Goose eggs like a podcast are terrific to share with a friend.

Goose eggs like a podcast are terrific to share with a friend.

February 05, 2016

The Best Breeds for the Backyard Flock - PVP44

February 05, 2016/ Soirée-Leone

The Best Breeds for the Backyard Flock - PVP44

Of all the chicken breeds, which are good choices for a backyard flock?

February 03, 2016

Understanding Seeds: Heirloom, Open-Pollinated, & F1 - PVP43

February 03, 2016/ Soirée-Leone

Understanding Seeds: Heirloom, Open-Pollinated, & F1 - PVP43

So many seeds, so many misunderstandings!

January 29, 2016

Making Salves, Creams, & Lip Balm - PVP42

January 29, 2016/ Soirée-Leone

Making Salves, Creams, & Lip Balm - PVP42

Some products require special equipment, fancy ingredients, and so forth. These simple products are easy and economical. Each can easily be made as fancy as you like!

January 27, 2016

The Best Pressure Canner for the Homestead - PVP41

January 27, 2016/ Soirée-Leone

The Best Pressure Canner for the Homestead - PVP41

Getting ready for the summer's bountiful harvest means having the equipment on hand.

What's the best pressure canner to get the job done?

January 22, 2016

The Best Grain Mill for the Homestead - PVP40

January 22, 2016/ Soirée-Leone

The Best Grain Mill for the Homestead - PVP40

Unlike a food processor or a blender, a grain mill is essential if you are going to grind grains.

January 20, 2016

The Best Fruit Trees for the Backyard Garden - PVP39

January 20, 2016/ Soirée-Leone

The Best Fruit Trees for the Backyard Garden - PVP39

What's not to love? Perennial. Easy. Relatively low cost. Beautiful. Fresh fruit.

Adding fruit trees to the backyard garden can quickly yield a bounty of terrific food!

January 15, 2016

Making 2016 the Best Year Ever! - PVP38

January 15, 2016/ Soirée-Leone

Making 2016 the Best Year Ever! - PVP38

New Years greetings come and go, resolutions are made, but another year seems to slip by! It's so easy to be distracted from our path.

How can you alter this course?

January 13, 2016

Important Lessons from the Flock - PVP37

January 13, 2016/ Soirée-Leone

Important Lessons from the Flock - PVP37

What can we learn when a chicken in our flock dies?

December 16, 2015

Making Our Homesteads Less Toxic - PVP36

December 16, 2015/ Soirée-Leone

Making Our Homesteads Less Toxic - PVP36

How can we make our homesteads less toxic?

December 11, 2015

All About Canning Jars, Lids, & Rings - PVP35

December 11, 2015/ Soirée-Leone

All About Canning Jars, Lids, & Rings - PVP35

Successful (and safe) canning relies on understanding the key components: jars, lids, and rings.

December 09, 2015

Is the Zero Waste Homestead Possible? - PVP34

December 09, 2015/ Soirée-Leone

Is the Zero Waste Homestead Possible? - PVP34

Zero waste? Really? Look at that wonderful food processor rendered nearly useless as the multipurpose blade is not replaceable!

November 20, 2015

The Gift Economy: Absolutely Free - PVP33

November 20, 2015/ Soirée-Leone

The Gift Economy: Absolutely Free - PVP33

Could we live more richly if we gave more freely?

Birdsong Forest

Rural Middle Tennessee Homestead

Sharing skills for the resilient homestead.

Instagram

| D E L I G H T |

You'd think I'd never seen an egg before when Dale showed me this egg through the window.

Question: Is that an egg?

And like a child I was delighted. Look, egg. Wow. The color. The shape.

The countdown started October 3rd. Ya know the serious keeping the nest boxes fluffed and checking for eggs.

And today, ta-da. Thank you oh wonderful Icelandic chickens. I was wondering if I was gonna have to make that hour drive to find non-gmo, pastured chicken eggs.

One of the toughest things about moving was starting a new flock. It was harder to leave the amazing 3-story chicken palace and find the flock a new home than to move ourselves to our new home. And no eggs.

#backyardchickens #chickensofinstagram #homesteading #permaculture #organicgardening #zerowastelife #sustainableliving

| B R E A D |

Finally. Real. Actual. Bread.

Sourdough starter started but waiting on for all wild yeast lovelies to be happy in the jar. Schedule is kinda crazy to work in a biga for bread today...that would mean starting yesterday. Levain is best with a nice weekly bread making routine. So. This is my fall back recipe using a sponge. While not as complex as others, it's a million times better than store bought.

The bonus is building up yeast in my kitchen. Bread gets better and better, week after week. Even monoculture yeasted bread becomes more complex.

Now for just bread and butter.

#breadmaking #breadandbutter #homesteading #permaculture #sustainableliving

| N E V E R |

I never tire of looking at barns or taking pictures (mostly bad ones) of barns.

I really like looking at barns when I don't feel like I'm trespassing. This barn was in the "parking lot" at an event we went to.

