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I've never had chickens before and have begun the process of educating myself about the basics by picking up a couple books on the subject. I wanted to ask a few of you chicken experts some basic questions, if you'd be willing to take a couple of minutes to respond. I'm looking at getting 5...

I've got another canning question . . . If you have a Pressure Cooker/Canner for canning things with meat in them, can you also use it as a Water Bath Canner, or are there reasons to have one of each? I understand they do different things, but If I'm able to accomplish both with one piece of...

I've never canned tomato sauce before and am quite interested in doing so this coming year. My family never canned anything growing up, but I have wonderful memories of my Great-Aunt and Great-Uncle, right off the boat from Italy, canning hundreds and hundreds of quarts of sauce every Summer...

Purely on a whim, I just ordered two books on Amazon.com about Homesteading. I'm curious who on here has these two books and what you think of them: 1) Homesteading: A Back to Basics Guide to Growing Your Own Food, Canning, Keeping Chickens, Generating Your Own Energy, Crafting, Herbal...

Osmia cornifrons / Japanese Hornfaced Bee Our young orchard is a number of years away from needing swarms of bees, however it's a day I'm happily anticipating. Being a big honey fan, I've often relished the thought of being able to produce my own, even more so after discovering Ames Farm...

I try to grow a good-sized patch of garlic every year, almost exclusively the hardneck types that send up scapes, or flower stalks. One other attribute that's distinct about hardneck types is that each clove needs to be planted by hand, which is one of the main reasons the majority of large...

I'm curious how the folks on here would compare the concepts of Self-Sufficiency to Homesteading, as well as the personalities of the folks who tend to identify with one term over the other. I know some people would equate these two terms, but others will probably see distinct differences...

The orientation of the little cottage I'll be building this coming year will be North to South, so it unfortunately isn't set up to take full advantage of a solar PV panel array on the roof. Rather than forgo solar panels altogether, I've decided to install a small solar awning on the...

For the past 15 years, I've lived on Vinalhaven (Island), which is about 1 hour 20 minutes from the mainland by ferry boat. In Fall of 2010, I'll be breaking ground for a cottage at the edge of my orchard in the farming town of Union, about 20 miles inland (from Rockland.) Any other...

I'm going to be putting a wood cook stove into a small cottage I'll be building this coming year. I've looked at a ton of these stoves, and wanted one that had a boiler loop option yet wouldn't look out of place being located in a living room. I also wanted a cast iron one that looked like...

I'm building a new home this coming year that will be a well-insulated, air-tight, 1,380 sq ft cottage here on the Coast of Maine. One of the indulgences I'm allowing myself will be an shower in the main bathroom which will have six hydro-massage shower heads and the capacity at full bore to...

I joined earlier tonight and wanted to post a basic introduction. My name is John and Ive lived for the last 15 years in a little village on an island off the Maine Coast called Vinalhaven. Im a biotech recruiter professionally, however was fortunate enough a few years back to be able to buy...