2014 Homestead Plan

We have now been at the new farm for 18 months. We have made huge amounts of progress building our dream homestead. It feels great to look back and see all we have accomplished.

We also decided that with as many different things that we are juggling here now, in addition to the things we want to add, we needed to write out a basic outline/plan for 2014. Even though life throws curveballs, and things don’t always go how you plan, and some decisions have to be made and/or changed at the last-minute, it is still nice to have some sort of plan written out to refer to.

So I thought I would share with you our plan for 2014. I also have a much more specific garden plan written out with exactly what gets planted when, etc. So this list just covers garden basics.

2014 Homestead Plan

Goals:

• Continue with chicken breeding program, have two successful hatches plus broodies (hopefully)
• Raise 2-3 turkeys for meat
• Continue with rabbit breeding program and selling the meat for pet food
• Add fruit trees
• Add an area for and learn to grow potatoes
• Finish outdoor garden terracing and raised beds
• Continue with outdoor garden, herb garden, pumpkin patch, and strawberry patch
• Finish barnyard permanent fencing
• Another successful calving
• Build a couple of different root cellars and test them out

January:

• First hatch
• Plan garden

February:

• Butcher bull calf
• Select breeders for second hatch, shuffle pens around, sell and/or butcher extra chickens

March:

• Collect eggs and start second incubation
• Finalize garden layout and crop amounts
• Check stored seed viability and roots saved for second year seeding
• Order seeds
• Inventory and buy seed starting supplies

April:

• Start freezing milk for dry period
• Finish building upper terrace and raised beds in outdoor garden
• Second hatch
• Integrate first hatch chicks in with flock (14 weeks)
• Plan and order turkeys for June 7 arrival
• Buy plucker
• Start seeds indoors
• Loosen up soil and add compost
• Install pea trellises in prep for seed positioning and planting
• Remove 1/2 of the mulch from the winter covered crops once they start growing

May:

• Build potato garden areas
• Butcher first hatch cockerels
• Dry off cow
• Contact and plan shearing
• Contact hay guy about estimate time for cuttings
• Plan and order fruit trees
• Continue indoor seed starts and start outdoor planting

June:

• Turkeys arrive June 7 (in brooder 4 weeks)
• Build turkey housing
• Prep area for fruit trees
• Plant fruit trees
• Sheep shearing
• Buy and put up hay for the year
• Continue outdoor planting and transplanting seedlings

July:

• Calving
• Turkeys move to outdoor housing
• Sheep shearing
• Integrate second hatch chicks with flock (14 weeks)
• Build root cellars
• Harvest wild herbs
• Continue planting and begin some harvesting

August:

• Butcher second hatch cockerels
• Calving
• Butcher lambs
• But and can tomatoes and peaches
• Cut and dry garden herbs
• Continue harvest – freeze and can
• Watch weather and prep for first frost

September:

• Breed cow
• Continue harvest and canning

October:

• Breed cow
• Plant garlic
• Put garden to bed for the winter

November:

• Breed ewes
• Butcher turkeys
• Select breeders for first hatch of 2015, shuffle pens around, sell and/or butcher extra chickens

December:

• Breed ewes
• Review 2014
• Plan 2015

It looks to be a very full and productive year, even if things don’t go as planned!