There can be some confusing information about seeds when choosing to plant a garden. Who would have ever thought there could be so much strong opinion and controversy surrounding the kind of seeds we plant in our gardens! If you've shopped for seeds, you may have noticed several terms related to the type and origin of … Continue reading Open-Pollinated, Heirloom, Organic, or Hybrid – I’m confused!
sustainable
Time to think about gardening!
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!
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%
Kefir: The dairy “swiss army knife”
One if the things we're interested in doing is maintaining a good variety of healthy foods, but in a way that is affordable and sustainable. At this time, due to where we live, we cannot get a cow or goats for milk. Despite this, we still want to be able to produce simple dairy products … Continue reading Kefir: The dairy “swiss army knife”
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
Our principles for emergency preparedness
The following are some principles that we've learned, pondered, and/or developed in the area of preparing for the unexpected - particularly for disasters or long emergencies. It's not a complete list and we're likely to update it as often as new principles begin to emerge in our thinking. Fear Not Fear leads people to make … Continue reading Our principles for emergency preparedness
Emergency Preparation: Water Strategy
A friend and reader recently posted a comment regarding our recent post, "it's more than just flashlights and duct tape" asking how we handle securing/storing water. Here's the comment: "I’m assuming you have a well. Any advice on stockpiling for those of us who have city water? Water jugs?" As we pondered our response, it … Continue reading Emergency Preparation: Water Strategy
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
The Intrepid Homestead 