So today's home(stead)work is to lay out my plans for the next year, five years, and ten years. Obviously these are tentative at best because I'm just beginning and I really don't know where life will take us 10 years from now. Also, as I'm sure my parents, sisters, husband, friends, etc. will attest, I'm a bit of a dreamer. But I'll put these out there anyway: the hopes and dreams that I have now, when I look to the future.
Within one year, I hope to:
- Get (at least) the support, funding, and basic infrastructure in place for the Lefurgey Community Garden and Food Pantry (think of a snazzier name for it too!)
- Submit my complete application and gain council approval for my permit to have laying hens
- Build a comfy coop and roomy pen for laying hens
- Acquire said laying hens
- Grow an awesome bumper crop of tomatoes (and do well with my other veggies!)
- Increase my stock of preserves, particularly jam
- Learn to make soft cheese
- Attend at least one meeting of the PEI Beekeepers' Association
Within five years, I hope to:
- Establish myself in a stable career that will allow us to purchase a rural property and build the home we're hoping for (yes I picture myself "working" hiking down by the West River)
- Find the property that is right for us, and build the passive solar plan we have picked out (I don't actually plan to build on the French River lookout, I just wanted a photo of a typical PEI country scene!)
- Plant large strawberry and raspberry patches
- Develop a large raised bed vegetable garden on our new property
- Learn to make hard cheeses, such as cheddar
- Buy a Le Creuset 5 1/2 quart French oven (a girl can dream!)
Within ten years, I hope to:
- Build a barn on our property
- Purchase a Dexter milk cow
- Establish a honeybee colony
- Plant a small apple orchard
- Obtain a Belgian gelding (for work? to ride? just to hug? it's all the same!)
- Find a way to work part-time so that I can actually have time to do all of these things I hope to accomplish!
Any advice out there on how to accomplish all of this? Things I have left out that I totally should have included? Pipe dreams I'm better off forgetting now? Let me know!
Jackie sent me :-) I will be following along on your journey and hopefully gather some ideas I can implement in my own home. Love your header graphic!
ReplyDeleteRos I am sooooo very pumped about your plans. They are certainly within your reach. The photo collage is a beautiful way to being your dreams to life! My plans are modest...can I keep any type of veg alive long enough to reap the benefits??? I hope to read tips from you to help with that. May I add my own wish to your list? Grapevines = grapes = vino. Che ne pensi di un bel Chianti??? ....ET
ReplyDeleteFor year 1 I'm totally with you on the making of the cheese and beekeepers meeting!
ReplyDeletelove. I just want to plant a successful garden, so for the summer months (and winter if I preserve!) I don't have to buy veggies from the store.
ReplyDeleteI'll go to you for all my cheese and honey needs ;)
Thanks for the comments ladies! The header graphic is a picture my sister took of a barn we love on the way out to our parents' cottage. Em, penso sia un'idea stupenda!! Ma credo avro' bisogno di un po' di aiuto a bere tutta la raccolta. Pam, please do come to the meeting and let's do cheese together! The one I want to try first is stracchino, it's a delicious, mild soft Italian cheese that you can't find around here. And Jackie, provided I get past my anxiety about the bees, you can have honey from my first collection. :)
ReplyDeleteAhhhh love it! I look forward to seeing all of these goals be accomplished? And what ideas do you have for names for that new Belgian gelding? Rock perhaps? Or Jacques? Or Spock? SOmething that rhymes with Doc or Jock I hope.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy your blog and posts! I am hopeful that my garden will do well!
ReplyDeleteYou had me up to the five year outlook! ;o)
ReplyDeleteBy the time we get to 10 years, you'll be excited about that too. I love you!
DeleteWell, you have a good start written out. It's more than many homesteaders do (they usually just hop in and hope it works). Now all you have to do is follow up with some action. The hardest thing to overcome in homesteading is the mistakes, don't beat yourself up just learn from them. You can only do so much in your first couple years.
ReplyDeleteWe'll definitely be following you. Much luck!
Thanks for taking the time to post a comment, and your tips. Yes, I definitely seem to have a long list of things to start accomplishing and now that I have all these ideas put down in words, it's time for me to start taking steps to put them into action. Thanks for your support and I look forward to visiting your website as well--I noticed you have started a new one, and visited it this morning. I've been hearing about the tornadoes in Tennessee, it's such a terrifying type of weather and so foreign to me, I can only imagine how scary it is to be in your home and waiting/watching/listening for them. Will be thinking of and praying for your communities!
DeleteMy only suggestion is to plant the apple orchard at 5 years so it will be actually producing at 10 years. I'd love an orchard too--but they take a long time to get established!
ReplyDelete