2018 New Year - Goals

Hello all,

With the new year here I'm trying to tackle a few of my not so good habits and also set some goals for the year. I'm going to post my goals and share about once a week how I'm doing moving towards them. I'm hoping that by sharing I will feel some accountability and stick with them.

Here are my goals:
- Start a blog / online business by summer
- Stop buying processed snack foods (and lose weight!)
- Limit myself to one tv show (Star Trek Discovery!)
- No internet surfing - learning and research is fine but if I don't have a specific task/reason then the digital tech needs to be put away

The hope is to improve my overall health, lose weight and gain more time each day by being more purposeful in how I use the time. The blog / online business is part of a long term goal of one day working from home and no longer having to have a day job.

Well those are my goals. What have you all set for the new year? Perhaps we can all help each other keep our goals. I will post again in about a week with my progress.

Happy New Years!

That's a good idea! It also reminded me to go and see if I accomplished all my goals from 2017 (https://permies.com/t/61387/Goals).

According to that thread, I had these goals (I'll strike-through the ones I met):

(1) Up my veggie production. Finish three garden beds, build a new one, and continue to maintain my 3 other hugel/garden beds. Focusing on growing beets, squash, radishes, beans/peas, carrots, broccoli, tomatilloes and maybe potatoes. I didn't plant broccoli or tomotillos, but my potatoes and kale and radishes did great. I grew squash and carrots, too, with some sucess. The peas, green beans, and beets didn't like me  
(2) Plant at least two more fruit trees (one of which will be my baby's 1 Year fruit tree). I planted a pear for my daugher, a plum, a fig tree, and two paw-paws, as well as honeyberry and sochi tea shrubs!
(3) Expand my berry production further, transplanting golden raspberries into my salmonberry hedges and thimbleberries into the woods. I succeeded here, too!
(4) Get the himalayan blackberry and bindweed under control. This was really hard to attempt with a baby on my chest. And, so it didn't get done!
(5) Get my property back in shape since I couldn't do much last year (trim the paths, weed/replant my fruit tree guilds) Other than the blackberries and bindweed, most of the property does look better. It still needs more work, but it is better!

Goals for 2018:

(1) Plant some more trees. Christmas trees at the top the hill. Maybe some chestnut trees. Maybe a seckle pear.
(2) Finish making two more garden beds. Grow more green onions, potatoes, squash, carrots, radishes, peas, green beans and hopefully beets. Try growing cabbage and artichokes!
(3) Keep everyone in my family healthy--especially keep my husband's Crohn's at bay.
(4) Make lots of fun memories with my little ones in the garden.
(5) Get the garden tidyed up--especially hack back all that blackberry!
(6) Harvest and preserve and eat all that food!

Nice list of goals Daron.  I like Nicole's list too.

So this is my list, it is very short just because of the health issues Wolf and I are working on (we are making great progress so this is our #1 goal)
2. Get rid of our AGH's, they have to go, we can not take proper care of them any longer and we were loosing money on them.
3. Take the hog area(s) and repurpose with orchard expansion and gardens expansion.
4. expand chicken numbers and add ducks, geese and guinea hens.
5. finish up the donkey pasture and fence it in with two gates.

If I can get #1 done, the others will be a piece of pie.

Redhawk

Hi Bryant. What are AGH's?

Audrey Olivier wrote:Hi Bryant. What are AGH's?

Not Redhawk, but AGH = American Guinea Hogs

Hello all,

Thanks for sharing! Looks like you did a great job meeting your goals Nicole - dealing with the blackberries is always a challenge. Seems like it is one of those tasks that just keeps coming back. What does under control mean for you? Also, great new goals!

Redhawk, thanks for sharing! I wish you and Wolf a very healthy 2018. Hopefully, both of your health will improve quickly and I hope the rest of the goals go well for you. I hope to hear good news from you as the year moves forward.

This week has been going okay for me in terms of my goals. I managed to not buy any processed snack foods this week though I did finish some of the ones still leftover from the holidays. Luckily, most are gone now and I'm starting to switch over to snacking on fruit and veggies instead. Not garden fresh but still a huge improvement over processed snack foods.

