Changes?

[DamnearaFarm]

Since I use the wintertime to rethink and regroup, I figure y'all do too. Unlike in previous years, I am planning big, more profitable (either income or family beneficial) changes than ever before.
I've been doing the homesteading thing steadily for a few years now so I have had the opportunity to see what's working and what isn't. With that in mind, here's what I want to change in 2014.

Chicken focus will be on Speckled Sussex (and possibly Java) and red sexlinks. That's it. The Sussex because I love them and the sexlinks because of the massive eggs and laying record.

Re-evaluate turkeys. I don't want to incubate, I want the hen to brood. If I can't get Carrington to brood or buy some new hens that will, I won't be continuing with them.

No more meat chickens, add more Muscovy ducks. I think. Definitely more muscovies, regardless.

More veggies, less tomatoes. Since we're low carb now I don't use as much tomato products. Of course I'll still can massive quantities of salsa and some chili base, but not much marinara.

Breed more bunnies. I think my bucks are slowing down. I need to add some new, younger blood.

Focus some more on the actual homestead. These past few years have been more about getting up and running. Now I want to focus more on the looks of the place.

Get more serious about the goats. Aggressively focus on breeding, milking and using the milk more effectively.

Wow. Now that I've typed it out, I see that I have a lot more plans than I thought. The main thread I see is 'get more serious'.

So how about y'all? What do you want to change up? What are you going to do differently?

[ronbre]

I too have several plans for this year, and a lot of them are dependent on NO DROUGHT..the farmer's almanac (yeah sure) says a lot of rain for midwest, hope they are right as we have had 3 years of drought.

Planning my gardens based on do drought, but with the droughts I've gotten lots of drip irrigation in, not that it did much good.

Hope to put in a sidewalk in place of my pavers, i am too old to deal with pavers all the time, sidewalk would be easier to clear and maneuver.

gotta build a shade trellis and bring the vines up it over my east deck, too hot there to even sit in summer..and plan to use old sliders and windows to enclose laundry room door so it warms up and keeps cold out..have those ready to build it.

want to buy that oregon eversharp battery chainsaw i demo'd 2 years ago..haven't gotten it yet but hope to in March, this 62 year old woman needs all the help she can get in making cutting trees down easier..and I love that saw.

already have seeds and plants and trees ordered for 2014..at least 3 new fruit trees going in and lots of cuttings and divisions in my 2014 spring plans..

[Maura]

You seem to be getting serious. Some of those things aren't big time commitments, but you have to do it. Like getting more rabbits, getting more chickens. Maybe you cold put the turkey eggs under a duck. They both have 28 day setting times.

[K.B.]

my main goal is pretty straightforward - finish building the house!

In addition to that, I am optimistic that we will make progress on adding more water features around the property and expanding my perennial plant propagation to keep gearing up for livestock feed.

[Ozarks Tom]

Let's see, double the size of our small sheep barn (way under estimated the number of sheep we can handle), extend the shed another 24', put more crown to our gravel road (1 1/2 miles), wait 2 weeks beyond when we want to plant so we don't plant twice again this year, paint the new porch, build an enclosure on the small trailer to haul sheep, and the list goes on & on.

[Tango]

2014 is my favorite year. In order of their doing, and financed largely through scrap metal and copper, so I have no idea how much I can accomplish...the plans are:
1) Fence in the chicken coop and build nest boxes with wood already purchased. Sunday will be sunny and warm
2) Build two or three more raised beds with scrap wood. My back up when elbows start to hurt on Sunday.
3) Start clearing with the Stihl to do some fencing when my ds arrives in feb. The clearing will take a couple of weeks and there will be chainsaw work on smaller trees.
4) Fruit trees will probably arrive before mid Feb. so plant those with a forest permie dreamprint in mind.
5) Fence a pasture.
6)Add two lamancha doelings and a shed (which i hope to build myself, (Lord help me).
7) Transfer indoor starts outdoors to a no till garden.
and then of course make money with eggs and veggies and invest in a buck. can my harvest for winter and play with my dogs before dusk each evening.
Wishing all of you a favorite 2014 too

[Awnry Abe]

Good thread, Chris.

