For a downloadable, printable set of checklists (& useful homestead-related coupons & offers!) join my Subscriber Library. Or just keep scrolling for the complete lists.

It’s hard work, but it’s doable

I chose my brand name “SoulyRested” back when I was new to this homesteading “thing.”

Even then I realized there was nothing easy about trying to live life a little more simply.

I remember wondering if I would ever truly “rest” again… there’s just always so much to be doing around a small family farm. I knew I’d have to fight for rest in my SOUL, because I might not find time for a lot of physical rest.

In the end, this effort our family has made to live life a little simpler has been harder–and yet easier–than I thought it would be.

You just need a plan

But one thing that is imperative if you want to make a homestead run smoothly?

A plan.

A good plan.

A good plan for every season.

This book will help you make the best plan

My friend, Lisa Lombardo, has itemized exactly what I’m talking about in her brand-new book, The Beginner’s Guide to Backyard Homesteading, and I’m thrilled that she was happy to let me share her list here, with you guys.

Take a second to pre-order Lisa’s insightful, encouraging book here on Amazon or over on my favorite online bookshop, that gives back to your local bookstore with every order… while you’re there tell them I said “hi” and pick up a copy of my book too, if you haven’t already.

It turns out the pages of Lisa’s book are filled with all kinds of practical tips, charts, ideas, and encouragement for anyone who wants to use what they have–their own backyard–to start taking charge of their food supply and living life a little more simply.

But for today, I’m excited to share this helpful checklist with you.

A checklist for your homestead, for every season

As Lisa Lombardo points out in The Beginner’s Guide to Backyard Homesteading, every homestead will have different daily and seasonal chores.

So you’ll want to tailor this list for your own homestead, in fact I already did just that.

I added sugarmaking chores to Lisa’s lists.

The fact is, most folks just don’t know that they can make sugar from the sap of 31 different tappable trees, so many folks have what they need to be backyard sugarmakers, they just don’t know it.

Go here to peruse the list of 31 tappable trees–you might have a few yourself!

The Ultimate Homestead Checklist

This list is printed here with permission from Lisa Lombardo & Rockridge Press, the author and publisher of The Beginners’s Guide to Backyard Homesteading.

Spring Checklist

• Start seedlings
• Till the garden and grain fields
• Transplant the seedlings
• Grow cool-season crops in cold frames
• Sow grains and vegetables
• Order and care for chicks
• Assist livestock births
• Mild dairy animals
• Make cheese and dairy products
• Set up new beehives
• Fertilize fruit and nut trees
• Harvest early-season crops
• Weed, mulch, compost, and amend soil
• Spray fruit crops
• Clean out root cellar
• Clean up an store away sugaring equipment

Summer Checklist

• Weed, mulch, and compost
• Water the crops
• Harvest the crops–dive into my free ecourses on
• Prepare the beds for fall crops
• Preserve fruits, vegetables, and herbs for winter
• Butcher early meat harvest (chickens, rabbits)
• Milk dairy animals
• Make cheese and dairy products
• Spray fruit crops
• Remove excess fruit from trees
• Harvest honey (here are some Great Resources for Beekeeping)
• Check the hives and add supers as needed
• Catch swarms when available
• Check the hives for pests and disease
• Repair or replace sugaring equipment, if needed

Fall Checklist

• ID and mark your tappable trees. This article lists the 31 varieties of tappable trees.
• Gather supplies to build a filter that will help you save money making maple syrup.
• Harvest and preserve crops; store root crops
• Butcher livestock
• Store feed, hay, and bedding for winter
• Breed some livestock for spring birthing
• Take stock of harvests and plan for the coming year
• Sell excess livestock
• Clean chimney and put up firewood
• Clean debris from gardens and orchards
• Prepare your hives for winter (I wrote this article last fall that explains the process)

Winter Checklist

• Care for livestock
• Breed livestock
• Butcher livestock
• Check on the bees [on warmest days] and feed them when necessary
• Plan the vegetable garden and grains
• Purchase seeds and materials (this is my favorite source for seeds)
• Prune fruit trees (late winter)
• Apply dormant oil spray to fruit and nut trees (late winter)
• Build beehives and supers
• Repair fences as needed
• Split firewood
• Total expenses and plan next year’s budget
• Tap trees for syrup. This article explains the ideal time to tap.

Download the Homestead Checklist For Every Season

If you’d like a printable ebook loaded with these seasonal checklists that you can download and print out every year, just hop over and join my Subscriber Library. (BONUS: the ebook is also loaded with special homestead-related coupons and offers on some of my favorite products. Seriously.)

