July 2023 - Page 6 of 7

14 Natural Christmas Garland Ideas To Adorn Your Homestead

Want to try some natural Christmas garland ideas? If you want to go natural with your garlands this year, then I have a few to suggest.

Christmas Garland Ideas You Can Make From Scratch

Best Christmas Garland Ideas You Can Think Of

In my quest to try and have some natural Christmas decorations added to my usual stuff, I decided that Christmas garlands should be natural too. I know it would be so much easier to buy something out of a store and hang it, but wouldn’t it be more fun if it was natural?

So if you also want to give it a try this year, then check out this round-up of things you try.

1. The Easiest and Cheapest Tree Garland

The season is getting colder by the day so I would understand if you already feel like decorating for Christmas.

The easiest garland you can ever put on your tree. It will also look good in a faux tree too.

2. Popcorn Garland

Go traditional by stringing some popcorn and cranberry. Try not to eat them up though, and remember that this Christmas garland idea is just for decor and not edible.

3. DIY Painted Pine Cone Garland

Grab some pine cone, paint, and string to make this natural garland for Christmas. It’s one of the best Christmas tree garland ideas that you’ll not regret of thinking.

4. DIY Dried Orange Garland

This DIY Christmas garland idea will not only look amazing, they will smell amazing too. Round up some oranges and get started early to come up with this amazing garland idea.

5. DIY Floral Garland

Flowers and floral scents will never go wrong for your Christmas decors. This arrangement may look a little bit for a wedding but switch the flowers into a poinsettia and it’s an instant Christmas garland!

6. DIY Felted Acorn Garland

This must be the cutest Christmas garland idea you can think of. You don’t really have to use a whole acorn, just some caps and felt will work wonders.

7. Gingerbread Letter Garland

A delicious DIY garland you can hang on your tree. It will be fun to make with your friends and loved ones, especially when you decide to bake and decorate at the same time!

8. Burlap Garland

This one Christmas DIY idea is quite unique and at the same time so adorable. So simple to make that you don’t even have to think about it and the result is stunning.

9. Magnolia Garland

It’s so easy to neglect some…

ODNI Report on Intelligence Agencies’ Data Purchases Underscores Urgency of Reform

Last month, in response to oversight efforts by Sen. Ron Wyden and EPIC’s FOIA request, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a partially declassified report by the ODNI Senior Advisory Group (SAG) on the Intelligence Community’s (IC) purchase of commercially available information (CAI). The report found that the IC is collecting increasing amounts of CAI—including sensitive information like location data—but does not know how much CAI it is collecting, what types, or even what it is doing with that data.[1] The report also found that, despite the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Carpenter v. United States, which requires a warrant for persistent location information and potentially other data, the IC has no formal, community-wide position on the issue.[2] Predictably, IC elements continue to narrowly construe the decision to allow it to purchase otherwise protected information from data brokers without a warrant.[3]

These findings underscore the urgency of the yearslong effort by members of Congress to curtail the government’s data broker pipeline. This week, EPIC, along with over forty other organizations, endorsed a bipartisan amendment—led by Reps. Warren Davidson and Sara Jacobs—to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would prohibit the government from purchasing data protected by the Fourth Amendment, such as location information and internet records. Congress should take this opportunity to close the data broker loophole, which is a key piece of this year’s reform of the warrantless surveillance ecosystem, along with the debate over reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and related authorities.

The Exploding Government Data Broker Pipeline

Law enforcement and intelligence agencies’ ability to collect personal data has been traditionally bound by constitutional restraints like the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement or statutory regimes like the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and FISA. As private companies have stockpiled personal data, including sensitive data on Americans, these agencies have increasingly turned to the private sector, purchasing Americans’ data and circumventing traditional legal processes, and without providing any transparency about the government agency procedures (or lack thereof) for protecting Americans’ privacy. This end-run around the Fourth Amendments’ protections has only grown more pervasive—and more severe—in recent years.

As the ODNI SAG report concludes, “[t]oday, in a way that far fewer Americans seem to understand, and even fewer of them can avoid, CAI includes information on nearly everyone that is of a type and level of sensitivity that historically could have been obtained, if at all, only through targeted (and predicated) collection[.]”[4] This includes location information, information about a person’s religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, health (including their mental health and reproductive health needs), political affiliations, and more. And, as the report underscores, the resulting stockpiling of this data raises significant risks of harm to an individual’s “reputation, emotional well-being, or physical safety.”[5] Examples abound of government agents abusing their access to sensitive databases, including…

24 Home Improvement Ideas For Your American Dream Home

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The Impressive Holistic Benefits of St. John’s Wort

St. John’s Wort has a long history of being used to treat depression, phobias, skin conditions, and more. Significantly, this herb is still used today by many people who suffer from the same health challenges and want to use a more natural, alternative method to treat their condition.

