Sunday, January 1, 2012

The Obligatory List of Goals for the New Year

I don't do the whole resolution thing, never really have. I like to jot down a few ideas and plans for the coming year, but nothing that I'd go so far as to say that I am steadfastly resolute about making happen. Inflexibility equals anxiety for me, so I like the idea of a list of want-to's and try-to's better. It fits my ever-changing mood and general slackerish lifestyle better.

So here are my want-to, try-to and really oughta's for the coming year -

*Move and expand the veggie garden, which entails tilling up sod and soil that haven't ever been (oy!), setting up deer fencing, moving and spreading a metric s&!# ton of compost and manure, and building new raised beds. This is project numero uno in my book.

*Re-fence the pasture. (This is really Bill's project.) If we can let the goats out of their pens and give them the whole back acre+ to graze and nibble at their leisure, we'll save literally thousands on hay every year. This is Bill's project numero uno.

*Build a pole barn - another of Bill's projects. While our does have a nice house right now, our bucks & wether have completely destroyed theirs, making the building of a stout new barn with enclosed stalls, a milking parlor and hay/grain storage an increasingly pressing issue. The barn and pasture fencing are essentially one item in Bill's mind, but let's be honest - they are two huge undertakings unto themselves. Getting even just one of them done will be a big and costly job.

*Re-vamp the front yard according to the plans draw up by our landscape architect, Brighida. This project includes adding berms and trenches for better drainage, removing the current plants and shrubs that are ill-suited to their present location (and to our purposes) and replacing them with hand-selected varieties of native, rain-loving trees, shrubs and veggies that will take our front lawn from all maintenance and no food, to a low-maintenance, edible landscape. This project will be a spendy one, and therefore might not be in the cards for us this year, speaking realistically.

*Have all of our fruit trees professionally pruned and brought back into shape by an arborist.

*Expand our herd of milk goats (already under way!)

*Get set up for a pair of pigs in the Spring. Our windfall of lovely, free produce makes this project especially appealing and worthwhile to undertake asap. As an offshoot of this, seek out additional free waste food streams for piggy consumption - restaurant food waste, offal, etc.

*Plant more evergreen trees in the chickens' yard for future Christmas trees and for the lovely oxygen that we so enjoy.

*Explore further the requirements of raising turkeys. (This is loooooow on the list.)

*Learn more about the possibility of installing a hive or two of honeybees.

*Forage, fish and hunt for more of our food.

*Replace all or most beef/cow dairy products in our diet with goat meat & dairy.

*Raise a small flock of meat chickens - enough for us to have 1 or 2 per month and to share with/sell to friends and family.

*Make more and different cheeses with our goats' milk.

*Try our hands at making goat milk soaps.

*Can, freeze and dry A LOT more produce, meat and fish than in years past.

*Research the market for milk-fed kid goats and adult meat goats in our community. Including cultivating relationships with and learning more about different cultures/religions/ethnicities traditional food ways, and being able to honor their needs and provide them with their traditional and hard-to-find foods.

*Research/explore the steps necessary (and associated costs of) becoming a licensed raw milk farmstead dairy/creamery/cheese maker.

*Simplify and streamline our chore and maintenance schedule, so that things don't get behind or broken before they get our attention.

*Implement a solid routine for animal vaccinations, grooming, worming, etc. (We've been a little behind the 8 ball with this one, sadly. We want to be more proactive about critter health maintenance now that we have something of a grasp on who will be needing what and when, etc. Bottom line - being proactive should save us from having as many surprise issues pop up. It's a tall order when you have so many species and individuals with particular needs, but we're hell-bent on doing right be each and every one of these critters in our care.

*Attempt to comprise our diet of 20% or more of our home grown foods. Part of the challenge here will be figuring out how to measure this. I'll also have to try harder to find my taste for goat milk. ;)

*Earn enough on egg sales to cover the chickens supplemental feed costs completely. (This means their layer pellets, cracked corn, bread, grit, etc.)

*Prime and paint the chicken coops. This is a must-do!

*Work on my knitting, upcycled crafts and homemade preserves for Etsy, bazaar and farm stand sales.

Oy - I am thoroughly daunted by this list of mine. Let's hope that the financial, health and networking stars all align for us in 2012, so that me might make a real go of this little venture of ours.

Here's to a happy and prosperous new year for everyone! :)

xoxo - Michelle

2 comments:

  1. Oh you will be busy and it makes me tired just reading your list!!! The barn - you will wonder how you ever lived without it! The pigs - we say the pigs are fun (even w/out showing them) and the cattle are the work - just remember (speaking from experience here) - the meat will TASTE like what you feed them - which is why we don't feed scraps of any kind even to our meat pigs - turns out I'm rather particular about how our meat tastes Here's to hoping your garden produces and you have fun while you are at it:)

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  2. yay lists.... oh and I'll test the goat milk soaps.

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