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Homesteading is a lifestyle that values self-sufficiency, sustainability, and a close connection to nature. While homesteading can be a rewarding and fulfilling experience, it can also be challenging, especially when it comes to finances, maintenance, and community. However, by building a homestead community through shared resources, homesteaders can enjoy the benefits of community support and reduced costs while still maintaining their independence.

Shared resources can take many forms, including shared land, shared tools and equipment, shared labor, and shared produce. By pooling resources, homesteaders can save money, reduce their workload, and build relationships with their neighbors. In this article, we’ll discuss the benefits of shared resources, and provide tips on how to start building a homestead community through shared resources.

Benefits of Shared Resources

1. Cost Savings: Sharing resources can reduce the cost of living for homesteaders. For example, by sharing tools and equipment, homesteaders can reduce their investment in tools and equipment and avoid the costs of repair and maintenance. Sharing land and resources can also reduce the costs associated with maintaining land and infrastructure, such as fencing, water systems, and access roads.
2. Reduced Workload: Sharing resources can also reduce the workload of individual homesteaders. By sharing labor and tasks, homesteaders can reduce their workload and have more time to focus on their own projects and interests.
3. Increased Community: Sharing resources can also increase community among homesteaders. By working together on projects and sharing meals, homesteaders can build relationships and foster a sense of community.
4. Increased Support: By sharing resources, homesteaders can provide each other with support and encouragement in their homesteading journey. Whether it’s sharing knowledge and skills or offering help with a difficult project, shared resources can provide homesteaders with a support system.

How to Start Building a Homestead Community Through Shared Resources

1. Find like-minded individuals: The first step in building a homestead community through shared resources is to find other homesteaders who share your values and goals. You can find potential homesteading partners by attending local events, such as farmer’s markets or workshops, or by joining online groups and forums.
2. Define your goals: Once you’ve found other homesteaders who share your values, it’s important to define your goals and what you hope to achieve through shared resources. Some possible goals could be reducing costs, reducing workload, building community, or increasing support.
3. Develop a plan: Once you have defined your goals, it’s time to develop a plan for sharing resources. This could include sharing land, tools and equipment, labor, or produce. Consider the resources each person can bring to the community, and make sure that everyone is on the same page.
4. Communicate regularly: Regular communication is essential for a successful homestead community. Schedule regular meetings, either in person or via a virtual platform, to discuss ongoing projects, share updates, and address any issues that may arise.
5. Share skills and knowledge: Sharing skills and knowledge is an important part of building a homestead community. Encourage community members to share their skills and expertise with each other, whether it’s through workshops, classes, or informal gatherings.
6. Celebrate successes: Celebrating successes, both large…

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I open the mailbox and oh… there it is! Nothing perks me up from the winter blues more than getting the McMurray Hatchery chick catalog or a garden/seed catalog. I spend hours pouring through the pages of the catalogs and planning and plotting where I can add more chickens or growing space! I really don’t need any more birds in my flock but that will not deter me from adding at least 4-5 more this season out of our incubator. The first time I purchased chicks I ordered 50 meat birds and 50 Leghorn layers figuring I would kill at least half, being a newbie at this. Well everyone lived, including the bonus chick from McMurray Hatchery and I used some of the birds for barter for other stuff or services we needed.

The firststep to chicks is to make sure you have a secure coop for the new birds and enough space for the number of birds in your flock. Have the outside coop ready before you get your new chicks. They will be inside your home for several weeks and no matter how clean you try to keep the wood shavings the plain truth is that they stink after a while. Do your homework and read up on different breeds. Do you want layers, meat birds, or dual-purpose birds? What birds are best for your climate? I highly recommend two books from Storey Publishers: Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens and Storey’s Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds. Check out other homesteading books from Storey Publishers. Many of their books occupy space on our bookshelves.

ACQUIRING CHICKS

Chicks can be purchased at local feed stores, ordered from a hatchery to arrive by mail, incubated at home or purchased from a local breeder. Our big box feed store has chicks very early in the season as they are a southern based store and still have not gotten the idea that little chicks have no business being in Maine in February or March. Decide when you want to get the little cuties and start some preparations. We usually try to have chicks arrive by mail or incubator in the beginning of May in our northern clime. If they have been ordered from the hatchery and are arriving by mail I guarantee it will be cold and frosty that week.

