Halfway Homesteading

I don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Some people feel they do. I’m content to focus on the parts of homesteading that are interesting to me. Will I die in a zombie apocalypse or an economic explosion? Probably.

But, it will be fun growing my own food and brewing my own beer.

Lawn Care

Before we discuss lawn care, you need to know two things:

  • I hate over-paying for lawn care services.
  • I don’t want to mess with my lawn that much.

Gettin’ Choppy

With that out of the way, let’s discuss a key factor: mowing.

First, get a lawn mower. If you’ve got more than 1/3 of an acre, lucky you! You git to riiide while you mow, baby! Check your favorite used marketplaces for a riding mower (or an even better term: lawn tractor)! Paying less than $200 is a great deal on a running mower.

For us regular mortals, we need a normal walk-behind mower. Are you bummed about pushing a metal engine around the yard? Well, check out self-propelled lawn mowers. You would be surprised how often people let these suckers go for less than $100. I scored a self-propelled Craftsman mower for $75 one day.

If you are cheap like me, and are willing to actually push your mower like a chump, look for free mowers on used marketplaces or in your neighborhood. I scored one from my neighbor with a broken ignition handle (the bar you need to hold to keep it running). Simple fix- a bit of 11-gauge wire wrapped around the ignition switch, and that puppy was rip-roaring ready to go!

Putt putt putt

Does your crappy/free/near-to-death lawn mower struggle to rumble? Think about getting some carb cleaner or possibly a new fuel line (need enuf for multiple machines? Get extra-long fuel line). Seriously, every youtube mechanics video I watch that discusses problems with lawn mowers running almost always comes back to three things:

  1. Are you using old bad fuel? Or, did you put bad fuel in it? Flush the fuel, get new better fuel.
  2. Are the fuel lines cracked (letting air in), blocked or leaking? Get a new fuel line.
  3. Is your carb gummed up? Spray a bunch of carb cleaner in it.

Seriously, I’ll bet those three steps solve a million problems. Step 4 is a doozy- take apart the carb. No thanks, youtube mechanics!

Gardening

(Mulch that, drip that, make it grow with stremfth!)

I think I like gardens because of three things:

    Watching anything grow is awesome (except, maybe, cancer)
    It is cheap, self-creating art
    They are useful because they make healthy food.

Anyone who is interested in gardening blogs should always start with two blogs:
Gardens of the Wild West
Gardening in Boise

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, Owner: (Registered business address: Germany), processes personal data only to the extent strictly necessary for the operation of this website. All details in the privacy policy.