Resources
Very often, we are asked about the products we use for our goats, chickens, horses, and garden. We’ve been asked about supplements, clippers, lead lines, and many other tools and accessories that we use on our homestead. We’ve compiled a list of resources for those who would like to try the same products that we use. Some of these links will be affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission from any purchases made. We will never recommend a product that we don’t feel confident in.
Disclosure: Some links below may be affiliate links. Rest Assured that we only recommend products that we have used ourselves and have been happy with those products!
Lip Balm Ingredients & Supplies
We love a few different lip balm containers.
Here you’ll find the classic, white lip balm tubes.
We also love the clear lip balm tubs!
We love these trays to help us pour into the tubes, and reduce wasting of ingredients.
For Ingredients, we always try to go with organic as much as possible!
Organic refined coconut oil is best. Refined reduces the coconut smell, unless you prefer the scent of coconut. But when you’re adding flavors, it gets in the way of the flavor your adding.
We also use refined cocoa butter for the same reason. If you use unrefined, the cocoa flavor will stand out in your lip balms.
We love this refined shea butter. Remember, if you microwave shea butter, it’ll become grainy in your products! If you’re going to use a microwave to melt everything down, be sure to add the shea butter last and let it melt gradually in the other oils and butters.
Deodorant Ingredients & Supplies
All you need for your deodorant ingredients is:
1/4 cup Coconut oil
1 TBSP Beeswax
1/3 cup baking soda
1/3 cup cornstarch
4-6 ml your favorite essential oil
You’ll microwave the coconut oil and beeswax at 30-second intervals until they’re both completely melted.
Add the baking soda and cornstarch and mix well. You may have a few tiny lumps and that fine. Then add the essential oils and mix well.
Once that’s done, pour it into an empty deodorant bar container, or into a lotion tub!
Voila! Homemade, organic (if you buy organic ingredients like we do), 5-ingredient deodorant!
Soap Ingredients & Supplies
Making soap is a process, but it is fun and rewarding! Safety is essential when working with lye, but we’ve got a great list of everything you need right here!
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
We have relied heavily on books and online educational resources over the years to help us in our homesteading journey. One of our favorite books is the Self Sufficient Backyard. This is one of the most comprehensive books about homesteading and they give you more than 100 backyard projects to be self sufficient. Additionally, this book teaches you how to homestead on just 1/4 of an acre. If you think space is an issue, you definitely need to check out this book.
Backyard Homesteading is an excellent resource for the basics in self-sufficiency. This book covers everything from growing your food, to preserving your fruits and veggies, nuts and berries, keeping chickens, goats, and bees, making beer, wine, and cider, and then some. This has been a valuable resource for us over the years!
The Complete Idot’s Guide to Seed Saving & Starting is a great resource for beginners as well as experienced gardeners. This book will teach you how to harvest your own seeds and grow healthier plants. You will learn about seed and plant anatomy, how pollination works, how to gather and prep seeds for the following year, how to germinate seeds, both indoors and out, how to transplant, thin, harden off, and protect seedlings from weather, pests, and disease. Those are just a few of the things this book will teach you. Definitely a must-have for those looking to stop buying their seeds from the store and maybe even save seeds to sell and create a new income source for your homestead!
Homesteading: A Backyard Guide to: Growing Your Own Food; Canning; Keeping Chickens; Generation Your Own Energy; Crafting; Herbal Medicine: and More.
As you can see by the title of this book, it is extremely comprehensive and full of really great information! Topics such as growing your own veggies, conserving rain water, making a food dehydrator, keeping bees, making cheese, butter, yogurt, and ice cream, making paper, and binding a book are just a few more of the awesome skills you’ll learn from this book!
We have a literal library of homesteading books here at Red Castle Farm and we refer to them regularly. Here is a list of some other favorites that we own and use!
40 Projects for Building Your Backyard Homestead
DIY Projects for the Self-Sufficient Homeowner
How to Build Your Own Greenhouse: Designs and Plans to Meet Your Growing Needs
Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables From Your Home Garden All Year Long
Rodale’s Basic Organic Gardening: A Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Healthy Garden
PRODUCTS THAT WE USE AT RED CASTLE FARM
It is important when you are raising farm animals to use the right products to keep them safe, healthy, and free from illness. Proper feeders, hoof trimmers, clippers, and many more products are essential to the care and upkeep of our animals. All of the products listed here, just as all of the books listed above, are products that we own and use on a regular basis.
These are the clippers we use for both our goats and horses. They are the Andis 22685 Professional UltraEdge Super 2-Speed Detachable Blade Clipper. We have never had any issues with these are have been happy with their performance. We didn’t have to spend too much on them (about $200) and they have performed well. We, of course, sometimes need to replace the blades, especially with over 20 goats to shave down each spring. But if you maintain the blades, keep them lubricated, and clean, they will last you a while.
This is the #10 replacement blade for the above clippers.
We also really like the wider Andis Carbon-Infused Steel UltraEdge Dog Clipper Blade, Size-T-10, 1/6-Inch Cut Length a LOT!!
A pair of good hoof trimmers is essential when keeping goats. It isn’t hard to learn how to trim their hooves, and having a couple pairs of these Goat Hoof Trimming Shears is extremely important for keeping their feet healthy!
If you keep goats or sheep, you will inevitably want to learn how to band the bucks and rams yourself. This will cut down on vet costs dramatically. The above bander, WellnessD’Light Heavy Duty Elastrator Tool, Castrate Bander Pliers For Goats Lambs Calves is the one we use and it is very efficient.
The “Cheerio” (Latex Castrating Bands), as we affectionately call them here at Red Castle Farm, is essential, of course, for castrating your bucks or rams. You need these to go along with your castrating tool.
There are, of course, other places you can pick up great essentials for your homestead, to include animal care items. Tractor Supply is one of our favorites, and you can find many of the above items there. We also really love Valley Vet for animal care needs.
How Does a Homestead Make Money
A really great question we get asked a lot is, “how do you make money as a homesteader?”
The question has many answers, honestly. We sell our goats, of course. We also sell the seeds that we harvest, veggies, hand-crafted items, and more. We also use affiliate marketing (such as the above links) to bring in extra income. It’s a great way to recommend products that we trust to our website visitors, but without any extra cost to you.
As we develop more of our money-making efforts, in order to be more self sufficient and in order to be able to leave our regular jobs, we’ll add more info!