Tag Archives: backyard homestead

How to save your seeds and money for next year’s garden

corn hanging to dry

Each spring, we spend quite a bit of money buying seeds, so my newly-found frugality has encouraged me to learn about seed saving. It’s a great way to save money, make your garden more of a money-saver, and it’s just so much fun to do.

Backyard homestead: Is it possible to raise a sweet rooster?

image of rooster

I’ve been reading chicken blogs, chicken forums, and following chicken Facebook groups for several years, and I’ve read some mixed reviews of keeping roosters. We had chickens a for quite a while before we made the leap and got a rooster for our flock. We accidentally ended up with two roosters (story below), and so […]

Are chickens the gateway farm animal?

I’m just going to go ahead and answer the question of my title right away: The answer is yes. It’s my belief that chickens are, indeed, the gateway farm animal. Right now, all we have on our little backyard farm is chickens, but I’ve got goat fever in a big way. Goats are next. But […]

Thinking of a vegetable garden? It’s time to plant seedlings and plan rows

Right now, our garden area is under about four feet of snow, but we’re planning our garden anyway. It’s February, so that means it’s time for us to start seedlings for the food we can get into the ground early. It’s also time for us to plan our rows, organize our seeds, and make a […]

Thinking about backyard chickens this year? Read this first.

picture of chicken

Chickens are awesome. They just are. And, as more people begin to figure this out, the word is spreading. I know many people who are considering backyard homesteading and want to start with chickens, and with good reason. Chickens are great producers of food, highly efficient, relatively easy to care for, sweet, interesting, smart, funny, […]

It’s January in Maine: Time to plan your garden

My husband and I will be embarking on our fifth organic garden journey this spring, and this year, we’re planning ahead. Every year, we learn a little more about growing our own food, and while my husband specializes in the soil preparation in early spring, I specialize in dreaming about what we will plant and […]

A chicken year in review: The best chicken stories from 2016

It seems 2016 was a big year for chickens. From chicken shaming to chicken sweaters, chickens have been in our hearts and on our minds in 2016. People all over the country are getting chickens for their farms, their backyards, and their homes. Chickens are the pets that poop breakfast, and we love them. We learned […]