What a Wirecutter Writer (and Rural Homesteader) Can’t Live Without

I’m a senior writer for Wirecutter, and each morning I milk my cow. I also have a flock of sheep, a second cow, two hives of honeybees, and 30-plus chickens. We have a number of mature apple trees, a berry patch, and a 3,000-square-foot vegetable garden. In the summer months, I raise a few pigs and about 30 meat chickens, and in the spring we tap some maple trees. All of this supplies us with an abundance of meat, vegetables, eggs, herbs, honey, cider, vinegar, maple syrup, and dairy products.

The rural homesteading lifestyle is a lot of work, but much of the labor is manageable and can mostly be limited to the weekends—if I’m using the right tools.

Here are just some of the things that help me ensure our lifestyle has as few setbacks as possible. Although not all of these will work for every home, most of them can be adopted into any industrious life with positive results.

See the full list from Doug Mahoney on Wirecutter's website here.