Day 12

 

Yet another day without the net.  I suppose we are adjusting to this new paradigm.  We have to.  Though, if I was a betting woman, I think it will come today when we are gone to town.  Figures, eh?  But then, it would be nice to think that it will be waiting for us when we return in the later evening.  Something to do!!  Yeah!

 

Actually, today was a very productive day.  We got the Christmas tree down and all put away for another year.  We got all our dishes done and the kitchen nice and tidy.  I managed to make some soap, some candles, a nice wool dress ( a jumper actually)  and a cute little tote bag done.  I finished another rug and started on another.  (That makes 5 now!)  And I spent a good deal organizing my studio supplies and making it a little more ordered in there.  (I let things pile up a bit over the holidays!)  Jessy is feeling a lot better, though still a bit puny.  She took a nice long nap and woke up much refreshed.  Maggie spent a lot of time outside with the animals today and brought in a HUGE basket of eggs!  Including a nice greeny blue one finally!  Our Amerucanas have been all molting, so we have missed our blue eggs!  I also made a homemade ram sheild and we tested it on Gideon.  Needless to say, it’s back to the drawing board for a few adjustments.  It worked, somewhat, but he managed to get it to slide down off his nose and dangle funny.  If I can’t get my version to work, I’ll probably have to order a real one for $16.  Sigh!  (ggg)  He’s pretty agreeable about it, but still, it needs to stay in place to work properly and be safe for him to wear.

 

Yesterday was the first day of the new year and I am so excited for this one.  It will be our third spring season here on the homestead!  I can’t wait.  Like perrienials, the first year you sleep, the second year you creap and the third year you leap!   This has been so true…  our first year was a blur as we worked so hard to get the foundations and top priorities done, it did seem like we were so slow, we were asleep.  Last year had a lot of advances, still, not quite where we wanted to be, but closer for sure.   This next year, we are ready!   We are going to have a nice big garden, and young livestock and our priorities in line!  All the big major projects are done, so it’s time for the icing on the cake!  It’s time for the fun stuff!!!

 

When I think back just two years ago, to our New Year’s planning and our Five Year Plan, I was shocked to see how quickly we advanced witht he super opportunity that this property presented to us.  What a blessing, totally unexpected!   I was hoping that by year 3 or 4 we might START to look for our dream propertly, not be living on it that long!  Just such an excitement it is to look back on all that we have accomplished, and yet, all we wish to do!  I believe I will not go on and on about our lost internet today, but look forward to the excitment and plans of the new year!

 

I believe I will break it up into several different sections.  The farm, our work, personal and financial goals and our wish list.  That just makes sense to me.

 

 

The Farm

 

• Get NEW INTERNET service!!!!   Can not be measured service!!!

 

• Finish the Poultry Barn end wall.  Install the windows and new door and strengthen the wall.  We have all the parts except for a few framing 2 x 4’s.

 

• Lay gravel in a few key muddy walkways…  Get a dump truck load to spread about the place.

 

• Build a new enclosure for Gideon, our ram.   He has shown us how our building skills for a ram paddock could be MUCH improved!

 

• Build a new laying house coop for the new pullets.  Get creative!

 

• Build a fenced enclosure for our pigs on the east side of the big barn.

 

• Finish fencing the big pasture!  (Almost done… just need 200 feet of fence and some more posts!)

 

• Start our bee hive!!!

 

• Lambs in the spring!  Can’t wait… I hope we have at least a few!!

 

• Start planning and build our play fort structure for our visiting kid guests!!!  (We just want an excuse to build a tree fort and such! )

 

• Awesome garden!  Finish a few more raised beds with the winter compost and really add to the permaculture with fruit plants and trees!  Grow a lot of pumpkins, squash and gourds for the animals to eat.

 

• Clean and restore the garage and shed behind the garage.

 

• Create a new bunny area for our rabbitry.

 

• Get our website finished for the farm and all our crafty product offerings well rounded and fleshed out.

 

• Finish our wool processing ability by adding a drum carder to the tool collection.  It’s the last important tool.

 

• Acquire a few more tools for Maggie’s workshop needs…  mostly, a drill press and a sander.

 

• Consider replacing a few leaky windows before winter.  We have at least 3 that are really old and bad.  If we begin to replace the worse ones, we might see some savings in heating costs next winter for sure!

 

• Make sure courtyard and front of the house really looks nicer with the addition of some shrubs and perrienial flowers!  Consider reseeding the courtyard with good grass!

 

• Reseed the middle yard with clover and good grazing grasses.  Also seed the weed patch to begin and reclaim that area as a key grazing location for the flock.

 

• Raise a pair of hogs for our own needs as well as a group or two of broiler chickens.  No turkeys!  (gg)

 

• Get a good used chainsaw and begin to do some major pruning on our many many trees!  Consider hacking out a walking path in our overgrown tree lot/nature patch in the back.

 

• Get a pony cart and continue with Cody’s training and driving.  Get him comfortable with giving guided kid rides.

 

• Rehab the screen porch!  Remove all the bad and torn screening, and all the staples and nails, sand and paint, then re-screen.  Also paint the floor with a gritted paint because it’s SO SLIPPERY in there when it gets wet and it gets wet in the winter and also when it rains!

 

• Add a bunch more benches around the property.  We love to be able to park it and enjoy the place, and it would be super nice to find a easy and cheap way to add a little seating here and there.  Probably will keep a watch out for garage sale chairs!  Those $5 chairs are great for tucking here and there and if they don’t last for years, that’s okay.  We have some that are going on their third year, so that’s a deal!  Also, would like to come up with a good solid, easy bench to build.  I have a couple ideas, just need to try them and see how they work for us.