You’ll have instant access to the printable lists, as well as 3 pages full of coupons perfect for homesteaders, on my favorite products I use every season here on our own homestead.

It’s not easy, but it’s worth it

Is this homesteading thing easy? Is living simply a simple thing to do?

Not on your life. But it’s worth it.

And if you’re armed with the right tools and checklists, you can definitely find a way to be souly rested, even in the midst of all the hard work.

Find out how ill prepared I was for this simple living and how if I can do this thing, anyone can, in my premiere podcast episode. And catch up on over 7 seasons of inspiration on the podcast right here.

More Articles About Homesteading, in Every Season:

12 Things to Ask Yourself if you Think you Want to Own a Farm

How Homesteaders Make Money

8 Things Most Homesteaders Won’t Tell You

How to Make Your Own Syrup & Save $100s a year 

So you think you’re ready to be a homesteader? Take this quiz & find out!

“In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.”  Proverbs 14:23

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We’ve had bees for two years, but our first winter was a harsh one (even by New England standards) and we lost all 3 of our hives.

Last winter, we were elated that one hive made it through, and it’s thriving this spring.

We did make sure to prepare our apiary for winter and it paid off.

But we hope to always have at least two hives in our apiary. Cause, well, all-natural sugar is my jam y’all.

So today we introduced an established nuc to our apiary.

What is a bee nuc?

A nuc is a small honey bee colony that a beekeeper has created from a larger colony. This was what we were hoping to do ourselves this year, and our surviving colony is doing so well, we may have to. I’ll keep you posted on that one.

But I think they’re call “nuc” because of the fact that the queen is established with the colony, and she’s already at the “nucleus,” instead of being a new queen that you are introducing to a new hive.

How is a nuc different than a package of bees?

When we purchased a bee package in the past it was very different than our experience today, of adding the nuc to our apiary. A package of bees come in a wooden frame box with screen on two sides, and they’re sold by the pound. (They say there are roughly 3,500 bees per pound, but I have zero idea how they know this. I don’t think I’ll test the theory.) I’ve shared about this and show you the way the new bees come packaged in a previous post.

Because they’re not an established colony, packaged bees don’t have any hives or honey that they bring with them–they just bring wonderful potential and eagerness to make sure your vegetable garden produces well, keeping it well pollinated.

In case you’re wondering, they don’t ship them to you without any food, of course. They have a little feeding can filled with a syrup mixture to keep them happy until they can find your flowers and blooming veggies when they’re home in your apiary.

The queen comes separately in a small wooden box, packaged up with a few worker bees to keep her happy (oh to be a queen…)

In a bee package, the bees aren’t necessarily related to each other, and they’ve never met the boxed queen until you introduce her to them.

A nuc, on the other hand, is a group of bees and a queen who are related to each other and well established. I’m told that typically nucs have 4 established frames–two of honey, and two of brood (the queen’s eggs she’s recently laid that the workers are busy feeding and caring for).

Our nuc came from a friend and local beekeeper and had 5 frames that were all intermixed with honey and brood.

What’s better? Nuc or Package?

If you purchase a package of bees:

1. It’s less expensive. Well, up front at least.
2. You’ll probably have an easier time finding a package than a nuc.
3. You can introduce a package of bees to any set up you have. (Your boxes don’t need to hold the exact sized frames that a nuc comes with.)
4. You get to watch the whole experience, from day one, of a new colony of bees doing their thing and creating their comb.

If you purchase a nuc of bees:

1. You’ll have honey sooner and possibly a more productive colony overall. (Super important if you’re a crazy person trying to have a productive apiary in a cold climate. Cough. Cough.)
2. Your bees will get to take in all that spring has to offer, instead of spending weeks just building a comb and missing all those forsythia and lilac blooms (aka more honey for you next year). If you look closely at the close up of our new bees, above, you’ll see these guys have already been scouring our homestead and building up sacs of pollen.
3. Your bees are family. They know the drill and how to work together well. So your queen is super happy and productive, right from day one.
4. You won’t have any bees asking you “What’s for dinner?” since there’s no need to feed them. (Remember, a nuc of bees comes with their own honey.)
5. Your bees will be pretty happy, from day one. You’re bringing the bee’s home with them, instead of shaking them into empty frames and telling them to set up shop.

I will say, as a follow up to #5, we still had tons of bees swarming all over the nuc box after placing the 5 frames into our colony box, so our guys did get some shaking too, to tell those slackers where they needed to go.

