2018 Homestead Goals

Well, I always say it...You're 9 times more likely to accomplish your goals if you just write them down. I don't know if that is scientifically accurate but I learned it many years ago from a very successful businessman that happened to be my boss and ex-Navy Seal. I can tell you that, for me, I am a heck of a lot more likely to accomplish things when I write them down. I am a list guy, for sure. So, I thought I'd share with anyone that is interested my list of goals I want to accomplish this year. I don't necessarily have to get all of these done this year, and, in fact, I may be biting off more than I can chew, but, I like to try and push myself. I plan on doing a video on this in the near future but I wanted to get it down in writing now.

1.) Build a lean-to off of my garage for dry storage of gear, firewood, and a firewood splitting station. This will help me clean out my shop so I can have more room to work on vehicles and other projects.

2.) Build a roof over my back deck and screen it in.

3.) Get two goats for milking. We will use the milk to make cheese and soap. We hope to sell the soap online and to our farm customers that buy eggs and veggies.

4.) Get two pigs to raise and process. We hope to make the excess meat available to our farm customers.

5.) Finish our hobby farm website and attract customers locally as well as people interested in buying our soap. We aim to build an email list via our website so we can alert customers when we have crops that are available. This will hopefully increase sales.

6.) Print flyers for our landscaping business and get about a dozen customers for our services. I already produced the fliers but I need to print and distribute them. We need to generate a steady form of income and at this point, the hobby farm isn't going to cut it. Our goal is to produce enough on the farm for at least 50% of our needs and sell off the excess when we have it to help pay for feed for the animals. The landscaping business will help us work 1-2 days each week outside of the homestead and earn cash to pay some of the bills.

7.) Build and plant a couple of raised bed gardens so we can expand our garden area.

8.) Continue to build good soil by composting. We have a lot of leaves and wood ash. Now we need time to break it down and continue to turn the pile with the tractor so we have a great source for the garden.

9.) Setup greenhouse. Yes, we have a greenhouse but didn't use it last year after we moved in. Too much going on and thought we'd get started on it this year. I need to set up some shelves and get the seeds started in it. Hopefully, we will be able to sell plants to some customers as we get them started. If not, we will have our plants started there and then transferred into our garden. We are hoping for a good year.

1. Plant a kick-ass garden. We made many mistakes last year and I suspect we will make many more this year but we learned from our mistakes so we will continue to fail forward. We are only going to plant crops that we will use ourselves or that are easily salable to customers. For example, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, pumpkins. We weren't huge fans of some of the crops we planted last year and won't be replanting them.

11.) Build a gate at the driveway and fence off the rest of the property. Our property is mostly fenced off now. We just have about 125' section across the driveway that isn't fenced. We would like to install a gate and some barbed wire fencing to finish it off. This way the dogs can hang out with us when we're outside instead of being relegated to just the backyard. Also, a little added protection from the sheeple in case of SHTF.

12.) Signage for the homestead. We'd love to have a sign made for the entrance of our property that reads Liberty Hill Homestead & Hobby-Farm. This isn't a necessity but I think it will be cool and it will help build brand loyalty with our customers.

13.) Build a roof overhang on our front deck. We need one.

14.) Backyard patio: This is on my wife's wish list but I can back burner this until later this year or next depending on how the rest of the projects come along. At some point this year we plan to start working on the overall beautification of the property. We want it to look good. Along with that may mean painting the whole house. If we don't get to that this year, we will make it a priority early next year. We don't like the trim color of the house (a strange green) and we plan on using a tan color similar to the garage/shop trim.

15.) Pizza oven: We really want to build an outdoor pizza oven. We love pizza and I absolutely love wood fired pizza. This project will come after the patio project.

16.) Biogas generator: I love the idea of further reducing my dependence on outside sources for my fuel and I'm very interested in building a biogas generator. There are a lot of great plans available online and I think we will get on this as soon as the weather warms up in the spring. Right now we only use propane for our cookstove and for the heater in the shop. It would be nice to produce enough biogas to cook with.

17.) Bees: If you've been following our channel on YT, you know that we have tried to raise bees for the last two years. Unfortunately, we have been unsuccessful and our hives have died off both years. I don't think it was anything I did wrong necessarily but I don't think I will be spending more money buy bees again this year. Instead, I think I will try and attract a swarm. I have the gear so I'm going to give it a try. I've invested about $300 in equipment and I haven't harvested an ounce of honey yet. I hope that changes this year.

18.) Insulate our crawlspace, doors and windows. Our house was built in the early 90's and all of the doors and windows are original. We have definitely felt the cold on the floor and around the doors/windows during this latest cold snap. We aim to make our home more comfortable and energy efficient this year.

19.) Corporate Smack Down: This will be our third year doing this. For the last two Februarys we made it a point to not spend money on anything that wasn't a necessity. It's our way of doing without, making due with what we have on hand and not feeding the beast for a whole month. I think this year will be much easier than the last two years because I no longer have a real income :)

20.) I'd like to take time to stop and smell the roses. Last year was all about getting certain things set up. I felt a tremendous pressure to get things done. That's in my nature but I need to stop and enjoy the simple things along the way. This is way harder for me than it should be but I'm going to make an effort to chill a bit more. Let's face it, as we wake up to what is going on around us we feel a sense of urgency to prepare. I've owned the property at Off Grid Acres since 2013 and I have spend a lot of time, energy, and money getting ready for SHTF. I'm using it now more as a place to relax and I hope to continue to do so this year.

The above list isn't in order of priority. Instead, I just wanted to get everything written down. I will try to do certain things when weather and funds are available and other things as time allows. Anything else that I may have missed?

Thanks,
Tommy