Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Homestead Blog Hop 41

Homestead Blog Hop every Wednesday featuring real food recipes,
natural health remedies, DIY, crafts, Gardening Tips, and more...Welcome to the Homestead Blog Hop!

I don't know about where you are, but our summer has been extremely hot and busy. There have been very few days in the past month where the heat index was lower than 105. Some days the heat is so intense that it will take your breath away. Our garden is doing fairly well, but I know others who have not been so lucky. 

I hope this finds you well. Now it is time to take a little break and enjoy some good writing. 

Now on to the hop...

Homestead Blog Hop will take place every Wednesday and is for all things homesteading: real food recipes, farm animals, crafts, DIY, how-to's, gardening, anything from-scratch, natural home/health, self-sufficiency, self-reliance, natural remedies, essential oils, & more! Basically anything related to homesteading.

Meet and Follow Your Hosts!





Featured Posts from the Last Homestead Blog Hop

Each week we will choose three posts to feature.Each post will be shared on all social media platforms by all of the hosts! Here are the features from Last Week's Hop:
Oak Hill Homestead Featured on the Homestead Blog Hop1. Making The Perfect Green Smoothie From Oak Hill Homestead
Homesteading Hippy Featured on Homestead Blog Hop2. Canning Dried Beans from The Homesteading Hippy
Congrats! Feel free to grab the featured on button for your post.
Just right click and 'save image as...'
Homestead Blog Hop every Wednesday featuring real food recipes,
natural health remedies, DIY, crafts, Gardening Tips, and more...
Guidelines for this Get-Together:
                   
  1. Click on the “Add your Link” Button below and add a great image of your project or recipe. Make sure you link to the page of your family friendly post – not the main page of your blog!
  2.                
  3. Try to visit at least a few other blogs at the party. Be sure to leave a comment to let them know you stopped by!
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  5. Please link back to this post somehow (a text link is ok). This is one thing we look for when choosing who to feature. We will share on all of our social media.
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    Sunday, July 26, 2015

    The Time and Money Conundrum



    Everything you want to do in life involves time and money. This is true no matter what you are thinking about. If you are like we are, you have found a sad situation where when you have the money you don't have the time and visa versa. We are going to talk about what I have come to name The Time and Money Conundrum.

    You can homestead relatively inexpensively, but when you do it takes a long time to get things done. A good example is you can move the same amount of dirt with a pick, shovel, and a five gallon bucket as you can with a bulldozer but not in the same amount of time. We a people who are longing for a more self sustainable lifestyle have to be able to balance these two critical aspects of life.

    What to do if you have neither time nor money?


    If you are in the situation where you don't have the time or money is there still anything you can do? Yes there sure is.For some this step is just as satisfying as the actual work, for others this a a plague that must be endured. I call this the planning and development stage. In this stage you will have to be completely honest with yourself.

    Everyone should spend at least a little time in this step, but some will have to be here longer than others. That is okay, as long as you are working toward your goals you have nothing to be ashamed of.

    Priorities


    This is a step that you never truly finish and coincidentally, this is where my wife and I have the most difficulty. As of right now we both have jobs in which there is no lack of opportunities to work. I have overtime almost every single week and she works at three hospitals so there are always people who want her to come in and work for them. This is great for the budget, but it is hard on the day to day responsibilities of not only the homestead but also the relationship. I know it is difficult to turn down the extra money, but unless you are doing it short-term and for a specific goal, many times the you may find it is not worth the strain on your body and your life in general.

    At some point everyone has to learn to say no or we become a slave to our commitments and by extension to others.

    Developing a Budget


    I put this one first because it can determine all of the subsequent steps. This is where you find out exactly how much money you earn and how much you spend. Not only that but you will learn where you spend the money you do get.

    I am not one of those people that necessary believe that everyone has to have a perfectly structured budget where you not only know dollar amounts, but also percentages of net income for each category. They do help many people, but if we are honest there are some that if they had to do that would quit right there and never take another step.

