Common Ground Alaska Farmstead

10/29/2025

In the last frontier, sustainable living isn’t a trend, it’s a way of life. From putting up the harvest to crafting by hand, Alaskans need to know how to make the most of every season.

Sustainable Alaska Magazine, a quarterly publication, shares real stories from folks living close to the land, with seasonal tips, how-tos, and wisdom you can’t find online.

The Winter Edition is coming soon, filled with inspiration for the season ahead. Subscribe today and get each issue, written by Alaskans, for Alaskans, delivered right to your doorstep.

Subscribe to the Sustainable Alaska Magazine to have the printed version of the magazine mailed to you as well as digital access to all issues!

10/24/2025

How to Make: Soothing Herbal Throat Lozenges is now available in the Alaska Homestead Academy!

In this video demonstration, Lia shows us how to craft soothing homemade throat lozenges made with mint leaves, raspberry leaves, rosehips, and honey. These simple herbal drops are packed with natural goodness to calm sore throats, ease coughs, and support the immune system.

Find the link to the video in the comments! Join our community today!

10/22/2025

We’ve come full circle - and a new season of stories begins!

Sustainable living runs deep in Alaska, from preserving the harvest to crafting by hand.

Sustainable Alaska Magazine is a quarterly publication that shares real stories from Alaskans living close to the land. Each issue is packed with seasonal inspiration, how-tos, and Alaskan wisdom you won’t find online.

Subscribe today and get every issue - written by Alaskans, for Alaskans - delivered right to your doorstep.

10/21/2025

Book Club Recap - Part 3 is now available in the Alaska Homestead Academy Catalog!

📖 “The Homesteader’s Natural Chicken Keeping Handbook” (Part 3)
by Amy K. Fewell (Author), Joel Salatin (Foreword)

This week in Book Club, Tandy and the group covered Part 3: Raising a Healthy Flock discussing Amy’s advice for keeping chickens thriving the natural way. Members shared what’s been working (and what hasn’t!) in their own coops, from feed choices to supplements. It was a great discussion full of tips, laughs, and real-life chicken stories!

Next up: Part 4 – Glorious Egg Layers
🗓 Tuesday, November 4th | 7:00 p.m.

Homesteader & Full Granny members can join live - Cultivators can catch the replay!

10/21/2025

We live in strange times:

We import beef from foreign countries and label it with a USA sticker while our own beef ranchers are going broke at an alarming rate.

I can feed my family Cheetos for dinner and no one bats an eye but if I advertise that we are drinking raw, unprocessed milk, then I’m trying to make them sick.

We hire someone to shovel the snow on our deck and turn around and spend an hour on a treadmill for exercise. It makes no sense!

And yet Americans are so sick. Over 60% of Americans over 18 are on a prescription medication - and the number keeps rising! We’re getting sicker!

Folks, it’s never been more important to know your farmer and know whats in your food.

We dont have to be sick. But we need to get smart and start paying attention.

Here’s an article I wrote awhile back about a sneaky little product that is in most processed milk products:

https://commongroundalaska.com/three-dangerous-ingredients-hidden-in-our-food-2024/

Food for thought. 🙈

Feeling like your food is packed with unpronounceable ingredients? It’s time to get real about what’s going into your meals. From toxic additives like carrageenan in ice cream to denatured thickeners in cream cheese, it’s a serious wake-up call. We dive deep into the harmful effects of ultra-p...

10/20/2025

MONDAYS WITH MABEL:

Hey guys! It's me again, your favorite milk cow in-the-making.

Today I thought it would be fun to talk a little bit about our barn. Mama says we're called a multi-species barn. I'm not sure what all that means exactly but I think it means that the sheep, the chickens, the turkeys, and I all live in the same space.

I like it that way! I like having my friends around all day, grazing with them and hanging out. But mama tells me that it's a bit unusual and we have to do things carefully to make it work.

The chickens actually have a separate pen that they can go into that I can't get into. It has two doors: a big one and a little one. Mama says the big one is so she and daddy can get in and out to give them food and water and collect the eggs but it keeps the bigger animals like Millie and I out.

