Click HERE for a FREE printable spreadsheet of the English  & NATO alphabet, as well as Morse Code

Until next time, keep Making a Homestead, one day at a time.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Gallon of Tomato Juice
• 1/2 Gallon of Orange Juice
• 4 Tablespoons of Grenadine
• 4 Tablespoons of Lime Juice
• 1/2 Tablespoon of Salt
• 1/2 Tablespoon of Chile Powder
• 1 Small Can of Corn
• 1 Small Can of Sliced Black Olives

Directions:

1) In a large pitcher combine the tomato juice and orange juice and stir until thoroughly mixed together

2) Next, add in the lime juice, grenadine, salt and chile powder and stir until completely mixed

3) Let chill in the refrigerator for at least ten minute, but preferably for an hour or more.

4) Pour into cups and garnish with a little corn and sliced black olives in each cup

5) You have now made Sangarita! If you want to take it a step further and make “Mexican Bloody Marys” just add a shot of tequila to 2/3 cup of Sangarita

6) Enjoy!!!

Until next time, keep Making a Homestead, one day at a time.

Ingredients:

• 1 Pound of Bacon
• 6 Eggs
• Salt
• Pepper
• Cheese (choose your favorite and experiment with different types)
• Non-stick Spray

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 400°

2) While the oven is preheating, cook the bacon halfway so that it is browned, but still pliable

3) Place bacon on a paper towel to absorb some of the grease

4) Spray 6 cups of a muffin tin with non-stick spray

5) Tear off a piece of bacon and place at the bottom of each cup

6) Take some bacon and roll it around the sides of the tin, creating cups

7) Break a single egg into each cup

8 ) Add salt and pepper

9) Top each with cheese

10) Bake for 15 minutes and it should look like the picture below

11) Use a butter knife and go along the edge and each cup should simply pop out

12) Enjoy!!!

Until next time, keep Making a Homestead, one day at a time.

Ingredients:

• 1 Bag of Nacho Chips
• 1 8 Ounce Bag of Mixed Mexican Cheese
• 1 Large Can of 98% Fat Free Pre-cooked White Meat Chicken
• 1 Small Can of Diced Tomatoes
• 1 Small Can of Black Olives
• 1 Small Can of Jalapenos (optional)
• Non-stick Spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°
2. Spray a large oven-safe bowl or pan with non-stick spray
3. Pour chips in so that the bottom is covered
4. Pour 1/2 the bag of cheese over the chips
5. Pour the chicken, diced tomatoes, black olives and jalapenos over the chips (It should look something like the chips below. I left the jalapenos off as may wife doesn’t like them)

6) Pour the rest of the cheese on top

7) Bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted

8 ) Enjoy!!! (serve with salsa and sour cream)

I tried to get a picture after cooking it, but forgot until it was half eaten. LOL

Until next time, keep Making a Homestead, one day at a time.

Their web hosting plans start at $3.96 a month and it comes with all kinds of freebies. For example, if you are moving from another host, they offer Free Domain, File, Database and Script Transfers.  Additionally, if you are just starting up, they provide a Free SiteBuilder and 4,500 free templates to use. No matter where you’re at in building a website, everyone can use their Unlimited Bandwidth and Disk Storage Space.

They also offer some other services that one might find useful such as, Reseller Hosting, Dedicated Servers and VPS Hosting.  Indeed, this is one hard working company that really works to go above and beyond what is expected from a Web Hosting service. There are so many freebies and options available that I am sure I probably left out a lot.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS:

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I know that some may find this week’s website of the week a strange one to be covered by a homesteading website. However, I know there are plenty of other up and coming gardening, homesteading and self-sufficiency websites just now breaking through or coming into existence. One thing that pretty much all of those types of sites seek to do is “More with Less”. I think HostGator can definitely help an entrepreneur or non-profit with this type of frugal thinking for the 21st century. If my recommendation isn’t enough, you may also want to check out their Awards, which were too many for me to list. Until next time, keep Making a Homestead, one day at a time.

