Untrained Housewife was started to celebrate the journey to knowledge and self-sufficiency. The thing is – it’s not an easy journey.

Baby milk goat. So adorable with those floppy ears, right?

Milks Goats and Meat Chickens

The biggest set-back: Last year I barely milked the goats at all. I had an infant to tend to, a business to run and it was crazy weather. We weren’t consistent enough to keep our goat in good milk and then the terrible heat wave began and she dried up.

No big deal. I will pick it back up again this year. We’ve taken our two goats to the neighbor’s house for a month-long rendezvous with a buck. And we’ll have new babies this April-ish and get a chance to try again.

Our colorful flock of mixed laying hens in their portable coop in the garden.

Our biggest success: 2011 was the year we ordered baby chicks in the mail. Half were for egg production and half were a meat breed of chicken that we were able to process last May. In fact, my mother-in-law is making a big pot of chicken soup with one of the last of those birds right now.

Talk about an amazing feeling! By the end of the afternoon when we finished processing the birds, the freezer was full! Of the highest quality, most nutritious, and least expensive meat available for my family. Such a fabulous feeling.

The Importance of the Journey

I don’t think self-sufficiency is ever fully achievable. We grow, change, learn. Our circumstances change. Our focus shifts.

And that’s ok. Or so I’m learning.

Developing a more self-sufficient lifestyle is partly about understanding your boundaries. Your personal limitations.

And taking the risk and the chance to push the boundaries of where those limits are. Do you just “know” that you could never have a backyard chicken flock? Do you “know” that you have a terrible black thumb and could never grow your own food?

Why not try again! This is the year for taking a chance and pushing the limits of what your family considers normal. Choose one thing to focus on this year as you take the next step towards self-sufficiency.

For me this year it’s starting the garden from seeds – heirloom seeds that I can try my hand at saving for the first time. It could be a colossal failure, but it could be a brilliant success. Chances are it’ll be something in the middle and that is ok with me.

What step will you take this year to increase your family’s self-sufficiency? 

The main ranch pond - usually cross fenced through the middle, the fence wound up completely exposed.

This summer was brutal. Heat and drought combined like a one-two punch in what seemed like a cruel and final knock- out blow to many.

Mind you, all was not a loss. The country folk are long-thinking…one season, one year is not the end-all and be-all when your family is on the land for a hundred years.

On a ranch there is never a total loss. I remember reading Little House On the Prairie when I was little and Ma saying, “There is no great loss without some small gain.” I didn’t understand that until this summer.

This summer that sent so many around us scrambling for water and hay. This oppressively hot drought… What possible good? On the ranch? Always something.

Our ranch pond is fed by a small underground spring so we didn’t go dry. But we are low. Like my patience after a newborn arrives…like a low tide leaving life exposed to the harshest rays.

And so, in homesteader fashion, we sought to improve. Nothing is ever truly finished on a ranch. Ever.

Digging dirt and muck away from the very heart of the pond.

This pond that has watered the livestock for more than 60 years bared herself to the sun and got a makeover.

Stacking the dirt from the deepened pond onto the dam - widening and strengthening it so it will stand for another generation. Or two.

By the time the Bobcat built up the dam and scraped the clay, silt, mud and debris from her very core, the pond is developing a fine shape.

"There is no great loss without some small gain."

Come rain and better seasons, this pond will stand for another 60 years or more. My kids will tell their kids how in the summer of the big drought they could walk across the pond without swimming and their kids will marvel at the thought.

Because the mindset here is long-term. They may seem a slow-moving people. They did me when I first moved here. But I’m learning that temporary ills are often easier to handle when you look beyond your own moments.

My house just made it through several rounds of severe weather- really severe, with lots of tornadoes that killed people and destroyed homes.  We were spared any damage, and we are grateful.  However, our power was out for 24 hours.  Again, we are grateful it was only 24 hours, because as I write, there are homes all around us that are still without power after several days.