McMurray is a great source for birds and I have never experienced any issues with their chicks and their customer service is excellent. I highly recommend them. They will e-mail or text message you when the chicks are mailed and you can track them across the country to your local post office. I am a worried mother the whole time they are in transport.

Our post office, which is located in another town, will call me at 6 a.m. to come get my new babies as they take them off the delivery truck. I have walked into the post office on days when hundreds of chicks have been delivered and you can hear…

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One key aspect that is often overlooked when it comes to disaster planning is the need for boredom relief. While most of us think about the essential supplies such as food, water, and medical provisions, it’s easy to forget that a crisis situation can bring with it a significant amount of downtime.

Imagine, for example, the power goes out during a blizzard, and suddenly you’re left with only the second half of your “Netflix and chill” plans. This scenario can be frustrating, especially if you have kids who will be climbing the walls in no time.

However, the issue of boredom goes beyond mere annoyance. It can lead to a wide range of problems that can affect your mental and physical health. For instance, being bored for an extended period can cause you to become irritable, anxious, and fidgety. On the other hand, it can also leave you feeling tired and unmotivated. Neither of these scenarios is ideal in the aftermath of a disaster, where you need to be alert, focused, and ready to deal with any situation that arises.

Therefore, it’s crucial to plan for entertainment and other activities that can help relieve boredom during a crisis. While stockpiling essential supplies is undoubtedly necessary, it’s also important to think about things to do when you can’t binge-watch your favorite show. For instance, you can plan on playing board games with your family or reading books that you’ve been putting off for a while. You can also consider purchasing art supplies or puzzles that can keep your mind occupied and your hands busy.

Exercise

Physical activity can be an excellent way to burn off extra energy and stay in shape, making it a valuable asset during both normal times and periods of crisis. By improving your physical condition, you’ll be better equipped to handle stress and the challenges that come with survival situations. And the best part is that you don’t need any special equipment to get started! There are numerous exercises that you can perform using just your own body weight as resistance.

One of the most effective exercises for strengthening your core is the plank, with the front plank being the most popular variation. To perform a front plank, begin by getting down on the floor in the standard push-up position. Instead of extending your arms out and resting on your hands, bend your arms until your forearms and elbows support your weight. Bring your hands together and balance on your toes while keeping your back as straight as possible. It’s crucial to keep breathing while holding the position for as long as you can.

If you’re new to planking, try to hold the position for 20 to 30 seconds at a time. Over the course of several weeks, you can gradually increase the duration to three or four minutes. Traditional exercises like push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks are also great options. Just be sure not to overdo it if…

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A decision affirming the unconstitutional nature of room scans would likely have influence beyond the Sixth Circuit, said Sara Geoghegan, legal counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Technology often develops too fast for the court system to keep up, so privacy cases like Ogletree hold weight and become useful references for other judges, she said.

Geoghegan worked on a consumer-protection complaint against five of the largest online proctoring service providers that was filed with the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia in 2020. The monitoring companies were accused of collecting excessive personal data, including biometric identifiers, and of using potentially biased artificial intelligence to detect cheating.

Read the full article here.

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The following recipe for Chocolate Drizzled Popcorn is from Mrs. Alaska. She writes:

Popcorn deserves a place in long term food storage pantries. It is inexpensive, lightweight, long-lasting, filling, and a versatile, easy snack that can be enjoyed sweet or savory, pleasing almost everyone.  Archeologists have determined that the popping form of corn was domesticated 7,000 years ago!

My family goes five+ winter months without resupply.  We maintain a good supply of popcorn.

Benefits:

• Unopened bags and containers of plain, unpopped kernels can last several years (not microwavable packages that contain oils and other flavors).  Opened packages can be poured into mason jars for longevity.
• It is inexpensive.  Plain, bulk popcorn kernels cost about $1/lb.  A meager 1/3 cup of kernels yields 7 cups of edible popcorn!  (Microwavable and flavored popcorn can cost 5x as much!)
• It is quickly and easily cooked in a covered pan on top of a stove, grill, or campfire.
• It can be flavored in many ways, with dry, long storage flavorings, such as salt, sugar, soy sauce, spices, herbs, dry powders of butter, cheese, miso, tomato, onion, garlic, or chocolate, as well as fresh ingredients.  One appealing Internet source with a variety of recipes is www.popcornity.com.
• A cup of plain, oil-popped popcorn has just 35 calories.