Let’s take a look at the history behind St. John’s Wort and evaluate the impressive holistic benefits of this long-used, much-loved herb for healing both the body and the mind. Below you will learn a brief history, how to identify this plant, a history of st. john wort uses, its physical benefits and emotional benefits.

A Quick History Lesson of St. John’s Wort

The name of this healing plant comes from the fact that it flowers around the time of St. John’s Day on June 24th and the word “wort” means “plant” in Old English. First used by the Greeks, St. John’s Wort is native to the temperate areas of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Western United States, but has been used widely around the world for centuries.

How To Identify St. John’s Wort

Growing up to three feet high, the plant is shrubby with clusters of yellow flowers. The lower sides of the leaves are dotted black. Both the flowers and the leaves are used and turned into an extract or tea, oil-based skin lotion, and most commonly, tablets and capsules.

History Of Uses

As far back as 2,000 years, St. John’s Wort was referenced for treating gastritis, gout, hemorrhage, rheumatism, and sciatica, along with the same emotional ailments that it’s used to treat today.

The scientific name is Hypericum perforatum and the plant contains several chemicals, many of which carry health benefits that have been researched, studied, and verified by the scientific community. St. John’s Wort is now commonly prescribed by medical professionals.

Do you need your herbs to grow all year long? An indoor herb garden may be just for you. https://t.co/YSLdLSYKTj pic.twitter.com/qRG5AUO0pg

— Homesteading (@HomesteadingUSA) June 14, 2016

Physical Benefits of St. John’s Wort

When applied topically, St. John’s Wort can be a benefit to many common skin conditions such as:

eczema
burns
bruises
wounds
and insect bites.
It’s also helpful in supporting healthy elastin production (reducing fine lines) and hydrating skin.

The rich concentration of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties in St. John’s Wort makes it a soothing option to ease the pain of joint discomfort and muscle aches. This popular herb can also help to decrease inflammation in the intestinal system along with the cardiovascular system.

Emotional Benefits of St. John’t Wort

EPIC Recommends Prioritizing Harms and Regulation in National AI Strategy

In comments submitted to the Office of Science and Technology Policy, EPIC urged the integration of the agency’s Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework as part of prioritizing privacy, civil liberties, and civil rights. EPIC articulated the urgent need for the government to lead by example with their own use of AI in a more responsible and transparent manner, and to provide actionable regulatory guidance to companies and agencies.

EPIC regularly advocates for commonsense regulation of AI that centers harms, recently publishing Generating Harms, a white paper analysis of the specific ways Generative AI causes harm today and what needs to be done to address them.

How to Build A Bat House

Want to get rid of those annoying mosquitoes? Hey, we can leave it to the bats! Build your own bat house and raise your own colony at home! It’s so easy you can make it in one afternoon. If you’re looking for your next woodworking project, then this is the one for you!

You might wonder why you should build a bat house. Interestingly, bats play a critical role in pollinating plants, and their appetite for mosquitoes makes a backyard more comfortable and safe.

Ideally bats would live in a natural home – like in the forest – unfortunately, forests are now being cleared. This is why building bat houses helps those bats who can’t find space in a forest.

Today, our goal is to make a dwelling for bats that mimics their natural home. Attract bats to your property with a bat house today!

Bat House Plans For Your Homestead

Building a bat house is a great way to invite unique and fascinating mammals into your backyard. It is a simple and easy project that can be done in just a few hours.

Fact: Did you know that a single bat can kill a thousand mosquitoes? Bats can kill up to 1,200 mosquitoes in an hour and often consume their body weight in insects every night, helping keep bug populations in check. Not only that, they also help pollinate plants and spread seeds.

Today, we’re going to show you how to build a simple home for bats made from supplies available at your local hardware store. Learn how to build a bat house with Outdoor Oklahoma as a fun project for you and the kids.

Materials Needed:

Quarter Sheet 3/4″ Plywood
1″ x 4″ x 8″ Cedar Plank
Plastic mesh
Galvanized Screws
Silicone Caulk
1/2″ to 3/8″ Staples
Non-toxic latex paint

How to Build A Bat House [Video]

Watch the video for the full tutorial:

Did you enjoy the tutorial on how to build a bat house? Let us know below in the comments!

