I cannot believe that another year has flown by so quickly. I look back on all that happened in 2014 and it seems impossible that the year is over.
February ushered in the homebirth of our 5th child (story here)
March-April began my venture into "from seed" gardening
May was adding to the flock of both laying hens and meat hens (22 layers and 25 meat hens)
June was the beginning of my blogging ventures we also put up 22 chickens into the freezer from our first large attempt at meat birds
July was hearty harvesting and lots of canning
August saw us putting turkeys into the freezer from our flock
End of August to Sept we began our 3rd year of homeschooling
September was collecting seeds for next years garden and a family trip to MI
October was more of September and another trip to MI
November was feeling thankful and cooking our homegrown turkey (YUM!)
December my favorite month of the year!
and there you go, it is now a new year. I wanted to share a few of the things I learned on the farm last year and some of my gardening/farming goals for 2015.
What I learned...
1. I need to figure out a way of marking my hens so I know who the oldest ones are (I am thinking of ordering only one breed at a time so I know that all that certain kind were hatched at certain date)
2. Rabbits make excellent compost producers (not the rabbit itself but the byproducts)
3. Compost is truly "Black Gold"
4. Organic gardening is hard and can be painful (see here)
5. I can actually assist hubby in scalding and plucking the meat hens.
6. I may never be able to be satisfied by store bought meat again.
7. Turkeys are great fun but can be quite decieving as far as just how big they really are under all those feathers!
8. I need to plant more tomatoes
9. I need to start my seeds indoors next month
10. I need to plant more herbs and dry more for teas
11. I LOVE the "back to Eden" style of gardening
12. I need to figure out what to do with all those chicken feathers
13. I want ducks (and goats and a mini horse...but hubby says no Dr. Doolittle farm! lol)
14. using a clothesline saves us about $20 a month on electricity
15. I truly love being on a farm!
My Farm Goals for 2015
1. double the meat hens that I put up last year (I want to do 2 rounds for a total of 50)
2. dry herbs for most of my own teas
3. start selling organic produce from the farm to supplement the operation
3. broaden my heirloom seed stash
4. plant strawberries
5. teach my children even more about living off the land
February ushered in the homebirth of our 5th child (story here)
March-April began my venture into "from seed" gardening
May was adding to the flock of both laying hens and meat hens (22 layers and 25 meat hens)
June was the beginning of my blogging ventures we also put up 22 chickens into the freezer from our first large attempt at meat birds
July was hearty harvesting and lots of canning
August saw us putting turkeys into the freezer from our flock
End of August to Sept we began our 3rd year of homeschooling
September was collecting seeds for next years garden and a family trip to MI
October was more of September and another trip to MI
November was feeling thankful and cooking our homegrown turkey (YUM!)
December my favorite month of the year!
and there you go, it is now a new year. I wanted to share a few of the things I learned on the farm last year and some of my gardening/farming goals for 2015.
What I learned...
1. I need to figure out a way of marking my hens so I know who the oldest ones are (I am thinking of ordering only one breed at a time so I know that all that certain kind were hatched at certain date)
2. Rabbits make excellent compost producers (not the rabbit itself but the byproducts)
3. Compost is truly "Black Gold"
4. Organic gardening is hard and can be painful (see here)
5. I can actually assist hubby in scalding and plucking the meat hens.
6. I may never be able to be satisfied by store bought meat again.
7. Turkeys are great fun but can be quite decieving as far as just how big they really are under all those feathers!
8. I need to plant more tomatoes
9. I need to start my seeds indoors next month
10. I need to plant more herbs and dry more for teas
11. I LOVE the "back to Eden" style of gardening
12. I need to figure out what to do with all those chicken feathers
13. I want ducks (and goats and a mini horse...but hubby says no Dr. Doolittle farm! lol)
14. using a clothesline saves us about $20 a month on electricity
15. I truly love being on a farm!
My Farm Goals for 2015
1. double the meat hens that I put up last year (I want to do 2 rounds for a total of 50)
2. dry herbs for most of my own teas
3. start selling organic produce from the farm to supplement the operation
3. broaden my heirloom seed stash
4. plant strawberries
5. teach my children even more about living off the land
