How Homesteaders Increase Productivity in Winter

I am linking up at Farm Fresh Tuesdays, Its been awhile but I am happy to be back at the blog hop.

During the winter I hoped to check off a lot of these things mentioned in this article about winter homesteading activities. Strengthening your homesteading skills and staying productive during the winter was the focus of this article.  There was another great article that inspired me in January and It was by the Tannehill Homestead. It was very inspiring and added to the inspiration I was feeling to be as productive as possible.

 

Now for a moment of accountability, Here is an update on how I did.

We tried cooking more meals from scratch. To do this I started by borrowing some books from the library by Danielle Walker. Her Against All Grain books had some drool worthy pictures. I have a list of recipes to try out and am currently reading one of her newer books Eat What You Love.

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We learned more about and tried dehydrating and preserving food.

Going natural

Finding myself more interested in natural remedies, I read up on and took courses in natural and herbal remedies. I made Bone broth, elderberry syrup, kombucha, Lemon and garlic oils.

Then I attempted home made apple cider vinegar. I flopped that batch. We did try out some crock pot drink recipes mentioned in this article which was linked to the above article.  I made the mulled pomegranate crockpot drink, the apple cider and hot cocoa.

Growing our own food and herbs

Together our family worked on planning our 2019 garden. I started and regrew some veggies from scraps right on our kitchen bay window.

The family spent time planning this years garden. We made a list of the vegetables we wanted to grow and  got started collecting what we needed to get the seedlings started.

We have our seedlings sprouting under grow lights in the dining room. My teen son was even inspired to start growing some herbs and plants and his own set up of seedlings under grow lights.

Poultry

As a family we discussed plans for 2019’s poultry flock. We talked about  what birds we wanted to buy. Also we discussed  what to hatch. There was  some re-planning our coop  set ups.

Getting Crafty

I tried my hand at knitting and crocheting. This kept my hands busy and out of the snacks. This was a good way to avoid overindulging. Some of my projects turned out useable. It was the effort that matters.

One of the projects was I  had fleece scraps  set aside to make  lap blankets for hospice. I  wanted to make a rag rug. We have recycled T shirts into T Shirt yarn for this. I didn’t get to the rag rug. Felting was fun with the exception of all the needle pokes to my fingers. I made a couple of little felt animals.

I had hoped to work with my woodworking hubby to make a few habitats for the yard for bees, butterflies, frogs, bats etc.. We did not get that far down the list. I do hope to put these in our yard this year.

Making Body and Pet care products

In our pantry we  have a supply of lard. I had planned on trying my hand at soap making. I’m continuing research on it.

My youngest daughter and I did just make up a batch of Paw Balm and Dog Shampoo.

And as on any home or homestead there was plenty of cleaning and decluttering that could be done on the inside. This is good preparation for  spring. It will be easier to maintain the inside of the house and spend more time outdoors.

Buying less and making more

In a previous post of mine  I talked about Buying Less and Making More. A goal of ours  is learning to make more and  buy less.

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This post is linked up at https://simplelifemom.com/2019/09/24/homestead-blog-hop-257/