Non-Electric Entertainment

Some people think that being a Homesteader means you have to go to bed at sundown, and can't watch TV or have any fun.

Baloney!

In the Summer, the sun doesn't even go down until 8 or 9 at night so you have plenty of light to have fun. In the Winter, light a fire in the fireplace or woodstove, or an olive oil lamp. Here are a few suggestions to pass the time until bed:

• Play board games: We have been collecting board games for several years now, and have quite a stash... Chutes and Ladders, Life, Sequence, Pictionary, Battleship, Yaht5zee, Trivial Pursuit, Clue, and many more. We also buy extra pieces that we pick up at yard/garage sales (like dices, play money, etc.)
• Cards games: Poker, old maid, and many more can be very fun! We also have Uno, and are teaching the Tween how to play solitaire.
• Storytelling: This is becoming a lost art. Tell stories of your youth, of your heritage, or even get out mythology books and read bits and pieces from them. Here's another: have one person start a story, the next person add a bit more, and the next person, and so on, going around the circle several times until it's time to end.
• Music: Have a jam session! Get a guitar now, and a couple of books teaching how to play it. What about a ukelele? A recorder ($1.00 at the dollar store)? Drums? Keyboard? Harmonica? Stock up on all the music and songbooks you can find at yard sales.
• Camp in the backyard with a tent and sleeping bags, with a small safe fire, roasting marshmallows and making s'mores. Look up at the stars or clouds. Listen to the birds, your chickens, or your goats.
• Other: Play dolls, trains, cars, dress up, etc. Play catch with the dog and your kid. Do a craft like quilting. Draw pictures or color.

There are so many things that people used to do ... before television. If you don't have anything in your home to entertain you with no electricity, then you need to get some. And if you don't want to, well, why are you on this website?

What are YOUR suggestions for entertainment at home that don't involve electricity?

Survivalism vs Urban Homesteading

We've added a new section in the right-hand column of this site: Steps To Work On. While we worked on that, we had a thought. Some people think our blogs are a little too survivalist. That what we write about is based out of a fear.

We plan, prepare and work to be self-sufficient because we want to feel accomplishment. A sense of doing for ourselves. To lessen our "carbon footprint". Etc. Here's the thought:

An urban homesteader is someone who enjoys living in the city, but doesn't see why that should stop her from engaging directly with nature, growing her own food, and striving for self-sufficiency.

We want to move to the countryside, but mostly because I'm a complete hermit, and love being out in the boonies. But we don't plan to live in a little shack or in a bomb shelter.

Right now, we have a nice little home, and if we have to stay here, in a suburb of Denver, Colorado, then we will. We have almost a quarter of an acre, and can definitely provide enough food on this bit of land for our family of three (we did very well in 2008). However, we can't have farm animals except for 2 ducks and 1 pig, and we don't like having neighbors so close that they can hear us breathe. Yup, we're looking for somewhere else.

A survivalist thinks the end is near and he better prepare. He stocks up on MRE's, bullets, and bandages. He keeps his plans completely secret, and his family practices and drills and researches. He stocks up on things that will keep his family alive through anything, including nuclear attack. He deprives and suffers away from modern conveniences, not because he wants to be a modern-day pioneer, but because he's preparing for when those things aren't available any more. He learns how to shot the eye out of a deer from a long distance. Survivalism in general is about the fear of death.

As opposed to...

"An urban homesteader doesn't necessarily live on a farm but associates with nature directly. We grow our own food and strive for self-sufficiency. We work to regain the almost-lost knowledge of our ancestors: tending to plants, animals and ourselves... moving away from "consumers" to "do-it-yourselfers". Urban homesteading isn't about suffering or deprivation or militant cults... it's about reclaiming our heritage. Urban homesteading is about life – it is a way of life founded on pleasure, not fear. Our preparedness comes out of what we know, not from what we have or don't have.

We have become the only animal that can't produce for and feed itself. We are consumers. We are working to become producers again.

Whatever space you have, you CAN be an urban homesteader.

• Garden (outdoors or indoors) to produce as much as possible (check out http://www.backyardgrocerygardening.blogspot.com/).
• Produce your own energy.
• Reduce/reuse/recycle.
• Don't waste the water that's available, and even if you aren't in a drought, that's no reason to use lots of water for things that only a little water will do.
• Raise quail in your spare room - meat, feathers and eggs, plus manure for your garden. They aren't too smelly or noisy.
• Preserve the food you grow.
• Anything you can buy, you can make, grow, or happily do without.

