Tag Archives: Homestead Hacks

Homestead Hack: Expanding Your Muffin Tin

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by Texas Homesteader ~

I was baking homemade blueberry muffins for a Sibling Vacation recently. I typically make jumbo-sized muffins for RancherMan. But this time I used my smaller muffin-sized tin because there would be several of us in attendance. It’s easier to eat two small muffins than to waste part of a larger one, ya know?

So I whipped up my Blueberry Muffin batter, placed my silicone muffin pan on a cookie sheet & filled the muffin cups. But there was still about 4 muffins worth of batter remaining.

Do I overfill the muffin cups? Do I bake this dozen and then refill 4 of the muffin cups and bake them separately? What a waste! Ugh, what’s a girl to do?

Need more muffin cup spaces? No worries! I used wide-mouth canning rings for those last 4 muffins. Everything baked up at the same time. #TexasHomesteader

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Homestead Hack: How To Easily Open Those Stubborn Jars

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by Texas Homesteader ~

Occasionally I have difficulty opening a stubborn stuck jar lid. If RancherMan is nearby I have a handy (and oh-so-handsome) jar opener right at my disposal.

But if not I still have an easy way to open those stubborn jars. And I do it using a common item in the ‘junk drawer’ right in my kitchen.

How to get that stubborn lid off of the jar? I've found an easy way using an ordinary household item. Check out this Homestead Hack! #TexasHomesteader

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Homestead Hack: Easy Reminder Tip

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by Texas Homesteader ~

Do you worry about forgetting something like unplugging a coffee pot or turning off the stove? Or do you hate when you go to someone’s house and just know you’re gonna forget to pick something up, and then you DO forget?? I’ve found a simple hack for remembering tasks like these. Intrigued? Check this out.

Do you need a simple way to remember to turn off the stove or to take something with you when you leave the house? Check out this Homestead Hack #TexasHomesteader

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How To Make An All-Natural Air Freshener For Pennies

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by Texas Homesteader ~

Years ago I did away with artificial scents in our home. Oh how I used to love those reed diffusers, plug-in room fresheners and scented candles! But I decided those artificial scents just weren’t right for me or my family.

These days I’m more apt to use essential oils for room fresheners than a plastic-packaged plug-in delivering a sometimes overpowering artificial scent. Recently I made a super-cute room freshener using a repurposed canning jar and leftover lace. So easy, so inexpensive!

I don't want artificial air fresheners & scented candles in our home. So I easily made my own air freshener with baking soda, essential oil, a repurposed canning jar & leftover lace #TexasHomesteader

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Homestead Hack: Don’t Flush Cooking Fat Down The Drain!

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by Texas Homesteader ~

We’ve all probably done it – rinsing out remaining fat and letting it go down the drain. A quick flip of the garbage-disposal switch and the greasy problem is gone. Right?

I’ve written before about how I’ve discovered how the problem Is NOT Gone when we flush things through our kitchen sink pipes. I’m not casting stones here. I spent plenty of my younger years flushing things down the sink, from plate scrapings to burnt-on food. And yes, the fat too. I figured if I used hot water it would simply flush that fat away safely.  But I’ve learned a lot since then.  I now know you should never flush grease or fat down the sink. But how do you dispose of it? Don’t worry, it’s easy – check out this Homestead Hack.

Flushing grease and fat down your kitchen sink drain is a recipe for disaster. But how do you dispose of the fat from a roast or grease from the pan? Check out this homestead hack. #TexasHomesteader

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Homestead Hack: Cleaning A Narrow-Neck Jar

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by Texas Homesteader ~

Don’t you hate to have a narrow-neck jar that you just can’t reach with a bottle brush to clean? I’ve often wondered how you could effectively clean those wonderful but odd-shaped bottles & jars.  You see, my sun tea is always brewed in a repurposed salsa jar.  It’s the perfect glass jar to use, partially because it’s hourglass shaped.  That shape makes it much easier to grip and safely carry to the picnic table outside to brew our sun tea.

