Homestead Living and Livestock

Spring Lambing Season with Finnsheep

By Cindy Dayton

Spring lambing season is always a time of anticipation with a bit of angst. Let me tell you how we lamb with as little intervention as possible.

Clearing Land with Pig-Headed Determination

By Jo deVries

Homestead pigs provide challenges for fending and transport. But raising meat animals with love and gratitude offers many rewards.

When Homesteading Hurts

By Carrie Williams Howe

Homesteading can be challenging when our bodies don't work as well, but sometimes we homestead BECAUSE we need a different lifestyle for our health.

3 Supplemental Income Streams for a Homestead

By Amy Vaughan-Roland, Daily Crisis Farm

Disruption to my homestead’s income has sent me seeking alternatives: selling home-canned goods and unique plants as well as bartering.

Purchasing Land for Self-Sufficiency? Here are a Few Considerations

By Monica White

If you're considering purchasing land to support a self-sufficient lifestyle, slow down and do the necessary homework outlined here — you’ll actually be closer to homestead happiness.

Living Well & Wise, Episode 2 – Live Deliberately with Rob Greenfield

We revisit a past episode, where Charlotte French and Russell Mullin discuss Rob Greenfield’s journey from an average, materialistic guy to a well-known eco-activist and adventurer.

Butchering Meat: Beef, Mutton and Poultry

By John and Sally Seymour

A guide to butchering meat from a great homesteading book about self-sufficient farming includes tips on butchering beef, butchering sheep and butchering poultry. Originally published as "Farming for Self-Sufficiency: Independence on a 5-Acre Farm" in the January/February 1975 issue of MOTHER EARTH NEWS.

I Used to Be a Beekeeper

By Betty Taylor

After years of keeping honeybees, Betty Taylor began to lose 30 to 50 percent of her hives each year. In a reflective essay, she tells you what happened.