Saving money on the homestead
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
Issue #148 • July/August, 2014
I come from a "penny-pinching-and-proud-of-it" family background and I learned the importance of saving a buck at an early age. Throughout my journey toward a self-reliant lifestyle, I've...
Building and stocking your pantry
By Jackie Clay
Issue #125 • September/October, 2010
At the turn of the 19th century, most country homes had a walk-in pantry, as well as a root cellar for keeping vegetables and fruits. This pantry contained...
Bottle-raise a calf
By Jackie Clay
Issue #120 • November/December, 2009
If you think milk and beef are expensive in the grocery store, then you should think about raising a baby calf or two. Because corn and milk replacer...
Goat birthing and raising kids
By Jackie Clay
Issue #112 • July/August, 2008
Dairy goats form one of the cornerstones of our homestead. Not only do they provide milk, cheese, ice cream, cottage cheese, and meat, but they also give us...
Feeding large families without breaking the bank
By Jackie Clay
Issue #116 • March/April, 2009
Many of us have been there; for unforeseen reasons, suddenly we have a lot more people to cook for. With the economy melting down, jobs ending, and the...
Chickens — The most valuable animal on the homestead
By Jackie Clay
Issue #109 • January/February, 2008
When I was a child, I used to read and re-read the chick section in our Sears and Roebuck catalog. Imagine! For only two cents you could buy...
Protein — The Cornerstone of a Survival Diet
By Jackie Clay
Issue #111 • May/June, 2008
It goes without saying that preparedness is not for "radicals" or "weirdos" anymore. I picked up a preparedness leaflet at the County Agent's office last week and another...
The perfect holiday meal
By Jackie Clay
Issue #108 • November/December, 2007
There are no cultures in the world, nor have there been, that did not have feast days. From prehistoric times to yesterday, food has always played an important...
You can safely and easily can your own meat
By Jackie Clay
Issue #105 • May/June, 2007
Of all the foods I can every year, the most useful is the wide variety of meats. While we aren't huge meat eaters, these rows and rows of...
A recycled dresser makes a useful bathroom vanity
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
Issue #152 • March/April, 2015
Here's the finished vanity with our unfinished dresser
that will store our extra towels and linens.
We've had our log home built for more than eight years now, but until...
Avoiding common canning mistakes
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
Issue #142 • July/August, 2013
Canning has been an important part of my life since I was a young girl helping my mother and grandmother can in our Detroit basement. I loved the...
Book Review: The Encyclopedia of Country Living By Carla Emery — 40th Anniversary Edition
Reviewed by Jackie Clay-Atkinson
Issue #141 • May/June, 2013
Are you a new homesteader? Perhaps you have dreams and plans to become one sometime in the near future? Maybe you're an old-timer, like me, needing a...
Building your chicken coop
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
Issue #139 • January/February, 2013
Here's a coop we built from pallets and scrap lumber. The goats lived in one end and the chickens lived in the other. It was free and worked...
Build a wood-fired stock tank heater
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
Issue #138 • November/December, 2012
Keeping fresh water in front of our livestock in the winter has always been somewhat of a problem. A long time ago, when we lived on a homestead...