    Once you have a full understanding of how much money you make and how much you spend you can start making an action plan. You may have to reduce spending, you may even have to cut luxuries. If that is all you have to do, count yourself blessed. There are many that find they are in the negative financially each month. If you fall into this category you will have to spend more time in steps one and two.

    If you find that you have little or no money left,  there are still things you can do to advance your homestead dreams, you will just need to realize that it is going to take longer. You will also want to consider using Dave Ramsey's debt snowball system, it works but it takes discipline.

    Overtime and Second Jobs


    If you happen to work somewhere where overtime is available, you may want to take advantage of some. In the US overtime pays 1 1/2 your base rate of pay. If no overtime is available you may have to take a second job. Both of these options should be temporary. It is very easy to get dependent on this extra money. This extra money can be set aside for projects or used to pay down bills.



    Time Assessment


    Steps two is determining how much time you have to invest in your dream. Time cannot be stretched or created. There are only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. It doesn't matter how much we wish we could change that. Time and money are both mutually exclusive resources. What I mean by that is once you spend 10 minutes on a project you can never get those minutes back and you cannot spend them on anything else. Money is the same way once you spend it, it is gone forever. You can get more, but you will never have that resource again.

    Like money, when you are doing your time assessment you have to be completely honest. If your job is like mine, you cannot just schedule 8 hours a day. I have to work till the job is done. Some days it is only 8, some days it is 16. In that situation you will have to run an average. This average cannot be based on a single week either. It needs to be based on a minimum of a month.  Right now my workday averages about 11 hours. That is what I have to consider. You also have to schedule sleep time. I strongly recommend scheduling 8 hours of sleep time each day. It doesn't matter if you don't normally stay asleep that long. My wife during her work week might get 6 hours of sleep per day, but she will still lay there and rest the other two hours.  Just right there we are to 19 hours. That only leaves 5 for all of the other things we actually want to do. On top of that I have to have time to eat, spend time with the family, write, make videos, work in the garden, cook, can, and relax. So you see I can really relate to not having time.

    There are two extremes when it comes to time. There are those like my wife and I, that cram as much as possible into the time we have. Our daughter has asked if we are workaholics. Then there are others who never have time and appear to have not accomplished anything. Neither of these is preferable. Something we have had to work on is making sure that we have relaxation time. This time doesn't have to be everyday, but it does have to be fairly often.

    How to set up your homestead


    Now that we have talked about finding out just how much time and money you have to put into a homestead, we are going to cover how to set up a homestead that fits which resource you have the most. You can set up a homestead where you don't have to spend a lot of time or money but not both. I am going to talk about the extremes on both sides. I will cover both of the following in greater detail in a later post and will link them all together.

    Capital Intensive


    Most commercial farms are set up like this, but you can do this with a self reliant homestead as well. Things like automatic waterers, feeders, using landscape fabric or in my case cardboard and mulching your garden can really reduce the amount of time you have to spend on the day to day duties of a homestead.
    All of the infrastructure of a homestead can be installed. There are even companies that specialize in agricultural applications.

    Labor Intensive


    Almost everything that can be done with technology can be done manually.  Remember throughout most of history most wells were hand dug. Doing things manually is much less expensive, but it takes a lot longer.
    The are several projects that can be completed with just basic tools and the only cost is your time. You can put in a garden with just sweat and hard work. Irrigation systems, if you do them yourself, do not have to be expensive.

    Somewhere In Between


    Most of us fall somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. Some projects we work through with blood, sweat, and tears, others we save up money to be able to pay someone to do the work for us.

    Goals


    After you have determined the amount of time and money you can dedicate to your homestead dreams the next step is to set some goals. Everyone will tell you to set short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals.
    It is important to set goals, but I for one believe that if you set too high goals it is easy to get frustrated and give up. It is better to have several goals. Some of which should be able to be accomplished in just a week or two. The rest should be gradually increasing in difficulty.

    A short-term goal can be anything from growing a certain percentage of your family's food or making homemade salsa from your garden.

    Just do something


    Homesteading is just like anything else. You are guaranteed to never succeed if you never get started. Every step matters.

