• DIY

    Fabric Wipes & Homemade Solution Update

    Last month, shortly after Sprout was born, I posted about our homemade diaper wipe solution.  What I neglected to post about was the fabric wipes we’re using as well! So, yes, in addition to homemade solution we’re using, we’re also using fabric wipes that came from the flannel remnants of…

  • Chickens

    Backyard Chickens (Keeping & Care)

    In 2010, after living on our 1/8 acre for a couple of years and before transforming everything into the mini farm it is today, we decided to get a couple of chickens and try our hand at the keeping and care of our very first farm animals.  See, we dream…

  • DIY - Eat

    Chicken Stock – Using the Whole Chicken

    Last July, after much debate and in preparation for the Kitchen Garden & Coop Tour, we culled four of our laying hens.  Culling is never an easy thing for us, but it is part of the agreement we made with each other before we got chickens back in 2010. After…

  • DIY - Grow

    Harvesting Echinacea Seeds

      2013 marked our Echinacea’s third year and it was absolutely gorgeous this summer with all of its brilliant blossoms and visiting pollinators (bees and butterflies) buzzing around them all summer long!  Though I didn’t actually measure them, I would say the stalks got up to about 4 feet tall…

  • DIY

    Homemade Baby Wipe Solution

    Throughout Tool Lady’s pregnancy, we talked about all of the things we wanted to do for Sprout, for health reasons, environmental reasons and for economical reasons.  We talked about making our own homemade baby wipe solution and cloth wipes, using cloth diapers and, in the future, making our own baby…

  • DIY - Grow - Sow

    How to Plant Garlic

    Garlic is, hands down, my favorite and most used spice! Whether it’s whole and roasted, chopped and simmered (or sauteed) or in powder form, it goes in pretty much everything savory I make in the kitchen! Who: I always purchase my seed garlic from either Seed Savers Exchange or our…

  • DIY

    Hot Sauce DIY

    Well, we have just completed our very first fermentation project!  With all of the Cayenne Peppers we grew this summer, I’ve been looking for ways to use them up and  (like I mentioned a little while back), Andrea’s Homemade, Homegrown Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce sounded like a perfect addition to our winter…

  • DIY - Everything Else

    Consumerist Culture & Dryer Maintenance

    I recently received the following comment on my DIY Dryer Maintenance post that read: “Wow, a dryer ? It’s always interesting to see how other “cultures” do things, I have never even owned one, a dryer that is. The clothes hang out on the line, the sun does it’s thing. …