2017 Goals

WHEW! Been a long time since I've jotted down our Homesteading Goals! Now that we have our "Forever Home" we can do many ideas we have just dreamed about and we are pretty excited. The 1st year here was more of a tidy and hurry kind of time. Mr. Awesome was a flurry of tools and ideas to get the house secured and livable so we could move in last year in April.

We spent many months just bouncing ideas off each other of what we want to see developed over the next year. So we came up with these for this year! Every idea is still in flux and I'm mingling some personal goals for myself as well.

2017 Goals-

1) Mark out the garden and use our entire homestead as a "Food forest". Now this will be a continual developing idea that won't just be for this year but for the years to come. Mr. Awesome thought it would be neat to have a Herb/Kitchen garden as you come up towards the house.

2) Green house that can be dual purpose if we want to have animals in at various seasons.

3) My dream small business Gypsy House that is portable to take to Fleamarkets. Not sure if we will also do a Tiny house as a Vintage market out on our property.

4) Fence in larger garden area- Doing this now!

5) Mulch around where we have existing plantings/trees- Working on this now

6) Chicksaw- portable chicken (feathered birds)

7) Tire Duck pond

8) Small pond in back of property with possible water generating feature? That is still up in the air. We don't have running water so not sure if that part will get completed.

9) Plant more fruit trees/garden yumminess!

10) Order 1 pkg of Bees- DONE! They will be coming in April! Also, order Mason bees

11) Chicken/Animal Run

12) Sheep- Well we are thinking those maybe in the future instead. Cost wise right now it's not doable

13) Order chicks or buy from Animal auction

14) Can more! Last year I didn't do so well. I'm pretty tired when I get home from work and I work 6 days a week. This means on my 1 day off I don't feel like doing ANYTHING!

15) Save more seeds. I saved quite a bit from last year from our garden and a dear Woman on a Homesteading group sent me some to get us started last Spring.

16) Now something more personal- Read 100 books! Or at least as many as I can. I read my Bible every year, I try to do so at least twice a year. I did read about 48+ books last year, not counting books I read to Mini Man.

17) Learn to make Soap

18) Make more of my own Tinctures

19) Take Herbalist course

20) Finally publish my book

21) Write/Publish a few Ebooks

22) Work on getting Affiliate and Ebay things listed

23) Attend Lyme meetings- I am not thrilled about driving in the dark and the meetings last into the evening hours.

24) Continue to work on growing some sort of business that I love and enjoy

25) Get Roof repair done or at least maybe a bandaid

26) Insulate! Insulate! Insulate!

27) Find someone to finally clean and inspect our Furnace

28) Seal around windows

29) Gravel driveway

30) Telephone poles in yard for various projects

31) Finish painting indoors

32) Sleeve and inspect chimneys

33) Make Concrete bird baths

34) Finish lap blanket

35) Fix my Amber necklace. The clasp broke a wee bit ago and I miss wearing it!

36) Make more Sage sticks to sell

37) Dry more herbs and flowers

38) Go to Aquarium, Turkey Run, Museum

39) Visit some folks on my Guest Post list

40) Figure out how to edit my videos

41) Host a webinar


42) Find wild Honey bees

43) Meditate more

44) Have a once a month Date Night

45) Work on sewing projects/Craft projects to sell

46) Spray mildew off house

47) Organize our closet

48) Molding around bedrooms

49) Take out tub in bathroom and replace

50) Move kitchen sink and replace faucet

51) Front entry way remodel

52) Remodel Mini Man's bedroom

53) Seal off hole in attic/shorten handrail

54) Patch hole in ceilings in bedrooms

55) Tear out drywall in Peanut's bedroom/insulate

56) Hang light in Peanut's room

57) Figure out electric issue upstairs and put in ceiling fans

58) Aquaponic system for kitchen herbs

I will add more to the list and again it's these are ideas not set in stone. I'm excited! We saw our 1st Robins in the yard. Come on Spring!

So what are your plans?

Over due super old posts

November 2013! From our www.redrumhotel.blogspot.com

Since last posting, we had added ducks, guinea hens, an adorable set of bantams but we have lost many of our feather flock due to coyotes, foxes, hawks and not sure what else! We do currently have 12 chickens and many have them (Blk Astralops) have been gifted by my sister- Ms. Amanda! A neighbor could not keep one of his Americuna roosters so we got one that we all Bruce! The Django and Hilde were added to the mix but Django was taken by a hawk recently and Hilde appears to either fell to her death from a rafter or froze during a bad cold snap a few weeks ago. We felt horrible! Mr. Buttons did recently get added to our mix! He is an adorable chihuahua!

I snagged a job again earlier this year and I was unable to do as much as I did last year. Terry is "Mr. Mom" and has been working on Aquaponics, Wind turbine and some really neat home projects.

I have dabbled in educating myself with different canning recipes, "Cowboy Jam"(via the amazing Jen Cox), watermelon rind pickles, Green pepper/Jalapeno jam, Apple pie jam to name a few! OH! Our apples came in like crazy! We had Mulberries and Raspberries too! We invited many of our neighbors, friends and the public to pick apples and there is are a bunch!

Terry is going to finish a small green house shortly before winter really hits us and he has been a guru at repopulating our chicks! Honey next year! We left the honey for the bees to winter over and I got to tell you that I am super excited for next season.

Next season will have a bigger garden, with more herbs, corn, variety of beans and more!

I also started schooling myself Reflexology and Energy work. Do I hear any volunteers for a foot rub? Learning and training to become a Reflexology practitioner will help out greatly in our household. I had a great seminar that taught the basics and it was just enough to make me dangerous! I continue to learn about herbs, making my own lotions, salves and healing  concoctions. Also crystals for healing, I have always loved rocks and crystals!

Terry was awesome enough to take me to Michigan to go to Gypsy Soul Retreat a few weeks back. It was a weekend trip and a blast! Hoping to go in Spring but it's a we will see thing. All in all life is good. There are some dark times (Those are saved for www.hopewhentherewasnone.blogspot.com).

More to come! Stop by and visit coffee is always on! Also our little vintage/thrift sale will be back next year with new stuff and great buys. But if you need a gift on the fly feel free to call me and I'm happy to open up for you!
God bless!