When you find yourself without electricity, you realize how many things are taken for granted, one of which is light.  There’s nothing like a good pow er outage to make you feel absolutely stupid  every time you walk into a room and flip that dang switch, even though you know nothing is going to happen.  But there are things you can do to have light, even when the switch doesn’t work!

Kerosene Lanterns

These are the best for general lighting.  They are cheap, the oil is cheap, and the replacement wicks are cheap.  For around $15.00, you can set up one lantern that will last for years.  I replace lamp oil about once annually.  Kerosene lanterns put out a lot of light.  They will light a room enough to play games, and if you have one nearby, you can read or do needlework.  Kerosene lanterns are not easily transportable, however.  They are best used in rooms such as a living room or kitchen, where they can be set in one place, on a sturdy surface that little ones can’t wiggle.

So, what do you use for transportable light?

Jars an d Votive Cand les

A votive candle in a half-pint canning jar works perfectly to carry light from room to room.  The candle sits dow n deep i nside the jar, so when the candle is carried, the air does not blow out the flame.  The flame sits in the middle of the jar and does not make the outside of the jar hot.  And, it is the perfect size for little hands.  Small c hildren can safely carry a candle in a half-pint jar from room to room.

Now, what about a room that needs a good light, but gets too much traffic for a kerosene lantern?

Bathroom and Bedroom Light

I like to use large scented candles that sit in their own jar.  The Wal-mart brand is only around $5, and the scent goes throughout the candle, so it smells good all the way to the bottom.  They come in a variety of scents, and you can purchase lamp tops to make them more decorative.  These work well in bathrooms and bedrooms where you may want a light on throughout the entire night during the power outage, but you want it to be safe.  They are too big for little hands to transport from room to room, but once the wick burns down beyond the rim of the jar, they transport well in big hands.

What if you don’t want any candles burning in your home at all?

Battery Powered Light

Rule #1 for battery-powered light: Stock up on the appropriate batteries.

Rule #2:  See Rule #1!

No artificial light will work without electricty and batteries!  BUY BATTERIES!  Buy batteries for what?, you are probably asking.  Since we are talking about light for the home during a power outage, you should shop for battery powered lanterns.  Shelf Reliance has several battery powered lanterns to choose from.  The UCO Candle Lantern is cost effective and versatile.  The Eureka Magic 185 is more expensive but can also be used as a flashlight.  It has several settings, and comes with the necessary AA batteries.  Where have you ever seen a product with batteries included?  The Eureka Guide 51 is also both a lantern and a flashlight.  It, too, has batteries included!

It is so much easier to go through a major power outage if you are prepared.  Light is one of the first things we miss, so plan now for the worst, and of course, hope for the best.

Photo by Robin Egerton

Start With Small, Fresh PeachesIdeally, the peaches will be picked right off the tree.  More realistically, they will be purchased at a farmer’s market or the local grocery store.  Be sure they are fully ripe, but still fairly firm.  The heat of processing the peaches will cause them to soften. To can peaches whole, the peaches need to be small.  Eight to ten small peaches will fit into a 1-quart jar.  Simply wash the peaches, removing residual stems or leaves, and place into a clean quart jar.  Cover the peaches with the syrup of choice.

Cover Peaches With Light to Heavy Syrup

The lightness of the syrup is determined by the amount of sugar added to the water.  The less sugar, the lighter the syrup.  To make the syrup, add the required amount of sugar to a pot of water, and bring to a boil.  Use the following chart to determine a light or heavy syrup.

After covering the peaches with the syrup, slide a butter knife around the inside of the jar, gently nudging the peaches, to release air bubbles.  If air bubbles are allowed to remain, the air may cause the jar to break under the pressure of processing.

Avoid Brown Peaches

The way to avoid the peaches browning over time is to add a preservative.  Fruit Fresh is a good choice.  It can be purchased in the canning department of the local grocery store, near the canning lids and pectin.  Add it to the syrup prior to boiling.  This is only necessary to preserve the appearance of the fruit, but who wants to eat brown peaches?

