A Mudroom Addition on My House Part 1

Although my house will still be tiny by most measures, I’m adding some more square footage this fall. As much as I like the idea of a tiny house, when you are homesteading—growing your own food, preserving it, making most of your food from scratch—you inevitably are going to need a little more space. Enough of my current house is packed with food and drink storage, canned and fresh, that I don’t have enough room for storing my cheese and winemaking equipment and the fridge and freezer I use to store homegrown produce. I’m not complaining, but it would be nice to have a place to store the excess clutter in my house so that it’s a more livable space. That’s why I’m building this mudroom. My garden shed is also cluttered with all sorts of homesteading equipment and I need an overflow.

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Making wine from organic grapes: first steps

This was a pretty good year for organic grapes in my vineyard. We didn’t get a late frost and we had dry weather early in the season, which goes a long way toward ensuring there will be a good crop. That means I have enough grapes to make a significant amount of wine this season. In this video, I take you through the harvest, the fermentation, and the pressing of the grapes.

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Kyle’s Crazy House: Earthen Plaster on the Gnestle

Dancing Rabbit is the best place to see many examples of natural building first hand.  We have over 30 natural buildings in one place built from mostly local, natural, and reclaimed materials.  In this video, and the next few I post, I will be showcasing the buildings of Kyle Yoder, who’s lived at DR for several years and is known for the organic forms of his design.  One of the great things about natural building is the freedom it gives builders to think beyond the 90 degree angle.  Kyle’s just begun the finish plaster of his own home, the Gnestle, and we’re going to get a peek at his work and a little explanation from the builder himself.

Making Fire-roasted Salsa Over a Hardwood Fire

One of the canned foods I eat most of every year is salsa.  In the late summer, I get a bounty of tomatoes and other salsa ingredients pouring in from my gardens and I like to turn them into a good supply of salsa for the year.  If you’ve never had real fire-roasted salsa, you should try it sometime.  It’s like a different animal from store-bought salsa.  So much depth of flavor and a smokiness that liquid smoke just can’t replicate.  In this video I take you through the process of making it from scratch.