Helping Families Learn Homesteading and Self-Sufficient Living
Each Spring brings with it a sense of freshness and renewal. After a long Winter, a boost of fresh air and sunshine feels glorious. But along with these wonderful aspects of Spring comes the seasonal shifts that often lead to problematic symptoms. There is a …
When planning a garden, one of the first decisions you’ll make will be whether or not to start your own seeds. This choice is critical for determining the cost and labor required to achieve your gardening goals. To start seeds indoors will require a little …
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If you are tired of trying to produce biscuits with the perfect flaky, butter layers, then look no further than this homemade biscuits from scratch recipe. This recipe is far from dense or flat. The soft, buttery layers in these biscuits will have your family begging you to make them for dinner every night. They are my children’s personal favorite addition to supper.
I am seriously convinced that homemade biscuits are the best side dish to go with any meal. Maybe it’s the Southerner in me, but you’ll often find biscuits paired with many of the dinners that I prepare for my family. Because I have a few selective eaters in my home, I choose the best quality ingredients for my biscuits and always pair them with quality grass fed butter and home canned jam. This way it gives a little nutritional boost to the one food my child will 100% eat.
Because we are an “ingredient” household, meaning that I am constantly cooking our meals from scratch, I am a huge believer in food prepping. These biscuits are perfect because you can make them in the morning and leave them in your refrigerator until it’s time to place them in the oven. You can also prep these in advance and freeze them for up to a month in a sealed container.
The two main reasons you should definitely make your biscuits from scratch is 1.) the FLAVOR and 2.) the nutrition component. Store bought biscuits are fraught with ingredients. Many of these “ingredients” are ones that I don’t even recognize as food, and so I choose to just make them at home instead. The flavor is far superior than the store bought alternative and also the money savings are worth it to my family. As I mentioned previously, we eat a lot of biscuits with our meals every week and cooking from scratch is a way to stretch that budget.
You’ll need just a few pantry staples and refrigerator items for this recipe.
You really only need basic kitchen tools to make this recipe. Nothing fancy is required!
I hope you and your family enjoy these homemade biscuits from scratch as much as we do! If you are on a journey towards more self reliance like my family, then you’ll love my other articles like How to Make Homemade Neosporin.
There is a very wonderful movement happening in the world today where many folks are reclaiming their roots and diving into the world of homestead skills. After all, what could compare to the “slow and simple” life that is often portrayed by the homestead community. …
There is something deeply empowering about knowing you can care for your family with your own two hands. Creating your own herbal first aid balm is an act of preparation, intention, and self-reliance. It’s slow living in its most practical form. In a world full …
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What do you think of when you envision a simple life? For me, it is slow days spent doing creative work, time with my children and husband, and a free schedule. I often envision Tolkien’s Hobbit, and imagine what life would be like in the Shire. There is good food, family and friends, and puttering around the garden. Sounds like paradise to me. But a simple life looks different for everyone. In this article, we are going to explore the basic principles of simple living, and also the variety of spins on simple living that makes everyone’s journey unique.
Simple living isn’t about doing less for the sake of aesthetics or rejecting modern life altogether. At its heart, simple living is about choosing enough. Enough stuff. Enough commitments. Enough noise. It’s about intentionally shaping a life that feels grounded, meaningful, and aligned with your values.
For many families—ours included—simple living becomes a quiet answer to a loud world.
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by your home, your calendar, or the constant pressure to do more, this guide will help you understand what simple living truly is—and how you can begin weaving it into your everyday life in a way that feels gentle and sustainable.
Simple living is a lifestyle rooted in intentional choices. It means aligning how you spend your time, energy, and resources with what matters most to you, rather than what society tells you should matter.
Simple living often includes:
Rather than asking, “How can I do more?” simple living asks, “What can I release so I can live more fully?”
Simple living has been at the heart of my family since it’s very start. We began to envision a life for our family that would include homesteading, homemaking, and homeschooling. A life centered around the home. While everyone around us was busy being busy outside the home, we were breathing life and comfort into the very place that sustains us.
As I share in The Start of Our Alaskan Homestead Journey, our desire to homestead and homeschool came from a deep longing to provide our children with a slower, more connected life. We wanted days shaped by nature instead of notifications, and learning rooted in curiosity rather than constant pressure.
