By Holly Giles | Recipes , Simple Living
Easy Skillet Bread Recipe I love a piece of good crusty bread. Skillet bread is very similar to focaccia from an Italian restaurant. Do you remember the Macaroni Grill? I think it was my favorite place just for the bread. Quick weeknight skillet bread is my version of the focaccia at Macaroni Grill. Except, it […]
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By Holly Giles | Simple Living , southern homestead
Can I really raise chickens? Yes, you can really raise chickens at home. For twelve years our family has had a blast with a small backyard flock in our suburban neighborhood. Knowing a few things in advance will help you be successful from the start. Let’s start with the coop. Is a homemade chicken coop […]
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By Holly Giles | Simple Living , southern homestead
How to start seeds indoors in 7 easy steps Starting vegetable seeds indoors is a great way to extend your gardening budget and growing season. However, starting vegetables from seed can be tricky for many novice gardeners. Fortunately, the seven simple steps outlined below simplify this process and make it much more fun and easy. […]
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By Holly Giles | Recipes , Simple Living , southern homestead
Dry Canning Flour Dry canning flour has been around since my grandmother’s time. I read up on canning flour when I got a 50-pound bag. At the time, flour was hard to come by due to a shortage, and I needed to bake bread for our family because it was not available in our grocery […]
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By Holly Giles | handicrafts , Simple Living
How do you make a wreath out of grapevines? I remember making grapevine wreaths with my grandmother at their farm in Alabama in the summertime. It was a fun way to pass the time and make something useful. I made several Christmas gifts in college, each with a different theme. Grapevine wreaths are simple for […]
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By Holly Giles | DIY , handicrafts , Simple Living
Recycling tin cans into lanterns speaks pioneer to me! Our Prairie Life book club decided that the chapter on Christmas was their favorite. I can see Laura and Mary helping Ma make handmade ornaments and dressing up the ordinary into something beautiful. These recycling projects for tin cans can be done any time of the […]
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By Holly Giles | Family , Inspiration , Simple Living
Family Relationships Our last installment of the Pioneer Culture is all about family relationships. How life really revolved around the importance of having those connections. “The true way to live is to enjoy every moment as it passes. And surely, it is in the everyday things around us that the beauty of life lies.” -Laura […]
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By Holly Giles | DIY , Family , handicrafts , Simple Living
Pioneer Culture: Living off the land In our fourth post in this series, we talk about the idea of living off the land. What did that look like 100 years ago and can that be achieved today? After she got married, Laura partnered with Almanzo in everything they did, even in business. She could run […]
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By Holly Giles | Family , Simple Living
Pioneer Culture: Use What You Have The third post in our series Pioneer Culture is considering a “use what you have” and what you have on hand to live daily life. Many of us would consider recycling a form of re-using, however, pioneers had a whole other culture of re-using most of what they had […]
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By Holly Giles | Family , Simple Living
Pioneer Culture: Working Hard The second post in our series, Pioneer Culture, and Laura Ingalls Wilder, is about working hard. What did working hard mean 100 years ago and how can we compare that to today? “Every job is good if you do your best and work hard.” -Laura Ingalls Wilder Think back to the […]
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