Living in a small space, I’m always looking for a little more organization in my life. With end tables made of food storage buckets instead of drawers, it leaves a few items without a good home–especially remote controls. What to do to reclaim control over the remote controls? Here’s our solution: The Remote Control Pillow. […]
The Short List of Essential Off-Grid Sewing Supplies
In a grid down situation, sewing may become quite a valuable skill as clothes and furnishings need repaired, rebuilt, or created. Even in everyday life, having the tools and skills to do some sewing repairs can be extremely useful. There are a myriad of sewing tools out there as evidenced by racks of “notions” in […]
Pros and Cons of a Manual Lawn Mower
Our lawn mower wouldn’t start this spring. Sweet husband tried everything he could think of short of buying a new one to get it going and still nothing. With the number of hours he’s actually not been working lately, this trial and error process stretched out over a couple of weeks, meanwhile the lawn didn’t […]
There is a Difference Between Bee Robbers and Swarming
If your bee hive suddenly has extra bees around outside it, how do you know if they’re being attacked or swarming? The other day our beehive had a sudden rush of activity. The hive that had been operating at normal capacity that morning quite quickly was buzzing with super numbers of bees around it. Lots […]
New Bee Hive First Week Checkup
About a week after putting your new bees in their hive, you’ll want to check in on them to make sure everybody is happy. Well, they’re actually generally quite happy without visitors, but we need to know what’s going on in the hive, so get your bee suit on and let’s get out to the […]
4 Things I’ve Learned About Bee Suits
In all our short experience with bees, I’ve already learned a thing or two about bee suits. They are really a necessary part of having a hive, unless you want to be stung more or be paranoid about that tickling on your neck the whole time you’re checking your hive. None for me, thanks. I’ll […]
Putting New Bees in the Hive
April and May are the best months to start a new beehive, so here we are trying bees again. After last year’s bee swarming disaster, we did a little more studying and got some help from some local friends with bees. We cleaned out the old hive boxes by scraping the waxy stuff off with […]
Propagating Grapes Through Cuttings
If you have a grape plant and want more grape plants, it’s easy to grow your own. Or so says my extension agent, so we’re going to give it a try. I would have waited until I had results to show you, but thought I’d share the information now and results later in case you […]
Four Reasons I Won’t be Buying Survival Seeds
I’m pretty sure you’ve heard about Survival Seeds, right? There are various companies that sell seeds for survival packed in cans or mylar bags or PVC tubes or some other long term storage set up. They are named such things as “survival seed vault”, “survival seed bank”, or just “survival seeds”. They are usually a […]
The 2011 Preparedness Stocking Stuffer Swap is Here!
Welcome to the 2011 Preparedness Stocking Stuffer Swap! In case you hadn’t noticed, Christmas is coming. Yep, it’s already less than a month away. And if your house is anything like mine, you’ve got stockings to fill. We all know Santa takes pretty good care of the kids, but what about your stocking? How does […]
