Homestead Plans for 2018 : bees, solar panels and an electric car

2017 has very much been about improving the food production infrastructure on our homestead.

Our first polytunnel and two greenhouses have all been erected this year.

We have also constructed 8 more raised beds and begun a program of upgrading the old ones.

A new high fenced quarter acre compound for the chickens, ducks and goose has also been built.

All of this has allowed us to more than double our vegetable production this year. We also managed 6 months of vegetable self sufficiency without needing to buy anything in.

Along with the complete rebuild of one of the old chimneys on the house these food production infrastructure additions have absorbed all our resources during the year.

This has meant my plans for making a start on the installation of PV panels had to be postponed into the coming year.

As well as the consolidation of our food production improvements, 2018 is going to see a significant investment in our energy production facilities.

My goals and targets for 2018

1. Installation of Solar PV Panels and a battery back-up system

We will pick up on a project we had planned with a local renewable company last summer. This will give us around 2.5kW PV capacity and a battery bank sufficient to run the key electrical requirements of the house for 3 days.

The system has been designed to be readily expandable to include more panels and more battery capacity as funds permit.

Although we are not planning on going off-grid (at present) we want to build a good level of electrical resilience to withstand loss of power scenarios, be they man-made or natural in origin.

If we do find we have sufficient funds in the latter part of the year we may bring forward plans for a pico-hydro unit to add further resilience to our winter season electricity production.

2. Purchase of an Electric Car

Sitting neatly alongside the installation of PV capacity we are looking to buy or lease an electric car in the first half of 2018.

The vast majority (90%+) of our journeys are 30 miles or less. An electric vehicle would therefore be ideally suited to our travel patterns.

I am not sure of the technicalities but I am hoping the PV panels will be able to charge the car for at least part of the year.

A friend nearby this past year bought a Nissan Leaf. He highly recommends it so we are most likely to go for the new extended range model of the Nissan Leaf that I believe comes out in January.

We are currently weighing up the financial pros and cons of purchase v lease.

3. The bees are coming, the bees are coming

We have been keen to get bees for several years now.

I went on a beekeeping taster course at Humble by Nature a couple of years back, and I plan to get a place on the local Beekeepers Association beginners course that starts early in the new year.

We have decided where the hives will be located. I have been busy planting flowers and herbs all around the property to provide more sources of food.

Recently some friends have moved nearby who are keen beekeepers. They have offered to help us get started with bees.

That is the final catalyst we needed to get moving, so the bees should be arriving here in the spring.

4. Doubling of food production

This coming year we will have the polytunnel and the greenhouses from the start of the growing season so we should be able to get a much earlier start with our planting.

We have already got a headstart with overwinter plantings of leeks, spinach and assorted brassicas.

With this season extending capacity, and all the extra raised beds, I am looking to double our food production again to at least 500kg this coming year.

This is ambitious but as well as all the extra veg production some of the new fruit trees should begin to yield this year.

The egg production capacity of our two chicken flocks is now becoming quite depleted due to age and predator loss.

I am therefore looking to bring in up to a dozen new birds. Ideally these will be Ixworth, or another heritage dual purpose bird. This will hopefully save us from having to go for the Ross Cobb type of commercial broiler chicken again for our meat production.

If hatching goes well for @brimwoodfarm we are hoping to get some Ixworths from Geoff there.

On a more personal level I want to revisit my fitness and weight levels. With all the working outside earlier in the year I had been making good progress but then with the onset of winter and Christmas temptations I have slipped back.

My final two potential areas for the homestead development in 2018 are to do with communications and security. I will write more about those in a separate post.

2018 is shaping up to be another busy year on the homestead.

Whether we manage to acheive all our goals will depend to some extent on how finances progress. It might be tempting fate but I am hoping steemit will play a positive role on this front.

This is Pennsif's Progress - Day 811.

You might also be interested in some of my other posts :

I am in the market for buying steem directly.

I can pay by BACS, PayPal, or Amazon Gift Cards.

For more details check my post :

I Buy Steem - can we bypass the exchanges?

[ graphic and polytunnel photo by @pennsif // other images from pixabay - Creative Commons CC0 ]