Final Step To Home Canned Peaches

After the air bubbles have been released from the jar of peaches, wipe the top of the jar, place a new lid on the jar, and secure with a clean canning ring. The peaches can be water-bathed for 30 minutes, or pressured canned at 10 pounds for 10 minutes.

During the canning process, the peach fuzz disappears, and the skin becomes very thin.  It is easily eaten with very little texture, or easily removed.  The flesh of the peach will cut off the pit just as easily.  They will be sweet, tender and delicious all winter long.

Every family should have grab-and-go emergency bags for potential emergencies. Even young children can help pack a go bag and store it in an easy-to-access place. Make grabbing the survival bags part of your emergency drills with your family.

What to Include in a Smart Bag or Survival Pack?

The emergency grab-and-go bag is designed to be mobile and something that can be carried by each member of the family, even children if necessary. Separate from a week-long emergency kit that might be stored in a large Rubber-Maid type tote or plastic box to be hauled in the car for evacuations, etc. this article focuses more on the smaller, personal-sized packs. The ones that can be packed in a backpack.

Obviously each family’s emergency needs will vary but here are some items to consider packing for various members of the family.

Adult Go Bags for Emergency Situations

• Filtering Water Bottle – try to include one those water bottles that will filter water for you to minimize the amount you have to carry on your back!
• ID Papers – Copy of passport, driver’s license and other important ID.
• First Aid Kit – Probably only one adult would need to carry a first-aid kit.
• Tools – Needle and thread, tweezers, scissors, portable can opener and any other tools you might need for survival.
• Fire Starter – If this is in the form of matches, be sure you place them in a waterproof container or zip lock. One person I know vacuum seals their matches for their emergency bags.
• Change of clothes – Be sure to include light-weight but warm and durable coat.
• Blanket or Sleeping Bag
• Flashlight and Spare Batteries – Some people prefer the flashlights that wind up and don’t require batteries. Consider carrying a couple of the night glow sticks as well.

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• Medications – Tylenol, benydryl, pepto-bismol or bismuth tablets, etc. Again use waterproof containers or bags to protect the medication from the elements.
• Communication devices – If cell phones could be down, consider including 2 way radios, even simple walkie talkies in the backpacks. This is especially important for families to help parents connect with children and find eachother in case of natural disaster. Each bag can have a walkie talkie or handheld radio.
• Food Supplies – energy bars, beef jerky, trail mix, dehydrated fruit, peanut butter, canned meat, vegetables or juice, etc.

Children Emergency Pack Considerations

In addition to clothes and light, food and water bottle for a child’s bag consider some of these unique items.

• Diversion – Easy-to-pack diversions can be invaluable in creating a pleasant distraction for a child. Choose something that doesn’t require batteries like a deck of cards, flash cards, or favorite book.
• Children’s medications – The unique dosage size means you’ll want to indivudualize any medications for babies and children.
• Guardian name and information – If your child gets separated from you, or is a young child, you want to have not only YOUR name and contact information included, but you want to have the name and information of an emergency contact as well. Try to include two or three safe families for your child, and at least one out-of-state contact in case of a localized natural disaster.
• Allergy and special needs information – Include allergy information and any special dietary needs.

Most families may never need to use their emergency go bags, but if you’re ever in an emergency situation where you need to, you will be glad that you have it! Whether you purchase a pre-assembled survival pack, or create your own, you can personalize some of the contents based on individual needs.

As a child, I was always puzzled by the descriptions of sour cream and sour milk in the Little House on the Prairie books. When our milk went off, it didn’t smell sour – it smelled like garbage!

The culprit, of course, is pasteurisation. Heat-treating milk turns it from a living substance teeming with benefcial bacteria to a lifeless, denatured product. While raw milk turns sour, pasteurised milk turns rancid.

Finding a source of raw milk can be tricky, but if you have access to pastured raw milk, you get a host of potential dairy products out of the deal. Nutrient-rich foods such as kefir, cultured cream, butter, yoghurt, whey, cottage cheese and sour cream are easy to make.

