Spring has Sprung!! 2014 Goal Updates

The bees are buzzing.  The birds are chirping.  The trees and flowers are coming back to life and the sun is shining!  It's about freaking time!  Don't get me wrong, I love cool weather.  I definitely prefer it over hot, but if I had to see another news cast predicting freezing temperatures I was going to have to drop kick someone in the face.  That someone would have probably been my husband so he's lucky the forecast is looking up!

I have been on blogging hiatus over the last couple months or so.  I figured it was time for a homestead update!

I am happy to report that 3/4 of my 2014 goals are up and going!!  1). We have expanded the garden to include some of our essential veggies like onion, sweet potatoes, garlic and more!  The next goal is coming up with a place to stock pile these things for the winter.  We kick around the idea of digging a root cellar on the east side of our house, but that's still in the dreaming stage.  Maybe I can add that to my 2015 goals!  2). We are know raising meat birds.  We have 21 five week old meat birds.    They should be ready to butcher in 2-3 weeks as long as we can bulk them up fast enough.  The longer you wait the tougher the meat, so hopefully it's sooner than later.  3).  Meet Jenny the 8 year old Jack Russell!!  Isn't she adorable ?!?!  We adopted her from the humane society and she is just lovely!  She even treed a raccoon a couple days after we got her, which impressed my skeptical husband.

I feel like I have a million things to blog about with gardening season upon us!  I will try and blog a couple times a week so I can get everyone up to speed on what we're going around here.  I also have some exciting/super gross stories to share so stay tuned!!!

Wednesday Weigh in

My Weight is...

136

I was hoping to be at my goal weight by this time, since my beach vacation is coming up.  Although this weight is good, I'm definitely disappointed.  

My upcoming goals for this year include a new weight loss goal (130 lbs.), jump start my workout routine and I want to train to run the 2015 mini marathon.  I ran it back in 2011 and finished but at the expense of my knees.  I trained entirely too fast last time, so slow and steady is the key to get there in a year. 

Hello 2014!!

Homestead Goals/Ideas for 2014

1.  Expanding the chicken operation-  We have had such good luck with the chickens that we are considering expanding the egg operation as well as getting meat birds.  The plan would be to construct a movable pen for the meat birds.  They take approximately 6 weeks to mature so the time commitment is small.  We don't want to do the butchering ourselves so we would take them to a group of Amish the butcher and package the chicken.  It would end up being $6 per bird to butcher and package plus the cost of the bird and feed.  We figured that it would end up being $11-12 a bird, which may be more than the store bought, but they would be antibiotic free and raised humanely.  

2.  Expanding the variety of vegetables in the garden- I would like to plant more of the staple veggies we eat like garlic, onion, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes and cauliflower.  I also want to plant more herbs and dry them so we have them through the winter.  

3.  I would love to construct a green house that can be used for cold hardy veggies like spinach and lettuces (although I've done very little research to figure out the best way to grow these through the winter).  

4. Get a dog!!!  We have been looking for small breeds that can track deer blood and is good with children, chickens and kitties!!  We are hoping to find what we want before next Christmas.

These are just a few of the ideas we kick around.  We may only take on one of these tasks this year since taking it slow is the name of the game around here.

wednesday weigh-in

My Weight is

137.5

I don't know about you, but my ADD is kicking in and I'm getting a little bored of my weekly weigh in posts.  When I make my goal weight I plan on cutting down to occasional health updates and get back to the reason I started this blog, which is watching the homestead expand and becoming more self sufficient!  Thanks for the support with the weight loss! 2.5 pounds to go!

Winter on the Homestead

Winter has come and now we have a 6 inch blanket of snow on the homestead.  The kids enjoyed their snow day a couple weeks ago with some sledding, movies and hot chocolate.  I was stuck inside with a wicked sinus infection, but their father was more than happy to pull their sled down the drive way with his Ford diesel.

We did our best to prepare for what is now upon us.  Here are a few things we did....

Garden

The garden was tilled up before the snow.  My husband laid a cover crop the will be tilled into the garden next spring.  We covered the blue berry and raspberry bushes with leaves to act as a mulch to protect the plant through the winter.  We then surrounded the beds with chicken wire to hold the leaves into place.  We had to put up the chicken wire quickly before the chickens scratched it all out of place.

Trees

We like to scout out the deals at the big home improvement stores for fruit trees and bushes in late fall.  They get down to 75% off and usually my husband can talk them down even further!  We bought several apple trees, pear trees, blueberry bushes, grape vines and more for around $100 this year.  Once they were planted we put black gutter pipe around the trunk of the tree to protect it through the winter.  When I say "we" that usually means my husband.  My oldest helped with this as well.

Chickens

Our chickens are not loving the snow.  The stick close to the coop when the snow is high unless there is a path shoveled so they can get out.  We have to manually bring them water every day since we haven't found a great way to keep their fancy waterer from freezing.  We've started scattering scratch grain around since they can't actually scratch the ground for bugs and things.  It just gives them a little extra nutrition through the colder months.  So far all the chickens are healthy and laying very well!  We found a huge clutch of eggs underneath the coop a couple days ago.  We pulled out 74 eggs!!  We were able to salvage about 2 dozen.  The rest were cracked, frozen or just bad.

Bees

I have little to nothing to do with the bees.  My husband has checked on them a few times since it got cold.  He says they're doing what they're supposed to be doing, so I'm just hoping they survive through the winter!  I'm looking forward to the honey in August!

Cat

Sweet Bullet got fixed last week.  We let him stay inside in our water heater closet a couple days to heal up.  We then moved him out to the garage where he's staying with a warm cooler house  (the humane society gave up a foam cooler with a hole cut in it, stuffed with hay) and litter box.  This set up seems to be working well!  He's happy and healthy.

Food

We have several freezer bags of broccoli, cauliflower, green beans and homemade stir fry mix to eat through the winter.  We still have carrots in one little section of the garden.  We were told they would be fine there until we were ready to eat them.  We actually dug up a few they other day and they were perfect!  We have tomatoes canned for chili, spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce.  My husband has shot 4 deer so far this year.  A buddy of ours shot a wild hog and gave us the meat this year, which will make some amazing brats and sausage!!

Things are coming along!  Hopefully each year we will be able to add a little something to the homestead to get be more self sufficient.  We intend to add some raised beds for garlic and onion, which are staples around our house.  We talked about digging a root cellar into the south east corner of the house, but that won't happen for a while.  There are many ideas in the works here and we are excited to see what the future brings!  I'm still hoping for goats and maybe a dog, but that may be wishful thinking!

Wednesday Weigh-in

My Weight is...

139

This is a pretty big mile stone for me.  I've not been in the 130's since high school.  Thank you, Gaps diet!!!!  Cutting out sugar has made all the difference.  My weight is going down and my energy level is going up.  4 lbs to go!!!!!!!!

In other news........Winter homestead update coming soon

Wednesday Weigh-in :)

My Weight is...

141

I'm proud of this number, but I wish my workouts weren't so few and far between!  My motivation continues to drop as the holidays approach.  I have, for the time being, cut out almost all refined sugar (sweets, breads, rice, ect) for reasons I may blog about later.  Although that has only been the last couple days, I think it has helped.  I am feeling the effects of the sugar withdraw.  I'm irritable and so tired!  I know in a couple days I'll feel better and it will be worth it in the long run.