Winter sucks however, there are many things that can be done and I’m going to attempt to list them out. Slowing down is important, but at the same time, there are things you can take advantage of because you aren’t heads down in your production of food.

1. Keeping water from freezing for your animals

As I have stated in previous posts, water = life. Without it, you don’t have life to support. Thankfully all of our well and plumbing stays thawed (for the most part) Keeping our chickens water thawed on the other hand…is another story. What’s funny is all we have right now are chickens…45 of them to be exact. I can only imagine as you expand to larger and more animals, the challenge with water becomes more difficult.

What do we do and what do I recommend? Well for a quick fix, the heated chicken waterers work wonders. None of them are very big though so you have to walk and fill them up frequently. You can see our setup below. One heated and one regular.

I’ve tried just about every single heated chicken waterer out there. The most robust one I have utilized with a nice detachable cable (can be used during all seasons!) is the Premier1 3 Gallon waterer. (affiliate link) This one utilizes the least amount of energy and feels like it has thicker walls to keep the heat in.

2. Microgreens Production

This is something I enjoy getting back up and running during the winter. Microgreens not only have a pluthera of health benefits for us humans but is also great to feed your animals during the winter when there isn’t anything to forage on. Microgreens are nutrient-dense, flavorful greens that pack a punch of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, making them a powerhouse addition to any diet. These tiny plants, harvested shortly after they sprout, contain up to 40 times more nutrients than their mature counterparts, depending on the variety.

Microgreens are also incredibly easy to grow, requiring minimal space, light, and resources, which makes them an excellent choice for beginners and urban dwellers. With just a small tray, soil, or a growing mat, and some seeds, you can start cultivating your own microgreens indoors within 7-14 days.

Not only can you use this setup for microgreens, as you get closer to sprig you can begin to start your seeds indoors with this setup!

3. Time to get those herbal remedies started!

The number one thing I immediately begin work on is Elderberry Syrup. Take those berries that you harvested and froze and start consuming that honey. Need a good recipe for Elderberry Syrup, look no further!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dried elderberries (or 2 cups fresh)

• 4 cups water

• 1 cinnamon stick (optional)

• 3-4 whole cloves (optional)

• 1-2 slices of fresh ginger (optional)

• 1 cup raw honey (or adjust to taste)

Instructions:

1. Simmer the elderberries: In a medium saucepan, combine the dried elderberries, water, and any optional spices (cinnamon, cloves, ginger). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer uncovered for about 45 minutes, or until the liquid reduces by half.

2. Strain the mixture: Remove the saucepan from heat and allow the mixture to cool slightly. Strain the liquid through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth into a bowl, pressing the elderberries to extract all the juice. Discard the solids.

3. Add honey: Once the liquid has cooled to warm (not hot), stir in the raw honey until fully dissolved. Adjust sweetness to your preference.

4. Store: Pour the syrup into a clean glass jar or bottle with a tight-fitting lid. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 months.

Lastly, you need to plan for future months! I’ve found that drawing designs and planning when I’m going to start seeds is the best possible use of your down time. Enjoy it and don’t feel rushed when it comes to spring time!

Water is the foundation of life, the most critical resource for any homestead. Whether you’re growing food, raising animals, or simply ensuring your family’s survival, a steady and reliable water source is non-negotiable. Yet, in an age of overreach, laws and regulations increasingly threaten our natural right to water. But here’s the truth: water is yours to use, to store, and to protect, and it’s time we reclaim our sovereignty over it.

In this post, we’ll explore why water is vital to self-sufficiency and dive into practical, government-free ways to capture and store rainwater. From swales to deep wells, rain barrels to cisterns, these methods empower you to safeguard your water supply.

Why Water Matters for Homesteads

Homesteading isn’t just a lifestyle—it’s a stand for independence. Whether you’re cultivating crops, hydrating livestock, or supporting your family, water is the glue that holds it all together. Yet, municipal water systems and ever-tightening restrictions on water use have turned this essential resource into a regulated commodity. Why should you pay for something that falls freely from the sky or flows beneath your land?

Without water, gardens wither, livestock suffers, and the dream of true self-reliance collapses. The key to resilience lies in taking control of your water supply and ensuring the government can’t limit your access to it.

Methods to Capture and Store Water

1. Swales: Harvesting Water in the Landscape Swales are shallow, contoured trenches dug along a slope to catch and slow rainwater, allowing it to soak into the soil. By mimicking natural water flow, swales reduce erosion, replenish groundwater, and keep your gardens thriving. Best of all, they’re as old as agriculture itself—completely off the grid and immune to bureaucratic interference.