But still, nuc installation is much less stressful for the bees, even our stragglers. A package of bees is shaken into a bare, empty hive in a strange new home.

Should you consider adding an established nuc of bees to your colony?

Essentially, introducing a nuc of bees to your colony is about as easy as it comes with beekeeping. It’s easier for both you and the bees than starting off with a package of new bees and a new queen.

If, like us, you happen to have a friend selling a nuc for less than a package of new bees you’d be crazy not to give it a try.

Now I’m heading out to the garden to plant more sunflowers. Because sunflower honey is amazing, guys. Just sayin.

I’ll leave you with a picture of our last harvest. Be still my heart. (And thank you, my sweet bees.)

Listen in to a recent episode of the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy podcast on this same topic right here… (Or find links to the podcast via your favorite podcast player right here.)

Other articles about beekeeping & all-natural sugar:

How we prepare our hives for winter.

Free resources for new beekeepers.

Growing & caring for lilacs–a flower our bees love.

A delicious DIY salad dressing made with raw honey.

Making maple syrup–step by step.

All hard work brings a profit. Proverbs 14:23

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Yes, folks know me as the “Maple Queen,” but first of all that was never a self-imposed title. (Y’all know I would only call myself the Queen of Mishaps. ) And second of all, a girl can have a second love when it comes to all-natural sugar, right?

It is true, maple syrup and maple sugar (not to mention maple cream… mmmmm) will always be my first sugar love, but honey falls in line in a close second place.

Moving an apiary

We brought home our little apiary two summers ago. A friend was retiring from his beekeeping hobby and knowing that I’ve wanted to be a beekeeper since before I wanted to tap trees, well, Terry asked if we’d like to adopt his colonies.

The trip from his house to our homestead was a short little drive in Bill’s pickup bed, but quite an adventure. We moved the hives in the early morning, before the bees had started their busyness of the day, and as soon as we placed them in their new home behind our barn they woke up and started scoping out the lay of the land for flowers to pollinate.

Challenges of beekeeping in a cold climate

But last winter we lost all three hives.

While it’s not at all uncommon in our harsh New England winter to loose the bees, no matter what thorough precautions you take, we were determined to try even harder this year to keep these sweet ladies alive. This summer we relocated our new hives to a more ideal location that gets even more sunlight hours throughout the long cold winter days here on our homestead.

And today I’m sharing some tips with you to prepare hives for the long winter months.

How to Prepare Beehives for Winter

If you follow some basic precautions and prepare your hives for winter weather you will increase their survival chances, even in a harsh environment like a long, brutal New England winter.

Here are some things to keep in mind every fall, before installing your winter insulation over your hives:

• Remove empty supers. No need to give the bees any more room than they absolutely need since a too large interior is drafty and more likely to become a den for a hungry rodent intruder.
• Inspect your lids to make sure they will keep out the freezing rain and snow and repair or replace them if needed.
• Look closely at the size of your colonies and consider combining them if they’re on the small side. You’ll be much happier in spring to have one thriving colony instead of two that didn’t make it.
• Check for a laying queen before closing your apiary for the winter. If you don’t see at least some brood in your hive, order a queen and introduce her to your apiary before as soon as possible.
• Notice if the honey stores look vibrant and full. If your hives are too light, be sure to offer your bees a lot of food before closing them in for the winter.

• Avoid welcoming small creatures into a snug home for the winter (where they have exorbitant amounts of sweet food) by closing off any extra entrances where they may sneak in.
• Make sure you’re not providing a home for those same rodents at the base of your hives… pull out or weed wack any tall weeds around your apiary so mice have no place to get comfy anywhere nearby.
• Insert a slatted rack in your hive so the bees have a little less draft during the cold windy months.
• Make sure your hives have proper ventilation, with air coming in through the bottom and out through the top. Even though this might seem counterintuitive, since you’re insulating the hives to keep them warm, trust me, they need the ventilation. They will all swarm together inside to keep each other warm even though there is a slight draft all winter long.
• Pile heavy stones, bricks, or other secure weights to make sure your lids are on for good, despite strong winter winds.
• Access your hives’ location and decide if you need to install any wind breaks. You don’t want to discover a topsy turvy set of hives on a snowy February evening.

