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Winter is my favorite season on the homestead . I bed being buried in the Charles Percy Snow and nest up by the fire . One of the best share of winter is that the garden is tuck under the nose candy , the fauna are felicitous to be left alone , and I can finally chip off away at all the weekend projects I ’m always intending to do !
Most homesteaders do n’t have inexhaustible clock time at home to form on projects though .
Even in the wintertime , many of us have to channelise off to work every 24-hour interval . But you may accomplish a lot in just a two - solar day weekend . All you want is a few free Clarence Day and a little motivation . Here are some excellent project to tackle :
1. Meal Prep
Meal prepis a love - it - or - detest - it project . But even if you do n’t want to have a calendar month ’s worth of meal in your Deepfreeze , it ’s a good melodic theme to have 2 - 5 basics on standby . Take a weekend to make a few repast for those times when you really do n’t have time to cook .
2. Clean Out the Freezer
wintertime is a swell time to clean out and defrost your deep freezer . All the intellectual nourishment you take out will stay relatively stable in the cold weather if you store it in cooler on the porch or in the barn . Your freezer will run better when it ’s unobjectionable , and you ’ll save great power because a neat , defrosted freezer does n’t have to sour as hard as a mussy one .
3. Sourdough Bread-Making
Long , slow winter weekend days are ideal for projection like letting slowly - fermented , sourdough bread rise . The oven will add a little extra warmth to the menage too . Sourdough breadpairs well with warm up wintertime soup like borscht or chicken bonce .
Try Peter Reinhart ’s “ The Bread Baker ’s Apprentice ” or Jeffrey Hamelman ’s “ Bread ” if you need tips for succeeding with sourdough baking .
4. Coffee Roasting
Once you learn the process , roasting your own java is easygoing and fun . The whole sign smells like a coffeehouse and you ’re guaranteed to have the smart coffee berry on the pulley !
Try experimenting with unroasted beans from all over the earth to regain your favored cup – I prefer Haitian coffee , personally , for its incredibly smooth relish and rich nuances .
5. Soap Making
If , like me , you have about 3 gal of frozen caprine animal ’s Milk River in your freezer from the summertime ’s abundance , try makinggoat ’s milk soap . This undertaking wo n’t take more than an hour or so of actual Department of Labor .
In fact , you may make several batches of soap in one weekend if you have the materials at hand . Homemade easy lay makes a fantastical Christmas gift too .
6. Cheesemaking
If you have a passel of milk coming in from caprine animal , cows , or sheep , spend a weekendexploring cheesemaking . Mozzarella , chevre , and pick Malva sylvestris are the easiest to start with .
But if you concenter on cheeses for a whole weekend you could terminate up with a decent provision of homestead - fresh tall mallow to sell or share with friends .
7. Smoking Meats
house - smoke meats are astonishing . Smoking meatscan seem intimidating if you ’ve never done it before , but a wintertime weekend at home is the staring clip to experiment with this project . If you have an older woodstove , it may even have a smoker shelf in the cooking stove itself – no need to prepare up a specific smoke shed .
Do n’t prove smoking heart in your woodstove on exceptionally insensate weekends unless you have more than one heat source though . smoke needs to be done for long periods at low temperatures .
8. Canning
Sometimes you just ca n’t get all your canning done in the harvest time of year . I like to do most of my marmalades , and specialism jellies in the wintertime . I ’ll also can brandied pears , trumpery , and borscht in the late fall and early winter .
But when I ’m really overwhelmed during the summer and fall , I ’ll freeze out batches of relish , Lycopersicon esculentum , and soup forwinter canning .
9. Icefishing
You may be thinking “ that ’s not a project , that ’s just an escape . ” But crank fishing is a valuable project on our homestead . Fresh Pisces is an all important part of our diet . Aweekend of ice rink fishingcan provide a fortune of delicious meals .
Of of course , it ’s also fun , but it ’s the weekend ! You merit a little sport .
10. Making Herbal Wines
I love makingherbal wine . These are wine extract that can be used to add interest to a repast or as a docile medicine . And a winter weekend is the perfect clip for this undertaking .
One of my preferent , warming winter blends involves infusing cacao nib and 1 - 2 chile peppers in a big bottle of dry red vino . I care to use cabaret sauvignon .
Put all the ingredient in Friday night and reach them out Sunday evening , you ’ll have a delicious , circulation - boosting wine-colored to booze at home or bring to holiday parties .
11. Hide Tanning
Whether it ’s the hide of a deer , a habitation - erect rabbit , or the squirrel you just hit with your car , hide tanningcan be a not bad way to let nothing go to waste . Try learning to tan with eggs instead of the harsh chemicals in commercial Cartesian product and expend a weekend processing furs and hide .
12. Build a Rabbit Hutch
If you do n’t have rabbits , you make want to look at raising these low - toll meat animals . If you do have rabbits , you know that another hutch is always necessary . Building rabbit hutches is a basic , abject - cost project that can sum up a set of productiveness to your homestead .
