The Myriad Uses of Concrete in Homesteading

The Myriad Uses of Concrete in Homesteading
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Homesteading puts us in a constant state of learning new skills, especially in the early years. One thing you’ll want to become comfortable with as soon as possible is working with concrete, because there plenty of ways we can use concrete in homesteading.

Concrete Is the Ultimate Building Material

Composed of Portland cement, crushed rock and water, concrete is both simple and highly functional. If you want a home that will:

  • Stand the test of time
  • Be easy to heat in winter and cool in the summer
  • Resist strong winds, even those from tornadoes or hurricanes
  • Be unappealing to insects, rodents and other pests
  • Offer a quiet retreat from noise
  • Be fireproof
  • Be recyclable in the future and can be made from recycled materials today
  • Allow you to have full artistic reign

… then concrete is the material for you. Concrete homes, otherwise known as ICF or insulated concrete form homes, offer all of the advantages above and more.

And the last bullet point is one we simply can’t gloss over. If you think of a concrete home and imagine a dull grey monolith to call “home,” you couldn’t be more wrong. Concrete can be colored and stamped to appear like other building materials altogether, giving the appearance of, for example, a brick or stone home. You can also embed materials like tiles and glass to give your home an eclectic look.

Aside from building your home out of this material, there are plenty of other ways to use concrete around the homestead.

Keep Burrowing Critters on the Right Side of Your Fences

Does any of this sound familiar?

  • A fenced garden that burrowing pests still feast on
  • A chicken coop that is raided by digging varmints
  • A dog who digs his way out of the kennel on a routine basis

We build fences for a variety of reasons, and animals, domestic or otherwise, always test those barriers. Fortunately, there is a simple and permanent solution to prevent digging.

Dig a trench about 1 foot deep and just a couple inches wide as close to your current fence line as possible. Fill it with concrete, and while the mixture is still wet, place simple metal stakes in it every few feet to help you tie the fence to it, preventing any gaps between the concrete and the fence that might invite a digger to still weasel in or out.

Take Advantage of Concrete’s Fireproof Properties

Virtually all homesteaders use fire to cook, heat their homes or burn debris. It’s essential to have a safe place to control a fire so that it does not get out of hand and destroy your property. Concrete is fire resistant, and thanks to its malleability, also completely customizable.

You can build:

  • An outdoor “pizza” oven
  • A firepit, either raised, flat or sunken
  • A rocket mass heater
  • A fireplace and chimney
  • Safe storage for flammable materials

Every Building Needs a Concrete Slab

If you need just one good reason to become a concrete pro, it’s the simple fact that virtually every building needs a durable foundation. Barns, sheds, garages … you name it, it needs a concrete slab foundation to provide a solid basis of support.

And best of all, concrete prices remain affordable, even more so if you use recycled concrete, which uses chopped concrete as the aggregate for new concrete rather than gravel. It’s easy to use, strong and cheap … the trifecta of a perfect building material.

3 Simple Homestead Canning Recipes

3 Simple Homestead Canning Recipes

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If you want to try making food by yourself, you should try the homestead approach. In this kind of lifestyle, you are going to grow food in your backyard. But if there is one thing more fun than this, it must be homestead canning.

Canning is actually a great hobby and survival project. It allows you to preserve your grown food as long as possible. These food items could come to your rescue, whenever you are trying to be frugal. But of course, canned foods are also great gift ideas!

When you are canning, it is recommended that you only create a recipe that you are familiar with. In this way, you won’t have any trouble in making the food. As a result, you are simplifying the overall cooking process.

But if you are still new to homestead canning, then don’t fret. I can pull certain recipes on my cooking repository that you can try. They are fairly simple to create since they only involve minimal ingredients and preparation. Take a look at each of these recipes and see which one you can try first!

Homestead Canning Recipes

Canned Tomatoes

Tomatoes are always a favorite ingredient when it comes to homestead canning. They are very accessible and relatively cheap, too. Since there are a lot of tomato varieties today, your options are pretty limitless. However, for those tomatoes that are relatively sweet, you should include a minimal amount of acid in the equation. With this, you can prevent botulism from happening.