#oldbarn #countrylife #permaculture

| C U P C A K E S |

In no way do I advocate heavy drinking. However. Today is Dale's birthday. Yay! And I'm making these crazy chocolate cupcakes, filled with chocolate ganache, and chocolate frosting. And we're enjoying some tequila.

With a stove after 14 months, I don't know what to do with 4 burners AND and oven. Whoa. So, I proceed very carefully with a pound of amazing bittersweet chocolate, a ton of butter, ya know how these go.

#bakingtime #birthdaycakes #permaculture #birdsongforest

| F I T |

I had a couple of fits this year. One when my fantasy yellow chair wasn't working out with latex paint. Enamel, just use enamel. And two, when it was just not a real world thing to do anything but 3mm flooring in the bathrooms.

Three millimeters means sheet or tile vinyl or vinyl like flooring. I like wood, stone, ceramic...vinyl, no thanks. There are some "eco friendly" non-vinyl options but price, availability, and skills/special equipment brought those to a grinding halt.

In a moment of crisis and creativity in the aisle at a big box store, we solved the dilemma. How to make an ordinary product something better and less, well...less ugly.

If you've been following along, you might have read my thoughts on mixing inorganic and organic, "real" and not "real." So, here's Typhoon Bordeaux granite and LVT. Luxury vinyl tiles. I know, I know, what's with the luxury bit. At $2-something a square foot, it solved a problem: How to not gut the bathroom.

#zerowastelife #bathroomdecor #bathroomremodel #homesteaders #homesteadinglife #birdsongforest

| C U L L |

First, please admire my chicken housing prototype skills. Usually such items are in Dale's column but I've started taking on more things like this as we have an aggressive to do list.

Sorta relatedly, I recently discovered that I didn't know how to make coffee (Dale usually makes the coffee)...I literally had to find or beg coffee during a recent trip. So, yeah, I make coffee now too. Onward.

For many years I was a vegetarian...and I have deep respect for folks' food choices. I am not a vegetarian these days and it was living in India that changed my diet.

I find the thumping of folks who do not agree with your food choices...not only rude but unattractive. Unbecoming. Boiling it down to a simplistic matter of morals, intelligence, smartness...rude.

I will go out of my way to prepare vegan, gluten-free, vegetarian, pescatarian, and so on fare for friends and guests.

So about these cocks. We are building a breeding flock. Reality is that we don't need and nature doesn't need 10 cocks for 13 pullets. The cocks at that number will create havoc, there will be blood, plucked feathers, damaged birds, unhealthy birds, stressed birds. Not all birds are suitable for breeding and passing traits onto future generations. Icelandic chicken breed preservation is a serious undertaking, or at least I take it seriously. These birds are 75%+ unlike all other chickens. With our space and time, I feel we can take on a small bit of the work to preserve these sexy birds.

What's a Icelandic chicken flock owner to do? Cull.

I'm taking responsibility for the flock under my care and cultivation. I'm taking responsibility for the eggs that we enjoy. Sure I could pass this cocks on to new homes but it is our investment and frankly, I'm not willing to give it away. We've invested months of time and organic feed.

Some will disagree and that's okay. We each do what we think, feel, believe is good, right, just, etc on our wee parts of the world.

#chickensofinstagram #backyardflock #backyardchickens #icelandicchickens #homesteaders #homesteading #birdsongforest

| P R O C E E D |

After months of debate and conjecture, we are finally starting the build of the permanent digs for our flock of ducks, geese, and incredible Icelandic chickens.

Our local building supply is AMAZING! Incredible service, technical support, selection, and most importantly quality. Big box stores simply cannot offer quality lumber. It saves time and money to buy good lumber...why fight twists, bends, crooks...if reclaiming sure but for new stuff? I don't think so.

Rather than being nickeled and dimed for gravel by the 50# bag, he dumped until we said "that's good." #buylocal #zerowastelife #birdsongforest #tennesseelife

| B E G I N S |

And so it begins, that time of year when someone has to get that fire started. Not for cute but for actual heat.

Our house was an electricity only house. At the top of the list last year was adding a wood stove and propane direct vent heaters. I just don't like the idea of only one heat source that could not work and downed power lines. I don't like being cold. So, heat sources topped the list.

This wood stove does heat our entire 1,560 square foot house. Why then propane too? What if we are sick? Too sick to haul in wood? Or let's be honest, we're getting older. Guests might want to be warmer so guests can crank up the propane heater in the guest room if...and we can too in our bedroom.

As a side note, please do the research if you are considering propane heaters. So called "ventless" heaters should be examined closely. Consider combustion and how that works and lungs. My view is bad and very unhealthy even as an occasional backup. Yes, efficient vented heaters cost more. Yes, direct vented heaters have less energy loss than other types of vents. Anyway. Be safe as you heat.

#fireplace #heatwithwood #woodheat #woodstove #birdsongforest #permaculture #sustainableliving #zerowastelife #homesteading #homesteadersofinstagram

| L I M I T S |

It's super duper easy to roll down hill and make things bigger and bigger, more and more. Homesteaders who "want to do everything" and often without adequate time, money, skill, experience, support, or some mix thereof...sadness, failure, back peddling, wasted or exhausted resources without much to show for it often follows.

