Chicken lady
6-12-22, 8:49am
So I just stumbled across my homestead thread from last year. I clearly did not have time to remember it after school started. Perhaps I should be less ambitious and call this “homestead summer”
I was reassured to see that I was still trying to get summer crops in on june19 and the garden produced fine.
here is the one year update on last year’s goals:
trying to be more intentional, remember I do not have to do everything at once, and avoid “putting out fires” (by at least not starting them myself.)
- actually started a fire this spring. By accident. It was scary and burned almost 1/4 acre of field, fortunately the wind was blowing toward the ditch full of water and one side was bordered by the pond, so I only had to beat out one side to keep it from getting completely out of control.
KEEP RECORDS
- lost my grip on this. Still have records but they are on random slips of paper instead of in my gardening notebook.
Vegetable garden:
- did well. Stored too much of some things, not enough of others.
by December - clean off the fence line, remove sagging/rusted fence section, have everything inside the fence planted or under mulch/sheet compost
- did not finish this, but made progress.
herb garden (this is new):
Decide what I want to plant in it next year (this year is a few perennials plus “tuck things in randomly”)
- stuck with perennials for now, it looks good.
finish rock border
- done by Dd
fruit garden:
mulch and maintain strawberries and raspberries (both planted this year), elderberry starts (last year) and blueberry bush.
- lost my grip on the strawberries again, raspberries need work, cleaned out around the elderberries and planted more.
learn to make more elderberry starts.
- not yet.
Chickens:
finish chickshaw before current crop of 43 chicks needs it! (My kids are actually building this - it is half done, chicks are three weeks old.)
prep winter quarters for new layer flock (will not keep all 43 - chickshaw sleeps 40, but will probably cut back to 36.)
- chickshaw is done and worked for a while, then a fox ate a lot if the chickens. I’m down to 25. They are living in the barn.
Goats:
new pasture fencing for buck pen and new rotational pasture
- done
sell bucklings
-partly done
Breed all 4 Does (my herd was significantly reduced the last two years by old age - one year I had a lot of pretty doelings and I kept them all.)
- done, 4 girls, 4 boys
buy two goats IF and ONLY IF I find just what I want.
- not yet
so, my goals for this year are to:
get the records back in order
Garden (and herb garden):
better balance of harvest/use/storage
finish the clearing and use the tarps more.
fruit garden:
Recover the strawberries and make cages to keep the birds off.
learn to make elderberry starts
prep space for more blueberries
Chickens:
put up an electric fence
replace some breeds I lost all of.
Goats:
more new fencing
breed three does
sell down males.
keep an eye out for new stock and buy if found.
today my grandson and I are planting pumpkins.
I was reassured to see that I was still trying to get summer crops in on june19 and the garden produced fine.
here is the one year update on last year’s goals:
trying to be more intentional, remember I do not have to do everything at once, and avoid “putting out fires” (by at least not starting them myself.)
- actually started a fire this spring. By accident. It was scary and burned almost 1/4 acre of field, fortunately the wind was blowing toward the ditch full of water and one side was bordered by the pond, so I only had to beat out one side to keep it from getting completely out of control.
KEEP RECORDS
- lost my grip on this. Still have records but they are on random slips of paper instead of in my gardening notebook.
Vegetable garden:
- did well. Stored too much of some things, not enough of others.
by December - clean off the fence line, remove sagging/rusted fence section, have everything inside the fence planted or under mulch/sheet compost
- did not finish this, but made progress.
herb garden (this is new):
Decide what I want to plant in it next year (this year is a few perennials plus “tuck things in randomly”)
- stuck with perennials for now, it looks good.
finish rock border
- done by Dd
fruit garden:
mulch and maintain strawberries and raspberries (both planted this year), elderberry starts (last year) and blueberry bush.
- lost my grip on the strawberries again, raspberries need work, cleaned out around the elderberries and planted more.
learn to make more elderberry starts.
- not yet.
Chickens:
finish chickshaw before current crop of 43 chicks needs it! (My kids are actually building this - it is half done, chicks are three weeks old.)
prep winter quarters for new layer flock (will not keep all 43 - chickshaw sleeps 40, but will probably cut back to 36.)
- chickshaw is done and worked for a while, then a fox ate a lot if the chickens. I’m down to 25. They are living in the barn.
Goats:
new pasture fencing for buck pen and new rotational pasture
- done
sell bucklings
-partly done
Breed all 4 Does (my herd was significantly reduced the last two years by old age - one year I had a lot of pretty doelings and I kept them all.)
- done, 4 girls, 4 boys
buy two goats IF and ONLY IF I find just what I want.
- not yet
so, my goals for this year are to:
get the records back in order
Garden (and herb garden):
better balance of harvest/use/storage
finish the clearing and use the tarps more.
fruit garden:
Recover the strawberries and make cages to keep the birds off.
learn to make elderberry starts
prep space for more blueberries
Chickens:
put up an electric fence
replace some breeds I lost all of.
Goats:
more new fencing
breed three does
sell down males.
keep an eye out for new stock and buy if found.
today my grandson and I are planting pumpkins.