Raising your own meat birds to fill your freezers full of high quality meats means you’ll need to have a plan for how and where you’re going to raise them. From adorable little yellow fluff balls to bulky white dirty birds, meat birds need protection from the elements when raised on pasture. Since their favorite…
Homesteading
The Toxicity of Self-Sufficiency in Modern Homesteading
This is a big topic. One that may get some blow back from the homesteading world. But it’s a topic that needs more awareness. I am all for self-sufficiency lifestyles that are built on providing for yourself and your family such as through homesteading, gardening, farming, etc. However, in my few years of truly knowing…
Is Raising Turkeys and Chickens Together a Good Idea?
Birds of a feather flock together? Well, when your homesteading vision doesn’t exactly line up perfectly with your resources, you make do with what you’ve got. This year we raised two Bourbon Red turkeys with our backyard flock of laying hens and two Khaki Campbell ducks. Here’s how raising turkeys went for Johnson Home: This…
10 of the best kitchen tools that can help a from scratch kitchen work more efficiently
When you cook in a from scratch kitchen for most meals of the day, your kitchen sink will always be full. There’s just no getting around that. But take heart! Here are 10 of the best kitchen tools that can help a from scratch kitchen work more efficiently. You know, so we can have more…
9 Cozy Winter Hobbies that Offer Rest to the Homesteader
If you’re anything like me, it can be hard to rest. Resting feels unproductive but rest is essential. So essential, in fact, that God called for it on the 7th day of Creation. For the homesteader, farmer, grower; resting is for the winter. When the fields (gardens) are fallow, the pantry is stocked, and the…
5 groceries you can stop buying today and how to do that!
Aht, aht. Before you start to argue you can buy these groceries cheaper and with less time than making them homemade, ask yourself to really look into those ingredients. Ask yourself if you can spare 5 minutes to make your own brown sugar. Ask yourself if you can use those chicken bones from wing night…
Is the Presto 12 Quart Digital Pressure Canner worth it?
When I put “pressure canning” on my yearly homesteading to-try board, I didn’t realize it would be ELECTRIC (or digital) pressure canning but here we are. Honestly, I couldn’t be happier with the decision! Here is my honest review of the Presto 12 Quart Digital (Electric) Pressure Canner. DISCLAIMER: I am not affiliated or paid…
The Story Behind how the newsletter “Church Clothes and Chicken Toes” got its name
Recently, I dubbed my email newsletter “Church Clothes and Chicken Toes” based off a series of random Sunday afternoon posts I’d made on social media about me and my chickens. This is the story of where that name originated. Things that rhyme For starters, it kind of rhymes and I thought it was catchy. If…
The Truth About Blogging for Fun
What starts as a fun little hobby to try out for the writer at heart can easily turn into something undesirable to do if you allow it. Here’s what I’ve experienced in over one year blogging “for fun”. Why start a blog? For a few years now, I jumped on the Instagram reels train and…
How to make summer sun tea
In North Carolina, summers get hot. Like really hot. Our heat index the past 3 weeks has been 3 digits. Lots of sun rays and also humidity which makes it feel even hotter. I’ve found a great way to utilize that solar energy to make a wonderfully delicious summer sun tea without having to heat…