    Bringing Rural Back

    Have something to add to this topic join the Forum on The Rural Economist. If you would like to contribute to the conversation we would love to have you join us. It is brand new, but I am sure it will grow. 



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    You can like The Rural Economist on Facebook follow on The Rural Economist on Gplus. We now have a YouTube channel and we cover all sorts of things. Hop on over and check them out, oh and don't forget to subscribe. I have just joined Instagram if you would like you can follow us HERE. We will be sharing several things over the next year, I hope to see you there. 

    Check out The Rural Economist on Pinterest

    Affiliate Link Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive compensation for links, endorsements, testimonials, or recommendations for any products mentioned on this blog. If you see something you are interested in, check them out. Thanks for your consideration.






    Wednesday, July 22, 2015

    Homestead Blog Hop

    Homestead Blog Hop every Wednesday featuring real food recipes, natural health remedies, DIY, crafts, Gardening Tips, and more...

    Welcome to the Homestead Blog Hop!

    Sometimes things that happen are just a blessing. We at The Rural Economist are so thankful to be able to be a part of the Homestead Blog Hop. There is so much to learn and the best way to learn is from each other. I am looking forward to learning from the other members of the hop. 


      Now on to the hop... Homestead Blog Hop will take place every Wednesday and is for all things homesteading: real food recipes, farm animals, crafts, DIY, how-to's, gardening, anything from-scratch, natural home/health, self-sufficiency, self-reliance, natural remedies, essential oils, & more! Basically anything related to homesteading.

    Meet and Follow Your Hosts!

    Kelly - Simple Life Mom (Facebook/Pinterest/Twitter/G+) Jennifer - Homesteading on Grace (Facebook/Pinterest/G+) Amanda - Idlewild Alaska (Facebook/Pinterest) Lindsey - Chickadee Homestead (Facebook/Pinterest/Instagram) Bonnie - The Not So Modern Housewife (Facebook/Pinterest/Twitter/G+) Gregg - The Rural Economist (Facebook/Pinterest/Twitter/G+/Instagram)

    Featured Posts from the Last Homestead Blog Hop

    Each week we will choose three posts to feature.Each post will be shared on all social media platforms by all of the hosts! Here are the features from Last Week's Hop:
    This Fox Kitchen Featured on the Homestead Blog Hop
    1. Cauliflower Carrot and Apple Salad From This Fox Kitchen
    Purposefully Simple Featured on Homestead Blog Hop
    2. Homemade Garlic Pepper Spray from Purposefully Simple
    Homesteading on 4D Acres Featured on Homestead Blog Hop
    3. 5 Steps to Growing Pumpkins by Homesteading on 4D Acres
    Congrats! Feel free to grab the featured on button for your post.
    Just right click and 'save image as...'
    Homestead Blog Hop every Wednesday featuring real food recipes, natural health remedies, DIY, crafts, Gardening Tips, and more...
    Guidelines for this Get-Together:
    1. Click on the “Add your Link” Button below and add a great image of your project or recipe. Make sure you link to the page of your family friendly post – not the main page of your blog!
    2. Try to visit at least a few other blogs at the party. Be sure to leave a comment to let them know you stopped by!
    3. Please link back to this post somehow (a text link is ok). This is one thing we look for when choosing who to feature. We will share on all of our social media outlets.
    Let the Party Begin!

    Friday, July 17, 2015

    Why Homestead?



    I have found that we have reached a point that we are truly seeing divulging cultures in our country and I have heard that this is true is several areas around the world. There are those of us who wish to be as self sustainable as possible and there are those that think we are nuts. We have recently talked about how in several areas that trying to be self reliant is at a minimum frowned upon and in some areas even illegal. We have talked about why groups would want to discourage an individual or group from trying to become more self sufficient. Today we are going to talk about some of the things I have heard these people say and our response, we are also going to talk about reasons we should be as self sustainable as possible and some answers we can give the naysayers.