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Surviving the Swarm: 7 Preparedness Tips for Dealing With Bugs Outdoors

Whether you’ve been a prepper for years or you’re just getting into it, you likely spend a lot of time outdoors, enjoying everything nature has to offer to keep you safe and sustained. But, there’s one thing we can all probably agree on – no one wants to deal with annoying or dangerous insects when they’re outside.

There are plenty of reasons to love certain bugs. Without bees, we’d have no food. Mosquitoes are pollinators, too. Spiders kill and eat bugs to keep the population down. Ants aerate the soil and disperse the seeds of native plants. It’s hard to find a bug without some type of purpose.

But, that doesn’t mean you want to deal with them buzzing around your head, stinging, biting, or swarming when you’re trying to spend some time outside. Thankfully, there are preparedness tips you can put in place to keep bugs away. You don’t necessarily have to focus on “getting rid” of insects to make sure they don’t bother you. Let’s cover a few of those tips so you can enjoy spending more time outside, especially in the summer, without having to worry about the effects of a swarm or infestation.

1. Weigh the Pros and Cons

Spending time outside is good for your mental and physical health. As a prepper, you’ll need to know the lay of the land, and how to survive in nature if a disaster ever strikes. So, spending as much time outside as possible now will benefit you in the present and future. One of the best ways to enjoy those benefits is to simply take a walk. There are countless benefits to walking daily, including:

Stronger muscles
Boosted energy
Maintained bone strength
Weight management
Better sleep
Boosted immunity
Less joint pain

Outdoor physical activity can also help to reduce stress and improve your mood. It’s a great way to stay in shape while managing your mental well-being, too. It’s hard to find a drawback that beats that!

But, it’s never a good idea to spend time outside without knowing what you might be up against. Taking a walk around the neighborhood is one thing. But, if you’re going to be exploring wooded areas, fields, or other rough terrain, understand that you could run into rodents, snakes, and plenty of insects. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, you’ll need to mentally and physically prepare yourself for dealing with those things before you hit the hiking trail.

2. Learn Insect Habits

One of the best ways to make the most of your outdoor time is to educate yourself on when bugs are most active. A lot of it depends on where you live, but you can plan some of your outdoor excursions on when you’re least likely to run into buzzing pests.
For example, you might want to spend more time outdoors in the fall when the weather starts to cool off…

Bat House Ideas Worth Hanging Around For

Looking for bat house ideas? Look no further! Check out this post as we share with you 9 bat house ideas that are worth hanging around for.

Bats are good neighbors to have around. During the day, they sleep in caves, hollow trees and attics and fly out to catch mosquitoes and moths during the night. Unfortunately, bats are currently endangered due to some factors. These factors include the destruction of roosts, loss of bat’s natural habitat, illness and hunting or killing of bats. However, with our help, we can make the world safer for them by putting up bat boxes in our backyards and get rid of mosquitoes in the process.

Bat House Ideas Worth Hanging Around For

Many people think of bats as blood-thirsty creatures that spread diseases. But, contrary to popular belief, bats are actually quite useful creatures. They play a critical role in pollinating plants, and their appetite for mosquitoes makes a backyard more comfortable and safe. They also consume millions of pests each summer.

These are just a few of the many benefits of bats. Because of this, building a habitat for bats can be a very valuable small woodworking project. So, let’s help save bats, rid your outdoor space of mosquitoes and start building your very own bat house.

Bats under the Congress Bridge in Austin have made a name and a home for themselves… Build your own bat home and see how many bats will fly your way. (source)

1. Five Chamber Bat House

This bat house has four baffles, spaced 3/4″ apart. It has five chambers when the front and back walls are added that run the full height and width of the house. Click here to read more.

2. Simple Rocket Box

Rocket boxes are usually 1 m tall, and contain concentric roosting chambers of 20 mm (3/4”) around a 4” by 4” post. The rocket box becomes wider and can house more bats if the number of square roosting chambers is increased. Installation of this bat-house style requires fixing the post in the ground as it is usually built around a post. Click here to read more.

3. Bat Condo

Image via batmanagement

This condo can house an estimated 7,000 mother bats and their young. This type of structure will offer local bats a much needed place to live, especially when they are being excluded from remodeled, old houses in the community. Click here to read more.

4. Back-to-back Bat Box

Mounting two bat houses back-to-back on a pole is ideal. This type of structure provides alternate roosts for big brown bats. Click here to read more.

…

Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Demarcation of the Limits of State Activity

Not many are aware that one of the greatest works against the encroachment of the state originates from a German thinker. As early as the late eighteenth century, Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835) raised the question of the general limits of state activity. Humboldt wrote his Ideas for an Attempt to Determine the Limits of the Effectiveness of the State in 1792. While individual sections of it appeared in the Berlinische Monatsschrift, the complete text was published in 1851 through his estate.