A few more tips for beekeepers in the fall

1.  Consider the worst that winter has to offer when planning the placement of your apiary. Notice where your bees will get as much winter sun as possible for the longest part of the day. They will have a much better chance of keeping the temperature bearable inside if you do them this important favor.
2. Also consider the worst that old man Wind has to offer on your property. When possible, use natural barriers such as a tree line or for us a New England rock wall as well as a hearty clump of trees, when placing your hives.
3. Never underestimate the need for ventilation. (Yes, I’m repeating this point, since like I said, it seems so counterintuitive to me.) Remember I mentioned how bees gather together in a cluster inside the hive all winter to keep warm together? Doing this actually creates moisture. So if air is not circulating through, the condensation will eventually kill your bees.
4. Not unlike sugarmaking, beekeeping requires a little bit of meteorology on your part. There’s no magic date to start tapping maple trees in the spring, and there’s no magic date to closing your bee hives in the fall. You have to be aware of what’s going on with your local weather every year. When you realize that the weather is getting cold–and staying that way–then it’s time to start winterizing your apiary.
5. Make friends with some expert beekeepers in your area. The most seasoned ones will be wonderful mentors in helping you to decide when it’s time to get your hives ready for winter.

More about beekeeping and sugarmaking.

This post links to some great beekeeping resources.

This article explains how to add bees to your colony

This encouraging article points out a huge benefit to sugarmaking that you may not have thought about yet.

This conversion chart makes it super easy to bake with maple syrup.

Proverbs 24:13

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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of supplies I use for maple syrup making, DIY kombucha, gardening, homeschooling, and homesteading.

Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

And please follow along!

And have you tried my a-MAAHZ-ing Maple Sugar Cookie recipe that’s in my Resource Library? It’s one little peek into Sweet Maple waiting for you over there.

The post How to prepare beehives for winter first appeared on Souly Rested.

This DIY salad dressing should be on everyone’s table!

DIY salad dressing has been a staple in my kitchen for years. But I’m thrilled when I find a new one to add to my repertoire. When it also improves gut health? Well, I have to share! Cause you all know how I’ve been obsessed with gut health after I created Simple DIY Kombucha.

It turns out that balsamic vinegar contains strains of probiotics.

Then there’s the pepsin that naturally occurs in balsamic vinegar (which improves metabolism)…

And the all-natural goodness found in the fresh herbs in this blend…

Combine it all together, and you’re drizzling amazing goodness on your salad, guys.

Gotta love a dressing made with honey.

There are many recipes to love in my friend’s cookbook that I just got a hold of recently–Stacy Lyn’s Harvest Cookbook. (That’s an affiliate link, btw.) But I was super thrilled with Stacy Lyn’s dressing that is made with my second-favorite-kind-of-sugar–it’s perfect with our homegrown honey.

And psst, if you want a DIY salad dressing made with my favorite all-natural sugar–maple syrup, also harvested here on our homestead–I share my Maple Vinaigrette recipe right here.

Needless to say, I was super glad Stacy Lyn told me I could share this DIY salad dressing recipe with you. (And, yeah, Finch was pretty interested too when I was whipping up my new batch today.)

Home-grown honey not required.

btw, no worries if you don’t have your own apiary; find a local beekeeper if you’re able, for your best options. Or, if you need to order your honey online, this right here is my absolute favorite honey, plus Bradley and Deanna Bryant, over at Bee Wild Raw Honey are the second-best beekeepers I know (just cause I’m pretty partial to the handsome one I’m married to).

Speaking of bees, I haven’t given you an update in a while… We lost all 3 hives last winter, one at a time. Sadly, the last one almost made it to spring. But from what I’m told by other local beekeepers it’s not unusual for a tough New England winter to be too cold, and too long, no matter how well you insulate your hives and care for your bees over winter.

Even though the hives died, those diligent bees made us lots of amazing honey. Their main source of pollen on our homestead last summer? Huge row of sunflowers, bordering our vegetable garden.

I had heard sunflower honey was really delicious, but now I can attest to this fact.

If only I could stop eating quite so much honey! But isn’t it gorgeous? The photo below is the day we harvested it. The photos above are the honey today, after it has sat in the root cellar and crystalized some. But it’s not a hard texture, it’s wonderfully creamy. And did I mention delicious? (Okay, I’ll stop.)

We brought home two new hives this spring and now we have 3. I have no idea why but a few loners decided to set up shop in our empty hive boxes in our barn. So we scooted the boxes out to the back, behind the barn, and we are now the happy tenders of 3 hives again. Hopefully these will make out better than the last three.

My current favorite dressing.

But enough about hives, and bees, and delicious sunflower honey (whoops, I said I’d stop didn’t I?), here’s Stacy Lyn’s Herb Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing that’s my current favorite.

