Homesteading Plans 2022

Winter is a time to slow down (other than kids sports activities). I usually take time to plan my garden. Think of animals I want to add to the farm. I ask myself what do I want for my homestead?

I love snow for Christmas and New Year's. I absolutely HATE driving in the bad weather but do drive when the boys need to go somewhere. Hard to believe when I've lived in Maine almost my whole life. (A little exception was when we lived in North Carolina while my dad was in the Marines. )  Seeing snow and Christmas decorations is magical in its own way.

We have our tree decorated. It is filled with ornaments the boys have picked out over the years. It is also filled with ornaments my mom has made for us. Homemade gifts are my absolute favorite.

We left the bottom of the tree a little bare due to the puppies wanting to steal them.

We had a scary moment yesterday. We had a fire in the pellet stove pipe. I'm thankful we had a fire extinguisher in the kitchen so I was able to put the fire out rather quickly so there wasn't any damage to the house. I was able to stay calm so my mind didn't panick. The boys grabbed the dogs and went out by the car. My husband had brought one of our boys to work. When he got home we cleaned the pipe so there wasn't any build up of soot.

This week I plan on doing some holiday baking. First on the list is Rocky Road then we will be baking Candy Cane Cookies. Mom always had holiday treats for us during the Christmas season. It was her labor of love for our family.

Some of my favorite winter memories.

There was one Christmas all 5 of us went to my Great Grandparents land and cut our own Christmas tree. Everytime we decorated the tree we had Christmas music playing. 

We would watch holiday specials as a family every year. Our favorite beverage was hot cocoa with fluff on top. My brothers and I would end up with fluff mustaches.

When I was younger we would go to several different Christmas parties. We would gather at dad's Aunt Jo's. Dad's parents used to have all of us get together as well. Once mom's parents moved back to Maine we always get together the Saturday before Christmas for that side of the family.  Gift giving there has changed over the years. Yhr family always donates money to a new charity/organization every year.

I'm hoping as my boys get older and have families if their own thar we will have our own Christmas get together so at least once a year we will be altogether. 

I enjoy making different soups and stews through the winter.  I am starting to meal plan and like to use typical recipes we always enjoy eating as well as trying new ones. Meal planning is helping me not to be stuck with hum drum meals constantly.  I have many cookbooks I get inspiration from as well as Pinterest.

Time for me to get back to my homesteading research. I really want to start my homestead business in 2022. My friend Kenzie and I would like to partner our homesteads. If you ever need some tips Himesteaders of America has compiled a list of 145 different ideas to make money for the homestead. 

Christmas is only 13 days away!!! Hope you are all ready.🎄

Ugh

This year had been hard homesteading in many ways. Some of them are due to my negligence and some completely out of my hands.

For awhile I felt like the black widow of homesteading.  We lost baby goats this year. We lost a pig. The most heartbreaking loss was Babe the cow. 

Clarabelle was lost without her twin brother. I was concerned I would end up losing her too but thankfully she has Hamberguesas to keep her company. She is mooing again letting me know when she wants more hay.

We have 2 big battles going on right now. A weasel has killed 80% of the chicken flock. The other battle is my Chiweenie has an infection and has not been using her back legs at all for almost 2 weeks until today.

To combat the weasel issue I bought some Rat Magic and between my geese and this it seems to be working.

The photo is a little blurry but you can see the geese do not like rodents either. 

I did not accomplish my goals this year for homesteading other than buttoning up the barn where the chickens are.

The top will be closed in more hopefully next summer. Since I took this photo we have added 2 solar lights to illuminate the door and we have electricity inside the barn now so I have lights. The water outside of the barn has been working great to fill buckets of water for the animals. 

I have a new notebook and am studying how to homestead for profit. The planning is in the early stages but at least writing it down helps me focus and break up goals into achievable steps. 

I'm looking forward to the new year to start fresh. I'm already thinking of gardening.  I did plant during flowers in my whiskey barrels. They will be beautiful when they pop up. I have a planner to help me keep track besides my phone.

