My 2010 wishlist

[wendybird]

I would love to see what is in the works for other people also!
I want to finally finish burning the big brush pile that we have been slowly working on for *gulp* 5 years now.
I want to finish the rotational fencing for the hogs and donkeys.
I want to get a Large Black sow in preperation for the boar we should buy in 2 years.
I want to have a successful beekeeping experience.
I want to plant a few more mature trees in the orchard.
I want my lasagna garden to do as well or better than dh's traditional garden. He is the competetive one, really...
Some blackberries on our vines would be so loverly...like non sour ones we could eat.Hopefully enough for everyone to have more than 2.
And finally...a non wish. I hope we do not get any more dogs or cats this year. No dropoffs, no sob stories from friends, and no stupid mommy going into the pound just because I am a sucker for animals." Patriot" the idiot hound dog is more than a match for me.

[zjande]

I want to read a book written by a homeschooling, homesteading, mom of many to explain to me how the heck she balances everything! In other words, will you please write a book?? LOL

I don't think I'm very great at managing my time as wisely as I could be.

But anyway, what I really really wish for this year is to finally figure out how, when, & where we're going to end up moving to! We've been here in suburbia for years, planning our country adventure.... now we just need to make it out to the country! Living in limbo is driving me crazy!

I just got a sausage grinder/stuffer, I want to learn to use it.
I just started making my own herbal tinctures, I want to learn to make many more.
I want to find bean soup recipes that I can can & then can up a bunch.
I want to start growing herbs (in containers since our living situation is all wobbly).
I want to rebuild my darn leaky chicken coop!
I want to not get pregnant.
I want to read the New Testament completely without getting distracted & putting it down.
Oops, am I getting off the "country living" topic?

I'll be waiting for that book!

Btw, did you post in another thread that you were getting dreads? Did you end up doing it?

[HeatherAtHome]

• I would like to weed out the front yard, give away some of the flowers and make raised veggie beds that will hold lettuce and other salad veggies, and herbs.
  
• Weed out the jungle of a backyard. So many tall weeds. Make a garden plot, fence it in. Grow a lot of veggies.
  
• Build a chicken coop, fill it with chickens.
  
• Set up a real composting area that's easily accessible.
  
• Plant some berry bushes and a couple apple trees.
  
• Add a patio door to the back of the house with a good sized deck. There aren't any windows or doors on the back of the house making it impossible to see the backyard. Feels cut off when we're indoors.
  
• Either rip off or prop up the carport (if it doesn't fall down this winter).
  
• Have a percolation test done (is that what it's called in english?) to know the new site for the new septic we'll have put in... eventually.
  
• Put insulation/siding on the house, add rain gutters and rain barrels.
  
• Build a small green house with old windows that are stacked in the backyard.

[wendybird]

Lol, a book by me! I actually would like to do a book in pictures, it would be hilarious!
I am getting great ideas now, we have rain barrels set up but not under the roof. A water collecter that is somewhat pretty wouldd be very very cool! And I love window greenhouses. I wouldn't even know where to look for windows to upcycle, people around here are pretty fast to use what they have or take what is offered, but I do hope you post pics when you get that one done.
I did put dreads in, and am loving the freedom of them. I don't know if this link will work http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...00000214808330 but there they are. Surprisingly even alot of the conservative members at church like them. I feel like they help my outside match my inside.
Ack, sorry so wordy, 5 kidlets have chicken pox and it snowed like crazy so I am a little stir crazy. :P

[henny penny]

I love this thread! It makes me feel better that I'm not the only one with a LOOOOOONNNGG list of things to be done.
I would like to:
Finally install hardware on the henhouse doors so I can quit jamming it shut with a broom handle.
Rework the garden into a nice dirt rectangle without the turf pathways we've had for years (too much weeding at the edges).
Figure out how to grow blueberries (fourth year trying......)
Install a stone ring for our fire pit.
Add a couple turkeys to our flock for the holiday table next year.
Have our old, old, crippled mare put down.
Get our new bull to the farm.
Learn beekeeping (classes in January!!).
Have a healthy, happy baby in May!

So all of this may be on hold for another year. Ha!

[karne]

Ditto on the mature fruit trees! I love picking our own fruit in the fall. I am really, really, really going to get the blueberries going this year, and the asparagus plot! Going to tame the rasberry bushes, or at least cut a path so that we can walk on either side to get them.

God help me, more chickens. And possibly more sheep, although I am not totally commited to that plan yet!

An outdoor shower!!

[lucyem]

Need to do: fencing for the horses asap after snow melts, move the chicken coop, get the garden set up, divide up the chicken flock, get drainage put in around horse barn, air seal basement, fix drainage around the house

Want to do: get the pond dug, get set up for meat chickens this year, gravel in the lean to, mini shed built, fix up summer porch, some fruit trees/bushes

Dream: new kitchen with a view of the back yard so I can see all the work we are doing

[MamaMonica]

Goals:
Plan the garden better and be more organized with a more efficient irrigation system so it is lower maintenance this year. That means a better system of soaker hoses...and use the garden more efficiently to produce what we actually eat.

Stay on top of weeding.

Get an affordable truck to make life easier.

Fence the lower part of the pasture like I planned on doing last year but didn't.

Put extra veggies in the freezer, juice the grapes, etc. Be more organized at harvest time.

Overall, be more organized.

[PenelopeJune]

What's a lasagna garden?

I want to stay in the country, but move to a house with 1) no mold (ugh...our current situation) and 2) where we are allowed to have a big garden and chickens. And maybe bees. I'd be happy to have this as our 5 year plan, though.