I did have a rough couple days though as my body detoxed (sugar withdrawal I think). I'm starting to feel a lot better though and my weight dropped from 161.4 to 160.5 between the 1st and this morning. I'm going to be weighing myself each Friday morning to see how that is going. My specific goal is to get back to what I weighed (152) the summer before I started graduate school which was also the summer I did my first (and so far only) marathon. Graduate school resulted in a lot of late nights and built some bad snacking habits. But I graduated 1.5 years ago so I think it is time to get better habits built up again.

One of my rough days resulted in me not being able to sleep so I did break my one tv show rule that night. I was lying on the couch trying to get my mind to quite and I thought a show would help. Otherwise I have been doing good on this area though I have watched a little more YouTube than I should - I would like to stop watching YouTube videos too unless it is to learn something specific.

My internet surfing habits have been hard to break. I think I'm doing it less but I'm no where near perfect on that goal but being mindful of this habit and my desire to change it will hopefully result in a change soon.

On the blog/business side I'm torn and have a decision to make. I'm taking a free online course from a site that I have been following called Pro Blogger. All in all a great site with a lot of good info and I enjoy their podcast. I'm signed up for the course which starts on the 10th and have been getting a few pre-course emails and the latest email announced a new challenge and event the site is starting called International New Bloggers Day. This day will be in mid-February and the site will be putting together some cool things to help showcase and jump start new blogs. Seems like a great thing but this would be a huge jump forward in my timeline. I was aiming to start the blog by summer but now I'm wondering if I should aim to start by this February date to be a part of that challenge. Having a deadline could really help me get out of research mode and into the doing mode. But at the same time I don't want to rush this since I'm really hoping to make this a successful business that will allow me to leave my day job by the end of 2020 and focus on my homestead / business. What do you all think?

Thanks all!

Daron Williams wrote:What does under control mean for you?

Weeeell, our property has multiple salmonberry/Himalayan blackberry hedges (it came with them), as well as a protected wetland (and where it boarders our yard/pasture is also blackberry/salmonberry. If left to it's designs, the blackberry and salmonberry would take over the yard, and there wouldn't be any place for the ducks to forage. So, we try to hack back the blackberry and salmonberry so they stay in their own territory. I also try to encourage the hedges to be composed more of salmonberries and thimbleberries and am also introducing raspberries.

To do this, I go along with pruning shears, or--if I don't have to worry about my little ones being near by--with a machete or scythe and hack back the blackberry. We also try to mow the pasture/lawn at least twice per growing season to hamper it's growth further (and to get fresh grass growing, as the ducks can't/don't eat tough grass.) And, we try to plant other plants to add to the diversity of the hedge, and to help out compete the invasive blackberry.

In places where I have bindweed, I actually prune the invasive blackberry to encourage more growth--as I'd rather have blackberries that I can eat and are yummy, than bindweed that I cannot eat.

I posted this on my blog a couple of days ago. It applies nicely to this discussion I think.
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Highlights looking back....(as explanation, these were some of my projects from 2017)
...found a successful solution to growing slug-free greens & carrots
...came up with an affordable (for me, that is) greenhouse to thwart the pickleworm moth
...had great success in learning to grow cucumbers (a difficult crop in my area)
...learned that creating a steady farm income requires a lot of time. I also learned that as of yet, I don't have enough time to devote to steady farm income. I still have too many other projects that need to be finished first.
...managed to create 1/4 acre more of edible pasture. It's a slow task, removing undergrowth, thinning trees, adding soil amendments, getting something edible to grow.
...added a Wwoofer/caretaker
...added a new puppy to the family
...invited to Kapapala Ranch -- thrice! (This is a very large working cattle ranch not far from me.)

Looking forward....
...finish the bathroom
...build an outdoor deck and add a hot tub
...put a new roof on the house
...get the refrig and freezer onto their own small solar system
...get all the greenhouses into production
...develop a steady farm income

As you know, I'm not into New Year's resolutions. Why set myself up for failure, along with the accompanying guilt, stress, and depression? Sure I'd like to lose weight, get rid of bad habits, accomplish great tasks...just like most people. But I'm happier if I refrain from resolutions and just stick with a few sensible ideas for priority projects I'd like to work on. If they get completed, fine. If not, then I'll just continue to plug away and enjoy working on them as I go.

Nicole Alderman wrote: Weeeell, our property has multiple salmonberry/Himalayan blackberry hedges (it came with them), as well as a protected wetland (and where it boarders our yard/pasture is also blackberry/salmonberry. If left to it's designs, the blackberry and salmonberry would take over the yard, and there wouldn't be any place for the ducks to forage. So, we try to hack back the blackberry and salmonberry so they stay in their own territory. I also try to encourage the hedges to be composed more of salmonberries and thimbleberries and am also introducing raspberries.

To do this, I go along with pruning shears, or--if I don't have to worry about my little ones being near by--with a machete or scythe and hack back the blackberry. We also try to mow the pasture/lawn at least twice per growing season to hamper it's growth further (and to get fresh grass growing, as the ducks can't/don't eat tough grass.) And, we try to plant other plants to add to the diversity of the hedge, and to help out compete the invasive blackberry.

In places where I have bindweed, I actually prune the invasive blackberry to encourage more growth--as I'd rather have blackberries that I can eat and are yummy, than bindweed that I cannot eat.

Got ya - Sounds like you got a lot to keep up on. I'm tackling my own large blackberry patch - seems like a common problem here in the Pacific Northwest! Though I'm saving some of the berries for eating I'm enjoying the winter and getting to take a break from blackberry control. Though I do need to finish cutting the ones that are hanging into my property from my neighbors yard before they root and start growing. So annoying how the blackberries will root from the tip of their vines...

Su Ba wrote:I posted this on my blog a couple of days ago. It applies nicely to this discussion I think.
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Highlights looking back....(as explanation, these were some of my projects from 2017)
...found a successful solution to growing slug-free greens & carrots
...came up with an affordable (for me, that is) greenhouse to thwart the pickleworm moth
...had great success in learning to grow cucumbers (a difficult crop in my area)
...learned that creating a steady farm income requires a lot of time. I also learned that as of yet, I don't have enough time to devote to steady farm income. I still have too many other projects that need to be finished first.
...managed to create 1/4 acre more of edible pasture. It's a slow task, removing undergrowth, thinning trees, adding soil amendments, getting something edible to grow.
...added a Wwoofer/caretaker
...added a new puppy to the family
...invited to Kapapala Ranch -- thrice! (This is a very large working cattle ranch not far from me.)

Looking forward....
...finish the bathroom
...build an outdoor deck and add a hot tub
...put a new roof on the house
...get the refrig and freezer onto their own small solar system
...get all the greenhouses into production
...develop a steady farm income

As you know, I'm not into New Year's resolutions. Why set myself up for failure, along with the accompanying guilt, stress, and depression? Sure I'd like to lose weight, get rid of bad habits, accomplish great tasks...just like most people. But I'm happier if I refrain from resolutions and just stick with a few sensible ideas for priority projects I'd like to work on. If they get completed, fine. If not, then I'll just continue to plug away and enjoy working on them as I go.

Looks like you had some good successes over the last year! I hear you on resolutions but I also like to go into each new year thinking back on the previous and asking myself what worked and what did not. I try to address some of the things that did not work and try to change my behaviors. I'm not always successful but I like to think that by doing this I make at least some progress each year. I read through some of your blog posts - thanks for sharing!

Overall this week has been going okay but I caught a nasty cold midway through it. So far been holding to the rule of not buying any processed snacks and the results has been good. I have noticed that while I may get hungry at work towards the end of the day it feels different. Having less sugar means that even when hungry I don't suffer from low blood sugar like I used to when hungry. So far so good - though I do still have some improvements to make but its going good. Dropped down to 159.0 lbs today - 1.5 lbs drop from last week.

I started the blogging course this week. So far so good and I'm hopeful that I will be ready to launch my blog and business by summer. Still a bit torn on a few things but the course is helping. Hard to determine what sort of services are necessary for launching the business versus just helpful.

I'm hoping that I feel better tomorrow - got a bunch of homesteading tasks to do over the next two days. Here is hoping that the cold is a short one!