What are your homesteading goals for the year?

[LizzzyJo]

Mine are to raise more meat chickens, to not have to buy vegetables for a few months out of the year, keep up egg production, raise my first grain for bread making, bee better at harvesting my bee’s honey, be more efficient with the compost from the rabbitry, and can/freeze more from the garden.

Whew! That’s a lot. What are yours!?

 

[chickeyumass]

I am adding three raised garden beds. Compost is cooking. I ordered blackberry, blueberry, strawberry, herbs, tomatoes, and peppers online to be shipped in spring.

 

[LizzzyJo]

I am adding three raised garden beds. Compost is cooking. I ordered blackberry, blueberry, strawberry, herbs, tomatoes, and peppers online to be shipped in spring.

That’s awesome! Perineals really are the way to go. 100%. I am also expanding my raised beds. I tried for years to get my blackberries going and failed until I put them into raised beds. Now they’re giants.

I also ordered like 5-6 herbal tea flower plants. So I’m hoping to have a little tea garden this summer.

I am so bad at kitchen compost . Outside compost is great, but I need to really get better at composting kitchen scraps that the chickens won’t eat. I just hate having it in my kitchen.

 

[Evadig]

Mine are to raise more meat chickens, to not have to buy vegetables for a few months out of the year, keep up egg production, raise my first grain for bread making, bee better at harvesting my bee’s honey, be more efficient with the compost from the rabbitry, and can/freeze more from the garden.

Whew! That’s a lot. What are yours!?

Mine are to rehome my geese and start a box garden. I intend on growing at least one decent cucumber before I graduate from college in the summer!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Learn to compost and learn to garden

 

[LizzzyJo]

Mine are to rehome my geese and start a box garden. I intend on growing at least one decent cucumber before I graduate from college in the summer!

Cucumbers can be tricky. Some years we get great yeilds and others they all get powdery mildew. I suggest you get some Mexican sour gherkin seeds. They aren’t sour they’re cute, delicious, and easy to grow. They taste a bit like cucumbers but are hardier.

 

[gtaus]

I am so bad at kitchen compost . Outside compost is great, but I need to really get better at composting kitchen scraps that the chickens won’t eat. I just hate having it in my kitchen.

We have a "Chicken bucket" ice cream pail on our counter for kitchen scraps. I empty it daily, feeding the scraps and leftovers to the chickens every morning. If we have some smelly scraps or leftovers, I will either make another trip out to the chicken run or put the cover on the pail overnight.

If the thought of having some kitchen waste in an ice cream bucket overnight is too much for you, then you might want to consider something like the Lomi kitchen composter...

Basically, you put the kitchen scraps in the Lomi, close the lid, and run the machine as needed. It dehydrates the organic matter and grinds it up. It's not compost in the traditional sense, but it turns the food stuff into something that resembles compost.

I prefer to give my chickens our kitchen scraps and leftovers, but some people report that they really like their Lomi kitchen composter.

I converted my entire chicken run into a composting system, There are very few foods that are toxic to the chickens. Even if they won't eat something because they don't like the taste, as long as it is not toxic to the chickens, I'll throw it into the chicken run and let it compost in place with the other outdoor organic materials.

Before I converted my entire run into a composting system, I had a composting bin set up in the chicken run. That worked well, especially if you don't want to use your entire chicken run as a composting system.

 

[Sally PB]

My goals:
Care for the bees and get some honey
Start all of my garden plants (tomatoes, peppers, luffa?) from seeds
Get some cherries from my trees

I'm sure there are others!

 

[CapricornFarm]

I plan to grow more food and get rid of the rest of my chickens. I had too many chickens, and I just got tired of all those chores. I am over that hill. I still have goats though.

 

[gtaus]

I plan to grow more food and get rid of the rest of my chickens. I had too many chickens, and I just got tired of all those chores. I am over that hill. I still have goats though.

I am still raising chickens, but I find it interesting that you seem to apply that chickens are more work than goats! I would have thought otherwise.

I think raising chickens and gardening go hand in hand. I make all kinds of chicken compost for my gardens. Do you use goat manure for composting? If so, how would compare goat manure to chicken manure for your compost?

I am trying to convince Dear Wife that we need a few goats, but she is not ready for that. I'm still looking for good reasons...