It's snowing furiously outside at the moment. It probably seems crazy to think about gardening this time of year, but this is when we start to plan for the upcoming season. Where we live, the growing season us typically from the end of May til the end of September. Gardening, like most things worth doing, … Continue reading Time to think about gardening!
green
Preserve Razors: Good for the environment and cheap too!
We're constantly surprised just how much disposable razors cost. They must be made of gold and silver given the prices of the blade refill packs! In our opinion, the pricing structure really encourages consumers to keep buying the razors anew since it's usually less expensive than buying the refill packs. So much for re-use! On … Continue reading Preserve Razors: Good for the environment and cheap too!
Tips for reducing your electric bill by up to 30%
Here in PA, we're ever so fortunate (sarcasm) to be headed into a new era deregulated electricity. Our utility provider (PPL Electric) has announced that they expect most residential electric bills such as ours to rise about 30%-32%! Somehow, this is supposed to be a help to our electricity cost. We've not figured that out … Continue reading Tips for reducing your electric bill by up to 30%
Why water-saving shower heads are a good investment
Many people might not think to look at their showers as being a source of potential energy and cost savings. That's unfortunate, because there's money to be saved in the shower along with natural resources too. Consider the following scenario: Here's the simple math for a family of four each taking a 7 minute with … Continue reading Why water-saving shower heads are a good investment
Backyard Garden Chicken Coop
We get quite a few questions about our chicken coop from time-to-time, so we thought we'd put together a post with some pictures of our chickens in their home environment. Choosing the location We thought long and hard about where we wanted our chickens on our property, and in what kind of place we wanted … Continue reading Backyard Garden Chicken Coop
Harvesting Broccoli
Today we pulled our first head of broccoli out of the garden for our dinner. We thought it would be a good topic to cover. Knowing when the broccoli is ready There are a few ways to determine when broccoli is ready to harvest. First, it must have a head of broccoli of course! Second, … Continue reading Harvesting Broccoli
Finishing the Root Cellar
When we moved into our house years ago, we had no idea that we had a root cellar. From our point of view, we had a wet, nasty closet area off our foundation that needed to be cleaned up and made to stop leaking. Needless to say, as we came to understand the value of … Continue reading Finishing the Root Cellar
Falling off the roost
A few days ago, we experienced our first dose of the reality of caring for small animals. It all started when one of our hens started exhibiting some strange behavior. The kids came in the house exclaiming "I think Risa's dying!". She had fallen off the roost in the coop and hadn't landed well. She … Continue reading Falling off the roost
Adding kitchen waste to your garden without composting – should you do it?
We've seen many people skip the compost process and place their kitchen waste directly into their garden. While this won't kill your plants, there's some things to consider when taking this approach. Among other things, one of composts' benefits is providing nitrogen (N) to the plants in your garden. The process of composting is actually … Continue reading Adding kitchen waste to your garden without composting – should you do it?
Using dandelion roots as a coffee substitute
We've had a growing interest this summer in foraging and the use of wild edible plants. While cleaning up the garden today for the upcoming fall/winter, we decided to use some of those pesky weeds that have infiltrated our vegetable garden. Roasted coffee substitute, here we come! We thought about pan-frying or sautéing the dandelion … Continue reading Using dandelion roots as a coffee substitute
The Intrepid Homestead 