Question- What The Hell Happened to Homesteading???

 

 

 

Question- What The Hell Happened to Homesteading???

I stumbled onto this Youtube video (link to article in Substack Jill Winger Substack) and was blown away. I had been thinking the same things for quite a while now. Video here, please comment on what you think? My comments on Youtube and Substack below video-

 

My comments- 

Really great post on Substack, interesting comments. I'm a little different where my husband and I started a little urban homestead back in the 2010 or so. I grew up in the city in Southern California, mostly in apartments and never had a yard until I was an adult. I got married and raised a family with a wonderful man who loved gardening! I started blogging in 2011, Little Homestead in Boise, which I still do. I thought it might be fun just to sort of document what we were doing as we did it and it's actually really great to be able to look back and see what we did over all the years. I think my grandparents would be proud! I grew up in the city with the only set of grandparents I knew who had fruit trees, avocado tree, Concord grapes and strawberries in their little tiny urban backyard. My grandmother also knitted, crocheted, embroidered, canned foods, made everything from scratch. That was the generation that were adults during the Depression. I'm almost 70. After I became a Master Gardener we bought our current house where I really wanted to pursue more self-sufficiency type skills. I had stumbled on to a California family that were doing hardcore "urban homesteading" and Permaculture. It was really inspiring to me. I didn't know what else to call it, so "urban homesteading" fit for me. So after we moved in we planted fruit trees, medicinal herbs, low water use plants (high desert here), got chickens, and planted another summer garden like our two previous houses. Almost all of this was done frugal and DIY. Sadly my husband has vetoed beekeeping as he is afraid of liability issues! Oh well, what can you do. My husband luckily had parents that were hardcore gardeners also, in Portland, Oregon. His Mom grew tons and tons of homegrown produce. Eventually I learned how to can and dehydrate foods, etc. I never really made any money off of my blog. When I started to see YouTube taking off years ago and a lot of bloggers going there or even just switching to Facebook I just sort of shook my head. I really didn't want to lose my privacy by going online and posting videos of myself doing stuff and I didn't really think there was much interest in it anyway. Boy was I wrong. While I'm not sure if I thought it was a movement, it was something. When chickens became a "thing" for instance, I saw a huge onslaught of cheaply made, inappropriate sized instant chicken coops for sale. I saw a lot of people buy a lot of chickens and a lot of them died. People didn't know what they were doing, but it sounded fun. I did about 6 months worth of research before we ever bought our three little chicks and built a nice sized big coop. We've been successfully raising chickens for years. Sadly many of my blogger pals who were around the same age or maybe younger have either stopped blogging or passed away. I used to have a real regular group where we crossed pollinated each other's blogs with comments and now I'm down to one or two. Sad.  Now we have the cosplay farmers and homesteaders who have millionaire husbands and dress up in overly expensive, quaint clothing and say that they are farmers. They have large families (some of them) and promote all their sales and/or services and the attitude of "you can do this too without any money"! It's also easy to raise lots of kids when you have lots and lots of staff doing most of the work. I do feel sorry for the children in that scenario as the ones who are all over social media have no choice in that sadly. I see a lot of therapy in their future. Good job on your post and you made some excellent points! Will be putting a link to this on my blog. Will be curious to see any comments. 

 

Blogging Blahs/Rain Rain and More... , My Favorite Youtubers

Blogging Blahs/Rain, Rain and More... -

I don't know if it's been the weather, current world news, etc. but I just have had major blahs as far as blogging. I also came down with a non-C virus a week ago +, almost gone. Nothing like being sick in the summer, yuck. I browse around online and I think I've gotten to the point of not really being interested in blogs that show all these fun arts and crafts ideas, etc. On a certain level I think that there are just so many people who are still so asleep. While I appreciate the stress reduction aspect I'd rather spend money on food, fuel and OTC supplies to stash than craft items. But that's me. As I've said before- no downside to being prepared. 

