It's Easy Being Green

This week around the Half-Acre Homestead has proven to be just as crazy as any other.  Our main car had some catastrophic engine problems and now sits back out our mechanic’s shop in several pieces.  One of the fuel injectors (something they just so happened to work on a month ago) completely broke off and fell into the engine.  We are waiting to see how he’s going to take care of us, especially since we just dropped $1300 with him to have the fuel injectors fixed and now this huge... (more...)

It’s fantastic that Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs or CFL’s are becoming so mainstream. You can find the bulbs just about anywhere, helping consumers save 75% or more energy just by switching out their filament based bulbs. But it seems we’ve reached another “cart before the horse” situation with CFL’s: what to do with the bulbs when they burn out? CFL’s contain a small amount of mercury. Of course, we’ve heard the dangers surrounding mercury for... (more...)

Yesterday, my girlfriend took her home business to one of the local Holiday Craft Bazaars held every year in our city. This particular bazaar was really busy and usually is. She made several sales over the course of the day and met several customers who want to order from her in the near future. I walked around the room a couple of times to take in some of the stuff that was being sold. While there were a lot of re-sellers (like Avon, Gold Canyon Candles, etc.) there were also a ton of home crafters.... (more...)

Now is the time that Arizona citrus is reaching its peak harvest season. When I lived down in the valley, there used to be citrus everywhere you looked. In the area of old Scottsdale where I lived, the home subdivisions were actually carved out of citrus groves in the 1950’s post-war building boom. The developers did a nice thing and tried to leave as many citrus trees as possible while they were building. The neighborhood I grew up in used to be a grapefruit grove. So consequently at... (more...)

I have a lot of extended family that lives back on the East Coast. They’d never really traveled west of the Mississippi before let alone to the Grand Canyon State of Arizona. That I could believe because to this day, I’ve really only seen nine different states. I guess I’m doing better than some now that I’ve taken a count. What I couldn’t believe about those relatives though was their vision that everyone in Arizona must be a cowboy. I have to admit it is a pretty... (more...)

In case you haven’t already noticed, we’re all chickens this week. Our three Auracana hens have already tripled in size over the past few days and their antics are getting more and more hilarious. They’ve taken to roosting on their feeder at night. I was able to sneak in and catch a photo of them in the act! Don’t forget to watch the live stream from their brooder cage by clicking the video box to the right! AKPC_IDS += "898,";Popularity: 4% [?] Read More →

Most of us know and understand that our society is a “throw-away society”. People just discard things instead of trying to figure out ways to use them completely. This is one of the many ideas I’ve studied a lot as I learn to live a more sustainable life. One way you can be especially resourceful is around food. No, I’m not talking about just freezing your leftovers for use in future meals. I’m talking about appreciating a harvest to its fullest extent. We recently... (more...)