    What the people say that do not understand

    Homesteading is so much work

    You know what? Homesteading is a lot of work, but I can say at least for me it is worth it. It doesn't matter if I am gardening, foraging, hunting, or fishing, just being out there and experiencing the soil is almost spiritual. I can think of no better way to get to know the creator than spending time in his creation. You can watch nature shows on television all day every day, but it will never be the same as if you experience it yourself.

    Homesteading costs more that buying at the grocery


    To this one I give a very soft maybe. Can gardening be more expensive that purchasing all of your produce at the store? Yup sure can, especially if you are doing everything the way the "experts" are telling you to. Think about it. You have to have a tiller. You have to have raised beds. You have to use chemical fertilizer. You have to use pesticides. You have to use organic fertilizer. You have to use insecticidal soaps. If I were just starting out, my head would quickly start hurting from all of the opposing ideas. Find someone you like, who lives either close to you or in an area similar to where you live. Emulate them, start small.

    I know there are people that cannot do anything without jumping in with both feet. That is great if you are that kind of person. Most people however, are not. It is easy to get overwhelmed. Starting small is my best advice for anyone on just about any subject.

    You mean you kill your own animals for food?

    This is one that both confuses and bugs me. I have had people ask me this while eating something they picked up at the local burger joint. We as a society have become so far removed from what reality is that we have a warped perception of the world. If we are going to eat meat, someone has to kill an animal. I will tell you straight up that I eat meat. I have not qualms with those who choose not to eat meat. 

    When I harvest an animal, I know how that animal lived. I know how it was kept and how it was fed. Plus, all food tastes better when you know how it was raised.

    Homesteading takes so much time


    Again, this one is actually a fair observation, but with a wrong perspective. The time spent, can have a therapeutic effect. This is especially true if you work in an office. Our bodies were designed to be placed under stress through physical exertion. Getting out there and having a good honest sweat is good not only for the body but also for the soul. If this were not true gyms would not be a multi million dollar industry. Sorry, I just do not see a lot of homesteaders needing to go to the gym.

    Why I homestead

    The Food Tastes Better


    For those of us who grow any of our own food, we know the difference instantly between home grown and commercial grown vegetables. Commercial growers do not select varieties based on flavor. They select them based on shelf life, appearance and trans-portability. That means they will select a tomato that has little to no flavor because, once picked it will not go bad for a couple of weeks. 

    I still run into people who question the sanity of homesteading. Some will come up will any and every reason they can to discourage you from homesteading. But one taste of fresh vegetables most are shocked.


    Greater Independence


    We do not grow all of our own food. We just can't on the amount of land we have, not to mention there are lots of foods we like that just will not grow here, but if we had to we could get by on what we can produce. There is just something liberating about being able to provide at least some of your own food, really being able to provide some of your own anything. 

    Let's look at an Idaho potato. That potato starts somewhere where they grow seed potatoes. The seed potato is then sold to the farmer. The farmer grows the potatoes then sells them to a wholesaler or distributor. The distributor then ships the potatoes on trucks to warehouses all around the country. The warehouses then sells them to the grocery stores warehouses, then it goes out to the individual grocery stores, before finally being available for you to purchase. Just in the example above a sack of potatoes goes through at least 7 people's or companies hands before you can even look at them. I know some of you are saying that is good for the economy (oh don't get me started on that). The truth is that the flavor and nutritional value of that potato is going down for the entire trip. Did you know the average vegetable that is purchased at the grocery store travels over 1500 miles before it reaches you home. Yum Yum.



    Greater control

    I know there are a few out there that think genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are the greatest things since sliced bread, but you are in the minority and are probably working for one of the big pharmaculture companies. Why do I call the pharmaculture? Because they are selling chemicals as food. I don't want glyphosphate soaked food. I don't want fish genetics in my tomatoes. Sorry, I just don't. I want real food.

    The control factor goes even further for me. There can be a more nefarious reason for companies wanting to patent life. I want as much control over my family's lives as possible. 

    “Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.”-Henry Kissinger

    Health and Teaching


    I have touched on this a little, but I want to delve a little deeper.  The entire lifestyle when done correctly is a healthy lifestyle. Working hard, being out in the sunlight, drinking plenty of water, and getting plenty of exercise. But there is another component, responsibility. If you don't get it done, it won't get done.