Anyway, on Memorial day it was 45 degrees! Yes 45 degrees.  Heavy cold rains for 3 days, we were supposed to plant the veggie garden that weekend. This weekend it was pretty warm yesterday, so Dave turned the entire vegetable garden. Last fall I told Dave I wanted to expand the veggie garden so we can plant more intensively. I had the idea to cordon off a small portion of the veggie garden area and increase the length of the chicken run in the shade. We expanded the chicken run this spring which works great. I suggested that he create a gate out of the old coop wood door-

We had replaced it with a used glass storm door. He came up with the idea to also have it articulated, so that will fold up for the winter, will get some touch up paint-

Gate attached to coop, then chicken wire to the fence

Gate attached to coop

The hens can get in and out of the coop, then also have the long shade run. We can plant much more intensively now, no worries for the hens digging into the veggies. Once the fall garden is done the idea of the chickens will have full use of the whole area again. We have so many eggs now I have decided to start dehydrating some. I'm ordered some trays for my dehydrator with lips for wet items. More later on that. Will be nice to have more room in the fridge! We woke up to heavy rains again today, Sunday. Dave decided to just go ahead and plant since his work week is crazy. He does the heavy digging as it's a lot easier on my arthritic knees and back. I will plant my smaller flowers and herbs, etc. He was out with wet clay soil today. He planted the 6 tomatoes, 3 peppers, a Bird's Nest pine and a yellow squash. Will plant the strawberries and others in the next week or so. Needs to dry out a bit - 

I wouldn't mind a cool summer, this this is crazy! We're supposed to get almost-record rain today that we would usually get in the entire month of June! What can you do? We'll get some more veggies planted in the next few weeks, will be a late growing season, fingers crossed. Fruit trees are LOADED too, great news!!! 

From Instagram.com Country Life

My Favorite Youtubers-

I thought I'd share some info on vloggers I have followed for quite some time, and have found to have very useful info. Many of them were way ahead of the curve news-wise. I was watching a really great YouTube video last night. This is the channel I don't usually watch, but I heard something about a message from a farmer it peaked my interest. This video really nails it in my opinion, and that's only my opinion, watch through the end-

Points- Some people seem to think that if there is not a shortage in a grocery store now that that will continue. Farmers & ranchers plan out a year + in advance. The farmer that was quoted mentioned when you grow a calf to an adult for beef it takes about 18 months. So if you like beef you may be able to find in the store now, that's last year's production. Many didn't breed for this year, too expensive with feed prices. Many are cutting their herd size. I have heard this from many other sources as well. Buy now if you can. I also like these guys, pretty a-political and informative-  Canadian Prepper  Alaska Prepper  City Prepping and my fave female blogger Appalachia's Homestead with Patara, she is pretty blunt, so skip if you don't like that! I LOVE her!  Great vlogger for food preps, a food scientist Rose Red Homestead. For a really FASCINATING vlog with old world preserving and more watch Country Life Vlog, located in Azerbaijan I love this new post! Very relaxing!!! Really a gorgeous property-

Working From Home x 2 and Grow Lights

Anya napping thru the chaos

Working From Home x 2-
Sorry I've been on radio silence. Work/life has been crazy. Crazy weather also hasn't helped, snowed last week, then 72 yesterday!

The last week or so I've been feeling really disconnected. Dave is too. I'm having trouble keeping track of what day it is because I haven't been going to work much the last two weeks. I got set up to work at home this last Wednesday, but then there wasn't any work for me to do after that. I'm very grateful to be paid and have benefits through all of this by my corporation. I find out at the end of every business day if I'm going to be working the next day. It's always a wait-and-see kind of thing. I was off work all week last week, except for two hours to pack up my desk, and pick up my work equipment to bring home. Basically the work I do is for a large medical organization, running insurance for office visits, and non-essential office visits are drying up. Most healthcare providers are not seeing patients for anything that's not deemed critical. So this is a wait-and-see proposition. I'm guessing this could go on for months, the question is how many? I'm just trying to do lots of things at home and stay focused, get some intellectual stimulation by watching documentaries or whatever. Dave started working from home yesterday when he brought home his technology that he needed. His company has sent home almost everyone except the shop workers. Because his business is deemed critical he will probably keep working everyday as normal but from home. He works for an industrial electric motor company that works on equipment for hospitals, municipalities and the farming industry. Lucky for us we had two spare bedrooms that we could set up easily. The one I'm using already had a small desk in it for Dave's spare computer-

The other bedroom had room to set up his table he brought home. We didn't think they'd send him home to work since there's less than 10 people in his building, but they did-

This is considered temporary but who knows how long temporary means? Two months, six months, 18 months? I have no clue. I'm very fortunate I'm still getting a paycheck. I know not everybody has that luxury and I'm very grateful. So far we're both healthy, our kids are healthy and our grand kids are healthy. Both my six year old hens are laying, bless their hearts! We have 2 dozen eggs now in the fridge, awesome! I try to let them out to free range every day, a few times a day-

Rosie on the right, Ellie on the left

Not sure if I'll be able to get new chicks, as they are in short supply locally. A lot of people are planting gardens and buying chickens. A Victory Garden re-boot of sorts. Victory Gardens started in Canada, more info here Victory Gardens It will be good if people keep doing this after things calm down.

