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Free Tools & The Homestead Journal
Free calculators for the barn and the books, plus practical, grounded guides on keeping records that actually earn their keep.
Free tools
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Harold's Eyes
Snap a photo of a mystery bug, plant, or critter — Harold names it, calls it friend or foe, and tells you what he'd do next. Free, no account.
Try it free — no account →🩺
Why is my chicken...?
Lethargic, limping, not laying, gasping? 35 symptom guides — likely causes, what to check, when it's a vet call.
Open the calculator →🐔
Can chickens eat...?
Grapes? Avocado? Bread? Instant safe-or-not verdicts for 112 foods, with serving tips and the never list.
Open the calculator →🐛
What's eating my garden?
Holes in leaves, vanished seedlings, slime trails — read the damage and name the culprit, crop by crop, for 46 crops.
Open the calculator →🧮
How many do I need?
How many hens for your household, how much to plant per person, how big a garden — sized from land-grant extension data, including where the experts disagree and why.
Open the calculator →🥚
Incubation calculator
Pick a species, enter your set date — get hatch day, lockdown, and candling checks for 9 species.
Open the calculator →💰
Egg cost calculator
What does a dozen of your eggs really cost? Feed, flock, and lay rate in — true cost per dozen out.
Open the calculator →🐐
Gestation calculator
Breeding date in, due date out — goats, sheep, pigs, cattle, rabbits, horses, and more.
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Frost dates by ZIP
Your average last spring frost, first fall frost, and growing-season length — one ZIP code away.
Open the calculator →From the Journal
July 29, 2026 · 6 min read
Frost dates are 50/50 climate averages, which changes how you should plant against them. What the date really means, the three waves of spring planting, and why your yard may run a week off the map.
Read more →July 29, 2026 · 6 min read
A due date is the middle of a window, not an appointment. Gestation lengths for common homestead livestock, what to do in the two weeks before, and the one record that makes all of it possible.
Read more →July 29, 2026 · 7 min read
Set date, candling, lockdown, hatch — the four dates that matter and what to do on each, for chicken, quail, duck, goose, turkey, guinea, and pheasant eggs.
Read more →July 29, 2026 · 7 min read
Most keepers guess low, and they guess low the same way. Here's the honest arithmetic on cost per dozen — the feed math, the line items people forget, and why the number looks so different in June than it does in January.
Read more →July 8, 2026 · 3 min read
Snap a photo and Harold identifies the bug, breed, weed, plant, or problem — then advises what to do next. AI photo ID grounded in your own homestead records.
Read more →June 30, 2026 · 6 min read
Stop guessing which crops earned their space. A lightweight harvest log shows what actually produced, what's worth growing again, and how much to plant next year.
Read more →June 30, 2026 · 7 min read
A simple, no-fuss system for tracking your animals, garden, pantry, and gear — what to record, the one number that changes how you spend, and how to keep it up without it becoming a chore.
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