How to Make Sour Cream From Raw Milk

Because raw milk usually comes non-homogenised, the cream will separate from the milk on its own. It isn’t necessary to skim the cream off – you can simply sour cream and milk together, then spoon the sour cream off the top and use the thickened sour milk (known as clabber) for baking. If you want to drink the milk fresh, however, the easiest way to separate milk is by pouring the milk off the bottom, not skimming the cream off the top. Pour the raw milk into a glass keg with a tap at the bottom (these are available for home brewing) and leave until separated; then simply pour the milk away into a jug.

Souring your cream takes only one easy step – leave it! We store our raw milk in Thermoses, so all I do is leave one Thermos out of the fridge for a few days with the lid slightly ajar, and voila! Cream sours in about a day in warm weather, but may take a few days in winter. When it’s thick and tastes sour, it’s ready. Sour cream may not be quite as thick and jelly-like as commercial sour cream, which often contains gelatine and thickeners.

If you make sour cream without separating the cream first, you will find the sour cream forms a recognisable layer over the milk, but that the milk has also thickened into a kind of curd-like mixture. To hasten the process of making sour cream the next time, you can add a few tablespoons of this clabber to a fresh batch of cream or raw milk.

Safety of Cultured Milk Products

Anyone consuming raw milk should be aware of the risks and benefits, particularly the difference between raw milk produced in sanitary pastured conditions and raw milk from CAFOs, intended to be pasteurised. Obtaining raw milk from a trusted source is vital – some farms have their milk regularly tested for pathogens to ensure consumers’ peace of mind.

Using Homemade Sour Cream

Sour cream loses some of its health benefits from enzymes and probiotics when heated. However, homemade sour cream is still healthier than storebought, as it lacks additives. To get the maximum health benefits from your cultured sour cream, do not heat it above bath temperature. Sour cream is delicious on top of nachos, spooned into soup, used as the base for a dip or mixed with berries for a tangy-sweet dessert sauce.

I began experimenting with making my own soap several years ago, firstly as something to sell at craft shows, secondly to save money.  I began with melt-and-pour glycerin soaps.  They were easy to do and looked nice, but people still wanted lye soaps, so I branched out. 

Supplies for Making Lye Soap

There are a few items I had to purchase to begin making lye soap.  I bought a large enamel or stainless steel cooking pot, two half gallon plastic pitchers, a long-handled plastic stirring spoon, two candy thermometers, a scale, and a plastic tub to pour the soap into.  I also bought a cheap hand blender as it saves an enormous amount of time energy.  I labeled each item clearly with the words “Lye Soap, Do Not Eat or Drink” on the side as sometimes I put my lye and water mixture in the fridge to cool down.  It also lets the family know not to pour iced tea into those pitchers or make soup in that pot.

Simple Steps for Making Lye Soap

I first measure out distilled water into one pitcher and lye in another pitcher and mix them.  Always pour the lye into the water and not the water into the lye. A volcano-like reaction can occur if you do it the other way around.   I do this outside, as some nasty fumes are given off and you want to be careful not to breathe them. The resultant chemical reaction heats the mixture to over 140 F. This needs to then sit and cool until it reaches about 100-110 F. 

While the lye mixture is cooling, I measure the oils and add them to the cooking pot.  I heat them to 100-110 F then remove them from the heat. Once the lye mixture has cooled sufficiently and the oils are near that temperature also, I slowly pour the lye into the oils, stirring constantly while adding. Next I use the stick blender and mix it until it is the consistency of pudding. This is called tracing and can take 5 minutes or up to 30 minutes, depending on the oils used. 

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Once trace has been reached, I pour the soap into the plastic tub, smooth it out, and put the lid on.  I wrap this in an old blanket and let it sit over night.  Once it has cooled, the soap can be removed from the tub and cut into bar shapes.  Place the bars on wire racks to cure for at least 3 weeks and your soap is ready to use. During the process, I don’t wear armored clothing and masks, but treat the mixture and ingredients as I would hot oil when cooking.

