what are your plans or additions for 2004 on your homestead? i would like to add goats to our farm, trying to decide ,meat or dairy and maybe a couple of pygmy. we also plan to clear some acreage to give us more pasture. dh just hates cutting those pine trees. have a happy new year
Bigger concentration on heirloom veggies, small CSA starting up, adding duck tractors to the poultry operation, and maybe a feeder pig or two. Fencing's the big ticket goal of the year, and I would also love to clean out the barn and have a harvest party with an Irish band.
We just did a to-do list the other day! We have added dairy goats already in 2003, but still need to build a milking stanchion and a small "milking parlour" as I love to call it to bring them into to milk. Our list looks like this right now, not counting the parlour/stanchion: Till entire veg. garden continue wrap-around porch work run auto water to existing fruit trees add more fruit trees put gutters onto goat pens trim tamarisks The above are on DH's list My list: trim asparagus and roses make solar cooker ovens order day old meat chickens order day old quail order milking supplies order seeds start seedlings in grow boxes plant 10 more bushes/west fenceline plant more parlsey, dill and butterfly weed in flower garden for more butterflies pot plant a blueberry bush for porch (experiment) plant gladiolas rec'd for Christmas Not really "list-able" things, learn and experience for the first time the birth of goat kids (due May 22nd!!!!! whoo whoo), milking. Overall goals: do the 5,000 sq. ft. garden again, add separate corn and potato and artichoke patches and run water to them, fill freezer with chickens and quail, maybe, and it's a big maybe, add pigs this year. Continue with new composting of waste hay and goat manure (tough here with the heat).
Letâs see, the plans for 2004 include residing the barn (DH and sons just scavenged 1âx18âx20â boards from another barn being torn down), building a turkey coop and raising/selling blue & lavender slates, eastern wild and bourbon red eggs/poults/turkeys. Finishing the shed where the roof was half torn off last Motherâs Day by high winds. Part will still be storage, parts will become a garage of sorts and a new addition will become the âhoney houseâ for pulling honey off my hives and a âgeneralâ store for the farm. Of course, this rebuilding is all dependent on what materials we can find/scavenge. In the house, since the kitchen is finished and the washer/dryer is now upstairs, Iâd like to knock out the indoor stairs to the cellar and enlarge the main bathroom so a person can have an easier time turning around in it (Iâm not fooling!!) We still have access to the cellar from the outside. Oh! Iâd also like to have the cellar partitioned off so the furnace is in itâs own room so we can use the cellar the way it was originally designed to be used â a root cellar! We also need to market our farm better this year. Have more school tour groups out in the spring, be more consistent at showing up for the Farmerâs Market on Saturdays. Personally I want to master my drum carder, spin better and relearn how to knit. I also want to learn how to make baskets. The ones I like so well for the garden are too high priced and I know I could make them myself. We donât expect to accomplish everything we have planned for the year. The real thrill is the process of making it happen!
Paint my house - hmm still wonder what color.... clean up weeds and brush till the garden areas and plant a cover crop this year in most of it - maybe plant a few vegies this year depending on time. get chickens get more ducks and geese get some guineas put up more fence figure out how to start a business and capitalize on tax breaks start my crafts after setting up my shop again That should keep me out of most trouble next year. ;-) Happy New Year everyone. It's snowing here putting a beatiful end to 2003. Debbie
Hmmm...so much to do, so little time. Lots of things in the works for 2004. We are getting electric in to the cabin. Waiting for the guy to set the pole so our goal on electric is to have it in by February. Still haven't figured out what we want to do for running electric to the barn. Before we can run electric to the barn we need to build it (DOH!). I'm hoping we will have the barn up by the end of March (including the cement floor). That should allow some time till the first hay cutting. We are just finalizing our tree seedling order from the state nursery. Definately getting hazelnuts, arbor vitae and possibly a few other types. The thing I'm wavering back and forth on is quantity. Prudence says just get 50 of each this year so that I don't have issues having more than it is feasible for me to get planted. I still have 50 seedlings from last year to transplant and 20 fruit trees (plus whatever I order this year) to transplant from my nursery area to the farm. Planting a stand of multi-colored broom corn so that we can experiment with making wreaths from it (for sale). Expanding our planting of garlic (for sale). Implementing our Black Walnut processing operation is a big one. DW says we should get the Nut Huller (at $1300 not a small investment) and just "do it". Lots of other things on the list but these are some of the ones that come to mind. Mike
I love reading about everyone's plans! I tried to do too much this past year, and it raised the stress level and lowered the enjoyment I was feeling. This year I hope to keep it a bit more simple. I'll finish painting the chicken coop and figure out a better way to suspend the netting over the top of the chicken yard. Need to add a clasp to the door to their yard, too. I want to add a couple more apple trees to the orchard, and plant six blueberry bushes. I probably will end up with several more compost piles, as I'll have stuff at varying stages of break-down. I don't want to enlarge the vegetable garden, just make it better. I really hope to concentrate on food production this year. I'd like to finish the shed I started, and use it for storing hay and *maybe* a couple of little goats. It would be great to begin clearing a path and setting fence posts for perimeter fencing, but I don't want to get too carried away. I work off the place soo much, especially in the summer months, that anything that gets done is a miracle.
I'm planning on Finally finishing our small shed/barn. Once it's critter proof, bring in a few bunnies while the weather is still cold, followed by Chicks once the weather warms up. Clearing more tree's to continue expanding the garden area so that I can sell pumpkins and maybe some cucumbers this year. Get The BlackBerries trellised, I planted 25 thorny plants last spring and about 18 survived the lousy summer we had. Time to get them up off the ground so that we get healthy growth .
Too bad you are not closer - bunnies and blackberries are the two things I inherited in great numbers when I got my place!
