through affiliate ads. Again, this is awesome because you aren’t hurting your followers at all. You are in fact helping them by telling them what things are worth their money. When you have a product that you use and love, you write about it. Then you put a link on your page allowing your followers to click on the product that you are recommending, and you get paid a tiny percentage of the sale because you’re “the salesman” that sold it.

I only promote a few things because I want my readers to know which products are the most valuable to me. If I put a thousand affiliate links on my blog, it would become obvious real fast that I was just trying to get them to buy things. Remember how smart people are? Yep, they will figure it out. So another rule to always follow is never sell something to your audience that you don’t absolutely love and would recommend to your best friend.

There are many other ways to make money with your gardening blog but remember, I only write about things I KNOW. And the two ways that I know are through ads and affiliates.

The last thing I want to tell you in this forever long blog post is how to get your stuff out there. You can’t just start with no following and expect people to come find you. But I will say that if you do it the “smart way”, not the “hard way”, that it doesn’t have to take years for your following to grow.

I use one thing to spread my information, and one thing only. And that is Pinterest.

If you write quality information that people like, and then create pictures that are nice to look at, then people will spread your information for you.

I am sure there are other platforms that would work just as well, but Pinterest is the only thing that I have used, and my blog has exploded with growth because

I never publish anything that I am not super happy with and that I know will help people
I write a title that grabs peoples attention
I take my own pictures and make them look incredible so people want to share them

That’s it. The internet will do the work for you if you can get the ball rolling.

So after all that, do you still want to start a gardening blog?

I can honestly tell you that I have loved blogging. If I didn’t have to deal with the technical part of it, I would love it even more. But hey, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses right?

If this was helpful to you and you would like to know more about garden blogging please shoot me an email at farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com and tell me. I would be happy to write more blog posts about it if it was of interest to you.

Also, if you are interested in my area of expertise the Tomato Academy, then CLICK HERE to read The Tomato Freaks Guide to choosing, growing, and selling “high end” tomatoes.

Good luck with your new blog!

~Farmer’s Wife