Obtaining Soap Recipes

I have tried several soap recipes over the years.  Different oils react differently and are good for different things.  I have used the lye calculator at Majestic Mountain Sage for years and find it easy to use and accurate when I try something new.  I have settled on a recipe with only coconut oil and olive oil.  It contains 3 pounds coconut oil, 1 pound olive oil, 20 oz. of water, and 2/3 pound of lye.  It works well for me and is easy to find the ingredients. It is fun to play with the lye calculator and try different recipes to see what works just right for your family.

John Seymour shares decades of experience with readers in this impressive guide to living a more frugal and self-sufficient lifestyle. This updated version from the 1976 edition includes more information than ever, as well as modern equipment and information relevant for today’s homesteaders. Is it, however, the “complete back-to-basics guide” as it claims to be?

About The Self-Sufficient Life

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live it is published by DK and is a hard cover book with over 300 pages of informative reading. It is written by John Seymour with Will Sutherland and gives not only practical experiences with homesteading, but also covers a great deal of the philosophical reasonings behind land management, self-sufficiency and having a diverse holding. I appreciated the mindset of why people choose to live a self-sufficient life and found those portions of the book very interesting.

Philosophy of Living Self-Sufficiently

The first few sections deal with the philosophy of living a self-sufficient lifestyle, how to take your first steps towards self-sufficiency, our interaction with the environment, and various types of gardens or small holding homesteads that are possible. Beautiful pictures show what can be done with a small urban garden, a larger community plot, a one-acre farm and a five-acre farm.

Types of Food for Homesteaders

The next few chapters of the book cover tips and suggestions for how to provide food for a family while living on a homestead. These include food from the garden, from animals, from the fields, and from the wild. Some of the information is surprisingly detailed, for example the section on grafting fruit tree branches is something I would consider an advanced gardening skill. Other sections, like the three pages about bees and honey, leave me desiring more.

Areas Around the Homestead and Old-Fashioned Skills

The next two sections talk about different areas of the homestead and go into a bit more detail about how to set up an organize each area. These are “In the Dairy” and “In the Kitchen”. A beginner would want additional information about things like making cheese or canning, but the recipes, tips and little suggestions are fantastic.

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The remainder of the book is spent introducing several of the crafts and skills many homesteaders find themselves wanting to try their hand at. Things like spinning, weaving, brewing wine, making baskets, building outbuildings, fences and shed or even creating a more eco-friendly home are all discussed.

What Readers Will Love About The Sufficient Life

The pictures in The Self-Sufficient Life, while old-fashioned and nicely done, are full color and rather detailed. Oftentimes a particular technique is shown in step-by-step fashion through illustrations and text both, making it easier to learn or follow along. New homesteaders will also appreciate the “been there, done that”, common sense attitude that Seymour takes. His experience is evident as you read the book.

What Readers Need to Know Before Buying The Self-Sufficient Life

While Mr. Seymour does a good job of introducing readers to almost ever aspect of a small holding lifestyle, nothing is covered in exact detail. If you are the type who must have exact diagrams and measurements, you would need more information beyond what is provided in this book. If you are able to see something and then visualize how it fits together though you may be able to do a lot of improvements around your homestead just using the book and illustrations as a guide.

American readers will want to be aware that Mr. Seymour is writing of his experiences in Europe so some seasonal and climate concerns, as well as a few of the odd terms used, may seem different. The glossary in back explains most, but not all, the non-American terminology.

Overall The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live it is a great introduction to anyone beginning, or even considering a more sustainable style of living. More experienced homesteaders will find the alternate methods presented interesting to consider. The sheer amount of topics covered is amazing – from a dry toilet, to energy efficient home considerations, to crop rotation and land management. Readers will find their interest piqued by various topics and likely develop a desire to learn more.

• Title: The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live it
  
• Written by: John Seymour with Will Sutherland
• Publisher: DK Publishing, Inc 2004
• Format: Large Hard-Cover
• ISBN 10: 0-7894-9332-2