Tabla de contenidos para September/October 2024 en Grit

It’s fair season! Or fall, for those who don’t get as giddy as I do about state fairs. Livestock shows, rides, tractor and car shows, smoked turkey legs, craft shows … I love it all. For whatever reason, going to the fair always makes me feel connected to those who came before me. There’s something in the air that just feels traditional or unchanged. I’ve never quite been able to put my finger on why it seems that way, but I find the feeling comforting. Just like the state fair, fall itself is steeped in seasonal traditions we practice each year, even as the world and modern conveniences evolve. It’s almost time to gear up for hunting (deer season is just around the corner!), chop wood for winter, and comfortably…

Learning to respect and harness the power of fire is one of humanity’s major evolutionary milestones. Centuries later, firewood remains among the most reliable sources of home heating and cooking. When sourced from a smartly managed woodlot, wood is a renewable resource, and with a good woodstove, you can achieve self-sufficient heating all winter long. Heating with wood has its risks, however, and before you choose firewood as your primary source of winter warmth, you must take particular safety measures. Here are a few tips to get the most out of heating with wood. Choose the Right Stove The first question you may ask yourself is, do I want an open fireplace or a woodstove? For heating and cooking, the answer is fairly straightforward. Woodstoves are more effective at heating…

I’ve done enough hunting with a firearm and a bow to be seasoned with both. Every state has different hunting laws, however, there are some guidelines that deer hunters everywhere go by while they’re out in the woods. A proper, sucessful deer hunt is respectful of nature and the animal being hunted and goes beyond taking the shot. Hunter Safety Here in Missouri, hunters must go through a hunter safety course to legally hunt deer. These classes are available for a reason. Not only do they help us learn how to be safe, but they also help us hunt efficiently. Hunters who take the course will come away with useful guidance such as “one shot, one kill,” “aim small, miss small,” and gently squeezing the trigger instead of pulling it.…

While a homesteader might not necessarily need a chore motorcycle, you’ll be able to get more done in a day than you could without it. When you get to where you need to be and figure out that your irrigation needs a ⅝-inch socket, and you brought a ½-inch, it’s a lot less frustrating (not to mention more fun) if you get to buzz back to the shop on a motorbike than if you have to hoof it. You have a tractor for muscle; you have a chore bike for speed. So, why two wheels and not four? Size, for one. All-terrain vehicles (ATVs) can take up about as much space as cars. Motorcycles are also easier to move if you need to take them somewhere in a truck. Cost…

Humane Pork So many places offer humanely raised pork, but then I started thinking about what the experience might be like for a pig who may be raised humanely but then has a horrific death. I’m trying to find a farm where I can get humanely raised and killed and butchered pork. Do you have any suggestions? I live just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Or maybe there’s someplace where I can order online and have it delivered? KAREN VIA EMAIL Legal restrictions vary by state. In Wisconsin, we can do on-farm slaughter, and we do that for our cows, pigs, and lambs. We can still sell this meat to the public if they purchase a whole or half animal before slaughter. We collect their contact information, our meat processors share…

Share your visual perspective! Post your photos at www.Facebook.com/GritMagazine, tag us on Instagram (@Grit1882), or email us at Letters@Grit.com. Share your best shots, and we just might select one of your photos for a future issue of the magazine.…

For those of us who are really into the weather, it’s not enough to say, “It’s warm outside,” or, “It rained yesterday.” We want to know how warm it was or how much rain fell. Besides satisfying our meteorological curiosity, measuring the weather puts us more in touch with it. And by closely observing the current weather, we can even make forecasts about our future weather and become experienced weather watchers in the process. WEATHER INSTRUMENTS 101 A variety of weather instruments are available to everyone. For all the “standard instruments,” many of which were developed centuries ago, there are electronic counterparts. You may give up some accuracy, but you’ll gain continuous readings that can be monitored remotely. Rain gauges come in a variety of sizes and prices. A popular…

Thumbing gently through the thin pages of his deceased mother’s Bible, my husband found a 1956 GRIT newspaper clipping. “Elderly Sisters Run Farm; Need No Men,” the headline read. Almost seven decades later, it still grabs a reader’s imagination, which is one reason my mother-in-law would’ve saved the article. Another reason being that the women in the article were family. The story features four unmarried sisters and one widowed sister-in-law living in the same home and running a farm in Bethel Springs, Tennessee. My husband, Mark, hadn’t thought about the Robinson sisters in many years. They were his paternal grandmother’s first cousins — or, for all you genealogy enthusiasts, his first cousins twice removed. Mark and his parents had visited the sisters when he was a young boy, and he…

Often, we think of independence as being able to completely exist without needing anyone else. But when I look at nature, its inner workings, and the design of this planet and its inhabitants, I see a symphony made to grow and thrive together, each organism building up the others so all things flourish as their own entity, independently shining through interdependence. Now, not everyone seeking independence needs to be a farmer, nor is it impossible to build a holistic, independent life in the city. Our duty as humans on this planet lies in finding our own holistic relationship with the world around us, and finding the space where we can truly shine and grow. By using these principles of interdependence, I turned my passion for fungi into an independent business.…

The old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” is spot on. While some people can form images in their minds from words alone, others appreciate photos to make a description clear and stimulate thought. When I speak about photography, I often use the word “hunting” in the context of “searching.” Every time I venture out into nature, I’m searching for a story to tell about how people interact with the world around them. I figured out long ago I could tell these stories using both words and images. I “hunt” for just about everything in the outdoors: the people, animals, and scenery that comprise our world. In stark contrast with wedding or portrait photography, with outdoor photography, you have very little control over your subjects’ movements or the…

Toward the end of the year, deer and elk seasons will open. Avid hunters will trek into the wilderness in search of wild game. And if you’re friends with these hunters, you may receive some dark and delicious meat from their hunting spoils. Venison (which includes deer and elk, as well as moose, caribou, and antelope) is one of the healthiest red meats available within the United States. This is because the animals subsist on a natural diet of grass and edible shrubs, exercising to keep a healthy balance of lean muscle. Compared with beef, deer and elk have lower fat content and higher protein content. They also contain a variety of vitamins and minerals, including iron, phosphorus, and zinc. Both elk and deer are stronger in flavor than grass-fed…