Homesteading

Making your own soap is an enjoyable and useful activity. Homemade soaps are also better for the skin because they contain glycerin. Glycerin is a natural product of the soap making process. But, with many commercial soaps, the glycerin is removed and used to make lotions and other cosmetics. With self-made soaps, the glycerin is not removed and you will benefit from its soothing and moisturizing effects.

When you are just starting out making soap, it is not good to use a complicated recipe with expensive ingredients. You do not want to get overwhelmed. You also do not want to waste money on fancy imported oils and 50 different types of milk and additives when you are not yet confident with your craft. When starting out, it is better to keep things simple and low cost. I am going to teach you how to make an uncomplicated soap using just four ingredients.

I’d like to give everyone an update on the big move from the wilderness of Saskatchewan to the Nova Scotia coast. Although we had a few breakdowns along the way, I was able to drive the big truck across with all our worldly possessions and we arrived safe and sound on April 13th. Then we had a decision to make. Where were we going to call home? We owned a couple pieces of land, each with their positive and negative points. One property was boat access only. Well, we had just come from float plane access only and we wanted to make life just a little easier so we ruled out the boat access property. We looked at our other property and ultimately decided to make our homestead on this piece.

It’s been a rainy but also hot and humid week here on the Tennessee Cumberland Plateau aka The Prepper Redoubt Of The East and no I don’t have hidden motives nor am I trying to sell you any prepper property here, just letting you know that there are other alternatives for “safe areas” besides moving to the northwest, but I digress.

Many of you have asked for a homestead update so instead of the usual preps for the week, I’m going to use this segment to give you all an update on what I’ve done in the past ten months that I’ve been here at the new homestead/retreat.

We have used many things for chicken coops over the years. A garage, dog crates, pet carriers, pens constructed from insulation panels, scrap wood, and mismatched cuts of wire fencing, plastic, and whatever else could keep chickens contained. It was a shantytown for poultry but it did the job.

With a change of residency came the opportunity to actually construct a coop that would be something I could stand in, walk through, and not worry about it falling over. Being a thrifty type, using an old travel camper that was on our property seemed like the only natural choice.

The 1970s-era camper was fairly gutted but still had some remnants that needed to go. We took out the remaining lights, shelving and extras, and then The Man of the Place built a frame on each side to create a ledge. We put leftover roofing steel on the front of each, to cover that underneath. These ledges were for roosting or feed or whatever. We used the top of the air conditioner box to hold a roosting rail, fastening it across to the other side of the wall. We had to put a bracing wood underneath, bolting that in. For the seating, that was pretty much it.

Battery Bank / Power Inverter (READ PART ONE HERE –EMERGENCY POWER ALTERNATIVES MADE SIMPLE Part I Solar Panels and Charge Controller) By Robert B – http://keepingupwiththepreppers.blogspot.com/ The battery bank is the most important component of your system. Once the sun goes down, the battery bank will provide electricity throughout the night if built correctly. The […]