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“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson

Thursday, December 27, 2012

2012 Reflections and 2013 Goals

Wow, another year is almost gone. Now that I am in the middle of my life it seems that time goes by so quickly and the years pass faster and faster. This especially applies to watching my children grow. My oldest is 14 and will be 15 in just a few months. It seems like just yesterday that we were coming home from the hospital. She was so tiny and I was so clueless. Well, I am not going to get all reminiscent about the children. This post is about life, the farm and the home. As you may have noticed this past year I have been on the warpath to downsize and simplify. Life is simply to short to work all the time and never have time to do things that you enjoy. Not that I don't enjoy taking care of the livestock or gardening and all that, I do. However, it can become too much like hard work all the time and that sucks the enjoyment right out of it. So, I have downsized the "stuff" in my house and I must say it is so much easier to clean. I still have some things to pack away and/or get rid of, but I have downsized a great deal. The livestock daily maintenance (feeding, cleaning etc.) is more or less on a routine now and only takes about an hour and a half a day. We are still working on the garden to get the most production with the least maintenance. I still have loads more mulch to get in the garden pathways to help control weeds. I will be doing this year's garden planning this coming week so as to have everything in place so that by the end of January I can start spring planting. I can't believe the garden year is going by so fast. We are expanding the garden this year to include more livestock feed so that will take some time this coming month preparing those areas. We still need to get a smokehouse built so that will be a priority in the coming months. All in all things went well in 2012. We had a good garden harvest, we added livestock with the pigs (hoping for spring babies!), we downsized where we could and finished a few projects here and there. I believe after all these years that I am finally getting the hang of this homesteading thing. So with all that being said, what are my goals for the coming year. My first goal is to expand the garden for more livestock feed. I am trying to decide now and will make my final decision as to what crops will most benefit our farm. I want to expand my composting efforts as I never seem to have enough compost no matter how much we seem to generate. I want to build a feed trough for the goats so that I can get rid of the buckets that they are always scattering everywhere. I want to build a mineral feeder for the goats for the same reason. I would like to expand the rabbits to a second colony but that is not really a priority right now. I want to completely re-fence the perimeter. I think that has been a goal for about 2 years now and hasn't completely gotten finished, but this year I think it will. I want all my firewood cut, split and stacked before next fall. It never fails that midwinter we run out of split firewood and I have to go out in the cold to split large rounds of wood. Nothing more miserable, however it does warm you up quick. I want to get that smokehouse built and another outdoor summer shower built. My first one was a little rustic (ok a lot rustic and not very private). And then finally I want to be able to do more sewing and painting. So those are my hard and fast goals for the coming year. All in all it has been a good year. How about you? How has your year been and what are you thinking and planning for the coming year? Blessings, Kat

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