2014 Homestead Goals

It's getting to that time of year when I start to plan what I will do around the homestead. I may not have a homestead like a lot of the blogs I read. I can not have chickens or goats or other outside animals where I am at. I can't raise animals for meat. Believe me, if I could, I would. Today, homesteading is more of a way of life.

For me, homesteading is growing all or most of the veggies my family will eat for the next year.  Preserving the food, baking from scratch using read foods and less if any processed foods. I buy veggies from the farmers market until mine come up. I continue to buy from a farm down the street from me getting veggies I can't grow or have no luck growing, like onions.

I try to be as frugal and sustainable as I can. I make my own cleaners, use cloths to wash the dishes, floors and to dust. I use cloth bags when shopping. I have dollar store bags to wash your undies in and use those for the produce I do buy. I shop at thrift stores for most of our clothes. I won't buy underwear and socks used. That just gives me the willies.

The seed catalogs are starting to come in which gets me all excited to see what veggies to plant this spring. I like to try a few new veggies every year, so reading the catalogs and searching the web on tips for growing them is the first goal to do.

Next is planning the garden. I need to rotate my plants every year so I need to know where to plant and where not to plant them in the garden. I also do companion gardening, so I need to make suree the plants that are near each other will be beneficial to each other. We expanded the garden this past fall, so we will be able to plant more this year. This has me so excited!

Ordering up the seeds to plant is next on my list. I have saved a few seeds from last years garden, like the beans. I also have some left over, like the lettuce and carrots. I try to buy more than I think I will need in case not all of them germinate. Plus, I can share some with a couple of my neighbors that garden. I got some nice garlic chives from my neighbor across the street from me.

I would like to build some hoop houses and cold frames so that I can grow earlier in the spring. I have plans for both, but have yet to actually make anything. The hubby has been grabbing old windows when he sees them by peoples trash to use for the cold frames.

I need a door for the garden. After lasts years mess with the ground hogs, we put up a fence around the garden. We used a piece of ply wood on its side for a door that slides over. It worked well, but it was ugly and not very permanent. I would like a nice half door made up with maybe a sign for my homestead. The fence goes back up in April before I plant to keep out any would be veggie eaters.

Clean out the stream of plant debris. We have a little run of stream behind the house. It is so full of dead leaves, fallen down trees, sticks and gets overgrown by plants and flowers. The landlord is suppose to take care of it, but doesn't. We will take care of the part that is on our part of the land. The hubby wants to line the stream bed with rocks and make a bridge to go over it. Right now there is a very big fallen tree that we use as a bridge.

Get a new oil tank and pour a concrete pad under it. We have needed a new oil tank for a couple of years now, but we are at the point now that our oil guy doesn't want to deliver oil to us. There is a few rust stains on it  but it isn't that bad in my opinion. Hubby says it needs to be done, so it gets put on our list.

Start putting new windows in. We have these old single pane windows that came with the mobile home, so you can just imagine how much energy we loose. We do put plastic on the windows every year and put up the storm windows, but it still isn't enough.

De-clutter and organize the house. We have a lot of stuff, some that just collects dust and is useless to us. I have no problems getting rid of things, the hubby on the other hand, likes to keep things. I swear he has hoarder tendencies. It took me years to get him to take the fishing poles out of the living room and put them in the storage unit. Lots of things will get donated to the thrift store in town. We shop there a lot for clothes for Matt and myself. We like to help out our local communities this way.

These are the only goals that I can think of right now. I know things will change and things may be added or taken off the list.

What goals to do have for your homestead for the coming year?