Simple living gave us permission to step off the fast-moving conveyor belt of modern life and build something more intentional—one season at a time.
We begin picking up hobbies that lead us even further down the simple living path. Things like gardening, hiking, reading, cooking, and crafting gave us an appreciation for slower days. If we fell prey to a faster pace, then we wouldn’t have time for such “frivolous” activities.
These hobbies have enriched my family’s lives and have even been a huge part in strengthening our relationships. Instead of seeing my children for 4-5 hours a day, they are living and learning right beside me. Our science looks like plant identification and foraging, and our PE looks like hiking the vast wilderness of Alaska.
I’ve written about these experiences previously and you can read all about them here:
5 Great Beginner Plants to Forage with Kids
How Hiking Strengthens the Family Bond
Moving to Alaska has been the biggest lesson in seasonal living. Living in a place with such extreme seasons shapes you and it can be for better or for worse. If you don’t learn to live with each season, instead of trying to fight it, then it can crush you. Summers are a burst of intense daylight and Winters are bitterly cold and dark. Simple and seasonal living was my lifesaver.
Learning to embrace each season and live accordingly is how we not only survive, but thrive in these conditions.
Simple living pairs beautifully with seasonal living.
Living with the seasons encourages:
Seasonal living gently guides us back into balance and helps life feel less forced and more intuitive.
While these terms are often used interchangeably, they each carry a slightly different focus.
Simple living may include elements of both minimalism and slow living, but it doesn’t require strict rules or extremes. It is adaptable, personal, and deeply human.
Your home is often the first place where simple living takes root.
Simple living doesn’t demand a dramatic purge. Instead, it invites:
A calmer home supports a calmer nervous system—especially for children.
Rather than strict schedules, a simple life thrives on daily rhythms:
These rhythms create structure without pressure and allow life to unfold more naturally.
One of the most overlooked aspects of simple living is its deep connection to the natural world.
Time outdoors naturally slows us down. It reminds us of the seasons, the weather, and the quiet wisdom of the earth.
For families embracing simple living, the outdoors becomes an extension of the home.
Activities like those shared in Exciting Outdoor Activities to Fall in Love With Spring invite wonder back into everyday life—without needing elaborate plans or expensive entertainment.
Simple living asks us to step outside, breathe deeply, and remember that nature offers everything we need to feel grounded.
Food is one of the most tangible ways to practice simple living. Diet culture has given us a plethora of interesting ways of eating. The most tangible is the one your family will eat. It is the most simple. If you keep simple ingredients in your pantry/ refrigerator, you will greatly simplify your life. This looks different for everyone. For example, many folks recommend stocking up on beans. My family doesn’t really care for beans, but we love potatoes! (We’re basically just Hobbits). So we stock up on potatoes instead of beans as a carb source.
Think about the meals that your family will eat. What does everyone rave about? Find your tried and true recipes and keep a stock of those ingredients.
Aside from having ingredients on hand to simplify things, there are other ways that simple living is connected to food.
Simple living with food may include:
Simple meals ground us. They turn everyday nourishment into an act of care rather than a chore.
Eating at home removes the time and effort of finding a place to eat in town and then waiting in line to grab your food at the window. It is replaced with the time and effort to chop vegetables and prepare your meal yourself. Both take time and effort, but when you prepare it yourself, you have the invitation to cook as a family and to sit down together and enjoy the act of sharing a meal that you prepared yourself.
Simple living and homeschooling often walk hand in hand.
When learning is woven into daily life—through cooking, gardening, foraging, and outdoor exploration—education becomes relational rather than rigid.
Simple living allows children to learn at a natural pace, guided by curiosity and seasonal rhythms. When there is no bell to tell you when to stop, the learning never ends. Homeschooling invites creativity, curiosity, and a slowness to the day that cannot be mimicked in a school setting.
Homeschooling is a catalyst for many into the simple life. It was one of ours. When we began homeschooling, I was blown away by how such a simple day could make us feel. We all felt regulated, calmer, and more receptive to learning.
It is in my heart that homeschooling is a great introduction to teaching children to live simply and curiously.
One of the most freeing truths about simple living is that it doesn’t require perfection.
