Life skills and tips for living on a homestead
Over the last two years of exploring with cheese making, I have come to find the excitement of all the different cheeses you can make and that the “left-overs” of one cheese can actually make another cheese! Everything seems to build off of each other when you are making things with dairy products. The leftovers …
How to Make Whey Ricotta: Step-by-Step Guide with Pictures Read More »
There is something very satisfying about making your own cheese. Whether it’s just a basic soft cheese or a perfectly aged cheddar cheese, it’s just a beautiful feeling of achievement. For my husband and I, it was a lot of trial and error. We use raw milk from our milk cow and we have had a lot …
How to Make Farmhouse Cheddar Cheese- Step by Step Pictures (& Raw Milk Tips) Read More »
It’s wintertime on the ranch. The time of year where things slow down and we take more time to ourselves, not as many projects to do and the days typically consist of waking up later than usual, feeding cows, doing one or two projects then enjoying the evening curled up on the couch reading a book that …
In 2010 my life changed forever… I said goodbye to the suburbs, college life and packed my car and took a 24 hour road trip to the land that I would call my new home; Rockville, Oregon. 45 miles from the closest grocery store, hospital and to most people, civilization. As I settled down into …
I present you, a guinea: This is not your typical bird and most people have never seen or heard of them, but I’m becoming convinced that they are the best kept secret for gardeners and people with bug infestations. I came upon guineas when I was trying to find a natural method for bug control …
I apologize for not posting a new story in quite a while. Summer is just a busy time. Right now my hands are full with a bummer lamb. A bummer lamb is a lamb that it’s mother either: didn’t accept it, the mother died, or had health problems; in this case the mother had a nasty case …
I have never been so happy in my life to see spring. Everyone has had a hard winter this year, but I had never noticed how excited I was to see spring until this year. Our entire living is based off of grass. Without grass we wouldn’t be able to be ranchers in this part …
Right now Sean and I have successfully raised meat sheep, cows, and pigs. After watching the documentary “Food Inc.” we decided that we would like to try to raise meat chickens since we are not very fond of the way meat chickens are raised. So we decided to split 50 meat chicks with his family …
Ever heard of a packrat? Most of us associate this name immediately with a person who collects way too much stuff and is unwilling to throw anything away. The funny thing is, is that not many people know (or believe) that a packrat is actually an animal; a rat! They are native to the western side of …
The biggest packrat ever! And I’m not talking about a person! Read More »
It might be hard to believe… But some people still heat their house with fire. Fire! The ancient technique of making heat, vastly outnumbered these days by automatic systems that turn on when the temperature of the house falls below a certain point. Wow, that is some great technology and I’m not against it in …