But do you want to know something?

MILLIE CAN STILL GET IN THERE! She can squeeze and wriggle her way through that small door! She is not supposed to and I tell her that all the time but does she listen to me? Nope -

She never stays in there long, though. It's boring in there and she does NOT like chicken food. Whew!

My favorite time of day is when mama and daddy come down and feed us. We get yummy food AND lots of pets and scratches. But mama says that they have our eating areas set up super special so no one gets sick.

((I got sick eating the wrong food once so I'm glad they set things up just so))

Millie gets fed first. She gets her grain and oat treats in the bottom of the little hay feeder. She goes right to munching! Mama says that's to keep her busy and distract her from my food.

My food has copper and all sorts of really good things but Millie can't have much of that. So I get fed second.

Do you want to know what the chickens do? When I accidentally spill some of my grain off the side of the feeder, they gobble it up super fast! Mama says that's a really good thing becuase it won't hurt them at all and that keeps it clean so Millie can't get into spills when she finishes her food.

That's pretty smart! I like having the chickens around. But I try really hard NOT to spill a drop because I really do like my grain. :)

The other thing is - chickens will p**p anywhere! So daddy made some areas that they can't roost so they won't p**p in my food.

Gross.

I guess I didn't talk about the turkeys much because they don't hang out with me near as much as they do with Millie. Millie and Mr. Tom spend all day every day together. I have no idea what they talk about - probably how to get into trouble, knowing that Millie Girl.

Something fun about Mr. Tom Turkey, though, is that he loves to prance and dance. He fluffs up his feathers and puffs around showing how proud he is - but sometimes he will do the stomp dance and when he does that, we all stop what we're doing to watch - it's funny!

He just turns in circles and stomps his feet - maybe one day I'll try it, too - just for fun.

That's all I have to say about living in a multi-species barn. So far it's working out great but mama says we may have to separate out the birds someday if things start to go sideways. I don't know what that means but I know sideways doesn't sound good so I trust her.

Talk to you all next week!

10/17/2025

🥕 Fermenting Carrots - New Class Drop in the Alaska Homestead Academy!

Join Tandy as she shows how to make fermented carrots with garlic and dill, an easy, delicious way to add probiotics to your plate. This is a great way to preserve your harvest, reduce waste, and add a pop of tangy goodness to your meals!

Available now in the Alaska Homestead Academy!

10/16/2025

Help Me Not Screw This Up! Ferment With Me – Recording Now Available! 📽

Missed the live class? No worries! You can now watch the replay inside the Alaska Homestead Academy.

We had such a fun, interactive session - members shared their fermenting experiences while Tandy walked us through fermenting cabbage and carrots. She talked about the how and why behind it all and answered questions along the way.

If you’re curious about fermentation or just want to see what it’s all about, join the academy to give it a watch!

10/16/2025

How to Make: Paper from Fireweed is now available in the Alaska Homestead Academy catalog!

Lia is getting creative and sustainable, using the outer layer of fireweed to make paper! She shows us how this hands-on project is a beautiful way to connect with the land, reduce waste, and turn local, renewable materials into something truly unique. This activity blends traditional skills with modern creativity in the best way.

Ready to get inspired by what nature provides?

Join us inside the Alaska Homestead Academy and learn how to make your own fireweed paper!

10/14/2025

Book Club Recap - Part 2 now available in the Alaska Homestead Academy Catalog!

📖 The Homesteader’s Natural Chicken Keeping Handbook by Amy K. Fewell (Foreword by Joel Salatin)

In this Book Club Zoom meeting, Tandy catches up with the group and members talk about their experiences with their own chicken flocks. Then they dive into Part 2: Hatching, Purchasing & Raising Chicks of the Handbook and learn about Amy's practical tips and natural methods for starting your own flock.

Next Monday, we’ll move into Part 3, exploring how to raise a healthy flock. Don’t miss it!

Homesteader and Full Granny members can join these meetings live each Monday at 7:00 p.m., while Cultivator members can catch the recordings once they’re posted.