Principle

According to Wilhelm von Humboldt, the basic principle of the limits of state activity lies in its strict necessity. Humboldt’s theoretical considerations lead to the general conclusion that state activity must not be subject to utility but to necessity. This “principle of necessity” is derived from the peculiarity of the natural human being in its individuality. Utility, in contrast to necessity, only exists in degrees and not as a fundamental principle. If one were to start from the principle of utility, it would be possible to continually justify ever more state intervention.

Determining the limits of state activity is not only about freedom in and of itself but also about benefiting from the diversity that is inherent in human beings. Freedom is closely connected to individuality—which is inconceivable without freedom—as the development of individuality presupposes freedom. On the other hand, privacy increases as much as the scope of state action decreases. Both are interrelated. Agreeing to the expansion of state activity means restricting the realm of private life.

The state can only focus on the results and establish the rules to be followed. This leads to the problem that when the state seeks to care for the positive well-being of its citizens, the measures taken necessarily must uniformly target a mixed multitude. From these considerations, Humboldt deduces the principle: “The state should refrain from all concern for the positive well-being of the citizens and go no further than necessary to secure their safety against themselves and external enemies; it should restrict their freedom for no other purpose.”

State Intervention

The goal of all education is to foster the development of personal individuality. Individual freedom and the diversity of the experience of life are the prerequisites for individual development. Therefore, in determining the limits of state activity, it follows that “every attempt by the state to interfere in the private affairs of citizens is reprehensible unless they have a direct bearing on the violation of one person’s rights by another person.” State intervention beyond the resolution of civil disputes is illegitimate. Rational reasoning restricts state activity to those actions that prevent harm when voluntary agreement cannot be reached within civil society itself. Even if state intervention seems to be justified in terms of its function, the arbitrary use of the means of state intervention cannot be allowed.

For Wilhelm von Humboldt, it is detrimental that the state tries to increase the positive well-being of the nation, whether through public welfare, the fostering of foreign trade, or the promotion…

How to re-grow produce you bought from the store

For preppers, being frugal means adopting a mindset and lifestyle that emphasizes resourcefulness, efficiency, and careful financial management in preparedness activities.

Being frugal is about making the most of available resources and minimizing wastefulness, allowing us to optimize our preparedness efforts while being mindful of our budgets. Today’s article may seem like a novelty for some, while for others, it is nothing more than an old practice that helps them give new life to kitchen scraps.

The approach of regrowing produce from seeds found in various vegetables and fruits or rooting herbs in water and transplanting them in the garden is a tale as old as time. The availability and the abundance of produce that can be found in today’s grocery stores have made things even easier for the frugal person.

The ability to continuously regrow produce not only helps you save money, but it also becomes a survival lesson that one day may be put to good use.

Earn Your Food Independence NOW!

Using scraps

Regrowing produce from discarded vegetable parts is a sustainable practice that gives new life to kitchen scraps. Not only can you utilize scraps from your own kitchen, but you can also explore options at farmers’ markets and grocery stores. This approach minimizes waste as nothing is thrown away, and everything is repurposed.

For instance, take a peek into your cupboard and rescue any sprouted potatoes or garlic cloves that would otherwise be discarded. If you have dried beans on hand, take a handful and plant them. Similarly, if you’ve bought celery, trim the stalks about an inch or two above the base and plant the base in your garden.

By mastering the art of regrowing produce, a significant portion of the vegetables you harvest can originate from items initially purchased for consumption. Let’s explore the various options available for regrowing produce and making the most of our resources.

Growing new produce from seeds

Viable seeds can be obtained from fresh produce, and a lot of folks have tried growing their own produce using the seeds of a tasty fruit or vegetable they bought from the farmer’s market. While most of them did it out of curiosity, just to see if the seed would sprout and grow into a productive plant, others figured out how to perpetuate this practice and have a constant supply of fruits and vegetables.

Here are my favorite “experiments”:

Tomatoes

I love tomatoes, and my family eats lots of them on a daily basis, whether fresh or part of various dishes. In time, I’ve learned that regrowing tomatoes from store-bought produce is possible and can be a rewarding experience. Here are the steps to follow:

Choose a healthy, ripe tomato from the market. Look for a variety that is suitable for your climate and growing conditions.

Cut the tomato into halves or quarters and gently scoop out the seeds and surrounding pulp using a spoon. Place them in a small container.

To improve seed viability, some gardeners prefer fermenting…