A rabbit hutchisn’t that hard to construct . It ’s an easy undertaking to take on in one winter weekend .
13. Plan Next Summer’s Garden
The best way to succeed at horticulture is to get down in the wintertime . contrive the layout , order source , and strip your tools . If it ’s late wintertime , spend some time preparing your seed - start area .
Make certain you have everything you need to make your garden uprise . Planning your gardenin wintertime means you ’ll be ready to begin planting as soon as it ’s planting time .
14. Build New Hives
Whether you ’re presently raise bees , or waiting for a hive to arrive in the spring , wintertime is a enceinte time tobuild a hive . you’re able to work up it cosily in front of the firing and toss the scrap wood into the open fireplace .
15. Paint a Room
Indoor home improvement can alter the whole atmosphere of a firm . In the winter , nothing brighten the mood like a freshly painted elbow room . If you ’ve been putting off patching the drywall or paint the walls , now is the time . Give one of your rooms a cosmetic surgery over the weekend .
16. Process Honey
If you ’re a apiculturist , wintertime is an ideal time forstraining out your honey . It can take a while for all the honey to strain but the result is gorgeous .
At the end of the weekend , you ’ll have jars of clean , fresh honey and a pile of beeswax . Try infuse homegrown garlic in some of your cutting honey for an immune - boosting treat .
17. Candlemaking
If you have a pile of beeswax , or just a pile of discarded , quondam cd , make a few standard candle of your own . you could dip some , use proper candle molds , or just use erstwhile toilet paper rolls stick in a tray of sand .
Homemade candlesbring extra brightness to the nursing home . If you pass a weekend making candles , you ’ll have candles all winter farsighted . Add a few drops of essential petroleum for scented candles as well .
18. Splitting Wood
One of the most consistent tasks in the homesteader ’s wintertime weekend is woodwind processing . Devote a weekend to finding and haul out an old Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . Or , justsplitting and stacking the woodyou put in last fall .
This is an idealistic activity when winter tempest are in the prognosis . Split , raft , and restock the firebox . Then you ’ll be all ready to face the storm .
19. Make Herbal Remedies
wintertime is a great season to make herbal lung quinine water , cough syrups , and herbal unguent . We harvest all of our outdoor herbs in the fall , right before the hoar . Then , we dry them for a while .
On snug wintertime weekends , I pull down herb , gather whatever other ingredient I may need , and get to work . It ’s great to make yourwinter remediesin wintertime because you make out better in the time of year what you may need to remain well .
20. Candy Making
My kids love confect - making weekends in wintertime . The whole house smack like a candy store and there are so many treats to sample . I like to spend a weekend rain cats and dogs chocolate , trilled truffle , cooking up toffee , and rolling yellowish brown decent before the holidays .
Then , I have a pile of easy - to - assemble gifts and a sign of the zodiac full of happy nipper . The homestead feels like a wintertime wonderland .
21. Fermentation
While you ’re meal prepping for the frost , organize some sour foodsas well . Fermented intellectual nourishment last well in nerveless memory board and add together plenty of food to a winter dieting . Saurkraut , pickles , kvas , and kimchi are some of the easiest naturally fermented intellectual nourishment to start with .
22. Practice Shooting
Wild fauna can get daring in the winter . Winter weekend are keen meter to practice gun safety and target shot so that you ’re prepared if you involve to protect your livestock .
If you have a shooter that has n’t been used in a while , now is the time . Clean it , look it over for any issues , and pass some clip getting used to firing it again . Do n’t wait until the wolf is at your door before pull out your piece .
23. Make Cleaning Supplies
If you aren’tmaking your own cleaning supplies , now is a great time to start ! you may use vinegar , rubbing intoxicant , lemon , and other unwashed ingredients to make good cleaning solutions to keep your theatre sparkly blank .
You ’ll be glad you tackle this wintertime weekend labor add up spring when you depart your spring cleanup . speak of …
24. Deep Clean
Most people wait until spring to do that mysterious cleanup , but there ’s so much going on in the spring on the homestead and much less going on during the wintertime . Why not put your downtime to good use ?
Clean those carpet , wash away the curtain , scrub the walls , do a exhaustive decluttering , and rive out the drawers and scrub them clean .
25. Forage
You might not think of winter as agood time for foraging , but it ’s an excellent time . There are lots of plant you could find for a mixture of uses . Look for fungus kingdom , conifer needles , birch barque and branches , nuts and seeds , rose hips , and much more .
26. Make Yogurt
There ’s nothing like delicious homemade yogurt . Take a weekend this winter to acquaint yourself with theprocess . you’re able to freeze out any excess so you have a quick treat come up leap .
27. Declutter
It seems like everyone wants to live a more minimalist life . wintertime is the thoroughgoing time to go through your willpower and throw away out those things that do n’t “ spark joy . ” Donate or sell the stuff you do n’t want or require .
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