[henny penny]

Wendybird, Karne

How does one go about getting "mature fruit trees"? How old are they? How big are they? How do you plant them? Do they survive?
We have only ever planted the twiggy starter orchard trees which take FOREVER to get established and bear fruit. Please help!

[1jooj]

Organize gardens to make the most of the growing season and for easy, effective crop rotation.
Plant perennial beds around the yard and in front of the house, and get as close as possible to no-mow.
Plant the rest of the planned fruit trees and berries.
Build more beehives.
Build or buy a milk stand, start milking goats, learn how to make stuff from their milk.
Get rid of the emus. Anyone want some emus?
Approach canning and freezing with a game plan.
Plant hay at the end of the season.

[chiara]

[weliveintheforest]

my wishlist and my realistic goals are not the same thing

I need and want to plan my garden better and start it earlier
We need to expand and improve the chicken run, and expand the flock.
I'd love to build a whole new coop and run, if we can find the money
I'd love to get ducks if our landlords are okay with it
I'd love to finally get a couple of sheep and goats, if we can figure out a workable fencing option we can afford.

[wendybird]

lasagna gardening is also called layer gardening, and it involves stacking materials on top of each other, rather than digging the soil. Perfect for our Oklahoma rocky clay. I am not sure how well it will work, this will be my first time doing it.
Mature trees that we are looking at are 6-7 years old and the ones we got before did produce fruit the year we planted them. Our younglings we are still waiting on. We got our big trees from a nursery and they have consistantly done better than our from seed trees or our dead looking twig starters.Those both produced trees, just not as vibrant or fast growing.

[PenelopeJune]

Thanks for clearing that up, wendybird. I was picturing a lasagna garden filled with onion, garlic, tomatoes, basil...you know, things you like in your lasagna. I learn something (usually several somethings) every day.

[wendybird]

When I checked the book out at the library that was what I thought of too.

[GardenStream]

1. Find an cheap and effective fencing which will keep the deer from eating the corn in the garden.

2. I have 2 compost pile that have been going for over a year, so I would like to finally get some finished compost.

3. I wish the deer would stop attacking my apple trees and they would finally grow.

4. I wish we could finally have barn built to put the tractor and all it's implements in to get them out of the weather.

5. I wish my blueberries would live longer than 3 months.

6. I wish someone would give us 40 tons of stone to put down in the driveway.

7. I wish the land behind us would go up for sale so that we could get a couple more acres which would put us over 10 so that we could be CAUV.

8. I wish my husband would finish building my beehives.

[annethcz]

1. Do a better job with the garden this year. This may involve raised beds. It will definitely involve sticking with the garden plan/schedule that I make in early spring.
2. Plant more fruit trees and berry bushes.
3. Learn more about foraging. We did great last year with berry picking in state parks near our home (and making jam with the berries), but I'd like to expand my skills.
4. Raise a few ducks this summer, in addition to our usual chickens. Acquire (buy/make/rent) a plucking machine to make butchering easier.

Honey bees, sheep (including fencing), prairie restoration of the front yard, and landscaping around the house are all in the medium-term plan, but probably won't happen this year.

Our biggest effort this year will be to finish our basement (DIY), but I'm not sure if this counts as a homesteading goal.

[GardenStream]

The bulldozer is here leveling out the spot where the barn is going to go. We should have a completed pole barn in about a month.

[Sihaya]

Jumping in a little late. Didn't see this thread until today.

• Put an herb garden where the square foot veggie garden was last year on our deck.
• Expand veggie garden and put it on the actual ground, hopefully well-protected from deer, bunnies, and the like by electric fence.
• Start planting berry patch, still need to decide where to put it and what to grow.
• Need to see if existing grapevine can be salvaged, or if it needs to be torn down.
• Need to build at least 3 more chicken tractors, and some rabbit hutches.
• Also need to decide where to keep the rabbits and clean/prep that building/space.
• We're getting 18 day-old chicks of various breeds in March to complete our laying flock and two batches of 25-30 meat chickens each (freedom rangers) in the summer to stock the freezer.
• Still need to decide when to get meat rabbits, how many of which sexes, and what breed(s).
• Want to start canning things (esp pears from our pear tree and crab apple jelly from our crab apple tree).
• Need to get an extra freezer and freeze food (fruits, veggies, meals, stock, etc.) for storage.
• Want to look into a 72-hour kit and car kit and other survival essentials. The survivalism sites, forums, blogs, and mindset in general freak me out, but I would like to try to get prepared without making myself paranoid.
• Try to dry clothes on the line more. It just takes so much time away from other things that I got out of the habit, even when the weather was good for it.
• Need to work on building up a good supply of wood during the summer and fall so DH isn't cutting wood every weekend all winter to keep us warm.
• This thread reminded me of the poor neglected compost pile that probably needs to be moved closer to the garden and definitely needs to be added to more often.
• Also need to come up with a solution for garbage using a combination of burning, recycling, and compost, so we don't have to pay to have our own trash taken away. Trust me, we have enough of other people's garbage that we will have to pay to have hauled away
• I would love to get a barn cleaned out this year, any barn (we have 7-8, depending on how you count). Of course, I define "cleaned out" as getting rid of everything in it and DH defines it as moving half of the crap into another barn and leaving the rest in the yard for a year
• Speaking of yard, a lawn mower would be nice. Since we have three acres and all.
• Biggest wish of all: to get pg and give birth in 2010