Archive for "Sustainable Lifestyle"
Sustainable Canning Jars
I got a pressure canner for Christmas 2010 and for the last 9 months I’ve been canning meat almost weekly. Sometimes I’ll do 3 batches in one day so I’ll have a month’s …
Rainwater Harvesting
The center area of our land is fairly flat and clear. We’ve decided a section of this will be our primary homestead area in the next year or two.
We’re not moving the camper over there until we’ve got a well, so that we can have …
Bulk Food Storage Tips and Ideas
So today is a small grocery shopping day and I organized my pantry, then got to thinking about food storage, rotation and various other related things.
The above picture is what I think of as my “back pantry.” It holds primarily bulk goods and extras — flour, …
Pallet Garden Fence
As part of my ongoing struggle to protect my food gardens from critters, I decided to try building a pallet garden. Technically it’s a pallet garden fence and while it’s too soon to tell how the plants will fare inside of it, I like it …
Protecting Tomato Plants from Critters
In one of my earlier writings, I mentioned several challenges we’ve had with trying to grow food in the desert. One of the most frustrating in our first year here has been the critters. We have bunny rabbits that run around, I’ve seen at least one jack rabbit, and …
Canning Meat
Photo 1: Regular cooked ground beef
Photo 2: Making Meatballs for the second try.
Photo 3: Left to Right: Chicken (raw packed), Ground Turkey Meatballs, Ground Beef Meatballs
I don’t use refrigeration or freezing for my food, so one of …
Canning Dry Beans
My parents in law got me a pressure canner for Christmas and yesterday I canned beans. I have to say I am now hopelessly hooked and in love!
I’ve never seen anyone use a pressure canner before and never used one myself either, but I’ve been studying …
Bottled Butter: My First Try
And it was successful! 
Some people call it canning butter but I call it bottling because I’m putting it up in canning jars — glass bottles — to be kept in the pantry.
Butter hasn’t ben on sale lately so I finally broke down and bought …
Beginner Emergency Food Storage
If you’ve been thinking about starting your own grocery stockpile, you probably wonder where to start. The answer varies based on you, your family, and your goals. Many survivalists, preppers and mormons feel the best approach to building up a solid supply of …
Eggs In The Pantry
When you live without refrigeration, you start looking for alternate ways to keep certain types of food. I’ve always been a little confused when people talk about eggs, butter and various fruits or veggies as perishable foods because in my experience that’s not …
Stockpiling, Prepping & the Art of Coupons
Food is a security blanket for me. I don’t eat for comfort, I just need to know there’s plenty of food available whenever it’s wanted.
When I was growing up, stockpiling food was common sense and good money management. We lived on food stamps much of the time and I have …
Challenges Growing Food in the Desert
We’ve been living on the land now for five and a half months, and I quickly discovered growing food was going to be one of my biggest challenges in this adventure. The soil is viable and things grow just fine, but there are a number of critters that want the …
Kitchen and Toilet Composting
Composting: An easy way to dispose of all organic waste 
We are composting kitchen, yard and garden, as well as toilet waste. I decided to separate the toilet composting from the kitchen and garden compost piles because I want to let the toilet compost age one to two …
Corn Sprouts & New Plantings
I got my very first corn sprout Wednesday. I found three actually, one was almost an inch up while two others had just peaked their tips through the soil surface.
I haven’t done a great job tracking my planting dates and …
Our Very First Tree
W’s dad brought us our very first tree today! It’s an orange tree–Citrus sinensis ‘Trovita’–about two feet tall and a couple of beginning blossoms are already on it. The flower blooms are small and white, and they have a rich, heady scent …