As the year begins it’s time to talk about what we want to accomplish in 2018. I actually got this idea from the Grass-Fed Homestead on youtube. You can check out their video here. I thought it was such a good idea to help us keep immediate goals in our minds. Sometimes it is overwhelming, how much we want to do to our property or what animals we want to get, that we simply cannot think or move forward. I hope setting tangible goals will not only keep us on track but help us feel more productive.
Get chickens
We always intended chickens to be our first homestead animal. We had an amazing opportunity to get some free Muscovy ducklings and never looked back! Now it’s time to try the traditional homesteading animal.
Start an egg business
My intention is to have the homestead pay for itself. I know it’s a lofty goal. Luckily, I have the time to try to make it happen. The first step is to start selling eggs. There are surprisingly strict regulations on the typical homestead products here and eggs are one of the easiest products to legally sell. If you are interested in learning more please check out my previous post. We have already taken the necessary class to sell them we just need to get a few more supplies that will cost around $140 and of course get our supply up.
Plant fruit trees
This is something we should have done as soon as we moved onto our property. Sadly, we didn’t have the funds nor did we realize how important it was to start those right away. After watching many fellow homesteaders mention how they wish they had planted their trees sooner I have made it a goal to get ours in the ground this spring. Two years is already too long!
(Our cherry tree seeds. Apparently our climate isn't great for cherries so this might end up as a huge failure but I love cherries so we're going to try!)
Edible landscaping
Our house had absolutely no landscaping when we bought it. For some reason a previous owner decided to lay broken tile where the front flower beds should be (we think it was because there aren’t any gutters). I enjoy the traditional landscaping look and because this is not our permanent property it will be easier to sell if we keep the front looking nice. So instead of a food forest we will be doing edible landscaping. We plan to have blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, loganberries, elderberry trees, goji berry trees, roses (rose hips), tea plants (for tea leaves), lovage (this will be an experiment since we aren’t in the best zone for it), fenugreek, comfrey, yarrow, hyssop, borage, asparagus and chives. I am trying to stick to perennials so it is easy to maintain and we aren’t having to mess it up by pulling the plants out of the ground. We will also have window boxes with herbs and will be planting some flowers just for fun. Probably tulips, hollyhock and peonies! We might not get all of this done this year but I hope to at least get the elderberry trees, goji berry trees and the bushes in.
(picture from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
RABBITS
Specifically, meat rabbits. When I was initially considering homesteading I was not thinking meat rabbits. Rabbits are pets (not for me, for other people) so I never really considered eating them. Plus they are so darn cute! I did want to get rabbits for their manure but as I planned and researched I realized we were missing a golden opportunity to not only provide meat for us but also our cats and dogs. Why keep rabbits for their only their poop?! They are quiet, small and can be tractored around fairly easily. This makes them ideal for the small homestead with neighbors. Technically, we are zoned for livestock but there isn’t much room for them. We would have to bring in a ton of food which isn’t something we are interested in. Not to mention we would prefer not to piss off our neighbors as much as possible. Hopefully in 2018 we will see if we can handle butchering a rabbit!
Youtube
I had always planned to share our journey on youtube, forgetting that I am EXTREMELY camera shy. I learn better through videos and while I love writing for steemit I would like to provide video content. So, I’m thinking of taking the Justin Rhodes 30 day challenge to help me get over my fears! If youtube doesn’t work out there might be an independent blog in our future.
Compost
Currently, we pile all our food scraps and leave them. This is great because it doesn’t take a lot of time or energy but we are not using our waste to its highest potential. It takes a long time to break down this way. I would like to put in a biogas digester system. If you’ve never heard of these google them right NOW! Not only can you compost any organic matter (yes poop, yes cooked food, yes meat and dairy), it also creates biogas which you can use for cooking. The system works like a stomach using bacteria to break down the waste and as a byproduct produces methane gas. It’s a very exciting project especially for a smaller homestead that doesn’t have a lot of room to leave piles of manure sitting around to break down. It also replaces the bokashi and the worm farm we were planning on having so instead of 3 different compost systems we can have just one!
(potatoes we harvested from our 'compost' pile)
Learn to Can
There are a lot of ways to preserve your harvest. Freezing, dehydrating, freeze drying smoking, canning or curing. Each method has benefits and drawbacks. At this point in time I believe we will only use 3 of these methods. Dehydrating which we have already experimented with, freezing and canning. Canning is what most homesteaders use most of the time and it is a great way to preserve food. Plus, it makes cooking easy just open and dump. We hope to try both water bath and pressure canning. If not with our own produce possibly with store bought just so we can put this skill in our homesteading tool belt.
I’m going to keep from overdoing it and leave the list at 8. There is some chance that we will do other things if the opportunity arises. (maybe………a greenhouse, quail, goats and water catchment) All of it depends on time and money though. We are working on renovating our house as well so we have a lot on our plates!
What are your homesteading goals for 2018?
2017 Egg Totals
Homemade Dog Treats
Our Christmas
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