Every year, and sometimes more often, we go through the same process that you laid out. I take a breather from the day-to-day and reflect on what is working and what isn't.

The big change from 2012 to 2013 was all about separating out the activities that were strictly for our families direct consumption (homesteading) vs. those that generate revenue. We will always dabble and toy around with the former. It is the latter that I spend all of my planning on. When we bought this place in 2010, we tried to make everything we do drive some sort of revenue, and it was impossible to focus. In 2013, we started taking a closer look at our ability to actually produce a product on a consistent basis. It isn't as easy at it seems. We weren't too focused on creating actual revenue from those activities, although that did occur. We were more concerned with 'operations' -- such as how to grow a good tomato, how to keep a goat herd alive, how to milk a cow, etc.

The big change for 2014 will be on increasing revenue and turning it into income.

1) Beef. Our beef herd has been in a building phase for several years. This will be the first year with a real harvest. I intend to develop a small customer base for freezer beef because the revenue & margins are better. The sale barn will be my fall back for the remainder, which is still profitable for me.

2) Dairy. I think I have the milk collection thing down to a T for the cows. The goats are still a work in progress. We haven't actively marketed yet, because our milk room is just now getting completed. Even so, we still have enough regular customers to offset the feed cost. I look for 2014 to be our breakout year in dairy.

3) Poultry. The egg-layers are mostly around for our personal use, but the population is scaled up to cover feed costs. In 2014, we will be more focused on replacing hens and working towards a single breed flock. I want a single-breed flock because our long range plan on poultry is in hatching & selling near-mature pullets. That market looks very strong and profitable. We tried selling meat birds for the first time in 2013. From a sales standpoint, it was a huge success. I processed one batch (90 birds) and sold out the day after processing day. From a profit standpoint, it was a flop. We won't be raising another batch for profit in 2014. I know the two parameters that I need to tweak to make it work (price & breed), but I am too near my limit of animal groups to stay sane.

4) Meat goats. 2014 is the decision year for the boers. Either I figure out how to market them, or they need to go (except my boys, Billy & Timmy).

[Homesteader]

Expanding the gardens again like last year. Adding berries - black and ras, cross your fingers for us, may be a battle as it is so hot here.

Also, clean/tidy up around the place a bit more. We put a lot of work and effort last year into expanding garden areas and DH building the trellis nursery. This year I'd like to just get to some of the junkie looking areas and really get them cleaned up. This is mostly brush, branches and some, well, junk. Stuff you keep but not sure why, that type stuff, starts out small and then grows.

Adding quail this year (have had them before) and maybe come Sept. order some meat birds to put in freezer in November. That is the perfect time for us to grow those out and for butchering too.

Hopefully, IF I can find a source for barley seed I am planning to do some fodder. I am thinking if we could just add that, we might be able to do a pig and not have it cost as much. When you live in such a non-farming, non homesteading type area, there just isn't any free stuff. In The City, they won't give it to anyone, restaurants, stores, etc., they are not allowed to. So we have to buy the feed and although we could grow some extra garden crops for a pig, well, that takes time and we get him in Spring, the stuff isn't grown yet to feed him.

This all will beef up our meat supply (hee hee, pun intended).

I am also going to begin a consistent use of my dehydrator to put away a bunch of dried foods.

[Grandmotherbear]

Try to locate a source for basul (edible bean tree, nitrogen-fixing). Double my lotus production, maybe get a flower this year?? Hopefully find that the groundnuts (apios Americana) and arrowhead make a good crop and I can start maybe rotating the groundnuts and the water chestnuts, water mimosa and arrowhead,

I have planted another peach tree- bought it with Christmas money from my mom- and am trying to get in touch with Raintree Nursery to order gunnora, another Petite Negri container fig, Burbank plumcot and luma apiculata berries.

[DamnearaFarm]

My new rabbit buck is now home and I pick up the 'scovies later this week. Movin' forward.....