Last year was a successful year for us but a lot of decisions were made as we went without much direction. We took on many projects that we didn’t really plan for. I want to be more focused, so we are setting goals for this year. Hopefully this will help us finish all the important projects and avoid spreading ourselves too thin.
Goats
Goats have been on our to-do list since we started researching homesteading, but it didn’t happen last year. We drink a lot of milk and goats are a good choice for producing our own. Our property is mostly wooded, with very little pasture, which makes goats better for us than a cow. We are also hoping they can help us clear some blackberry bushes.
Before we can get goats, we need to build a fence and a barn. The area we plan to fence is about 2 acres of forest with a little bit of grass. I have finished designing the fence and will start work on it soon. I will share the fencing plan and progress in future posts. My goal is to have the fence installed before the end of March. We also need to build a barn for them to live in. I have a general idea of the barn design but haven’t fleshed out the details yet.
Make a pond
We want to have a way to store a large amount of water and a pond will be a great way to accomplish that. The pond will be near our garden so that we can use it to water our garden. Also, we raise ducks and want to give them a better place to live and act like ducks. They have so much fun splashing in a kiddie pool but that gets dirty quickly and has to be refilled often.
There is a spot on our property that already collects water and that is where we want to build the pond. The plan is to dig a few feet deep in this area and add a liner, so that it can hold a lot more water. Then we will add some aquatic plants and fish. I hope to work on this in spring.
Start planting a food forest
Our food forest is going to be a multiple year project which will eventually cover about ¾ of an acre. The area we are going to plant this year is about a third of that. We have already planted a few trees and will be ordering more soon. There will also be a variety of shrubs mixed between the trees. This year, the herb, root and ground cover layers will mostly be soil building and mulch plants.
Preserve more produce
Last year, we preserved some food through canning and freezing but not enough to last through winter. I want to preserve more and try different methods of preserving food. We need to get a pressure canner for canning vegetables and a dehydrator for drying fruits and vegetables. Over the winter, we built a root cellar in our basement for storing some types of produce. My goal is for most of this produce to come from our garden but if some crops fail, we will buy it from the local farmer market.
On top of these goals, we need to maintain what we have already done. We will continue to raise chickens, ducks, rabbits and possibly a few pigs. It’s going to be another ambitious year but hopefully setting goals now will help us get everything done.