The Truth About Trapping: An Honest Look at a Controversial Topic

Is fur trapping good or bad, or in between? Types of traps, humaneness, livestock protection, impact on wildlife populations & disease, trapper education, laws, & monitoring, & non-target captures are discussed here. This honest post profiles of 2 trappers and 1 animal rights activist, and reviews research studies. It's complicated & you need to decide for yourself what the "truth" is before embracing it as supplemental income for your homestead, or before embarking on an anti-trapping campaign

An honest attempt to determine the pros and cons of fur trapping. A review of research and input from trappers and an animal rights activist, help you decide for yourself what is the truth about trapping.

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Guide to Choosing Chicken Breeds: Pick the Best Breeds for Your Flock

Want backyard chickens for eggs? Meat? Beauty? Calm companionship? For a cold climate? For a hot climate? For children? For showing? How about the best breeds are for a very small space? Here's a great guide to chicken breeds to help you choose just the right breeds for your needs.

Planning to keep chickens and wondering which breeds would be best for you? Use this guide to choosing chicken breeds to learn which are best for eggs, meat, showing, cold climates, warm climates, companionship, and a variety of other traits.

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How to Get Started Tracking Animals: 16 Tips & Resources

Reconnect with nature by reviving the ancient art of wildlife tracking. These tips & resources teach how to get started tracking animals by breaking a daunting task into manageable chunks & set you on the road to expertise. Includes reviews of my favorite tracking books.

These tips & resources will help you get started tracking wildlife by breaking a daunting task into manageable chunks & set you on the road to expertise. Includes reviews of my favorite tracking books.

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Autumn Olive Fruit Leather

Simple autumn olive fruit leather is made from the delicious, nutritious berries of an invasive shrub. Transform a pest into a resource with this recipe.

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Save Money on Chicken Feed with Natural, Healthful Alternatives

Save money on chicken feed, reduce dependence on industrial monocultures, make your chickens happier and their eggs healthier. Give them access to good habitat, let help in the compost, feed them from the vegetable garden, grow fodder, and raise grubs are just some of the possibilities discussed here. In short, think of chickens as part of a permaculture design.

Save money on chicken feed, reduce dependence on industrial monocultures, make your chickens happier and their eggs healthier with these ideas. Give them access to good habitat, let help in the compost bins, feed them from the vegetable garden, grow fodder, and/or raise worms or grubs, are some of the possibilities discussed here.

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How to Grow Apples Without Pesticides

Grow your own organic apples! Plant trees in either spring or fall. Explains how to: choose disease resistant varieties, use permaculture techniques like guilding, prune branches and thin flowers, bag young fruit to protect from pests, and identify nutrient deficiencies.

Enjoy organic apples from your own backyard by choosing the right varieties, smart group plantings, and proper pruning and thinning. That alone will reduce blemishes sufficient for home consumption. To produce perfect apples, you can go the extra mile by bagging young fruit. Learn all about these practices here.

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Bread and Butter Pickles

What makes these bread and butter pickles so special? Mostly it's the combination of spices, but using all brown sugar and apple cider vinegar also add to the deliciousness. My favorite way of preserving cucumbers.

What makes these bread and butter pickles so special? Mostly it’s the combination of spices, but using all brown sugar and apple cider vinegar also add to the deliciousness. My favorite way of preserving cucumbers.

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Limited Free Range Chickens: 12 Tips to Balance Freedom & Safety

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The idea of true free range chickens is great, but in reality it’s dangerous. To balance freedom and safety, we use a modified free range system which we describe in detail, along with tips on fencing, layout and location of chicken yard, providing cover, choosing appropriate chicken breeds, etc., so that you can develop your own limited free range system.

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8 Reasons to Grow Daylilies

Beauty, vigor, edibility, medicinal uses, permaculture possibilities, butterfly appeal, breeding opportunities, and use in selling/trading are all great reasons to grow daylilies, the perfect perennial. Read the details on this interesting and often misunderstood plant.

Beauty, vigor, edibility, medicinal uses, permaculture possibilities, butterfly appeal, breeding opportunities, and use in selling/trading are all great reasons to grow daylilies.

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Raspberry Basil Yogurt Pops

Easy, 4-ingredient Raspberry Basil Yogurt Pops are perfect for a hot summer day, when both the berries and basil are in season. Not too sweet, not too tart. The anise like flavor of the basil compliments the raspberries beautifully, and the green flecks are so pretty in the pink pops.

Easy, 4-ingredient Raspberry Basil Yogurt Pops are perfect for a hot summer day, when both the berries and basil are in season. Not too sweet, not too tart. The anise like flavor of the basil compliments the raspberries beautifully, and the green flecks are so pretty in the pink pops.

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