2. Deep Wells: Tapping Into the Earth’s Reservoir A deep well accesses aquifers far beneath the surface, providing clean and abundant water. While drilling a well requires initial investment, the payoff is long-term water security. Governments might tax municipal water or ration it during droughts, but your well remains a private lifeline, free from external control. Be careful though as most wells require 240v of electricity. There are some solar well pumps out there but I haven’t tried them yet.

3. Sand Point Wells: Affordable and Portable For those on a budget or in areas with high water tables, a sand point well is an excellent option. These wells involve driving a perforated pipe into sandy soil to access shallow groundwater. Simple, effective, and unregulated, sand point wells offer a low-cost alternative to deeper drilling. One word of caution with this is without a casing or seal, these can become easily contaminated. Use these for your gardening and animals most of the time unless you plan to boil or filter.

4. Rainwater Harvesting from Metal Roofs Your roof is more than shelter—it’s a catchment system waiting to happen. Metal roofs are particularly effective at collecting rainwater, as they’re clean and non-porous. Install gutters and downspouts to direct rainwater into storage tanks or barrels. Every drop that falls on your roof is water you don’t have to pull from a well or purchase from a utility company.

5. Rain Barrels and Cisterns Rain barrels are a straightforward way to store water for gardening and household use. Cisterns take this concept further, offering larger storage capacities for those with more significant water needs. Positioned strategically, they can supply water for irrigation, animal troughs, and even household use with minimal filtration.

The Problem with Water Regulations

In many places, laws restrict or even criminalize rainwater collection, well drilling, or other forms of water independence. Bureaucrats argue it’s about “managing resources” or “protecting the environment,” but let’s call it what it is: control. By restricting access to water, governments create dependency on centralized systems, stripping individuals of their right to self-sufficiency.

Rainwater belongs to no one but those who collect it. Aquifers under your property are your inheritance, not a public resource to be metered and taxed. Laws that dictate how you use water on your land are an affront to the very principles of freedom and self-reliance.

Standing Up for Your Water Rights

Water is life, and control of water is control of life itself. As homesteaders, we must resist any attempts to regulate this natural right. Whether it’s through swales, wells, or rainwater harvesting, every step you take toward water independence is a step away from government interference.

Invest in the tools and techniques that put water back in your hands. Share your knowledge with neighbors and fellow homesteaders. Most importantly, reject any system that seeks to turn your God-given right to water into a privilege you must pay for.

Water is freedom. Claim it, protect it, and never let anyone take it from you.

By building systems to capture and store water on your homestead, you not only secure your survival but make a powerful statement: you don’t need permission to live free. Let’s reclaim our water—and our independence—one drop at a time.

This may seem counter to our culture…or is it behavior that’s fueled by the constant nagging and pressure to “keep up” with the false image being portrayed online? For years, I spent countless hours on youtube, instagram, reddit and book reading about homesteading and permaculture design. I thought by the time I gained some land, I had it all figured out.

I was wrong.

Rewind to the time we were still living in a subdivision and I was researching all of these things. I jumped right into building raised beds and planting edible gardens. I knew I had a south facing lawn and that was pretty much optimal for anything. What I failed to learn was how the water fell away from my house, or the fact that wind blew really hard from the west. Heck, even which plants would be better further up grade vs. down grade.

Lesson #1

Write down what’s most important to you and make plans on paper. While you are making those plans, sit outside for all of the seasons that exist in your zone. Make notes of the wind direction, how the sun hits your house, where the water pools up. All of these are incredibly important observations.

Lesson #2

Figure out where your slopes and grades are. This is vitally important to retaining and using the water that enters your land. You can either capture it or let it exit for someone else to use. I know there are some municipalities that state it’s illegal to capture rain water. They can go pound sand. Don’t be concerned if you can’t initially see it, you would be surprised how much slope there actually is. Our land I swore was completely flat forever until 2 years later, I can see it plain as day. A tool that can help is a countour generator located at:

https://contourmapcreator.urgr8.ch/

Lesson #3

Where and how long does the sun rise and set? Observe the length of time and where the shadows hit during the various seasons of the year. In the summer, you want your plants that can be damaged by the heat to have relief from the evening sun. The plants that you have that are frost intolerant should be on the side that gets the first sun. No matter what you want your home to get sun during the winter months and little to no sun during the hot, dreadful summers. Chickens? They hate the heat - give them a break! A tool that you can use and save you time is the Sun Calculator

https://www.suncalc.org/

Lesson #4

Now I know I said you need to spend time to observe but also don’t spend too much time. Some of the next tips I’ll be sharing in future posts are about spending your initial time on the items that take the longest to come to fruition (tree planting being an example). There are some tasks that don’t benefit you for 10-20 years and you need to get started on those right away. In that same vein, if you screw it up and want to move it 5-10 years down the road, you have to start ALL OVER. This is why I emphasize planning and taking a good year to start.

