An American Homestead | Living Off Grid In The Ozark Mountains

How does Jaimie start her day? Laundry, Homeschool, Cooking, Food Preservation, Cleaning. How do you do it all and still keep your sanity? Find what works for you and do that.

Modern homesteading does not need to be super hard and stressful. Life is always going to involve a certain amount of stress. You intensify that stress when you compare yourself to others or think you must do things the way others do things.

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Bee Keeping, sometimes called apiculture is popular in homesteading circles. People want a way to produce their own natural sugars and honey is a product that is sold in every grocery store. Because of the popularity of this product in our culture, it’s natural to think that this is a great product for modern homesteaders and landowners. But after a few years of watching others struggle with their new hobby, I think I may decide to not get into bee keeping and opt for an easier way to produce a natural sugar.

Let me “BEE” completely honest and say that those who effectively produce large amounts of honey for sale and their own use are very skilled and knowledgeable in their trade. It takes years of experience to master raising bees, keeping them healthy and making their hives into a buzzing business. I’ve learned that jumping into bee keeping without first being mentored for a few years is going to be tough. It really is one of those skills that should be tutored and apprenticed.

A few years ago we decided to try Sorghum cane for a natural sugaring method. Three years later, I have more syrup than I will ever use in a year and the stuff practically grows on its own without any help from me. In my opinion, (don’t hate me) Sorghum is a much easier way to produce natural sugar on a homestead if you live in the right climate. Those farther south can grow sugar cane.

The benefits and advantages seem to really outweigh the advantages of honey in almost every way.

Not only is Soghum easy to grow, but the mineral content of sorghum blows honey away. Take a look at the chart below.

Sorghum is also high in Vitamin B6 when compared to honey.

So if you are considering getting into bee keeping, consider first the content in this video above and weigh your options. Having bees has almost become a status symbol and I totally understand it has a cool factor associated with it. Mostly because all the cool kids are doing it. But if you can look past the cool factor and think about what may be a better use of time and money, a quarter acre of tall green sorghum stalks may be in your future along with a pantry full of syrup.

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Joshua and I had an exciting time visiting so many wonderful friends in Huntsville, Alabama. I was invited to speak over the weekend and the turnout was great. On Friday morning, we were invited to go and see the space and rocket center located in Huntsville. I had visited this site with my parents back when I was about 9 years old. They have sure changed a lot of things since I first visited.

Joshua loved all displays and interactive exhibits. There is a lot of amazing history here and a testimony of all the thousands who work to build the technology that really sets our country apart from others.

Enjoy the video!

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After 5 years of gardening, this is the first year we have had such a large issue of devastating hornworms eating our tomato plants. We have had them before but never in these numbers. Each evening I go out to the garden and kill about a dozen more. These little creatures can completely destroy a tomato plant in one day if the conditions are right.

So like in years past, I was paying attention to any damage that I noticed.

Now, you can pick these worms off by hand and put them in a bucket and feed them to your chickens who will happily gobble them up. But I don’t like picking these squishy worms off my plants when I could be blowing them off the plant. C’mon, lets be honest, whenever I can get some trigger time, I take it. And this attack of hornworms over all my tomatoes gave me a perfect excuse to have some fun.

So how do you deal with your tomato hornworm problems each summer? If you decide you want to give my method a try, leave a comment below. A small Daisy Buck BB gun will only set you back less than $20 at your local ChinaMart.

Have Fun and ENJOY THE VIDEO!

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