Speaking of growing food and farming this video is interesting Helpless Farmers Devastated by Pandemic . I saw this on the news last night and shook my head. This is definitely a sign of a broken agricultural system. These farmers would rather let their food rot in the field then selling them in small batches, through social media, or giving it away. I think sometimes the old system of farmer subsidies created a helpless mentality that if there's no traditional buyer just let it rot. Time to think outside the box. Give to shelters, and food banks are already heavily hit. That could be feed for livestock animals if nothing else. This is wasteful.

We planted the cold frame with seeds several weeks ago and they're coming up very slowly.  This weekend we'll be planting some other cool weather vegetables over in the main part of our garden if the weather cooperates. It's been warm but a cold front has been blowing in all day, up to 60 MPH gusts. Supposed to be in the 20's next few nights. Will plant radishes, a couple of kinds of carrots and more spinach and lettuce. Seeds that I started inside our indoor little green house in the bedroom are doing well, but some seeds aren't up yet-

Top old grow light is more purple

Dave found some starts for Basil and pickling cukes, the new grow light has more of a white light. I will split these up into bigger containers soon-

We found a big Rosemary-

Using my $3.00 thrift store teapot for watering-

We decided to add two more grow light to start more veggies and flowers. We couldn't find any local stores that have grow lights but we found two on Amazon and they are great! They're actually better prices than what we could find locally, with free shipping. So we have three grow lights on the rack for the next month to help speed things up, instead of one light. Easy to install, just plug in, has rings on top to suspend from the rack-

 
                                                                                     

You can see edge of grow light

Tomorrow I'll start some bush beans and slicing cucumbers on another rack. Plant more food!

  

The Other Side of Amazon Prime

Photo from Theverge.com

The Other Side of Amazon Prime-
To be honest we all like a good deal. And we all buy stuff. One of the things I try to look at more and more over time is what I'm buying, and WHY. With a recent big deal of Amazon Prime days, coupled with watching the news, here are a few ideas that the mainstream media does not promote. As we all know Amazon has put a lot of companies out of business and that's part of the supposedly free market system. And they are very, very convenient, which is great for people who don't want to think a whole lot about how they actually shop. So here's a few different things I thought of that I will list. In no particular order....

Why do you pay a fee to buy stuff? Prime membership always cracked me up.

How many things to buy on Amazon that you could probably find locally and support local businesses assuming that you need something new?

How many things could you buy used or recycled, through various venues, instead of buying something new on Amazon? Maybe get free on Craigslist? Or barter?

How many things could you restore/reuse instead of buying something new on Amazon? Like our wheelbarrow we re-painted and added new hardware to-

How many things could you find online through smaller companies, they have just as many deals and the same products, that you could support instead?

How much stuff do you really need? To me that's really the biggest question. Good ideas, and maybe some answers here-

And how much of your old stuff winds up in a landfill?

Where are you going to store all your store when you run of of room?

It's been on and off in the news for quite a while about how dangerous, and punitive it is, working for Amazon. Not drinking water on the job, because then your count goes down when you use the bathroom. (See the article at the for more information). When I started seeing their trucks around town on the weekends I just sort of shook my head. They're catering to people who want instant gratification, all the time, for everything. This country has no patience and no deep thinking sometimes. How about simplify?