In my house, I favor salty, spicy popcorn with combinations of garlic, cayenne, and butter.  My husband loves the following recipe for Chocolate Drizzled Popcorn with peanuts.

Note:  make the sauce before you pop the corn, so that you can combine them when both are hot.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Corn:  pop 1/3 cup of kernels in a bit of any vegetable oil.  (Yield: 7 cups of popcorn)

Chocolate Sauce:
Melt 2 TBS butter, coconut oil or some alternative.  Over low heat, add and stir well 2/3 cup of chocolate chips or 1/3 cup cocoa and 1/3 cup honey or sugar.  If thick, add more butter so it will pour easily.

If desired, add peanuts to the sauce or add to the popcorn separately.
When the corn is popped and hot, drizzle the sauce LIGHTLY over the corn, stirring gently to coat all sides.  Too much sauce will make the corn soggy.

Spread it out on a cookie sheet or rimmed pan and place in the oven for 20 – 30 minutes to crisp up, stirring several times.

Eat immediately, or store.  Any leftover sauce can be enjoyed as an icing for cookies, brownies, or cake.

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Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this weekly recipe column, we place emphasis on recipes that use long term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven and slow cooker recipes, and any that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!

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If you go East or West from either of America’s coasts, you’ll find yourself in what are often called flyover states.  These are the states that you’d fly over when traveling from the “all important” New York and L.A.  And while many of our country’s largest metropolitan areas are on the coasts, there’s more to the middle of America than endless cornfields… dontcha know.

Automated Into Oblivion

In the age of self-driving cars and drone-delivered online purchases, much of the American heartland is getting lost.  In our quest to be ever more efficient, we’ve forgotten to go for the gusto.  That’s why we recommend you go for an old-fashioned road trip.

The old U.S. Routes that still amble on alongside the Interstates remain the best places to find good coffee, pancakes, pho, tacos and offer way more in the way of impressive landscapes and vernacular architecture. It is never not magic to stumble upon a country house in Louisiana serving up gumbo to visitors, or a lobster festival in an out-of-the-way town in Maine, or to buy perfectly in-season peaches at a fruit stand in Georgia that brushes up against the orchard where they were grown. Like art, road trips can be gruelling and often seem pointless. But like art, they can open dramatically expanded ways of understanding the context of a city, or a culture, or a country, flyover or otherwise.

Click here to read more.

Do you have any favorite road trips?  Share them with us in the comments!

 

Like Travel? Then You’ll Love:

Search travel 12 Beautiful Places To Visit This Fall

How To Travel Interstate With Your Firearm

Why We Go Outside

The Family That Sold Everything And Bought An Airstream To See The World

featured image via blog.needsupplyco

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On February 16, the Federal Communications Commission voted to proceed with its Safe Connections Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The rulemaking, which implements the requirements of the Safe Connections Act of 2022, seeks to help survivors of domestic violence separate their phone line from a shared account with an abuser, protect the privacy of calls with hotlines and shelters, and support survivors experiencing financial hardship through affordability programs.

EPIC and more than ten survivor advocacy and direct service organizations voiced support for this rulemaking, but also raised several concerns in their joint comment to the FCC’s Notice of Inquiry in August. The FCC highlighted and sought comment on many of these concerns in its proposed NPRM, including difficulty accessing identification documents, requiring a third party to “vouch” for survivor status, and on-device spyware.

EPIC advocates for laws, regulations, and policies that safeguard user privacy and protect users from technology-facilitated abuse and harassment, including actions against stalkerware developers. EPIC also filed an amicus brief urging that dating platform companies be held liable when they ignore harassment and abuse.

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Want to make your breakfast muffin healthy? If you want to try a healthy blueberry muffin recipe today, you’ve found it!