But although I love the shape of the jar, it does make it very difficult to clean.  Of course I rinse it well after brewing my tea. But over time I start to see tea stains on the inside glass. So I sat out to find a good way to get the tea stains out for a crystal clear glass jar, ready to make sun tea again & again. Check out this Homestead Hack, y’all!

Tip for cleaning a narrow-neck jar. This narrow-neck jar was an odd shape so a bottle brush didn't help. But check out this Homestead Hack to get the job done! #TexasHomesteader

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Homestead Hack: Keeping Birds Off Railings

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by Texas Homesteader ~

RancherMan & I love the wild birds.  We have a bird feeder out back that we keep filled so we can enjoy them all.  (be sure to check out my Bird-Feeding Homestead Hack where I share how we keep ’em fed on the CHEAP!)  There are always a wide variety of birds near our feeder and they nest nearby too, raising their young.  Oh how I love it all!

But as you know, recently RancherMan & I had a porch extension built.  We spend lots of time out there enjoying the birds and the scenery.  But ugh, the birds use the railings as their perch and there was always mounds of poop building up along the railings and on the built-in benches.  Until…

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Homestead Hack: Tracking Your Rainfall

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by Texas Homesteader ~

We’re (once again) in the grips of a drought.  It seems most years in the past 7-8 our little homestead has struggled with terrible drought conditions.  The weathermen are finally predicting precious rainfall to bless us for the next several days.  Oh it won’t break our drought, but at this point we’ll take that tiny 1/8th inch that falls – ANYTHING!

I’ve got an easy way to track our rainfall which I find quite clever.  Oh sure I could measure the rain gauge contents and jot them down.  Then I could make note in a calendar to track. But I just never find time to enter it all or even remember to enter it.  But this Homestead Hack assures I’ll be able to easily document and track our rainfall throughout the year.

I need an easy way of tracking rainfall. Making notes on a calender doesn't work for me, but this easy Homestead Hack does. #TexasHomesteader

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Homestead Hack: Eliminating Ants In Pet Food Bowls

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by Texas Homesteader ~

I don’t know if y’all deal with ants like we do, but dang this time of year when it gets super dry, the ants will go marching out looking for food.  Every now & then we find that they have invaded Bailey’s food dish! When we adopted her she had bladder stones.  So now her diet is very rigid.  Never human food, only special formula low-oxalate crunchy dog food and lots of fresh water to keep her system healthy.

Knowing how common it is to overfeed pets and to keep her fit, RancherMan researched to find out how much food a dog her size and activity level should eat daily.  We give her half that amount in the morning and the other half in the evening. So there’s typically not food left in her bowl for any length of time, but sometimes she leaves her food in the bowl a little longer.  It’s then that we’ll notice it’s attracted the attention of ants.   Oh how we hate to have ants in the house. And Bailey REALLY hates them to be in her dish!  But we found an easy fix.  Check out this Homestead Hack.

Ants were invading Bailey's dog food bowl. So we turned to a poison-Free Homestead Hack to eliminate them. #TexasHomesteader

 

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Homestead Hack: Propping Tender Seedlings

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by Texas Homesteader ~

It seems vegetable-gardening planting is finally going on all over the US now.  Aaaaaahhhhh the veggie garden – how I love it.  Here in NE Texas (zone 8) I typically plant heirloom seeds in my ‘Indoor Greenhouse’ in February and transplant those heirloom seedlings into my garden after the danger of frost is done.

But this year I had a naughty bull jump our garden fence & decimate all of the tender seedlings.  I had to start over.  I did replant many of my heirloom seeds but I ended up buying a jalapeno plant.  It was so small that the winds were pretty rough on it.  So I needed to find a way to protect it from the wind. (and free-range chickens) Use Whatcha Got, y’all!

I needed a way for propping tender seedlings to protect them from the wind. You know my battle cry: "Use Whatcha Got!" Come see this Homestead Hack #TexasHomesteader

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