Homesteading to me harkens back to older times, when we were more self-sufficient and made do with a lot less. I had to laugh when I watched the movie Red Sparrow. There was a section in the beginning when a Russian teacher is instructing her class of spies-in-the making, that Americans are addicted to their shopping and their social media. I almost burst out laughing the theater. How true, how true. But I think it really hit the nail on the head for me for how the country is moving. I see that speed shopping encourages people to become so lazy that they don't want to drive anywhere, to buy anything, and or even get out of the car. Some people simply want to press some buttons on a device. It's mindless and it's promoting a scary future in this country... There is hope though, book stores are making a comeback!!! So here's some ideas-

From Lilywilliamsart.com

Blogger Changes and Anonymous Comments

Blogger Changes and Anonymous Comments-
I just wanted to update readers here as Google is changing some of the Blogger features. That is something I will be unable to modify. Typically I get emails alerting me when someone has made a comment, unless it is anonymous. I can go in quickly and answer any questions, or comments. Be aware that any anonymous comments here go into a spam folder. Typically I only check that periodically since there's nothing to tell me that anything is there. I went through the folder this morning and 99% of it was spam and there were a few actual comments. In the future if you want to make sure I see your comment please use some kind of log in. Otherwise it will go to spam central. I'll add a note on the home page as well. I don't want anyone to think I'm ignoring them! I love comments!!! So far I haven't detected any changes of any features on the blog. I've been trying to find the notification again that I received about the changes, but if I remember correctly some of those won't affect this blog. Some bloggers use features that I simply don't and so that's a moot point. So please let me know if you do see something odd that I may need to adjust. Thanks!!!

A Little Something About Photos Of Me

Me, in my previous life

A Little Something About Photos Of Me-
I wanted to address something since it just came up and I was pretty surprised, actually. Recent comment here-

Kate said...
I would love to follow you, but, and please don't take this as an insult, it bothers me that you won't put a photo of yourself on your blog/facebook. It's like you want to connect with us, your readers, but you don't *really* want to connect. If I follow you, you'll see *my* face, right? I guess I like to see the person that I'm following and reading. Just something to think about.

I've been blogging for 6 years, reached people all over the planet, and I've never had anyone complain that there wasn't a photo of me on my blog. Or on my new Facebook page. It's never been important to ME what people look like if I'm following their blog/Facebook. I'm there for content. I loved Mama Pea's old photo with a pot on her head and a mug of hot cocoa for instance! Having worked in technology for a very long time I tend to lean towards more privacy, but I know that's a novel concept for some people. I've addressed this before in this blog about why I don't post more photos of my adult children, grand children or other specifics. I know lots of other bloggers like that as well. I know there are a lot of people in the world who let it all hang out through social media and that's their choice. They post everything about everyone with no thought for whether it's appropriate, or permanent. Personally I abhor "tagging" and facial recognition. I mean who needs to know this stuff? Big brother?

There are people who job hunt, for instance, who don't like the data that shows that potential employers will search your Facebook or other social media accounts. Those wacky photos of drunk and disorderly people, body parts hanging out, or worse, may not get them hired and then they wonder why? I've never really posted a photo of myself on this blog for a variety of reasons, mostly because I hate having my photos taken and I am sensitive about my appearance. If someone wants to see photos of me with the expectation that I'm 20 years old and a size one, sorry, not going to happen. There are some people that only want to socialize with people who look like them. Maybe they're from a certain racial/ethnic background, and are only comfortable with people that look similar. Or are the same same size, financial status, wear the same clothes? I could go on.

Anyway if you want to know what I look like click on the Facebook tab on the right side bar ,go to my Facebook page and you will find out! And if you don't like it I guess you can just visualize and use your creative, right sided part of your brain. I do have blue eyes! And for laughs on hating having your photos taken read this hysterical article, all the way to the bottom! Buzzfeed.com Say Cheese
ENJOY!!!

New Facebook Page

New Facebook Page- 

Facebook broke up with our blog, so please go to the new page on the FB button on the sidebar to follow! I'm sorry for any inconvenience! Thanks.

Merry Christmas To All! Subscribe By Email Feature Now!

Merry Christmas To All!

With 10 degrees last night, and several inches of new snow on the ground, it looks like we're have a white Christmas after all! Merry Christmas to you all, and have a wonderful, restful holiday!!!

Subscribe By Email Feature Now!

You should now see a little pop up box (that you can close) asking you if you'd like to subscribe to my postings.  Please let me know if you have any problems signing up? Still working on my blog with more updates. Thanks!!! 

Lessons Learned From A Layoff, Thrifting Scores, Cooking Sweet Italian Peppers

Lessons Learned From A Layoff-
For a variety of reasons I decided to not to post this until after it was over. Those reasons are personal. Primarily I think it's important to retain a positive focus during tough times. I also asked Dave if he was comfortable with my posting this in the interest of possibly helping other people and he agreed. He's that kind of guy! My husband Dave was lad off his job at the end of a day on a Monday in July. He knew it might be coming, and was working for a large multinational company, so big decisions aren't made locally. It's a numbers game in his field of industrial sales. He called me at home late in the afternoon and said "if you get a phone call in a few minutes I've been laid off and have my papers in the car." I was a bit surprised but not shocked, knowing that their sales and numbers were down. He did help set things up with his manger before he left, then was escorted out the door. He did find out later his management staff was very upset the next day, that was hard for them. Before he got home I was formulating some ideas.