This coming year will be wild and wonderful for us. We are selling our home, on the river bank, business, SORTING out and moving 6 miles away to the mountains! I have JUST finished designing our new home...earth-jacketed, passive solar. It will have radiant heat in the floor @1800sq ft, attached greenhouse and pond starting @ 40ft from the large screened porch. We have worked hard all our life, with both or us having one full time and at least one part-time job each for the 33 years we have been married, two great boys (men), through college...now it is our turn. Sooo looking forward to still having our farm stands and doing farmers markets and "smelling the roses"...Joan
1. 25 meat chickens in range shelter 2. 3 feeder pigs (need to build A frame and fence in area where they are to be kept) 3. 6 new apple trees in old garden site 4. fence in new garden site, and put in raised beds (already built frames) 5. move flower and herb garden to front of summer house 6. build sun room in location of old flower and herb garden 7. get three new laying hens, cull two nasty old leghorns 8. grow two hundred foot rows of zenias, cosmos, and a few other flowers to sell to florist friend It sounds so daunting. We'll get the most important things done first, and whatever doesn't get done will have to wait.
We plan to add a blue merle Australian shepherd to our farm. We want to build a greenhouse on the south side of our mobile home. We plan to build a back porch and decks off the front and back of the mobile. We plan to make our garden bigger; change the drip irrigation system; plant more varities of vegetables; enlarge the chicken coop; and operate a roadside produce stand on our property.
Looks like everybody will be busy this year! I want to add some more pecan and fruit trees, blue berry bushes, and maybe some roses... Going to try and put plexiglass on the greenhouse if we can afford it. Plastic will not stand up to our 40 mph winds Started digging a pool last year, but it got put off because of the bad weather. It would be nice of it got finished this summer. My resolution for 2004 is to enjoy life more and try and stay healthy. Since that means more time playing with my animals, I may not accomplish much on the homestead, but that's ok. Hope everyone has an enjoyable year!
Let's come back to this thread in December and see how we did. LOL. Our plans for 2004 aren't as ambitious as 2003's. We plan to have what is left of a lap pile removed and we are going to refence our back field.(about 2 acres) We will sow orchard grass or something back there and then our goats will have a bigger range. We want to run electricity to our big building and inuslate it and then put a deep freezer out there.(no room in the house) Then we might consider raising up a pig or two for slaughter. As it seems I am inept at gardening, this year my hubby sugested I try raised bed of just herbs. Seems herbs are easier to keep alive here than a tomatoe plant. I will dry the herbs and maybe be able to earn enough from that to pay for the tomatoes I am going to have to buy at the farmers market. I'd love to add a couple of peach, pear and plum trees. Maybe I'll try apple trees. I'll get a few more turkeys, they are good eats. I'm going to convience dh to eat our chickens. And we're going to sell eggs. I'll probably buy a baby goat or sheep to raise. Or better yet a baby milk cow. Shelly
We have a busy year ahead of us. We'll be moved into the house by May, hopefully. We want to clear the future orchard and get some fruit trees in - peaches, apples, plums. Vegie garden needs to be located (we know we'll have one, but haven't figured out where, yet). Cleaning more of the property of tree tops and brush left by loggers before we bought the property. Husband hopes to start his ranch-style porch, I hope to get my English-cottage-style flower garden started. And we'll breathe lots of fresh, clean, country air... and enjoy many starry nights and bonfire parties with our daughters & their husbands. Oh, and we're taking a stray cat with us from where we live now, so we'll have to have a safe haven built for it to escape whatever critters may want to harrass it... and we're getting a dog, some guineas and perhaps a goose.
Here is what I hope to accomplish in the coming year. - fence in a fourth pasture for the cow. It will be on a slop with some trees. It will be too wet to use in the spring, but will be an excellent high summer pasture when my others are feeling worn out. The other pastures don't have any trees. - let my broody hens raise bigger clutches this spring. I have an old rabbit hutch I am going to set up as a broody hen hotel, away from the rest of the flock so she won't be disturbed. - get the steer finished for processing in late summer. He was born late last July and I want to send him to the butcher around the same time. He is five months old, 570 pounds, and gaining 15-20 lbs a week. - start stacking the firewood for the furnace instead of tossing it into a vast pile and then having to haul it around and restack it. - have a more sucessful garden. Last years was eaten by bugs and invaded by thistles.
I don't intend any BIG projects this year becuse I have a gut feeling my family will keep me too busy (AGAIN!), so I have made LOTS of SMALL plans that I can accomplish in a quiet weekend. The new property needs a culvert. I want to plant asparagus next to the tiny creek. Taking cuttings off of my lilacs in my yard may eventually provide me with a lovely windbreak for the beehives that I intend to set up this spring. Transplant blackberry roots or try out thornless ones for ease of picking. We have LOADS of Osage Orange sprouts that need cutting a few at a time. I am also toying with the idea of using a marine pump to move water from the 6" creek up the hill to a garden spot. I don't intend to get it ALL done, but that should provide me with PLENTY of things to keep the slow time this summer busy. Besides, who can buy land and not want to put their mark on it? :haha: I will also have a garden in my yard, pick my blackberries, and buy a few chicks to increase the laying flock.
My homestead plans for 2004: Obtaining One!!! We have an offer in on a nice piece right where we want to be. The owner has countered and we will accept. It is HARD waiting for the realtors, paperwork, etc. This has been our dream for awhile and it feels so close......but, not quite there yet. Closing is prosective for April because going through the TX Veterans Land Board is SO much paperwork. We still won't be able to move until May 05. That is when DS, DH and I all finish college. We all want that piece of earth so bad. We want chickens, cows, pigs, horses, and bees!!! (Oh, my!) Best wishes to everyone.
