Homesteading Plans

Since my last post I have really been trying to decide exactly where it is I want to go with things here on the homestead and how I plan on getting there.

I decided to go with a 3 year plan with goals for each year. Of course at the end of each year we will reassess and see if we need to be going in another direction.

The store will be shut down July 30^th. That means I will have more free time to do things around the homestead that need to be done.

While I am waiting on the store to close I am going room by room and organizing and cleaning. I am getting rid of what we don’t wear, what we don’t use, what we don’t need. This will make things simpler for me to just move into the new role when the time gets here.

Here is what my three year plan looks like. This is just a plan. We have often found ourselves blessed and able to move things from one year to the next because items were given to us or we found them for reasonable.

Year One

Pay off loans (all but vehicle loan and mortgage)

Raise a big enough garden that I am able to put at least 500 jars of home canned food away. This will include crushed tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, salsa, pickles, sand plum jelly, green beans, corn, and black-eyed peas.

Keep track of what grows well and what doesn’t and in what area it will be. This will help me to prepare for year two plans of what needs to be added and what needs to be changed around.

Apply for grant for high tunnel.

Till second garden area in partially shaded area for lettuce and items that don’t handle sun well.

Build two raised bed gardens for herbs and other edible items that don’t need to be planted near the garden.

Reintroduce rabbits to the farm for extra income and meat.

Plant 3 fruit trees

Start saving for tractor

Only handmade gifts for Christmas (quilts, soaps, lotions, things of that nature)

Year Two

Have at least 4 nanny goats and 1 male goat for breeding and milk purposes. Sell all but 2 female babies.

Butcher 1 pig and 50 Cornish Cross chickens for freezer and pressure canning to fill storage.

Apply for grant for bee hives.

Buy a Steer Calf for processing in year four

Use extra bedroom as seed starting room

Sell babies from all 3 female pigs for extra income

Attend farmers market to sell extra produce

Can at least 500 jars of food for storage and replenishing pantry

Pay off Vehicle loan

Build outdoor kitchen

Plant 3 fruit trees/bushes

Plant new garden area

Replace older chickens with younger pullets

Year Three

Put in solar panels

Buy a female cow (already raised) to allow for our own meat production in later years.

Pay off mortgage

Replace windows in house and add on screened in porch to ensure not using air conditioner

Buy a tractor (cash money only)

These are pretty basic goals and I realize that but homesteading is a pretty basic. It does take planning, time, and effort to be successful, What do your homestead plans look like? We are "new" to all this so I am sure there are things I have missed. This is a learning process for each of us and what works for one doesn't work for others. Here is to learning and figuring things out.