by Texas Homesteader ~
A smart phone is certainly convenient, but here are several ways they’re extremely helpful on the homestead including photos, recipes, reminders, timers, geo pins and more. Come see!
by Texas Homesteader ~
When RancherMan & I bought this piece of NE Texas paradise we were enamored with the rich history of the property. Apparently over the decades it’s been home to several homesteads, I’m assuming one of the first was in the 1880’s when our barn was built! The most recent home was located at the front of our property but it burned down in the late 1950’s. We’ve discovered whispers of their past lives that they left behind – so amazing!
There were two deep cement cisterns located where we think were either side of the house. One had to be covered up when we moved here, but we preserved the deeper one to use as our Outdoor Irrigation for my veggie garden.
At the time we were living in the big city. Someone had a small cedar fence that they pulled down – it was almost brand new. That would be PERFECT to frame in our little cistern! So we brought it here and constructed a cute little wishing well with that discarded fencing & some leftover metal roofing. It looked cute & kept the cattle out of trouble when they were around the cistern.
Here we are in a bright, shiny new year. I hope all of you had an awesome 2016 and are looking forward with eagerness to the possibilities that 2017 holds. RancherMan & I have many exciting things to look forward to in ’17! I’m thinking about opening an Etsy shop for some of the homemade soaps we make and maybe some of the repurposed denim crafts I do. Perhaps even a few crosses made from the 1880’s barbed wire that we still have in places on our property.
But since we’re on the cusp of a brand new year I thought it would be fun to share with you the single most popular post in each year since I’ve been writing this little ole blog of mine.
by Texas Homesteader ~
What we do on this ranch is our livelihood, our means of supporting ourselves. It’s a wonderful life, yet certainly a hard one. Prudent business decisions have to be made every day. If they’re the wrong decisions, we don’t get paid.
Period.
Bills don’t get paid nor groceries bought. There’s no gray area on the pay scale when you’re self employed. No mistakes are financially free – no mulligans!
Don’t get me wrong, like I said it’s a wonderful life filled with many delights. But it can be hard too.
by Texas Homesteader ~
Whelp, here we are at the end of 2016. What a great year it’s been! My veggie garden was screamingly successful this year. And our homestead branched out with registered Angus heifers to augment the registered Hereford operation we currently have. But it wasn’t without its darker moments too, including twin calves that died in calving and dealing with expensive yet crappy appliances. But RancherMan & I tackled the successes and the trials together, side-by-side. And that’s the way I always want it to be.
All this month I’ve been sharing with you the top homesteading posts on the blog for each year I’ve been writing. I’ve linked to each of those years of Top-10 posts at the bottom of this post. So if you haven’t already enjoyed ’em, well there ya go!
But without further adieu, here are the top 10 posts of the year for 2016:
by Texas Homesteader ~
“A Boy And His Dog” LOL!
~TxH~
by Texas Homesteader ~
Did you know you could get chicken food for FREE??! Over the years I’ve learned a thing or two about feeding our hens. I’m always looking for ways to get chicken food for FREE! Thankfully it’s pretty easy to do.
by Texas Homesteader ~
RancherMan & I work outside every day, rain or shine. We’re either working cattle or fixing fences. There’s garden work and tractor work. Day in, day out – we’re outside working. Now we LOVE our lives here don’t get me wrong, but sun protection is something we take very seriously.
We’re careful to wear our Sun-Protective Shirts when we’re working outside. And for my small blue Ford 32 hp tractor, RancherMan made sure I had a heavy canvas canopy to protect me from the sun. But his larger tractor didn’t come with a canopy, just a ROPS (roll bar).
Now I hated that he wasn’t protected and constantly nagged I mean reasoned with him to get something to protect himself from the sun. But he protested mightily, saying: “I’m having trouble finding one that fits the ROPS on my tractor. Plus I’d want a rigid canopy. And since I often work around trees when I’m mowing I just don’t know if I should get one for my tractor”