    There are lots of parents that will get their children a pet to teach responsibility. Many times the child will grow tired of the pet and the parents will have to take over its care. On a homestead the animals and plants are there for more than just enjoyment. They produce a surplus. Homesteading can be used to teach lessons about life, birth, death, sickness, investing and so much more. I honestly believe that there is no better life in which to raise children. This is going to sound strange, but I have fond memories of hog killing and chicken harvests. I hope my children will look back and say that they were glad that dad made them help produce their own food. 

    Bringing Rural Back

    Have something to add to this topic join the Forum on The Rural Economist. If you would like to contribute to the conversation we would love to have you join us. It is brand new, but I am sure it will grow. 



    Subscribe to our mailing list

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    You can like The Rural Economist on Facebook follow on The Rural Economist on Gplus. We now have a YouTube channel and we cover all sorts of things. Hop on over and check them out, oh and don't forget to subscribe. I have just joined Instagram if you would like you can follow us HERE. We will be sharing several things over the next year, I hope to see you there. 

    Check out The Rural Economist on Pinterest

    Affiliate Link Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive compensation for links, endorsements, testimonials, or recommendations for any products mentioned on this blog. If you see something you are interested in, check them out. Thanks for your consideration.






    Tuesday, July 14, 2015

    Gardening Update and Interesting Observations



    In the past I haven't done real well on letting you know how my experiments have gone in the garden. I would reference them in another post, sometimes even a year later, but I haven't gone into detail on the good and bad. That isn't good. This year I am going to do just that.

    Weeding in the garden has been a breeze. The cardboard has worked great.  We have had to water a lot more than I would have hoped, we have been really dry. Even with the lack of rain, none of the plants have wilted. Just pulling back the mulch a little shows the soil is still damp.

    I am actually thankful our garden is smaller than normal. My job has ramped up and I wouldn't have time for much more.

    An Interesting Observation


    Our primary garden has not had really any insect problems. In fact only one plant has shown any sign of insect damage and it was on the outer edge.

    We have tommytoes and Roma tomatoes in a much smaller bed on front of the house. These plants have not been so lucky. I have pulled 23 tomato worms out of a bed that is only 4 foot by 8 foot. 

    We planted flowers in with the tomatoes just like the main garden. The only major differences are location and this bed was not mulched. At this point, I cannot say that the cardboard and mulch are what is causing the difference, but that appears to be the case.

    When dealing with these tomato worms, we used no chemicals. All I did was go to this bed every day and look over the plants, removed the worms, and dropped them in a bowl of water and dishwashing soap. After doing this for several days in a row, we have had no more problems.

    What perplexes me about this observation is the fact that tomato worms do not come from the ground. They are the larva of a moth. If they came from the ground I could explain the difference, but at this point I have not rational reason for this. If you see a tomato worm that looks like below, leave it alone and let it live. The white eggs on the back of this tomato worm are actually from a wasp that is a predator of the tomato worm.


    Even though our garden is small this year, our harvest is looking promising. I am looking forward to homemade spaghetti sauce and homemade ketchup. Talk to you soon.

    Bringing Rural Back

    I would like to hear your thoughts on this subject. Let me know either in the comments or on the forum.

    Have something to add to this topic join the Forum on The Rural Economist. If you would like to contribute to the conversation we would love to have you join us. It is brand new, but I am sure it will grow. 



    Subscribe to our mailing list

    * indicates required


    You can like The Rural Economist on Facebook follow on The Rural Economist on Gplus. We now have a YouTube channel and we cover all sorts of things. Hop on over and check them out, oh and don't forget to subscribe. I have just joined Instagram if you would like you can follow us HERE. We will be sharing several things over the next year, I hope to see you there. 

    Check out The Rural Economist on Pinterest

    Affiliate Link Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive compensation for links, endorsements, testimonials, or recommendations for any products mentioned on this blog. If you see something you are interested in, check them out. Thanks for your consideration.