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Controlled Burn…Managing the Family Tree Farm

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We recently did a small controlled-burn on the family tree farm. This was the first time all 3 kiddos had been out there to help at once. In this scenario I was just there to take pictures and supervise the munchkins. My Father-in-Law and Mr. Fix-It were managing the burn itself. The tree farm is a couple hundred acres of longleaf pine, mixed with some cultivated fields, a beaver pond, and hardwood edges. Longleaf pine is native to this area, but is now found in less than 5% of it’s … Continue Reading…

How to Make the Homestead Kid-Friendly…So Kids Can be Safe and Helpful on the Farm

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I’m on several homesteading forums were I repeatedly see questions about “can I homestead with small children?” These always puzzle me. People have always homesteaded with small children. Remember Laura Ingalls Wilder? She was 9 in Little House on the Prairie. And for us, we’ve always farmed/homesteaded with children. We laid our first fenceline when I was 8 months preggers with the Ladybug. So obviously I think you can homestead with children. And I write constantly about the benefits of farm life for our kiddos, so I’m also on the … Continue Reading…

Family Vehicle First Aid Kit…with Printable Checklist

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The first couple weeks of football practice, Speedracer got a nose bleed. He’s prone to them in hot weather. So the team opened up their brand new, 400+ piece, first-aid kit and got out…nothing. There were no tissues. No wet wipes without alcohol. No gauze pads, only a sterilized gauze roll (which they were about to open but I stopped them) and “non-stick wound pads.” Basically nothing we actually needed. So I got our family first aid kit out of our truck in the parking lot because I did have … Continue Reading…

5 Benefits of Letting Your Pastures Grow without Mowing

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Managing pasture is both an art and a science. And we certainly don’t have it all figured out. But when the pasture is pretty much your entire food source for 90% of the year, having “good grass” is an all-consuming part of the farm life. Animals don’t eat grass that gets too old. And if they do, it doesn’t have the same nutritional value that it has when it’s younger. When it’s young, the grass is focused growing leaves, which makes it tasty and full of good vitamins, nutrients, and … Continue Reading…

How to Organize Family Electronics for Easier Travel

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I was recently had to travel out-of-town for work. Our family’s penchant for traveling light meant my ninja packing skills fit 3 days of business-casual clothing and traveling-office gadgets into our old Kelty Redwing 40 backpack. (BTW, the new design looks even easer to travel with!) Some of my collegues were amazed–as they wheeled their full-sized suitcases down the hall. As a pick-up-truck family, packing light for travel has always been an issue for us. We just don’t have space for stuff.  Our Spring Break Road Trip really had us paring down to … Continue Reading…

Camping and Hiking at Tallulah Gorge State Park, Georgia

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Camping and hiking as a family is something we do a lot of–but not normally in a formal public campground. On our Spring Break Road Trip it was a brand new experience for our crew to “camp” with access to an electrical outlet and a hose! I don’t think we even used the electricity at any of our campsites. We didn’t even think about it being there. (What? Not even to charge your phones for all those great family pictures? Nope–invest in an external charger. You’ll never have to worry about … Continue Reading…

How to Redeem Family Time Gone Wrong

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Have you ever sat down and planned out a great family fun day, where to go, what to eat, activities to do or attractions to see–maybe even already bought the tickets!–And then it rains? Or someone gets hurt right before you leave? Or the car breaks down? Or the toddler has a meltdown? (Or in our case, the teenager…and how did we get here?!)  And suddenly your great family day is ruined, right?  Nope. It doesn’t have to be.  I can’t name the times we’ve had family plans and something … Continue Reading…

How To Use Pallets as Small Bridges on the Homestead

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We’ve been knocking out several smaller projects around the homestead this summer, in between busy off-farm schedules and sports practices. It’s also been a really rainy summer around here. Normally we’re talking about droughts, but this year we’re talking about the never-ending rain. We haven’t had time to get big projects done between the raindrops! But we’ve finished several pallet projects with our scrap pile recently. Even little projects can make life easier or better on the homestead. It is very flat in our area. Very flat. And since water moves … Continue Reading…

How To Build a Water and Mineral Stand for Your Homestead

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There’s always big projects and small projects on the homestead. It often bothers me that we have a 1,000 things going on and nothing is ever started and finished in one big swing. But I’ve learned that the farm is ALWAYS bigger than the man and it’s best to be flexible if you want to get anything done. And every once in a while you find a small project that you can knock out quickly and move on. Our recent mobile water and mineral stand project was one. Wood pallets used … Continue Reading…

How to Make a Paper Mache Shark for Shark Week

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If you’ve been following us on Facebook, you’ve probably seen some of our Shark Week activities. We’re doing a summer unit study on Marine Biology (along with our unit on Archaeology) and Discovery Shark Week has been a great fit for some hands-on family fun learning! We’ve had some ocean-themed food, some shark games, and our big group project of building a paper mache shark! This is a very simple project with no special supplies needed. We had everything on hand already. I’ve shared it here in a lot of … Continue Reading…

Pros and Cons of Mobile Livestock Shelters on the Small Farm

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We’ve been in maintenance mode the last couple weeks with the nice weather–when we aren’t running around with end-of-the-school-year and beginning of summer stuff! One of the big-ticket items we’re dealing with this year is our large barn. And while repainting, and re-shingling, and replacing boards, and putting on gutters, we’re having the never-ending conversation about the pros and cons of mobile livestock shelters. Now, our “large barn” is not all that large to some folks, but it’s our biggest and most solid structure. Its where we put everyone during … Continue Reading…

Resources and Ideas for a Family Unit Study on Archaeology

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Well, the school year is starting to wrap up. Now that our Spring Break road trip is behind us, I’m focused on pulling together some unit study materials for the summer. Our family topics this year are marine biology and archaeology, and this year we’re really focusing on professions in those fields. We want the kids to start seeing and understanding what following your passion really looks like, day-to-day. What jobs do people do if they love history or ocean animals? Archaeology started out as a bit of a stretch for … Continue Reading…

How to Help Baby Birds That Fall Out of Their Nest

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If you follow us on Facebook for Instagram, you probably saw we have a baby bird living in my flower pot at the moment. For the love of green-grass, there is ALWAYS a bird “thing” going on around here! {smile} Whether it’s rescuing turkeys or bluebirds in a shoebox or a swallow almost drowning in the water trough, sometimes it seems like there is a constant parade of little feathers through my living room. And don’t even get me started on the chickens…Thankfully I just got new planters for the front flowerbeds, … Continue Reading…

Visiting Fort Boonesborough State Park in Kentucky

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About 2 weeks before leaving for our road trip, the boys and I watched the premiere of the new Men Who Built America–Frontiersmen series. Episode 1 was about Daniel Boone leading the first group of permanent settlers through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. The settlement was called Fort Boonesborough, and it played an interesting role in the Revolutionary War. Since we were getting ready to leave for our trip, and Kentucky was already on our route, we Googled “Fort Boonesborough.” Turns out there’s a state park (with camping!) at the … Continue Reading…