By shedding light on Montana's first women homesteaders--determined 19th- and early 20th-century pioneers--Carter reveals inspiring stories filled with joy, tragedy, and redemption.
Discover the Ultimate Guide to Self-Sufficiency with "Homestead Montana"! Are you ready to embark on a journey towards a more sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle? "Homestead Montana" is your comprehensive roadmap to transforming that dream into reality. Inspired by the untamed beauty and boundless potential of Montana’s vast wilderness, this book dives deep into every aspect of homesteading, from selecting the perfect plot of land to establishing a thriving, independent homestead. **Embrace the Dream** Start your adventure by understanding the irresistible call of Montana's wilderness and setting your vision for the perfect homestead. Overcome initial doubts and build the confidence needed to take that crucial first step. **Land Selection** Factor in crucial considerations like water rights, soil quality, and terrain to select the ideal location for your homestead. Make informed decisions that will set you up for long-term success. **Building the Foundation** Master the essential steps to lay a strong foundation for your homestead, from strategic layout planning to securing your perimeter with effective fencing solutions. **Sustainable Resources** Learn how to harness natural water sources, implement rainwater harvesting systems, and ensure sustainable well drilling and maintenance. Discover off-grid energy solutions, including solar power, wind energy, and backup generation systems that keep your homestead running smoothly. **Constructing Your Homestead** Get detailed insights on designing an efficient home, building techniques tailored for harsh climates, and adding essential outbuildings to your setup. **Food and Livestock** Dive into the wonders of growing your own food with expert planning tips, seasonal planting schedules, and soil enrichment practices. Explore the world of raising livestock, with guidance on choosing the right animals, building shelters, and caring for them through the winter. **Hunting and Foraging** Develop skills in ethical hunting, identifying edible wild plants, and preserving your harvest to sustain your homestead all year round. **Food Preservation** Master canning, jarring, dehydrating, and root cellaring techniques to keep your pantry stocked with nutritious food. **Building a Community** Engage with like-minded neighbors, participate in local markets, and host community events to create a supportive network. **Gaining Essential Skills** Equip yourself with crucial self-sufficiency skills, utilize online and local resources, and commit to continuous learning to thrive in your homesteading journey. **Handling Emergencies** Prepare for the unexpected with smart strategies for natural disasters, building emergency kits, and providing essential first aid and medical care. Reflect on your remarkable journey, celebrate achievements, and inspire the next generation to embrace the homestead dream. "Homestead Montana" is more than a book—it's your gateway to a fulfilling and liberated way of life. Start your homesteading journey today and experience the empowerment of self-sufficiency.
Discusses how to grow fruit trees in a garden or backyard, including such considerations as tree selection, planting and early care, growing fruit in containers, and pest and disease control.
"The Homesteader of the 21st Century!" - Tyler Danann, author of "Mountain Hold" Best Seller In Its Amazon Category! The author takes the reader on a journey from his first awareness of the need to prep and survive to his eventual decision to move off grid into the wilderness of Montana and start a bugout homestead. Not a "How To" manual, but more of a journal outlining the events and the readying of the new homestead. With dozens of photographs and detailed explanations of methods, he narrates how he built an 800 square foot cabin with the help of only his wife and kids and a few simple tools.Featuring sections on grey water discharge systems, installing a well pump, how to supply water off-grid, and calculations on how much land is needed and what kinds of food to grow on it and more. This is the version of the book with B&W pictures inside!
A biography and moving story of a remarkable lady, who is an avid horsewomen since the day she was born. Homesteading days in southeastern Montana on the prairie is about a strong hard working family surviving hardships and heartbreak including love along the way. The mode of transportation was usually a horse or horse and buggy. No electricity, inside plumbing or water just the light of the kerosene lamps. During the depression years the family made their own good times with many humorous stories and made the best of the bad. This story takes you to Missoula, Montana then to Grand Coulee Dam as it was being built then later to San Francisco during World War 11 where she raised her three teenaged daughters and then the fun began.