There are a few things I would do over because I didn’t observe and I don’t want you to go through the same pains I did.

Until next time! Have a fantastic weekend!

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Beginnings are hard, that’s why I write.

What is PreparedRoots all about? Well like many people online, I have been following various creators, watching countless hours of videos and salivating over the wonderous meals that these ultra preppers and homesteaders created. I began to tell myself, “How hard could this be?” As a response to beginning this journey, I want to be real with you. It’s only been 2 years since moving out of suburbia into the rural part of our county and very much in the beginning phases of homesteading. I can’t wait to tell you what I have learned and what things I would already do over if given the chance.

It’s about community…

The reason why I chose this platform is because of the community aspects. I know there has to be millions of others just like me wanting to start out but no clue where to begin first. Well rest easy because I’m here to share that you don’t need some fancy property that you are oversold on youtube or instagram. You can be a homesteader right where you are. It’s not about what you have but how you choose to live. As soon as you begin this lifestyle, you quickly learn you need a community of supporters around you. That’s why we are here!

Are you going to get specific about anything?

I know it’s been general up until now so let me be specific with you. Here is what I plan to discuss:

• Faith

• Community Building

• Becoming energy independent

• Replacing modern technology with analog / mechanical tech

• Gardening - in any environment (Urban, Suburban, Rural)

• Budget Homesteading Tools

• Looking for your first homestead property

• Survival Gear Reviews

• Communications Tips

• Off Grid technology

• Weapons

• Herbs / Herbalism

• More!

With every post, you will get a personal story, a picture or two and some tips :)

Story Time: A Humble Start to Homesteading

As I mentioned earlier, when I first set out to start homesteading, I believed that owning a large plot of land was an absolute necessity. I rushed through listings, determined to find property in my county that had one crucial feature—a house. Why, you ask? Well, like many others, I needed a mortgage to make this dream a reality, and that required a home that was livable for my family.

Before we go any further, I want to acknowledge something: for privacy reasons, I won’t be discussing my family in much detail. The internet can be an unpredictable place, and protecting their privacy is essential. Now, back to the story.

I remember the day vividly—it feels like it happened just yesterday. My wife and I, along with our three kids, were at the library. While they browsed for books, I was glued to Zillow. That’s when I saw it: a modest 950-square-foot, 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom house sitting on four acres of land. Your first thought might be, A family of five in a 2-bedroom house? Trust me, I had the same reaction. But when I showed my wife, she immediately said yes. Stunned but excited, we arranged to see the property.

An hour later, we had an accepted offer. That meant we needed to put our current house on the market and downsize—fast. This led to our first lesson in homesteading.

Lesson #1: Simplify Your Life

Take a hard look at what you own and decide what you truly need. Distinguish between what is essential for living and what’s just “stuff” taking up space. Focus on what brings joy, resilience, and connection to your family and community. Life is fleeting—are the things you’re holding onto worth it? Can they be passed down, or are they simply weighing you down?

What followed was a whirlwind of tasks, some of which I’ll skip over for now, except for a couple of crucial lessons we learned from buying what appeared to be a charming, flipped farmhouse that came with hidden surprises.

Lesson #2: Bring in the Experts

Before you buy, find trusted contractors or friends skilled in various trades to inspect the house. Don’t rely solely on a home inspector. Many are known for only checking surface-level issues and can miss major red flags.

Lesson #3: Consider Future Expansion

If your goal is to expand your homestead down the road, make sure the property meets these key criteria:

• Proper zoning

• Adequate drainage systems (such as a perimeter drain)

• A septic system sized for future growth

• Sufficient land elevation to avoid costly landfills

Our realtor sold us a vision: move in now, then easily expand using equity from our previous home. It turned out to be a false promise. The house had poor workmanship from the flip, an outdated, undocumented septic system, and lacked a perimeter drain. Instead of investing our equity in expansion, we had to pour it into unexpected repairs. To this day, we haven’t expanded our home but have focused on enhancing its functionality.

The Silver Lining

Despite the setbacks, we’ve learned invaluable lessons and developed skills to handle DIY repairs and improvements. I’ll be sharing those insights and experiences in future posts on this blog. I’ve stumbled and failed more times than I can count, but that’s why I’m inviting you along for the journey—to learn from my experiences and avoid making the same mistakes.