Here was the initial good news- they laid him off a Monday (instead of the Friday before) to keep benefits for the next two weeks, enabling me to get him on my insurance with no gap. He wanted to go without out, and I said over my dead body! They also gave him two weeks severance pay and cashed out his vacation/sick leave. He found out he also had several hundred $$$ in his FSA account that he didn't know he could get. He submitted some paperwork and got a check. The day he was laid off he called out retirement person Craig, who was also a former co-worker in his filed. Here's some wonderful synchronicity- when Dave called Craig, Craig was on the line with someone who was hiring in Dave's field. Craig said he'd call Dave right back, and told the other person he needed to interview Dave. He called Dave back, and seven weeks later he hired Dave! It might not have been so delayed, but they were on vacation and short staffed. That was the good news.

There are variety of things that happen, even when you know things could happen, as far a layoffs. Dave thought about transferring in the Spring to another branch but was told by his manager that their sales slump would end and they'd be fine. Mistake. Listen to your gut in business. If he had transferred THEN it would have been a much easier and less painful.

We crunched numbers right away, and he filed for unemployment. We looked at what we could realistically cut as far as spending. At this point we had to NOT panic, just think more logically. We knew we'd be OK until November or so, with savings. I knew we could also tap into our retirement if it was really needed, worst case. I also knew he'd find something, since he has an incredible work ethic, and is very well liked and thought of in his field.

Networking is CRUCIAL, as in that initial phone call. Dave also used multiple job websites, including Linked In, to network and get the word out.

Emotionally, it takes a toll. Dave went thru anger, depression, boredom and just felt like the rug have been pulled out from under him. I had to do everything I could to reassure him we'd be okay, that he'd find a job and be the cheer leader. That took somewhat of a toll on me. We bickered some and got on each others nerves, but that's understandable. I think it helps in this situation to allow small things that can comfort a person in tough times. Dave liked to go to Starbuck's once or twice and week and he'd said he'd stop. I told him to keep going. I got him out of the house, and made him feel more normal. It was worth the money. We also took a short road trip one Saturday afternoon because it was a metal health things for both of us. Not everyone would agree, but we both knew this wasn't going to last. We needed to get thru the process intact.

I did set up an Etsy account during this time, which I had planned on doing. I was just more motivated. I also inventoried our foods- freezer, pantry closet, kitchen, etc. to see exactly what we had. I was happy that I had a fairly good stockpile to pull from.

Dave used the time at home and was very helpful. He deep cleaned the house, preserved peaches, did yard clean up, heavy gardening, car appts, etc. That freed up some time for me on the weekends. That reduced my stress some. He froze 12 one-gallon bags of rhubarb gifted from our neighbor for instance-

We talked daily about little projects he could do while I was at work. Planning a little at a time wasn't so overwhelming. He was really good about that.

He's starting his new job after Labor Day, and it's a good fit. He went to Portland this weekend for a family reunion, with a ticket from last winter when his flight was cancelled due to weather. He stayed with family and it was a perfect time for him to have a break. I did things here at home. We survived and we learned some things.

Chicken pitcher, $3.00

Thrifting Scores!
Had a really great finds at two Goodwill stores. I was needing a cardigan for upcoming fall weather at my job and found a beautiful J.Jill new sweater with the tag for $6.99, part wool and cotton, toggles down the front, a heathered cable knit, with Velveteen strap button loops, cream color. Fit perfect!

Also a new cheap solar system puzzle for Grand baby for a buck-

Also found a needed large wicker basket for $2.99. I went to another Goodwill today and found a
like-new purple corduroy shirt jacket, $5.00. Yesterday I got a great deal at the Eddie Bauer Outlet with my $10.00 off coupon, a 40% off tee-shirt for hubby, was $2.50. Most of his tees are in bad shape, so score! A good weekend!