Ingredients:

  • Tomatoes (2 pounds)
  • Lemon juice
  • Salt

Materials:

  • Mason jars

Instructions:

  1. Start by peeling the tomato. Use a sharp knife to this process. If you are working with huge amount of tomatoes, the peeling could take time. Therefore, it is better if someone will help you out.
  2. Next, blanch the tomato. You can do this by removing its core. After that, make an X cut on its bottom. Once done, you can put the tomatoes in a pot of boiling water. Let them be simmered for around 30 seconds. After simmering, put the tomatoes in a bucket of water with ice.
  3. If the tomatoes are all naked already, you should start preparing the jars. Make sure that your jars are clean by running them on a dishwasher.
  4. Put the tomatoes in the jar. Include at least two tablespoons of lemon juice per jar. This will stabilize the acidity level of the canned tomatoes. Adding the salt is optional, but you can still add one teaspoon of it per jar.
  5. Fill the jar with water. After that, put the lids and close the jars tightly. Afterwards, put the jars in simmering hot water. Let them be boiled for around 45 minutes.
  6. Store the canned tomatoes in a cold and dark storage.

Canned Fig Jam

The fig is a seasonal fruit. Therefore, it would be a pain to crave it on the wrong season of the year. But if you are quite ingenious and creative, you can solve this problem by canning the fruit. One way to do it is making a puree or jam out the figs. They are great ingredients for various desserts like smoothies! The fig jam is also a great baby food, too.

Ingredients:

  • Figs (2 pounds)
  • Sugar (1/4 cup)
  • Lemon juice (1/2 cup)
  • Dash of cinnamon

Materials:

  • Mason jars

Instructions:

  1. Slice the figs into small quarters.
  2. Put the quartered figs in a pan together with the sugar. I recommend that you will use an unrefined sugar for this canning recipe. But of course, you can utilize whatever sugar you have right now!
  3. Cook the mixture in a low heat setting. Stir them properly until they become a puree.
  4. For better results, you can use a handheld blender to mash the puree while the cooking. This is not a necessary procedure, but doing this can smoothen the texture of the puree.
  5. Throughout the heating process, you can notice that the color of the mixture turns dark while its texture begins to thicken. Just continue stirring until such time the mixture is thick enough to be called a jam.
  6. Before you remove the jam in the pan, add the cinnamon and lemon juice. They can certainly enhance the flavor of this recipe.
  7. Store the now fig jam into the jars. Let them be cooled before you store them in your refrigerator.

Canned Apple Butter

We like making food from scratches. Even if we have the option to buy them, the pleasure and satisfaction of making your own food are still an irreplaceable thing. That is the story of the apple butter.

We can see a lot of commercial variants for this food item. But didn’t you know that you can actually make this delectable treat by yourself? Check out the procedure below to get started.

Ingredients:

  • Applesauce (9 quarts)
  • Cloves (1 teaspoon; ground)
  • Cinnamon (2 tablespoons; ground)
  • Sugar (4 cups)
  • Allspice (1/2 teaspoon)

Materials:

  • Mason jars

Instructions:

  1. The first thing that you need to acquire is the applesauce. You can make this ingredient, or you can buy it on the market. It is your choice.
  2. Use a crockpot and pour the applesauce there. The pot should be semi full. If you have a lot of applesauce, you can pour them later. Put the pot on the stove and cook it over low heat until the applesauce boils.
  3. While the applesauce is not yet boiling, add the rest of the ingredients. You can use honey as an alternative to sugar if you are quite distancing yourself from the latter.
  4. The cooking process of the pot will take around 8 hours. Therefore, if you want to quicken the process, you can increase the heat of the stove to medium heat.
  5. Once the mixture is already cooked, cover the pot with the lid. Don’t tighten the lid too much. Otherwise, the moisture won’t be able to escape. Leave the pot for another 10 hours. You can stir the mixture from time to time to prevent it from sticking to the sides of the pot.
  6. After the period, the mixture will only be half of its original volume. This time, you can already pour additional applesauce and some sweeteners. Let it be cooked for another 4 hours.
  7. Once the cooking is done, pour it into a bowl. Let it be cooled for awhile before putting it in your blender. Blend the mixture until the texture becomes fine and smooth. Pour the apple butter in your jars and cover them tightly. Place them in your refrigerator afterward.