Once upon a time, decades ago, I had goats. Goats are amazing creatures and a potentially valuable asset on the homestead. I love goats! I'd love to own goats again.
However, being honest with myself, I like to sleep in from time to time. I love making cheese but a couple of good milk goats will keep me neck deep in cheesemaking putting other projects and tasks elsewhere on a priority list. Folks often balk at the cost of quality stock but the real cost is fencing, food, vet care, and so on. Budget wise, we have other priorities.

Knowing your limits is a good thing. Being really honest about what can be done in a day with your skill set and budget. Knowing when to call a friend or an expert. Separating the homestead fantasy from homestead reality.

One solid step upon another solid step. Not a hundred projects but ten really good ones.

Grow the most impactful crops not all of them. Over time grow more and more. Make the most impactful products not all of them. Slowly grow the larder stocked with homestead produced food and goods. Soon over time as skill and routine set in, it can be easier and faster and more can be added to the list.

#faintinggoats #goatsofinstagram #goats #homesteaders #homesteading #zerowastelife

| G A M E |

1/7 Seven days, seven pictures. My life in black and white. No people, no explanation. Wanna play?

#mylifeinblackandwhite #7daysofblackandwhite

| E V O L V E S |

I have a strange relationship with the whole minimalism thing. On one hand, I like having what I need and needing what I have. I value having things that help me make nut butters or grind flour for bread. My eyes love color, texture, layers of both. On the other hand, sleek photos with one chair, one table, and one artfully posed book appeal to me too.

While I have no need or drive or desire to have one knife, one spoon, and a bowl, I don't have items that I don't actually use in the kitchen. And although it may not look like it, I've actually pared down the kitchen, a lot. I did the whole KonMari thing and got rid of boxes and boxes and boxes...we're talking oodles of items. I only retain things that serve me in some way.

I've noticed that the two metal racks are evolving. What goes where. Things I've added to the donate pile. Things that get moved from spot to spot to find just the right place. And while not as neat as it was when we first got these racks in the kitchen, everything has its little special spot.

#zerowastelife #zerowastehome #shelflife #homesteaders #homesteading #diy #kitchendecor #kitchenremodel

Biannual Newsletter

I don't want to waste your time with endless emails with provocative subject lines. And I don't want to waste my time either.

So, twice each year I share thoughtful, tasty tidbits only with subscribers.

Did you miss these podcast episodes?

The Best Pressure Canner for the Homestead - PVP41

Jan 27, 2016 Food & Kitchen Soirée-Leone Comment

Jan 27, 2016 Food & Kitchen Soirée-Leone Comment

The Best Pressure Canner for the Homestead - PVP41

Jan 27, 2016 Food & Kitchen Soirée-Leone Comment

Jan 27, 2016 Food & Kitchen Soirée-Leone Comment

Jan 27, 2016 Food & Kitchen Soirée-Leone Comment

Jan 27, 2016 Food & Kitchen Soirée-Leone Comment

The Best Grain Mill for the Homestead - PVP40

Jan 22, 2016 Food & Kitchen, Homestead Management Soirée-Leone Comment

Jan 22, 2016 Food & Kitchen, Homestead Management Soirée-Leone Comment

The Best Grain Mill for the Homestead - PVP40

Jan 22, 2016 Food & Kitchen, Homestead Management Soirée-Leone Comment

Jan 22, 2016 Food & Kitchen, Homestead Management Soirée-Leone Comment

Jan 22, 2016 Food & Kitchen, Homestead Management Soirée-Leone Comment

Jan 22, 2016 Food & Kitchen, Homestead Management Soirée-Leone Comment

Important Lessons from the Flock - PVP37

Jan 13, 2016 Chickens & Coops, Homestead Management Soirée-Leone Comment

Jan 13, 2016 Chickens & Coops, Homestead Management Soirée-Leone Comment

Important Lessons from the Flock - PVP37

Jan 13, 2016 Chickens & Coops, Homestead Management Soirée-Leone Comment

Jan 13, 2016 Chickens & Coops, Homestead Management Soirée-Leone Comment

Jan 13, 2016 Chickens & Coops, Homestead Management Soirée-Leone Comment

Jan 13, 2016 Chickens & Coops, Homestead Management Soirée-Leone Comment

15 Essential Tools in the Homesteading Kitchen - PVP9

Jun 10, 2015 Food & Kitchen Soirée-Leone

Jun 10, 2015 Food & Kitchen Soirée-Leone

15 Essential Tools in the Homesteading Kitchen - PVP9

Jun 10, 2015 Food & Kitchen Soirée-Leone

Jun 10, 2015 Food & Kitchen Soirée-Leone

Jun 10, 2015 Food & Kitchen Soirée-Leone

Jun 10, 2015 Food & Kitchen Soirée-Leone

What do you want to learn about?

Much Gratitude

Thank you to Mike Wojniak for the music for the podcast!

Thank you to Aaron Glasson for the album art for Permaculture Velocity!

And if you have shared the podcast with a friend, thank you!