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We founded Hipster Homesteaders in late 2021 to chronicle our somewhat different approach to urban homesteading on our ~0.13 acre lot in Pittsburgh. 

Our goal here is not to be 100% self-reliant on food grown in our yard, but rather to maximize our urban gardening as best we can while supplementing it with local produce (via CSAs), local meats (via area farmers), and cutting out intermediaries when supporting other non-local businesses (such as buying seafood direct from fishermen in Alaska over factory farmed products in the grocery store). 

Now that we are winding down our second proper season after launching this site, we thought we'd review everything we have added to our homestead in the past year!

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When it was announced that the invasive spotted lanternfly was found in Pennsylvania, we got concerned. But the first year these pests came and went without real damage to our crops.

Year two, however, came with an overwhelming abundance of these little pests. Crop damage still remains to be seen, but with the quantity we can safely say this is inevitable given enough time- the volume of lanternflies was truly absurd.

Our home is primarily close to a prime breeding ground for the lanternflies (thanks to our proximity to a natural hillside), and, as it turns out, many of the flowers and crops we grow are these insects' favorite foods. 

As the season went on, our house became covered with quite literally hundreds of lantern flies on any given day. Our lemon tree became enveloped with nymphs, we couldn't leave our front door without at least three dive-bombing us, and the trees and plants next to our property had hundreds visibly climbing up each and every day. This is not hyperbole at all- it truly was a spotted lanternfly invasion.

Naturally, as we want our citrus trees, fig trees, grape vines, hibiscus, and others to survive, we went on a mad dash to test as many lanternfly traps and killing mechanisms as we could to see if we could rid ourselves of this pest. So in this one, we wanted to share a bit more about what we tried, what works, what works in some context, and what is our favorite method moving forward.

Note: Most of the methods below were tested primarily on the early nymph stages of spotted lanternflies (black or red-colored), not adults. We will be testing all of these with adults as the season progresses and will add comments over time. We would not be surprised if some of these work on the young nymphs but not adults, or vice versa.

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Before our kitchen renovation, we tried to research what our project could ultimately cost. We looked for rough estimates online, but they varied so widely that we knew we had to dig a little deeper to get a better estimate.

After talking to dozens of contractors, vendors, designers, and other professionals, we developed our own detailed spreadsheet broken down by category, outlining item by item our projected costs. And you know what? Our method worked.

In fact, we ended up coming in exactly within budget when our project was all said and done!

In this article, we're sharing what we learned about the cost of kitchen renovations, including a breakdown of our own expenses, simply because we wish something like this would have existed online for us when we were starting our project. Your own spending will vary, but our hope is to shed light on all of the categories of expenses you may come across in a kitchen renovation.

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When we installed hand-painted ceramic tiles into our bar, we dreamed of the perfect space to create drinks and entertain friends.

One thing we did not anticipate was the cleanup effort after installing the tiles, as the grout was, quite literally, everywhere.

This should have been expected, partly because the handmade tiles had a 3d-ish element with several nooks and crannies for grout to hook onto. The other part was something we did not know about until after, one that, if you found this article through a search result, you are probably experiencing yourself- grout haze.

Grout haze is more or less what you think from the term- a thin layer of grout coats tiles after installation, making it look hazy. You wipe them down, it looks great, and then a few minutes later the haze returns.

After fighting with this one for an incredible amount of time, we thought we'd share some of the methods we tried for getting rid of grout haze, how well they worked (or didn't), and help you find some direction in this infuriating fight.

Warning: If you want to use any chemicals on tiles, check their compatibility as you may risk damaging your new product. Acids, like diluted vinegar, can etch materials like granite, marble, and stone but may work fine on some ceramics. Likewise, some products may be too aggressive for the grout type you purchased and could cause erosion. Check your tile and grout company recommendations before attempting any form of cleaning. This article should not be used for determining material compatibility.

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If there is one problem every homeowner and renter will likely encounter at some point, it is spotting a mouse in the house. One study has suggested that almost 15 million people have spotted rodents in their houses in the last year alone (~12% of occupied housing units!), which suggests that, given enough time, this problem will be experienced by everyone no matter the house size, location, age, and more.

We are no strangers to seeing a mouse in our house. This typically happens in the winter every year when mice look for warmer residences, and our 100+ year-old house has no shortage of openings that a mouse could crawl into.

As such, whenever we see signs of having a mouse, we turn to our trusty assortment of mouse traps to begin the eviction process. So in this one, we thought we'd share the pros and cons of some mouse traps we've tried, share what works best, some downsides you may not think about, and explain why baiting a trap is an absolute must.

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