More dressings and probiotic deliciousness.

My (really yummy) Maple Vinaigrette Dressing

My favorite DIY Italian salad dressing (which makes a fabulous marinade too)

How to make delicious, carbonated (probiotic!) kombucha.

DIY (probiotic!) kombucha–what’s it really cost to make it yourself?

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He gives food to every creature. His love endures forever. Psalm 136:25

 

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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of supplies I use for DIY kombucha, maple syrup making, gardening, homeschooling, homesteading topics, nature journaling, and more.

Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera and even purchase your own here. (affiliate link)

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

And please follow along!

Please take a second to follow along here on SoulyRested to catch up on a few of my memorable mishaps, discover fascinating things about my centuries-old farmhouse, glean a little parenting/homeschooling insight from this momma who’s been failing at the effort for almost 2 decades, or enjoy the inside scoop on the secrets other legit homesteaders might not tell you.

And have you tried my a-MAAHZ-ing Maple Sugar Cookie recipe that’s in my Resource Library? You won’t find this deliciousness anywhere else… until Sweet Maple is in print, October 1st.

The post I love this DIY salad dressing first appeared on Souly Rested.

One such moment recently was way better than any field trip this homeschool mom could have planned or lesson I could have prepared. Take it from me, if you ever hear a neighbor mention they’re getting bees delivered tomorrow, most definitely ask if you can watch!

 DISCLOSURE:This post contains affiliate links. 

Who knows, he may even have extra beekeeper’s gear and ask your daughter to suit up and help.

And yes, she started longing for some bee hives that very day.  No, we don’t have any yet. For now, 8 hens, 1 difficult (but beautiful) rooster, 5 young chicks, 4 ducks, lots of rabbits, an adorable momma holstein, a sweet baby holstein on the way (due within a month), and a 120-tap maple syrup operation, and we’re not quite in a position to add one more thing to our homesteading plate.

While I’m not an expert of apiaries, I know my fair share about the all-natural amazing sweetener in our sugarbush. Some of the many resources I’ve shared about maple syrup over the years can be found right here. Or check out my book, Sweet Maple.

UPDATE: We joyfully added an apiary on our farm not too long after I wrote this. I share links to more I’ve written and recorded on the topic below.

But if you like researching something thoroughly before taking a leap, as she does, here are some interesting resources you may enjoy on bee keeping:

This free ebook gives lots of details about the natural way of keeping bees as well as directions on building your own hives.

This blogger in California offers lots of great tips for bee keepers.

If you’re into podcasts, you’ll enjoy this one all about bee keeping, run by a husband and wife duo who operate a bee business in east central Illinois.

I stumbled across this interesting blog post on how bees are like chicken (and why natural bee keeping is better).

And this is an interesting description of commercial beekeeping and industrial agriculture today.

This Ultimate Guide to Beekeeping is super handy.

I share about adding an established nuc of bees to a colony, or you can listen in to my podcast episode on the topic on apple podcasts or right here:

Then, if you’re seriously in the mood to have everything you need to know about beekeeping in the palm of your hand, you definitely want to snag your own copy of this amazing book, written by my friend Amber Bradshaw, who has an amazing off-grid, built-it-themselves homestead in Tennessee and knows everything about bees.

Or maybe you’re not interested in bee keeping at all and would just like to see an adorable picture of Scout… I can definitely oblige…

In another month, you’ll have to hold me back from sharing dozens of mug shots of Scout’s sure-to-be-adorable baby calf. For now, go enjoy a beautiful, fleeting, summer-day moment. If some impromptu, teachable moment slips in the back door, all the better.

UPDATE: Read about Scout’s little one–sweet Selah–and the joy she brought to our homestead, right here.

How to Make Honey Butter

ANOTHER UPDATE: We added bees to our homestead fall 2018. Sadly we lost two hives that winter, I explain in this facebook live. But joyfully we harvested 8 pounds of honey as well. I explain more about that, and show you how to make amazingly delicious Honey Butter in this youtube live video:

My Favorite Way to Eat Honey

If you like raw honey, you will love this…

More Information You’ll Enjoy

How to prepare bee hives for winter.

The two different ways to add bees to a colony

How to find the best maple syrup, sugar, cream & more

How to make floral-infused honey.

This small, family-run apiary sells some of the best honey I’ve ever tasted.

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Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Psalm 90:14

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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the One of the Top Homesteading Blogs.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

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The post Great resources on bee keeping first appeared on Souly Rested.