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Stop by & offer a few pointers, or point & laugh, as a few old farts figure out the fine art of living... Life on a Few Acres


Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Adding a year and subtracting a goal!

I was midway through a post on  having met another of our goals for the year when I realized I'd never actually made, nor shared, this years goals.  One of my broader goals in moving to a homesteading mentality and life style was to develop a tighter structure to my life.  To date, I've been blessed to be able to live that bohemian, "artiste's" swing shift life pattern.  I enjoyed the freedom of 36 hr days when the muse called, 2am client crisis calls,  dinner at sunrise, etc, but now I'm looking forward to the demands and structure that a bottle baby goat will provide!

Anyway

Goals 2015:  Indoor

finish the laundry /canning kitchen/plant starting/chick brooding /cheese making room.  This entails wrapping two walls in bead board,throwing up some closet doors, putting in new sink cabinets and sink, stenciling and reinstalling upper cabinet doors, door and drawer hardware, and figuring out how to (warning! bad pun alert:) wring  the most function out of wall above sink.      
  •    Unpack and set up the sewing/craft/puzzle room.
  •    Add a deep storage closet and pantry to the basement.  
  •    Do a temporary paint, flooring, sink and toilet update to the hall bath.                              
  •    Complete the wood stove installation, and the initial burn offs.

Goals 2015: Outdoor

  •    fence in the garden-2-b area.
  •    fence in the orchard area.
  •    fence in the dog area.
  •    take down and remove the old smoke house.              
Goals 2015: Planting


  • order and plant a 10 fruit tree package.
  • order and plant 9 raspberries
  • order and plant 3 blueberries
  • order and plant an almond tree
  • order and plant 2 hazelnut trees
  • order and plant a fig tree
  • order and plant 2 elderberry bushes
  • order and plant 10 lilacs
  • order and plant 50 asparagus     
Goals 2015: Animals  
  • start our laying flock 8 hens, 1 rooster.
  • decide whether to aim for Nigerian dwarf or Kinder goats.
  • decide on whether to start at square one with a kinder line (my own nubian and pygmy choice), or to pass go and collect 2nd or 3rd generation kinders from others.
  • If choosing kinders, learn how to pronounce kinders! ; )
  • develop a list of herds and breeders for all of the above. 
  • clean out the small barn (30x40) above the garden area for goats/greenhouse/water/solar projects.
  • adapt the barn for the above purpose.
  • put together chicken tractor, and settle on place for it. 
There are many other things wanting and needing doing, but these are the projects that have gelled enough to actually make a do-due list.  As I'm sure you've figured out, those things scratched off are things we've ***DONE***.  
Those in green are being worked on, and those in blue/linked are projects we've blogged about.
Wish us some luck, and a dry day or two.  There is no where near the problems here as in other areas like Texas, but we've gotten our share of rain and then some, too.                                                                 

7 comments:

  1. what a great list! We love lists and publishing them to the blog puts it all out there for us to see and be reminded of throughout the year, ha.

    And yes, we are on hold with our list while the rains persist.

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    1. Our rain abated, so I should be down at the little barn pounding in fence posts; hopefully your precip will follow suit!

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  3. Kinders! Kinders! Kinders! (short I like "in" or German for child :) One point in their favor is that Kinders give more milk than Nigies. Plus they are usually less expensive, plus there is a huge demand for them. There is also a demand for good quality (i.e. good conformation) 1st generation Kinders because the gene pool is still pretty small. That being said, I had no success breeding my Pygmy buck to my Nubian doe, even though others have done it.

    All that aside, I'm a firm believer in goats, and I think you have a super list.

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  4. LOL. You're such a good advocate for kinders, and your points are excellent ones. I would love to focus on the science side of the equation but Nubian reputation for noisy and diva-ish hold me back. Fun decisions for sure!

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  5. Yeah, that part of the Nubian personality was a problem for us too. We honestly didn't care for the Nubians but loved our Pygmys. The Kinders inherit more of the Pygmy personality, although that's not across the board. Still, most folks love their Kinders.

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    ReplyDelete