Raising your own meat is not something that everyone does.  To a homesteader though, it's as common as growing your own tomatoes.  Funny thing is, I don't remember being so intimidated about growing a garden full of veggies as I was about doing something so huge as butchering a cow.  Putting the vegetarian debate aside, I wanted to talk about the logistics of butchering freezer beef.  When I first thought about raising a cow for beef I had no idea what to expect in terms of how much food…

Yes.  You actually can do this!  I'm not talking about the Flowbee haircutter that attaches to your vacuum and sucks up your hair, but actual haircuts that your family is used to.  You can be the stylist that your family depends on.  

At the cheap walk-in hair cutter's in town a basic men's haircut is $14.95 plus tip.  If you figure that the average man gets his hair cut about every 6 weeks, then that is almost $150 a year spent on hair cuts.  Got two kids?  Now you're talking…

The Happy Homesteader

This time of year everyone around us is cutting hay.  When you see a neighbor on the street or if you bump into someone at the hardware store the question everyone is asking is, "Did you get your hay up?"  It's this strange phenomenon that I never knew about until I became a land owner.  I actually remember the time that I asked what the difference between hay and straw is.  Now I know far more about hay…

The Happy Homesteader Blog

While my pantry is never bare and every season around here is a season to preserve food, this time of year is when things are the leanest.  July and August are the biggest canning periods and by now we have usually gone through much of last summer's harvest, but are enjoying the winter harvest.  Since warm season crops are already in the ground, then it won't be long before these veggies roll around…