From City to Country

Rural Composting Mini Review – Lee Valley Composter Bracket Set

Are you lacking construction skills but want a large contained compost bin so you can build your own super-nutritious soil rather than buying it? Me too. One answer is to have someone build a bin or bins for you, or you could spend upwards of $400 or more to buy a pre-built system. I decided [...]

Read the full article →

Without My Dad, We’d Probably be Living in a Condo

I’m looking out my office window at the foundation of the new addition we’re building onto our little cabin. Or really, that my Dad is building as I keep working so I can pay for it. And it’s got me to thinking about where we’d be without his talents, connections and desire to help. When [...]

Read the full article →

You Know You’re a Modern Homesteader When…

Whether you’ve been on this rural living/modern homesteading journey for decades, or you’re just starting out, the question always comes up – how do you know when you’ve ‘arrived’? This whole question was born out of something that happened to me not all that long ago (but not long enough… as I’ll explain later). Please [...]

Read the full article →

How to Choose Footwear for Country Living

Before we moved to our rural property, the only shoes I’d ever owned that even resembled ‘Wellies’ were of the knee-high, steel-toed LaCrosse industrial variety, purchased for a hydro-seeding job one spring in the mid-90s. No need for this sort of thing in the city – I worked in an office and even in rainy [...]

Read the full article →

Challenges & Benefits of Country Living – Part 1: The Cons/Challenges

If you can count on me for anything, it’s to give you the straight goods on country living. No fluff. You’re not going to find me waxing poetic about how la-de-da wonderful everything is every moment of every day – especially when it comes to the real benefits and challenges of living in the country. [...]

Read the full article →

Have You Heard? Country Living Ain’t So Quiet After All

Ah, life in the country. It’s the stuff of countless novels and songs, waxing poetic about the graces that come from living out amongst the birds and the trees. Yours truly has even been guilty of making it sound all fluffy and romantic on occasion (amongst all the talk of mice and predatory cats, but [...]

Read the full article →

Planning for Self-Sufficiency in 2012 – A Review of 2011

2012. Has there ever been a year with more baggage? Maybe (Year 2000, anyone?), but with all the hype and predictions going on about what this highly touted year will bring, I figured it was time I got busy and finished my annual homestead planning. You know, before some grand calamity befalls us. Or the [...]

Read the full article →

Rural Property – 5 Ways to Give Rural Real Estate the Safety Test

It’s getting cold here. The ground is rock solid frozen and we’ve gone full into ‘winter mode’. Now that we’ve got livestock (chickens), it adds a whole new dimension to preparing our rural property to keep everyone (and everything) safe and secure through the chilly months. But it’s not just in the winter when things [...]

Read the full article →

Modern Homesteading – Reality Check

Time for me to come clean. I love the rural life, really I do, but there are some days when the comfort of a city condo would be a welcome distraction. And honestly? A relief. Like the days when it’s sub-zero and I forgot to pick up winter work gloves to do the outside chores [...]

Read the full article →

When a Tree Falls – Tree Risks on Your Rural Property

Well, we had an exciting afternoon recently! When you live in the forest, you get used to falling trees and branches flying around when the wind picks up, but we recently had a day that was a bit more dramatic than usual. A storm blew through one afternoon last week from the north – a [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →