Homesteading Goals (let’s share and inspire each other)

It's still early enough in the year, and if you didn't do that already, then it's a great time to start setting your homesteading goals for this year.

What I do before setting my yearly goals for our homestead is remembering what are my values as a homesteader.

Ask yourself…

Is it the quality of life you want?

Or, maybe the lessons you'll be able teach your children?

Are you working towards becoming completely self-sufficient?

What are your priorities when living this lifestyle?

I believe that the most important thing is to make sure your homestead goals and your actions toward them are completely in congruency with your own priorities and values.

Take a step back and look at the big picture.

In ten years from now, what are the things you’ll be doing and what kind of life are you hoping to live?

Then, make sure that this year's goals are in line with your long-term goals.
Make sure as well that they support your overall values and priorities as a homesteader.

To get this discussion going, here are my main goals this year for our homestead:

Reduce our water use for irrigation by 50%;

Grow only 12 types of vegetables we actually eat a lot of;

Be prepared on time to process all the vegetables and fruits in the summer.

I would love to read YOUR year's goals for your homesteading and get inspired...

Live fully, stay awesome...

We closed on our property in mid summer 2020, and spent nearly a year trying to watch it and figure out where we should site things.  Last summer, I started a small garden, had our local extension agents out to discuss my plans, came up with a site for my orchard, and did soil tests.  

2022 is the year of the perennial for me.  I have 11 fruit trees, a bunch of berry bushes, rhubarb, asparagus, hardy kiwi, etc, as well as all the "normal" garden stuff going in this year.  

My long-term goals include producing our own food, restoring fertility to the farm, and hopefully turning a small profit with some sheep, pig, and chicken operations that I hope to implement in the coming 5 years.  

I got the flu in Nov, and it really too the wind out of my sails.   I need to finish up a few projects.  The only new project is to build a new hen house.

Laurel Jones wrote:My long-term goals include producing our own food, restoring fertility to the farm, and hopefully turning a small profit with some sheep, pig, and chicken operations that I hope to implement in the coming 5 years.  

Hey Laurel - how big is your farm (for all the critters…)?
Wishing you all the luck and success…

Keep deer out of our food garden. That's it.
I have plenty of other goals I'd like to achieve, but a deer resistant fence is the priority. Many of the other goals are dependent on having that.

N. Neta wrote:

Laurel Jones wrote:My long-term goals include producing our own food, restoring fertility to the farm, and hopefully turning a small profit with some sheep, pig, and chicken operations that I hope to implement in the coming 5 years.  

Hey Laurel - how big is your farm (for all the critters…)?
Wishing you all the luck and success…

The current farm property is 105 acres, of which about 60 are cleared, and 30 of those are what I'm intending to keep "secure" and rotate the animals through, however I intend to use some of the forested areas (mostly white oak and black walnut) for finishing pigs and housing my breeding stock.

There are ~90 additional acres that were part of the original farm owned by the family before the parents split it between the siblings many years ago, and we hope to at some point pick that land up also so we have the entire ridge and adjacent holler (one of the family members/neighbors) has expressed interest in selling us a portion of his land adjacent to ours, but we aren't holding our breath.


And thanks!  It's a huge undertaking, but I have the rest of my life to get it right. I'm still in my 30s so I have plenty of time.