by Texas Homesteader ~
I’m constantly repurposing glass jars for food storage. Sometimes I use jars that come with the food we buy, sometimes empty canning jars. But having unlabeled food in the pantry or fridge is a problem waiting to happen.
I need to label the food in those jars. But I don’t want to buy disposable labels. Check out today’s Homestead Hack.
by Texas Homesteader ~
I repurposed those plastic mesh bags that produce is often sold in and fashioned them into a handy cleaning tool. Check out today’s Homestead Hack, y’all!
by Texas Homesteader ~
When we lived in the city I bought a *2-line extractable laundry line. I loved that thing – it gave me up to 98 feet of drying! RancherMan put a nail in a fence post so when I was doing laundry I’d bring out that extractable line & hang it on that nail. The lines pulled all the way to a nearby tree where I’d hook the two lines on the branches.
But when we moved here to our piece of paradise there were no privacy fences, nor any trees in our back yard. So we used a tether-ball pole as the anchor, and placed two decorative cast iron plant hooks on either side of the garage window.
But the tether-ball pole was… I dunno – UGLY! It served the purpose for several years but I wanted something a little more in step with our natural surroundings. It was replaced recently and you know my battle cry: Use Whatcha Got! (Almost all our Homestead Hacks use that battle cry.) Come see what we did.
by Texas Homesteader ~
OK, I’ve made it no secret that we own a nice, newer, high-end CRAPPY refrigerator/freezer. It was exorbitantly expensive because we required a specific size to fit into our kitchen layout. Although it looks great and is labeled ‘Energy Star’ to conserve electricity, it’s… well… it’s crap!
One of the biggest deal-breaking problems with it is the ice maker. Although there are only two of us in this house on any given day, it can’t keep up with our ice needs.
Now we work outside in the Texas heat all summer, ice is a necessity! Of course we could buy ice cube trays blah, blah, blah but instead I just make sure to reserve ice use for actually cooling our drinks.
But there are other times when I need to use ice in the kitchen. For instance, when I’m making homemade yogurt I need to cool the heated milk. Now I used to do that in a bowl filled with ice – what do I do now? Check out this Homestead Hack, y’all!
by Texas Homesteader ~
Summer is hot & humid in our part of NE Texas & I’m doing all I can to keep my plants watered. A cistern mishap involving a split hose drained all the rainwater from my 18′ deep cistern. WOW! So I’m trying to conserve water as much as possible.
I came across a large-mouth bottle with a built-in grip on the handle and a metal-center lid. Then the thought occurred to me – maybe I can use this to keep my container garden of spinach watered.
You remember my battle cry, “Use WhatCha Got!”. Check out this homestead hack.
by Texas Homesteader ~
As many of you know, recently I had to bring a mama cow into the barn recently. We had to milk out one of her quads since her newborn calf neglected it long enough for it to get very large. I didn’t want to risk her getting mastitis. And the longer the calf neglected it the larger it became.
Although our cows are not a dairy breed, she gave me about a half gallon of fresh milk from just that one quad! I’d never milked a cow before & I was pretty excited to get that fresh milk. So I sat out to put it all to good use. I decided to make homemade yogurt with it, but I had trouble skimming the cream easily. So I turned to my Facebook Followers to find out how they easily skimmed the cream from the milk.
by Texas Homesteader ~
Everyone loves deviled eggs. But add a little spicy pico de gallo and you’ve got deviled eggs with a KICK!
Check out today’s Homestead Hack for ramping up the flavor of plain deviled eggs.
by Texas Homesteader ~
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Well, garden season is in full swing in NE Texas. It’s the season all gardeners have been dreaming about for weeks. Much work has gone into planning, seed-buying and dreaming.
One of the things I still needed for my garden was plant markers. I’d love to have an easy way to identify plants in their teeny-tiny stage as I’m strolling through the garden. But you know how strong my #UseWhatchaGot drive is!
Thankfully I’ve found an easy way to repurpose items I already have in my home to use for the actual plant markers. Using these markers helps me to remember what I planted where without having to come inside & look it up. Check it out!