Bovine basics for beginners
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #122 • March/April, 2010
Congratulations. You've escaped the city life and are now the proud owners of your little plot of rural paradise. It's natural to start thinking about all the possibilities...
Making Yogurt
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #132 • November/December, 2011
When you get to the point where you're milking your own cow, you'll need to figure out what to do with the excess milk. One of the easiest...
Pasteurizing milk
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #123 • May/June, 2010
In the last hundred years of urban migration, the home or small farm dairy became a lost breed. Who needed to keep a cow when it was so...
Earning money from home
By Patrice Lewis
With the economy in uncertain territory, many people are looking for ways to earn money from home, either as “pin” money or even a full-time replacement for your previous employment. What’s the...
Homestead water
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #144 • November/December, 2013
It is the most necessary of homestead requirements: water. It is literally a make-or-break resource.
There are some parts of our country blessed with an abundant and never-ending supply...
The 7 core areas of preparedness
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #133 • January/February, 2012
As I write this article, it's early September. And September, as you may or may not know, is National Preparedness Month, sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency...
Homemade pest traps
<!--
-->
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #164 • March/April, 2017
Last summer, my little compost bucket near the kitchen sink became home to a zillion fruit flies. Once they’re established, it’s devilishly hard to get rid of these...
Growing Strawberries
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #162 • November/December, 2016
As you read this, the wind may well be howling and the snow piling deep, and you're likely curled up next to the woodstove with a mug of...
Turn your passion into a business
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #150 • November/December, 2014
In 1993, my husband and I did something most people merely dream about: we chucked our professional nine-to-five jobs, left urban California, and settled in a rural home...
Once a day milking
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #99 • May/June, 2006
It sounds bucolic, doesn't it? The simple joys of milking your own cow. Fresh milk, fresh cream, homemade cheese, butter, yogurt. What can get better than that?
But when...
Raising kids simply
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #131 • September/October, 2011
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live simply? When asked what constitutes a simple life, nine out of ten people will answer something along...
Rotten Luck: The Skinny on Composting
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #141 • May/June, 2013
For much of human history, people have tried to prevent things from rotting. Literally every food preservation method we've come up with in the past few thousand years...
Introduction to water bath canning
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #172 • July/August, 2018
Water bath canning is one of only two scientifically-proven methods of preserving food in jars — the other is pressure canning, which will not be covered in this...
Advice from second-time homesteaders
By Don and Patrice Lewis
In 1993, shortly after we got married, my husband and I took a leap into the unknown. We left urban California, left our jobs, left our families, and settled in...
Dehydrating eggs at home
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #156 • November/December, 2015
Here's a trivia question for you: What do you do when your chickens are laying gangbusters and you have no less than 10 dozen eggs in the fridge,...
Animal disease traceability
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #137 • September/October, 2012
In 2009, small farmers and ranchers breathed a sigh of relief. So did people worried about another curtailment of individual liberty and those whose religious principles oppose microchipping.
They...