 

• Add a dishwasher!!!!   (We’re terriable at hand washing dishes and they so often get away from us.  It would be nice to get a decent used dishwasher and install it!!!)

 

• Add rain barrels and water barrels to the various buildings to make it easier to water in the winter months for certain.

 

 

 

 

Our Work…

 

•  We would like to try and increase our sales by $100 a week.  It’s our new goal.  With all the various businesses, product lines and services we offer, I believe this is a good and obtainable goal.  That extra $400 a month would really help in our expansion plans and help as well to make sure that we have enough money for ease and comfort.

 

•  Create and finish Jessy’s rock and mineral card game for kids!  We’re sure it will be a big hit!

 

•  Get Maggie’s sign company up and rolling.  She’s got her new computer and a big collection of clip art (over 35,000 vector images!) as well as the basic supplies, cutter and other needs in line.  Now, she just needs to get her paperwork and promotional material ready, and get some customers!

 

•  Work at creating and offering some of our crafts to the public.  Rag rugs, feed bag totes, our line of soaps, Maggie’s wooden creations and wool products!  Also offer two workshops to help others get going in sheep/fiber processing and chickens!

 

•  Revamp our various websites and create new designs for the current sites that need a little updating.

 

•  Replace two ailing machines this year… our coil binder and our CD duplicator.  Both are in sad shape and need to be replaced soon.

 

• Write one major article a month for submission to various homesteading magazines.  I used to write magazine articles and I believe that I can do so again.  Will help with the extra cash flow!  And it’s a good way to get a little help with promotion and sales.

 

 

 

 

 

Personal and Financial…

 

•  Everyone needs to be on a good daily exercise plan!  Walking, stretching, yoga and good healthy eating choices!  We’re getting better at it, so it’s time to get really good at it all!

 

•  Just need to eat more veggies!!!!!  A must!  We are not big veggie eaters and we need to improve upon this!  It will be a bit of a challenge, but we’re going to take it on.

 

• Get our sleep and work schedules a little more, well, regular.  We enjoy our meandering days and nights, certainly, but they are not always conductive to good work and play schedules.  We are going to work to get our workweeks a little bit more structured and productive in a daily way.

 

• Get our electric bill paid off and under control.  After the heating debacle of our first year and now, this second year of some high costs, our electric bill is managed, but still a bit too high for our likes.  A goal will be to get that paid off and back on track.  It is on a payment plan schedule, but I would like to see it paid off quicker than the 9 months still left.

 

•  Get all our taxes in order and caught up.  Again, we are on some payment plans to make it easier, but I would really like to see everything cleaned up and tidy by the end of this new year.  I believe we can do it with some close attention to payments and use windfalls to help lower the overall costs.

 

•  Need to get Sherri on some sort of health insurance plan that we can afford.  Hoping to learn more about the Obama health care program and how it might help to get her insured even with a pre-existing condition.

 

•  Both girls want to get their driver’s licenses!  Yeah!  We will be working towards that goal and will consider adding a second vehicle to our fleet this year.

 

 

 

Our Wish List!!!

These are items that we hope to acquire this year… some new, some used…  Will be watching for good deals through the year.

 

• Pony Cart

• Used Dishwasher

• Decent used vacuum

• Drum carder

• CD Duplicator

• Coil Binder

• 200 ft of fencing

• Bee hive and equipment

• Used pony saddle

• Door trim for inside the house

• Ceiling panels for kitchen

• A recliner for the living room

• Outside chairs and benches

• Simple, used or new chainsaw

• Some sort of soaking tub or small pool for those hot days! 

• A couple good used tube gates

• Drill press and table sander

 

 

 

It will be good to see how this list progresses through the year.  Some of the things are fairly easy, one day events… like spreading a load of gravel around in muddy areas or reseeding a pasture.  Others will take a bit more effort and work, but that is a fun thing.  Some of our wish list items will fall into place, they always seem to.  It’s so fun to stop at a garage sale and find the perfect old pony saddle for $25 sitting there just waiting to come home with you!   And of course, there is always Craigslist and auctions and just those fun sarendipitious moments when someone says, hey, do you need some fencing???  I have a roll I’m not using.  I love those moments!  And it doesn’t hurt to have the list rattling around in your head so you’re ready when you see that good deal.  It’s going to be a fun and wonderful year, I can just feel it in my bones.  All our big and major projects are done, so now it’s just finese and updating a few areas that need a little more help and improvement!

 

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I wrote this a day ago, and yeah, we’re still in the dark via our technology issues…   But the nice thing is that yesterday we were given a lovely holiday gift from a friend…   a nice little drill press for Maggie!  How cool is that?  She knew were were thinking about it and wanted to help.  I just love our friends and family…   Maggie will be so surprised!   I’m on my way to pick her and Jess up at their Dads.   And another good thing…  we’re getting our new propane tank installed tomorrow and the old one will be recycled.  Of course, I can’t afford to fill the dang thing yet… hahaha… one problem at a time!  At least the majority of that issue will be solved.  We’ll get it filled soon, I hope!  It’s been pretty cold and the little kerosene heaters are working hard to keep it tolerably warm in there!  We were fine last week with the moderate temperatures but the last couple days have been downright frigid!!!  Praying for a little warm spurt while we work out the last of this heating issue.  You would think it would be easier to get this all done!  haha… well, not complaining, just explaining.   If the modem is not waiting for us when I get home, I’ll be calling to find out what is up.  Tomorrow will be 2 weeks and I think this is getting pretty ridiculous… holidays or no holidays.  Stay strong everyone!   We’re gonna see daylight through this all soon!!!!    

 

 

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