Sustainability Made Simple: Homesteading 101 (continued)

Raise Rabbits for Fiber. Want to make your own yarn? Consider raising Angora rabbits for spinnable fiber, recommends Woginrich. This starter animal requires little previous experience, but younger children should be supervised due to the rabbit’s sharp claws. Older kids and teens can brush its fur and collect loose hair weekly, or help to shear its entire body, which you can send off to be processed into soft, natural yarn.

Create a Family Soundtrack. Adding old-time, mountain music to your life – made by instruments like the fiddle, banjo, guitar, and mandolin – aids with boredom and anxiety, writes Woginrich. If you and your child can score a couple of instruments to play, immerse yourselves in the music: listen to it at home and in the car, and have unstructured jam sessions and pluck whatever sounds good. Teach yourselves, urges Woginrich.

Promote Self-Sufficiency. Projects that encourage a more sustainable lifestyle are plentiful. Other ideas include:

• Baking bread from scratch
• Gathering used wrapping paper to create collages and art projects
• Composting leftovers for soil
• Using candles or non-motorized devices when possible (hand beaters, coffee bean grinders, juicers)
• Creating reusable cloth grocery bags using fabric paints.

Not all of these activities may be fitting for your family or geographic location. But these projects are starting points, and will hopefully spark more ideas that promote a DIY household.