Cooking Sweet Italian Peppers-
I read about these peppers in the last year, so I decided to grow some. I ordered some seeds, but was lucky to find some starts locally. I went recipe hunting after having a nice harvest (more coming!). This recipe looks amazing, I would need to try these on a weekend when I have some time-

Stuffed Italian Frying Peppers

I also found some random, anecdotal stories online, with great info-

They are sweet and are usually pan-fried with onions and eaten with sausage in my family. Occasionally, they are oven roasted and peeled, served with garlic, olive oil and red wine or balsamic vinegar as a side dish.

Make a slit lengthwise on each pepper, heat fry pan with a splash of oil, place peppers with slit facing down and fry until peppers have a light golden color. Turn them over and stuff peppers with either feta cheese or ricotta and fry until the underside is also a light golden color.

I went with simple frying- a large onion, some olive oil, salt, pepper, and a package of mild Italian sausage cut in chunks. I used about 7 peppers, split and seeded. Next time I would cook the sausage in a separate skillet as it was a bit to oily for me -

I also used some of our fresh tomatoes and parsley in a different skillet saute with pasta-

I used canned chicken breast for protein, tasty! Added fresh basil after I took the shot, with whole grain linguine, and crusty bread-

Next weekend I will be canning tons of our fresh apples! Looking forward to that!

My Global Visitors!

Sorry it's a bit blurry

My Global Visitors!-

After I'd been blogging a bit I set up a free Cluster Visitor's map so I could check see who was coming from where. I hadn't checked on it for a while. It's fascinating when I do look at it. Today I saw online visitors from all over the U.S., Grenoble France, and Spain. In the past I've seen people from S. Africa, the Middle East, S. America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Scandinavia and Britain. It such a big global village and so many disparate visitors for such a little blog! Cool!!! Have a great day, I'm off to work~~~

Independence Days, Lighting A Coop, Facebook- No Thanks

Fall garden

Independence Days-
I've been getting over a bronchitis-y bug, but am still getting some things done. The weather has been great! Mid 60's during the day, mid 30's at night, clear and sunny.

1. Plant Something- Done for the year

2. Harvest Something- It's "goodbye garden"! All the tomatoes are now ripening on my kitchen counter. They'll be great four soups and pasta sauces. I picked the last bucket of basil and peppers.

3. Preserve/Store Something- Made fresh pesto and froze it all except one jar. Used that for dinner!

4. Manage Reserves- Get a Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep- Got a refurbished HP Windows 7 hard drive/CPU, $178.00 on BestBuy.com Computer #2 was dying. We had all the software we needed to set it up. Works great so far! I scored lots of higher end, brand new clothing at two thrift stores- winter sweaters and blouses. I've noticed if the Goodwill stores have new clothing in one store, they'll have it at the other as well. Score times 2!

5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipe- Made a wonderful pasta dish with my fresh pesto. Threw in ripe tomatoes, and other veggies. It was heavenly! Bought some local whole wheat pizza dough- used fresh tomatoes, peppers and fresh mozz. Wow, really good. Will try this this weekend, hopefully French Apple Cake, as I saw something similar on a blog, but then couldn't find it. I like the big chunks of apple.

6. Build Community Food Systems- Chickens are still being lazy, not many eggs. We increased the light that's helped some. Hope to sell some, but winter's coming on soon.

7. Recycle/Re-Use- Bought the re-furbished computer.

8. Skill Up- Had to do some research on buying a wireless "bridge" for a desktop to access wireless here. I get it now! Our old one died, along with the PC, new one is installed and working!

9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something- Mended clothing.

Lighting A Coop For Better Egg Production-

Our hens really cut back on egg production when the days got shorter. With bad weather, Dave researched cheap, remote lighting set ups. Here's what we used, for $20.00, and I love the remote!!! We used this GE Outdoor Lighting Kit and Dave plugged the existing coop lamp into the timer. We had used the old fashioned timers before, but they don't work when it gets too cold. Now we just push a button to turn the lights on then off later. No going out in the bad weather, and dead timers!

Facebook- No Thanks-
I started setting up a Little Homestead Facebook page a couple of days ago. Then I read why you shouldn't do that- you lose control over your content, especially if it's all uploaded automatically. Not being a dot.com blogger, with ads everywhere, writing full time (must be nice) I decided to pass. Since I do this I couldn't afford to have someone set up a commercial page for me. When I feel like I'm making significant money off this, and am willing to give away the control over what I write, I'll let you know...

                                                                Bye, bye garden...