Next posting: Non-Electrical Entertainment!

How to Raise Quail Indoors

You want a steady supply of eggs and poultry, but you don't have any space. Or maybe you don't have a backyard. Or maybe poultry isn't allowed in your town. Here's a solution: raise quail.

• They are small birds, so that makes them easy to raise. They only need a square foot of space per 6 birds. You should have 2 females to every 1 male, but a better number is 13 females and 7 males, for a total of 20 birds.
• Quail are pretty quiet birds. Chances are, if you keep the cages clean, no one will know you have them unless they see them.
• Males don't hold to monogamy so they'll breed with any females they get near.
• Quail can be kept indoors year-round. The regular bright indoor lights encourage laying.
• Quail hens will start producing eggs at 6 weeks old, and the birds can be eaten at 4 or 5 weeks old. The meat may be a lot less than a chicken, but is decidedly lower in cholesterol and is quite healthy.
• Remember, if you are going to eat your birds, you'll need to plan it out ahead of time, making sure you have fertilized eggs being tended (whether by a broody or in an incubator) timed to have more birds ready to eat down the road.
• Thoroughly wash and sterilize the incubator/hatchery area in between uses. This will help cut down on disease or infection.
• Never wash an egg that you want to hatch. Clean it lightly with sandpaper or another abrasive. If you must wash it, use warm water (105 degrees F) as using cold will draw any infection into the egg.
• You need to prepare the living spaces for the quail before you get the eggs. There are a lot available already made, or you can make them. Some people use rabbit cages. Remember, though, in order to raise healthy birds for eggs and meat, you need to provide clean healthy living quarters. Keep them off the floor, and keep them protected from the elements (if you find space outdoors). If you choose indoors, you need to keep the area ventilated, clean and disease/germ free, as well as being able to control the temperatures.
• Collect droppings regularly (frequently). Once a day at least. Dispose of them or use in your compost.
• Are you going to just eat the eggs, cook your birds, or sell the quail to others for food? Deciding ahead of time will help you plan out how many cages you need, nesting materials, butchering facilities, and so forth.
• There is so much more information about raising quail. If you decide to go this route, be sure to get your eggs or chicks from someone very knowledgeable, and ask your questions ... from hatching to caring for to butchering. If they won't help, find someone who will.

Whether you raise the quail to sell, as a hobby with other birds, for eggs or for food, having the little living birds nearby can be a real joyful experience, and give you a better understanding of birds in general.

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Updated April 8 2009 at 4:55 p.m.: It appears that the U.S. government is preparing to start requiring all farm animals to be registered. See the posting to come out at www.colorado-preppers.blogspot.com on April 9 2009.

The Right Dog For The Job

This is a picture of our 4 year old Chihuahua (Spirit) and 4 month old puppy Dalmatian-Rottweiler-Alaskan Malamute (Sparky). She's a stable 10 pounds, and he was 40 pounds at 4 months. He'll be well over 100 pounds before he's an adult.


You have a homestead. Probably a couple of chickens, maybe a goat, sheep or pigs. Corn that attracts raccoons. Invasive deer, foxes and coyotes. You want a dog to not only be a pet, but also protect your holdings and herd your livestock. What kind of dog should you get?

One that has the following qualities:

1. Does NOT chase or kill the poultry.
2. Barks at any stranger or strange animal that comes onto the property but does NOT bark all night long.
3. Stays close to home where they belong.
4. Has enough sense not to jump a skunk.
5. Does NOT chase the neighbor's livestock (or yours).

Here's a few purebreed suggestions:

• Beagles: loveable, playful little dogs that make good home pets as well as excellent hunting dogs. Will chase little critters out of the garden, too.
• Boxer: Very joyful, quite smart, fearless, incredible energy, and will babysit children for hours. Once she or he understands that chickens and smaller farm animals are not toys, will completly ignore them. Always up for a rabbit or coyote chase.
• Bulldog: Very loyal, devoted and determined. Don't let the size fool you. This was the dog that Laura Ingalls Wilder talked about as the family pet (Jack) in the first couple of books in her "Little House" series.
• Catahoula leopard cow/hog dogs: They can do it all... work cows/hogs, hunt game, protect the farmstead, and most look so 'different' that strangers are a bit wary of them.
• Collies: Wonderful, bright, hard-working, intelligent dogs. (Shades of Lassie!). Can often be found as protective, ever-present, and very good with kids. Usually will bark at strangers.
• Eskimo Spitz: Bright, beautiful, intelligent dogs. Good watch dogs. Can sometimes be good with children. They DO SHED a lot, but that is a small price to pay for their love and devotion. They are devoted to the family and like to be in the middle of everything that is going on!
• Farm Collies/English Shepherd: These dogs are all-purpose farm dogs: not stock dogs, not hunting dogs, not guard dogs, but all three. They'll herd, guard, are great pest controllers and wonderful family dogs. They are an American farm dog. He will work your livestock when YOU need it done or when the dog sees a real need, and leave them alone otherwise, and leave your neighbor's stock alone (unless they get into your pasture). He'll guard the place but use some discernment, not use his teeth on the oil man and leave you to freeze. Great varmint control, great chicken guards. Devoted to your kids. They don't do well as either yard dogs or fuzzy little child substitutes, they need to be part of your life and know they are your partners and have duties that you define for them. They are hardy, healthy, wash & wear medium-sized dogs who haven't had the good sense bred out of them by being kept in kennels and trotted around a show ring hanging from a string. (But watch out for people who are now showing them for 'championships'.) They barely shed at all. The people who kept the breed alive through the 20th century were mostly farmers, and experienced at good livestock breeding practices. They are literally *designed* to do the work of a small diversified farm or homestead. They can be happy if their job is to watch a few chickens and kill the odd possum and tell you when someone is at the end of the lane, or they can help run a farm with six species of livestock to manage. They hunt well ... people, ducsk, squirrel, etc.
• Retriever (Golden or Labrador): Excellent for basic farm. Needs lots of space to run. Should be neutered or spayed or they'll disappear at some point. Their devotion may overcome the need to run, and could walk right along with you.
• Rottwieller: He lives to kill and devour rats, mice, crows, gophers, etc. Needs to be taught which critters are yours, and which can be killed. He will chase deer out of the veggies. Smart, devoted, and loves to work (will carry packs like a donkey).

Mixes:

• Pick out the pure-bred dogs which have the qualities you most like. Then look for a mix that has them.
• Golden Retriever, Labrador Retriever and Collie mixes are great! They have so many good qualities.
• Most of the abandoned puppies, found at the humane society and other shelters, are mixed breeds, and usually have been abandoned. They don't ever want to go through that again so they'll stick close to you at all times (exception: chihuahua).
• Mixed breeds usually don't experience the medical problems that pure-bred do.
• Mixed breeds tend to have more brains, mellow personalities, are well behaved, healthier and just all around great dogs.

Final Note:

• The owner makes the dog, no matter what the breed or mix.
• The more time you spend with them, and the more people and other animals they meet, the better (especially as a puppy). However, don't socialize too much if you want the puppy to grow up to be a fiercely protective guard dog.
• Obedience training and dominance over the dog are musts. Obedience training must begin at the earliest age possible, preferably 7 weeks old (the 49th day of life). Supposedly it's never too late to train a dog, but our chihuahua would refute that.

Use your best judgement. Get a puppy if at all possible.

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About Our Dogs:

Spirit, our chihuahua, is a chihuahua. Self-absorbed, stubborn, thinks she's 100 pounds, and is always looking for an escape route. She refuses to be trained to sit or stay or come or, well, really anything. She will dance, however, for a treat. Her back legs pop out of joint sometimes so doesn't get around as much as she'd like to, but sure does bark when she hears something out of place outside. She's taught that to our puppy. She's spayed; we don't intend to breed her.

Our Dal-Rotti-Mute (Dalmation-Rottweiler-Alaskan Malamute), Sparky, was 10 weeks old when we got him and he's just around 4 months old as of this writing. An unbelievable 40 pounds - he puts on about 5 pounds a week, and eats like a horse. He had never seen other humans or dogs when we got him, nor had on a collar. It took a couple of days for him to warm up to us, but now I think he'd die protecting us. He loves being trained, and has "sit" down cold. We're still working on "come" and "stay". He started out scared of everything, but as recently as yesterday, barked fiercely at someone walking across the street. Oh, and he loves putting his toys back in his toy crate when he's done with them! He's not neutered; we plan to breed him to probably a farm collie when he's a year old or so. Vikki

Regular Posting To Begin Next Week

Between Hubby being relocated out of town for week and being gone during the weekdays, and Tween Son and I trying to manage the transition (we'll have been married 2 years this April 13th), we're a little behind posting to this blog.

We've been researching articles for this blog, and are working and preparing the best postings we can possibly provide. Especially that series that we started this week: What You Need. Meanwhile, what would you like to see discussed here?