Homesteading Plugged In….
I love greeting cards. This one pictured was included in a package of Leaning Tree cards that I purchased some years ago. Every time I looked at this it made me smile. I never did send it to anyone. It’s a greeting card to me from me 😉 Anyhow…. I came across this card a few days ago and it got me to thinking…. Homesteading. I bet “there’s an App for that”. I went to the App Store and found a few interesting ones. As you might imagine there are plenty of gardening Apps. But for strictly homesteading I found only a small handful that really were based on homesteading as a lifestyle.
MOTHER EARTH NEWS The Original Guide to Living Wisely. Mother Earth News originated in the back to the earth movement of the the 70s as a magazine publication. This app is not so much an interactive tool as it is a digital version of the publication. The single review posted said they loved the content but found it was not very user friendly. But as a lifestyle publication; I would think it would be great. It was always an interesting read.
The Homestead Helper is a very useful tool. It offers the ability to log each specific animal with a picture as well as keep a detailed accounting of that animal. For the farm you can log everything from key events; notes on crop rotation and finances. The absolute best thing about this app is it is totally self contained. No network or internet connection needed. Great for out in the barn, coop or field. I like this one.
SmartSteader at first blush looks like an easy way to track spending and production. However, once the first free month is over you are looking at $36 (+tax) per annum. It says that it syncs your data to all your devices, but the one review that was shared insinuated that it was not that easy. From what I can gather, you need to work on the app but can view your data on other devices. The big red flag for me about this app was they promote it as a way to “know if you are actually saving money raising you own chickens?” Let me tell you folks, if you ever calculated how much those “free eggs” actually cost you; you would send those fine feathered freeloaders packing tomorrow . Somethings are best left unsaid 😉
The Happy Homestead app is a fledgling that appears to have the same detail qualities of The Homesteader Helper. Again I like the detail capability that is offered. This focuses on animals and plants. I played around with this one a bit. It feels fairly user friendly. I like that you can add as little or as much detail as you like.
This app is total homestead forum based. You can find anything from buying a tractor to making soap. Although not exactly an interactive tool as such; there is a ton of information right at your fingertips. If you like getting your information in this format, you should definitely check this app out.
Although this is not a “homesteading” app; I am going to highly recommend it for anyone who has moved onto a property that is already fairly established with plants, trees and bushes. This has been a great tool for me in not only identifying existing trees and shrubs but also in guiding me on their care and maintenance . This one is invaluable for taking foraging. Even if you are without reception; you can take the picture on the app and look it up when you get home.
There are also a few apps that are specific to backyard chickens. Record keeping is a good idea. Certain feeds won’t go over well for one reason or another. Treatments (of whatever sort) should be tracked. It’s helpful to track crop rotation whether that’s pasture or garden. So take a look in the App Store and see if any suit your needs/wants. Or you can buck the trend, unplug and grab your paperback journal and your HB2 pencil. It’s worked in the past 😉