Delicious Healthy Blueberry Muffin Recipe image via

Healthy Blueberry Muffin Recipe

I’ve always loved a good blueberry muffin. I enjoy it for breakfast and pretty much anytime of the day if available. I have to admit though, the original muffin recipe that I’ve been following isn’t really that healthy. So, to try and turn to a new leaf, I’m sharing this easy and healthy blueberry muffin recipe from Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook. I’m sure you’ll start making this healthier version instead.

Watch How To Make Gwyneth Paltrow’s Healthy Blueberry Muffins via PopSugar:

 

Ingredients for Healthy Blueberry Muffins:

• 1 cup spelt flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/4 cup light agave nectar
• 2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

 

Step 1

Pre-heat your oven to 375°F.

 

Step 2

In a bowl, mix all your dry ingredients.

 

Step 3

Now, in a separate bowl, whisk all your wet ingredients: oil, soy milk, syrup and agave nectar.

 

Step 4

Now that you’ve mixed all the wet and dry ingredients well, combine them in one bowl.

 

Step 5

Time to add the blueberries! Did you know that it helps reduce belly fat? If not, now you do.

 

Step 6

 

You’re almost done! Grab your muffin pan and line it with paper liners. Divide the batter and bake until they are golden brown. It should take about 20-30 minutes.

 

 

I’m sure this will be your new go to blueberry muffin recipe. Healthy, easy and oh so delicious!

I’m also obsessed with this recipe by The Ambitious Kitchen. Blueberry Muffins are so delicious, it’s hard to choose just one version!

 

Click here to see how the Practical Prepsteader makes blueberries muffins completely from scratch. EVERYTHING is grown on her homestead, from the blueberries to the lard she uses to grease the pan.

 

What do you think of this blueberry muffin recipe? Let us know in the comments section what your thoughts are on this healthy muffin recipe. Isn’t it nice to eat like Gwyneth Paltrow?

Have any homesteading projects you’d like to share? Share it with us an we’ll give it a try. We’d love to know what you think!

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Coyotes are wiry, savvy and widespread across the American landscape. Once residents of the plains and deserts, these crafty canines have keenly adapted to modern infrastructure and are now found in nearly every state and city in North America. These scrappy omnivores will eat nearly anything—rodents, rabbits, snakes, small livestock, fruit, neighborhood garbage … and, of course, your chickens.

Coyotes are smaller than wolves and can be mistaken for domestic dogs, albeit on the skinny side. They’re very clever, as Native American folklore suggests, and they tend to form packs in the winter for easy hunting. However, it’s rather common to see individuals wandering and hunting solo or in pairs. Coyotes have a sharp sense of smell, great vision and can run up to 40 miles per hour.

Coyote Calling Card

Even if you live in a densely populated suburban neighborhood, don’t rule out a coyote in the event of an attack on your flock. Truth be told, it can be rather difficult to distinguish between a coyote attack, a fox attack or a wolf attack.

Your first clue, of course, will be which animals likely reside in your region of the country. If you notice some of the signs below following an attack, a coyote could be considered the culprit:

• missing chickens
• scattered feathers
• very few clues of an attack
• early morning attack (although coyotes may strike either day or night)
• weak, old, sick or slow birds taken first
• broken necks (Coyotes and other canines prefer to break the neck of the prey first, but they will grab any part of the chicken they can reach and make off with the whole bird.)

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Your Flock’s Defenses

Coyotes are known for digging under fences as well as scaling over them. The best defense for outdoor runs and enclosures is to erect tall, strong fences and bury heavy-duty wire mesh at least 1 foot into the ground around the run’s perimeter. Hardware cloth, not chicken wire, is recommended for coyote protection.

If you prefer not to dig around the perimeter, you may instead choose to fan out the wire mesh (also about a length of 1 foot) in an apron around the base of the enclosure’s fencing. Electric net fencing (the kind with smaller openings, rather than three continuous strands) also works well to protect pastured birds from coyotes if used intermittently.

If used daily, a coyote may learn ways to get around the fencing, jump over it, or learn the times of day when it’s not “hot.”

Read more: Here are some tips for protecting your flock against common predators.

Fearless Fox

The fox is the quintessential chicken killer. Sly, smart and savvy, foxes will assess an area before striking and will do so only after they know the coast is clear of humans and other guardians (such as guard dogs)….

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