10/14/2025

MONDAYS WITH MABEL

Hey guys, it’s Mabel - mom says I get to come on here and tell you a story on Mondays! I’m so excited! She knows you all love my stories!

And this week I have a great story for you! Well, it started out good, then it got bad, and then it ended good.

So earlier this week, Millie noticed someone left the gate to the feed room open. When she saw it, of course she went right in there to check things out. She was probably looking for snacks.

I was going to stay out, of course, because I know mama doesn’t want me in there, but someone had to make sure Millie stayed out of trouble.

There were so many different bags of feed in there - Millie suggested we try a nibble out of each one of them. You see, Millie is a nibbler. I’m more of a muncher. We started with the chicken feed but then I remembered that once when I was eating chicken food out of the bucket she told me I had to stay out of that because it would make me lay eggs. Noooooo thanks!

So I stopped eating the chicken food. I tried a few bites of the Nutribalancer but that was icky. Millie agreed.

I was ready to go back in the barn but Millie kept going around so I followed her (she’s trouble, I’m telling you!). Soon we came to the bags of alfalfa pellets and my yummy dairy grain. Oh man. I was excited to find that! But the alfalfa pellets were empty and the top was closed in my feed and I couldn’t figure out how to open it.

I found my oatmeal treats too - but I couldn’t get them open either! Darn!

By then I was getting bored and frustrated so I thought I’d just rearrange the feed bags a little. It was fun to pull the bags off the stacks - everything was too nice and neat! Mama always says she likes whimsy so I knew she’d love how we mixed things up.

Pretty soon mama came down to the barn and found us in the feed room. Oh my. She was not happy with my redecorating.

Then know what happened next? She didn’t give us any dinner except hay!

She kept saying she couldn’t tell how much we ate and she had to make sure we didn’t get a tummy ache.

Well that was a bummer.

But then it happened. I did get a tummy ache! Mama got so scared, she called her friend Leslie who told her to give me handfuls of baking soda.

I didn’t like that part at all.

Icky.

But my tummy started feeling better. But she said still no breakfast or dinner! Just hay.

Psh. That was another bad idea, if you ask me.

But she petted me lots and we went for walks and she congratulated me when I burped so that was nice.

Finally after a couple of days I got my grain back. It was so yummy!

But mama and daddy changed lots of things in the barn. Mama said that her dad used to always say “There should always be two doors between the animals and the feed” so daddy moved all the feed to a new spot.

He also put a spring on our door so it swings closed if someone forgets and he changed the lock on both doors so mama can always make sure they are closed and will stay closed.

Daddy takes good care of us, and he takes good care of mama.

But honest, it was Millie that started it. 🙈

10/13/2025

Guys - I’m gonna get real with you a minute because I’m super excited about this and I can’t help but share.

The Alaska homestead academy is really starting to shape up beautifully. There are some really cool videos teaching all sorts of things and it’s just going to get better and better with all we have coming up!

If you haven’t joined yet, this is a really great time to do so. If you join at the cultivator or full granny level, you can join us live for book club. It’s all about natural chicken keeping and even if you don’t have the book, it’s worth coming for!

Then tomorrow we start our series called “Help me not screw this up” where we hop on a zoom call together and put what we’ve learned to practice. Tomorrow, you get to make a veggie lacto ferment right in your own kitchen while I make one with you in my kitchen and you can ask all the questions along the way. It’s like a super fun cooking party but you don’t have to leave the house!

Then this weekend we are talking about herbal remedies - first aid and cold and flu. If you’re interested in joining these in-person classes you’d need to join by 5 pm today at the full granny level and we will be sure to include you!

And finally, no matter your membership level, Lia from fiddlehead acres is showing you all (and me!) how to make the coolest stuff using items she’s foraging around her house. For instance, did you know you can turn fireweed into Ivan chai, paper, and cordage?!? I didn’t either! But it’s awesome and you really don’t want to miss out. 🙂

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All content at Alaska Homestead Academy is produced by Alaskans who are living this lifestyle. By sharing their skills and stories, we can all learn to bring these old fashioned skills back!