You can:
We haven’t always lived exactly as we do now. Life is a journey and we’ve been through it. We’ve had seasons where we both work full time. Seasons where my oldest was in public school. We’ve lived in an apartment in the city. It is about making it work where you are at in life.
Simple living is about alignment, not appearance.
I think we have way too much social media portraying fake lives. Even if someone has it all figured out, they started from somewhere. No one wakes up one morning and has a completely simple life. It is built piece by piece, and day by day.
If simple living feels overwhelming, start here:
Small shifts compound over time.
Before habits change, mindset shifts.
Simple living begins when you pause long enough to ask:
This internal slowing down is often the most powerful step. When your inner world becomes quieter, your outer life begins to follow.
In a culture that glorifies busyness, choosing simple living is a quiet declaration that your peace matters.
Simple living allows you to:
It isn’t about escaping life—it’s about inhabiting it fully.
If this article resonated with you, choose one small way to simplify today.
Simple living is not something you achieve.
It’s something you practice—slowly, imperfectly, and beautifully.
✨ Sometimes the fullest life is the one with the least noise.
Hello my friends and welcome back to the next chapter of Borealis Mom. I’ve been quiet over this past year, but have been hard at work behind the scenes. The life of this blog has been up in the air because of all of the …
When you live in Alaska or another extremely cold, remote climate, emergency preparedness isn’t about panic — it’s about peace of mind. Winter storms, extended power outages, supply disruptions, and delayed emergency response are not hypothetical here. They are part of life. That’s why having …
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As the winter chill sets in and temperatures drop, the need for a reliable shelter becomes crucial for survival in the wilderness. Don’t let the cold weather take you by surprise. Arm yourself with essential tips on how to build a winter survival shelter that will keep you safe and warm.
If stranded in a wilderness survival scenario during winter there are certain skills that could be the difference in life or death. Skills like starting a fire, finding and purifying water, and land navigation are essential in these situations. For a more in depth read about wilderness survival, check out my free Ebook that covers the 5 C’s of wilderness survival. Download and print a copy to carry in your kit to ensure you are always prepared in the wilderness.
Mountain House also has a great article that covers Winter survival basics that you can check out here.
There are special Considerations for building a winter survival shelter. It isn’t the same as constructing a survival shelter in the Summer. You’ll have to think a little differently about safe locations and maximizing heat retention. This comprehensive guide teaches you how to construct a shelter that withstands the harshest of winter conditions. Let’s dive in to learn the ins and outs of building a winter shelter and increase your chances of staying safe in the cold wilderness.
There are many factors to consider when choosing the best location for a winter survival shelter. To be successful, pay attention to the following:
First, it’s important to assess the surroundings. Are there any potential hazards such as steep cliffs or unstable trees? If you know anything about Dave Canterbury, you’ll know he refers to these as “widowmakers.” Will the chosen location be prone to avalanches or flooding? These are all crucial considerations, as a seemingly safe location could turn deadly in an emergency situation.
Next, the type of shelter being built should be taken into account. A lean-to shelter, for example, would require a sturdy tree or a wall of rocks for one side. A snow cave, on the other hand, could be built almost anywhere with sufficient snow cover. It’s important to choose a location that not only fits the type of shelter being built, but also provides enough natural resources to construct it.
Another factor to consider is the availability of natural resources for fire and food. Building a shelter near a stream or lake would provide a water source for melting snow and ice for drinking, as well as potential fishing opportunities. Similarly, being in close proximity to trees or other vegetation can provide sources of firewood and foraging options for food.
In addition to these practical considerations, the psychological impact of the location should also be taken into account. Being near a scenic view or a source of tranquility can greatly improve morale during a winter survival situation. On the other hand, being in a desolate or isolated location can have a negative effect on one’s mental state.
But perhaps the most important factor in choosing a location for a winter survival shelter is accessibility. If a person is stranded or injured, it’s crucial that the shelter can be reached easily and quickly. This means being within a reasonable distance from a main road or hiking trail, and preferably close to civilization.
