Grit

Now’s the time of year when a homesteader’s thoughts turn to wish lists: spring gardening, spring cleaning, and, yes, spring chickens. Late winter is when we take stock of our stock, and decide who needs to be culled, what new breeds to try, and how

Rebecca Martin’s editorial “A Wild Life” (September/October 2019) brought back one of my favorite wildlife memories — one that left quite an impression on me, as well as on my young son. We sat completely still as a litter of fox kits cavorted inches

Grab your seed catalogs, a pencil, and a pad of paper, because it’s time to plan the garden and buy seeds for this year’s harvest. Perusing seed catalogs and selecting the seeds you want to grow is almost as much fun as harvesting produce. To ensure

JOIN THE CONVERSATION (www.Grit.com/Laundry-Soap) Ron Main: I made laundry soap for years. It works great, and helps keep your drain pipes clear, too. Chris Immel: I’ve never been able to get grated soap to fully dissolve. Instead, I just use colorle

Do you dream of turning your farming passion or kitchen expertise into a viable, sustainable income source? You aren’t alone. Each year, many of us turn the rural-lifestyle dream into reality. Sometimes, a food business even finds you. And if you’re

Homemade soups are the perfect comfort food, satisfying even the hungriest of appetites. They offer the flexibility of cooking with what you have on hand, and there are no rules when it comes to the ingredients. Plus, soups can be made in short order

Creating a starter from scratch is simple, and ultimately marks the beginning of an ongoing relationship. It’s also the most intimidating part of the sourdough baking process, because it’s often misunderstood. Here, you’ll get step-by-step instructio

Folks say spring is right around the corner in March in my neck of the northeastern United States, but you’d be hard-pressed to prove it to me. Around here, winter can last well into April. You just have to go with it. The pellet stove will keep our

Many mushroom species that thrive on wood will fruit better on logs that are partially buried rather than stacked aboveground. The access to extra ground moisture, reduced fruiting surface area, and microclimate created by covering the logs with leav

If you need to add shelter to your homestead easily and economically, pole barns are right for you. They’re the fastest, most cost-effective way to build permanent, solid shelter to store equipment, house livestock, or function as a garage or worksho

I first stumbled into making owl boxes through a request from a local nursery here in Sonoma County, California. I was happy to jump at the chance to help, and now I’ve made upwards of 70 owl dwellings — nearly an entire avian subdivision. Expert bir

You might not know what they’re called, but you’ve probably seen them being used in myriad ways around farms: Intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) are shipping containers used primarily to transport hazardous materials. They’ve found a second life as

No fixed blade is complete without a proper sheath. A sheath will prevent your knife from accidentally cutting or stabbing you or another object when it’s not in use. It’ll also protect the edge from damage, and cushion the knife from any impact that

Reloading your own ammunition has many benefits, not least of which is a sense of self-sufficiency and satisfaction in putting meals on the dinner table with ammunition you loaded by hand. On a more practical level, reloading your ammunition will inc

When I saw our motion-sensing lights flip on outside one night, I wasn’t surprised. All manner of creatures tend to set them off, including bats, raccoons, skunks, and our own barn cats. But something that night made me roll out of my cozy bed and pe

In the following four volumes of Secrets of the Forest, author Mark Warren covers topics from survival (building shelter, starting fires, and more) to tracking animals and canoeing on an open river. No matter what your question about the outdoors is,

“Good girl, Molly, good girl.” I beamed with pride as my young chocolate Labrador retriever brought me a newly shed deer antler. Tail wagging, and charging hard, she couldn’t wait for my kisses and a hard scratch behind her ears. As Molly toppled me

We use the term “bloat” to describe how we feel after one too many tacos. But for cattle and other ruminant animals, such as sheep and goats, bloat is much more than post-meal discomfort. Bloat can escalate rapidly, and it’s often fatal if not treate