Conclusion

These are just a few recipes that you can try for homestead canning! If you can finally learn all these, you can already explore some other options, too. Don’t limit your food palette. I am pretty sure that you can discover other great homestead canned recipes sooner!

Hello! Rose here! I am a full-pledge mother and a kitchen warrior at the same time. I created the GimmeTasty.com blog so that I can share my cooking knowledge to each interested individuals out there. If you want to catch up with my culinary adventures, just visit and subscribe to my site! I am excited to see you there!

Travel-Trailer Homesteading Under $5,000

Book Review: Travel-Trailer Homesteading Under $5,000
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Travel-Trailer Homesteading is a small book that packs a wallop, with information for readers tired of paying rent and yearning for a suitable home of their own, but who don’t have a huge bankroll to do it.

Kelling lays out all the basics: how to analyze your budget and costs; how to find suitable land and a livable travel trailer or RV to use as a permanent home; what kinds of tools you’ll need; and how to construct a septic system, generate power, devise heating and refrigeration systems, and much more.

While Travel-Trailer Homesteading is not a large book, and some of the ideas are a little impractical, I did find it useful – especially with ideas that I can adopt on a different scale at my own homestead.  I especially liked the ideas on sanitation and home heating as I found them to be useful as I develop my own little cabin in the woods.   My plan was to adopt many of the ideas to a shed conversion when I was attempting the “Dual Homestead” idea – you know to be practical and cheap – unfortunately my partner was unwilling to try other ideas.

Water Line Installation

 

Homesteading: Water Line Installation
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Today we are going to test and discuss my water line installation.  I rented a trencher to put in a new water line and while I was at work my buddy installed a water hydrant like the one pictured here.

He also put in an underground connection for the tiny house.  Additionally Smitty put in a stub so that later we can branch off and run water to a future goat barn.

To ensure we have no leaks before we fill the hole back in Smitty put in a temporary stand pipe and attached an air gauge.

We attached an air line and pressurized the system to 80 psi for about 4 hours.  If the pressure stays in the system there are no leaks.

If the pressure drops then you know you have a leak.

To find the leak add three drops of dish soap into a bottle of water.  Simply spray the water around the couplings and air the system back up.  Leaks will blow bubbles with the solution.

You can then fix your water line installation problem.

We also put the water line to the tiny house in a bucket buried in the ground and added a shutoff.  This is useful because if the plumbing in the house needed to be worked on, you can shut it off from the outside so that you don’t have water leaking all in the building.

Shooting: The M6 Scout is One of the Best Homestead Rifles

Why The M6 Scout is One of the Best Homestead Rifles

 

Shooting: The M6 Scout is One of the Best Homestead Rifles
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The M6 scout was one of the first rifles I bought when I got out of the Marines.  I kept it in a case in he back of my car for decades.  The gun was originally designed as a survival tool attached to the ejection seat of American fighter planes.

Originally this was designed to be .22 Hornet and .410 but the commercial models are typically .22 LR and .410.  The civilian guns are also a shade longer as the Air Force models are considered Short Barrel Rifles per the National Firearms Act.

Why The M6 Scout is One of the Best Homestead Rifles

I think the M6 Scout is one of the best homestead rifles you can have because it is light, short, and handy.  It is large enough to take care of most varmints and powerful enough to hunt small game.  It is of a simple design and is both safe and rugged.

You do not have to use a scope on the rifle.  It has a rear sight that flips to either calibrate to the .22 or the .410.  However, it is tapped for a scope mount.  If you get a M6 I would suggest a scope, and know where to find the best rimfire scope.

If you are going to have a beat around truck or tractor gun then this is a model to consider.  I keep the .410 side loaded because it is perfect for killing poisonous snakes I find in the brush as I clear off the homestead.

Since it is a break open with a hammer and a selector switch, I can keep the ,410 loaded and the selector on the unloaded top .22 barrel and feel very confident in the safety of the gun.  I have to both select the .410 barrel and cock the hammer to fire.