Jill Winger, creator of the award-winning blog The Prairie Homestead, introduces her debut The Prairie Homestead Cookbook, including 100+ delicious, wholesome recipes made with fresh ingredients to bring the flavors and spirit of homestead cooking to any kitchen table. With a foreword by bestselling author Joel Salatin The Pioneer Woman Cooks meets 100 Days of Real Food, on the Wyoming prairie. While Jill produces much of her own food on her Wyoming ranch, you don’t have to grow all—or even any—of your own food to cook and eat like a homesteader. Jill teaches people how to make delicious traditional American comfort food recipes with whole ingredients and shows that you don’t have to use obscure items to enjoy this lifestyle. And as a busy mother of three, Jill knows how to make recipes easy and delicious for all ages. "Jill takes you on an insightful and delicious journey of becoming a homesteader. This book is packed with so much easy to follow, practical, hands-on information about steps you can take towards integrating homesteading into your life. It is packed full of exciting and mouth-watering recipes and heartwarming stories of her unique adventure into homesteading. These recipes are ones I know I will be using regularly in my kitchen." - Eve Kilcher These 109 recipes include her family’s favorites, with maple-glazed pork chops, butternut Alfredo pasta, and browned butter skillet corn. Jill also shares 17 bonus recipes for homemade sauces, salt rubs, sour cream, and the like—staples that many people are surprised to learn you can make yourself. Beyond these recipes, The Prairie Homestead Cookbook shares the tools and tips Jill has learned from life on the homestead, like how to churn your own butter, feed a family on a budget, and experience all the fulfilling satisfaction of a DIY lifestyle.
“A memoir with the fierce narrative force of an eastern Montana blizzard, rich in story and character, filled with the bone-chilling details of Blunt’s childhood. She writes without bitterness, with an abiding love of the land and the work and her family and friends that she finally left behind, at great sacrifice, to begin to write. This is a magnificent achievement, a book for the ages. I’ve never read anything that compares with it.” —James Crumley, author of The Last Good Kiss Born into a third generation of Montana homesteaders, Judy Blunt learned early how to “rope and ride and jockey a John Deere,” but also to “bake bread and can vegetables and reserve my opinion when the men were talking.” The lessons carried her through thirty-six-hour blizzards, devastating prairie fires and a period of extreme isolation that once threatened the life of her infant daughter. But though she strengthened her survival skills in what was—and is—essentially a man’s world, Blunt’s story is ultimately that of a woman who must redefine herself in order to stay in the place she loves. Breaking Clean is at once informed by the myths of the West and powerful enough to break them down. Against formidable odds, Blunt has found a voice original enough to be called classic.
Montana: A History of Two Centuries first appeared in 1976 and immediately became the standard work in its field. In this thoroughgoing revision, William L. Lang has joined Michael P. Malone and Richard B. Roeder in carrying forward the narrative to the 1990s. Fully twenty percent of the text is new or revised, incorporating the results of new research and new interpretations dealing with pre-history, Native American studies, ethnic history, women's studies, oral history, and recent political history. In addition, the bibliography has been updated and greatly expanded, new maps have been drawn, and new photographs have been selected.
"Homesteading the Plains offers a bold new look at the history of homesteading, overturning what for decades has been the orthodox scholarly view. The authors begin by noting the striking disparity between the public's perception of homesteading as a cherished part of our national narrative and most scholars' harshly negative and dismissive treatment. Homesteading the Plains reexamines old data and draws from newly available digitized records to reassess the current interpretation's four principal tenets: homesteading was a minor factor in farm formation, with most Western farmers purchasing their land; most homesteaders failed to prove up their claims; the homesteading process was rife with corruption and fraud; and homesteading caused Indian land dispossession. Using data instead of anecdotes and focusing mainly on the nineteenth century, Homesteading the Plainsdemonstrates that the first three tenets are wrong and the fourth only partially true. In short, the public's perception of homesteading is perhaps more accurate than the one scholars have constructed. Homesteading the Plainsprovides the basis for an understanding of homesteading that is startlingly different from current scholarly orthodoxy. "--