The fewell homestead — motherhood. homesteading. farmhouse. natural living, Jesus.
As a new gardener, I often found the task of growing prize winning tomatoes and succulent melons very daunting. Can I say succulent melons here? Get your head out of the gutter! But growing and drying your own herbs, now that was a new task. Gardening has never come naturally to me. But I learn and grow each and every…
Chicken bone broth is one of the first lines of defense when it comes to total health and wellness on the homestead. It’s so incredibly easy to make bone broth, and chicken bone broth is one of my favorites. You can create other bone broths as well, like beef, lamb, or venison—but chicken is one of the most versatile that…
We were recently in the market for a new outdoor chicken coop and outdoor chick brooder so, we decided to try out the Portable Backyard Chicken Coop from Lehman’s! We really enjoy this coop as our outdoor chick brooder. It also works amazingly well as a rabbit hutch and for just a couple of chickens as a breeding pen. This…
I love dryer sheets, but I love wool dryer balls more. Scents are so important to me in this little farmhouse, but non-toxic items are even more important. So when I can replace a toxin and chemical filled product in my house with an all natural one, I do it. I’m most nostalgic during the fall and winter seasons. Holidays…
When we first started our kitchen renovation, we knew the counter tops were an important part of the process. We thought we’d go with formica, but the more we researched butcher block, the more we fell in love with it. Butcher block counter tops are extremely forgiving, easy to maintain, and can easily be buffed or spot sanded down when…
Many chicken keepers might be interested to know that a natural and simple alternative to commercial layer feed is to make your very own non-gmo or organic chicken feed. Besides the fact that homemade chicken feed is pleasing to the eye with vibrant grains and veggies (versus compressed pellets), it’s also fairly easy to mix together, will last longer (since…
We took this drab kitchen and turned it into a fab farmhouse kitchen! Even though we live in a little rambler in the middle of a wooded subdivision, we brought the farmhouse right inside and livened the place up a bit. Since my entire theme for this home has always been “farmhouse”, it was natural for us to eventually float…
Giving herbs to your chickens isn’t a new concept, and neither is giving oatmeal. But what about offering herbal oatmeal to your chickens? No that, my friends, is something worth writing about! Combining both of these wonderful treats into an herbal oatmeal is a sure way to get those beneficial and medicinal herbs into your favorite chooks. Whether it’s maintenance…
Taking a vacation when you homestead—it’s almost taboo to say that, isn’t it? You feel a little dirty for saying “vacation” when you’re a homesteader. It might stem from the fact that you just have so much to do that you can’t stand the thought of leaving. Or it could stem from the stigma that people always say “you can’t…
W Harvesting your homestead bounty is one of the greatest accomplishments you’ll ever achieve (especially if it involved harvesting meat, like venison). I can remember the first garden I planted—it was a disaster. Not only that, but I had the worst time trying to find a cookbook specifically tailored towards the homestead harvest and garden. It didn’t matter anyway, I…
We don’t like to think about emergencies on the homestead, but they can arise at any moment. Last year we had a slight health scare, and it caused me to think about emergencies a lot more seriously than I had before. You see, emergencies on your homestead can be anything from a natural disaster, to a health crisis that puts…
I’m not a soapmaker. Let’s just start with that. However, I love homemade soap, and I have some amazing friends who are awesome soapmakers. One of my favorites is Plantain Herbal Soap! Soap making is one of those lost skills that truly does take a few tries to learn and get right. Thankfully, it’s really not a hard or complicated process,…
When I first started this herbal journey, I never thought I’d write a book about it—The Homesteader’s Herbal Companion. In fact, I still sit back and wonder how on earth I accomplished it. I am a constant learner, therefore feeling like I’m never an expert in much of anything. But after reading through the manuscript of my book months back,…
When we bought our home, it was a foreclosure and a major fixer upper. We had no intention of creating a small little farmhouse out of our home, but here we are, killin’ it. There are chickens in the backyard, a kitchen garden in the front, and a few meat rabbits scattered about the property. I’ve tried so many types…
I’ve always prided myself in keeping a healthy and clean flock. Sure, we’ve had a few run-ins with chickens that we’re brought into the flock throughout our chicken keeping days (who hasn’t?), but we came out with more knowledge once we actually walked through those issues first-hand. Our first misadventure was lice. We had bought several French Black Copper Marans…
Sometimes talking about sustainable farming means you have to talk about the hard stuff. The real stuff. The stuff that makes people look at you weird or think you’re a horrible person. One of those things is the process of a type of “natural selection”. And not in the evolution type of theory. It’s the big “C” word that we don’t…
It’s time to start planning my herb garden now that spring has finally arrived. Though the Virginia weather has been extremely unpredictable and dreary, I’m starting my seeds indoors, and showing you how to start your seeds indoors efficiently as well in this week’s new video. I’m also going to give you a super easy DIY potting soil mix! Here…
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