ATTENTION: THE FOLLOWING IS COPIED HERE FROM AMAZON FOR FAIR USE

From Amazon:

Product Features

Product Description

All the convenience of plant ties now packaged with a belt clip style stainless steel cutter. As simple as pull,cut,wrap. No knots, gentle on pants, they are reusable, adjustable and secure hold. Available in green color. Measures 45-feet length by 1/2-inch width.

Until next time, keep Making a Homestead, one day at a time.

Easy Chicken Gumbo Recipe

(makes enough for 12-14)

Ingredients: (all ingredients can be reduced by half if desired)

• 1 Bag of 16 Bean Soup (This is just a mixed bag of different types of beans – this sometimes come with MSG loaded seasoning which I just throw away)
• 2 Cups of Rice
• 4 Cups of Water
• 2 Cans of Canned Chicken
• 4 Cans of Chicken Broth (I actually used a large bag of chicken broth I had made last year and put in the freezer)
• 1 Onion or 5 Shallot bulbs (I prefer shallots myself)
• 4 Cloves of Garlic (If you grow your own and they are in season, add some scapes as well)
• Additional Vegetables (Add what you like, use a can of mixed vegetables or whatever you have. I used some tromboncino squash I had dehydrated last year)
• Salt, Pepper & any other desired seasonings (I skipped this as I had added salt and pepper to my chicken broth prior to freezing it)

Directions:

1) You will need to soak the beans for 6-8 hours in a large stew pot to rehydrate them

2) Drain the beans

3) Pour the beans back into the pot as well as the chicken broth. Cover and let simmer on low for an hour and a half.

4) While the beans simmer, chop up the onions/shallots, garlic and any other vegetables you wish to add

5) Open and drain the water from the canned chicken

6) With 30 minutes left on the beans, go ahead and add the chicken, garlic, shallots/onions and other vegetables to the pot and stir them in.

This is a 1 quart jar of dehydrated Tromboncino Squash. I added about half the jar to my gumbo, letting the broth rehydrate them in the pot.

7) With about 20 minutes remaining, prepare rice. To do so, bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add 2 Cups of Rice and a little salt to keep it from sticking. Return to boil. Then cover and let simmer on low for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

8 ) The rice and beans should finish about the same time. Add the rice to the beans and stir in thoroughly.

9) Add Salt, Pepper and any other desired seasonings. Again stirring thoroughly.

10) ENJOY!

This recipe can be stretched out even further if combined with a garden salad and some cornbread. I like to make it at the beginning of a week and eat on it the rest of the week rather than trying to figure out what’s for dinner every night. Until next time, keep Making a Homestead, one day at a time.

Here is the lettuce bed before I attached the screen. If you look closely, you can see the Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce that is starting to go to seed.

Here you can see the lettuce bed after I attached the window screen to shade it.

This alternate view of the shaded lettuce bed shows the screen a little better and you can see where I used the zip-ties. I tried to use as few as possible to avoid making unnecessary holes and overlapped the different screen panels to prevent gaps.

Until next time, keep Making a Homestead, one day at a time.

One of the best parts about juicing is that it couldn’t be easier, as you can tell from the following recipe. The following is one of the recipes Joe Cross used in the film and in his Reboot diet program, Reboot Your Life. Even if you don’t need to lose weight it is a great way to maintain your weight as well as your health.

Ingredients:

• 1 Cucumber
• 1 Lemon
• 3 Stalks of Kale
• 1 Small Handful of Parsley
• 1 Handful of Spinach
• 2 Golden Delicious Apples

(sorry I had to use 2 pictures since my cutting board was so small)

Directions:

1. Blend all ingredients in a food processor/juicer
2. Enjoy!

I also did a post previously on another Mean Green Juice Recipe that you may want to check out. Cheers to your health! Until next time, keep Making a Homestead, one day at a time.