In the end, there is no one “best” location to build a winter survival shelter. Each situation is unique and requires careful consideration of all the factors mentioned above. But by keeping these factors in mind and thoroughly assessing the surroundings, one can make an informed decision and build a shelter that will increase their chances of surviving in the harsh winter conditions. As the saying goes, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” So, when it comes to building a winter survival shelter, take your time and choose wisely – your life may depend on it.
Insulation is the key to keeping warmth inside and cold outside, making it an essential element in any winter survival shelter. Without proper insulation, even the sturdiest of structures can quickly become no match for the bone-chilling temperatures and biting winds.
But what exactly is insulation, and why is it so important for a winter survival shelter? In simple terms, insulation is a material or substance that reduces the transfer of heat between two objects. In this case, it helps to maintain the heat inside the shelter and prevent it from escaping, while also keeping the cold air outside.
There are several options for insulation when it comes to building a winter shelter. One popular choice is to use natural materials such as leaves, straw, animal fur, and even snow. These materials are readily available in the wild, making them a practical choice. However, they may not provide the most effective insulation, and may also attract unwanted pests.
Another option is to use man-made materials, such as foam or fiberglass insulation. These materials are specifically designed for insulation purposes and can provide excellent heat retention. However, they may not be as readily available in an outdoor survival situation.
If you happen to live in a climate with plenty of snow, then constructing a winter survival shelter made of snow can be one of your best bets for insulation. Yes, that’s right, the very same substance that covers the ground and makes roads slippery can actually be used to insulate a survival shelter.
Snow is made up of tiny air pockets that trap air and act as an insulating layer. When used to construct a shelter, these air pockets create a barrier between the inside and outside temperatures, keeping the warmth in and the cold out. The thicker the layer of snow, the more effective the insulation becomes.
These structures are not only effective in keeping out the cold, but they are also surprisingly easy to construct. With a simple shovel and some basic knowledge, anyone can create a snow shelter to protect themselves from the elements.
But using snow as insulation is not without its challenges. For one, it requires a significant amount of snow, which may not always be readily available. Additionally, it requires careful construction and maintenance to ensure the shelter remains sturdy and warm.
Despite these challenges, the benefits of using snow as insulation are undeniable. It can provide warmth and protection in the most extreme winter conditions.
Whether you find yourself in a survival situation or simply enjoy winter camping, don’t underestimate the significance of insulation in your shelter. Not only can it make the difference between a comfortable night’s sleep and a freezing one, but it can also be a crucial component in your overall survival.
There are as many types of Winter survival shelters as there are different types of winter climates. Where I live in interior Alaska, we receive a good deal of snowfall throughout our Winters. This makes a Snow shelter ideal. But there are different types of snow shelters, and for the purposes of this article, I’ll be teaching you to dig a Snow cave. Other traditional snow shelters involve cutting blocks of ice and snow. Since I am primarily geared for survival situations, I wanted to gear this towards what would realistically be available in a real life scenario.
Hopefully you outdoors men and women carry around a few survival items in your day pack when trekking outdoors. If so, then this shelter should be realistic and will suffice in an emergency. A Snow trench can theoretically be dug by hand, but a collapsible shovel carried in your kit is ideal. A tarp, folding saw, and emergency blanket are also excellent to include in your winter adventure pack in case of emergencies.
Remember, shelter is a top priority when in a real survival scenarios, so don’t underestimate it!
It’s really that simple! A quick and easy winter survival shelter made of snow. It might not make you toasty in subzero temps, but it can protect you from wind chill and trap in natural heat that can make the difference in a life or death scenario. I like this easy setup because it is foolproof and easy to practice. No need to build an elaborate bushcraft shelter to practice this survival skill.
As the winter cold sets in, it’s crucial to arm yourself with the knowledge and skills needed to build a winter shelter in the wilderness. By choosing the best location, gathering insulation materials, constructing your shelter, maximizing heat retention, and practicing fire safety, you can significantly increase your chances of survival in harsh conditions.
Remember, preparation is key – don’t wait until it’s too late to start building your shelter and stay safe in the wilderness. As the saying goes, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” So take action now and ensure your safety in the cold.
As the winter chill settles in, it’s time to prepare for outdoor adventures that embrace the season in all its snowy glory. For those who love the thrill of hiking in winter wonderlands, finding the perfect balance of warmth, style, and affordability in their outdoor …