We will have baby goats in the early spring. After Christmas we will be building a nursery for the goats to see if separation helps. 

The pigs are steadily growing. I love they eat all of the leftovers.

2022 will bring changes but they will be well worth it!

Hi

I am terrible at keeping up with my blog.  My apologies!!

I only planted part of my garden this year. I have been really struggling with anxiety and depression and to be honest I've only been doing the bare minimum.

I have harvested peas and radishes from the garden. My Borage is ready to pick to put in salads. My kale is almost ready to pick as well as my lettuce.

I did not make it for strawberry picking this year but I did buy 15 pints of strawberries from a farm in Corinna. I have crushed strawberries draining for strawberry jelly.

My son and I picked 8 quarts of blueberries at Blueberry Court Far. In Pittsfield.  $3/qt for pick your own. I couldn't pass that up. 

I want to go to Orono High School and pick black raspberries. I'm waiting for our raspberries down back to be ready.

We added 4 pigs to the farm. They are so funny. They are certainly vocal when they are hungry.

We have finished stalls in the barn down back. That houses the chickens, duck,geese and pigs.

The garage we converted to a barn houses the livestock. 

Our meat chickens will be ready to be processed next month. They are all getting pretty fat.

Garden All tilled

I'm so thankful.for my brother in law tilling my garden for me. The boys spread compost on it today before he came!!

Failure

Sometimes you feel like a complete failure. Events happen homesteading that make you question am I cut out for this lifestyle I love so much?

Your heart shatters into a million pieces when you just cant fix them. 

Monday we got 2 bottle doelings. Last night Hope died and today Princess is dying. They both will be buried down back near Lambi.

Too many losses this year.💔💔

Happy Mother's Day

Today we have been planting flowers that were given to me by my husbands aunt and also elderberry  bushes I picked up from Knock Knock Farm here in Maine. (Was my mother's day gift from the boys.)

Our garden will be tilled again this week and I need to put plastic over the metal frame. 

I saw on Craigslist a free shelterlogic shed. It was missing one leg and that's it. I'm not saving the top part as it is ripped and wouldn't make a good greenhouse. (Warmth wise it would just no sunlight)

I forgot to snap a photo of our window boxes filled with flowers.

We are heading out to the other house in Orono to finish fixing the windows. Then I'm not sure what else we will be doing. 

I made sure to text and call my mom to wish her a Happy Mother's Day.

My oldest son called me this morning which was nice.

I also need to wish my future daughter In law a Happy 23rd birthday today!!

Homestead Happenings

5 of Tiny Tina's chicks hatched but we lost all but 1 due to them trying to follow their mom to get water and fell.

We added 4 Easter Eggers to the farm so we now have 10 chicks inside

This weekend we finally started putting up fencing for the animals. We just need to finish putting cedar slabs around it.

We need to also tack the fencing to the inside of the cedar boards and they will be able to come outside and enjoy the fencing. We were able to get the posts and fencing from our other house as well but we aren't completely sure what we will be doing with that. 

We lost the cute little bantam. She got out of the barn.

I bought some Rhubarb plants from a woman in Old Town last week. She blessed me with Comfrey, strawberries, walking onions and several other plants. Today I got 20 raspberry plants and 2 bleeding heart plants.  We planted 7 Rhubarb plants today. Depending on the weather tomorrow we will plant all 20 Raspberries and 2 blackberries as well as my 2 blueberry bushes. 

Oakley had fun with us outside. The blackflies are so thick where part of our backyard is still wet.

I have decided to have my garden down by the barn where I can accessu water easily. We are hoping to start tilling that Sunday.

Friday my son that is in college will be home for the summer. He will be umpiring a lot of baseball for his summer job.

Later this week. Dennis aunt is thinning out her flower beds and giving me all of her overflow. I still need to finish digging up the flowers that are coming up on the front lawn. I want to move them towards the front of the lawn where we have boulders. 

Time for me to water my seedlings. Have a great evening!!