My self sufficient and Frugal New Years Resolutions

[heatherlynnky]

I should say that I intend to keep every one of these.

Raise my own grass fed steer to provide beef for the family.
Go hunting this year to provide deer for the family.
Raise my own meat chickens to provide for the family
Raise half of the plant products we will eat this year
Learn to milk my goats who are kidding soon and only drink milk produced on our farm
Build a solar generator with the kids
Become completely debt free and stick to my budgets ( this is a big one that can easily happen)
Plant an herb garden and learn to use it to improve my families health

Edited to add:
Switch to non GMO products where feasible
Start making my own water and milk kefir.

I like to think of myself as frugal but in all of this I want to know I have improved the health and life quality of our family. I think these are goals we could achieve and will help up achieve those health and quality goals.
Merry Christmas all and a happy new year.

Please share your thoughts and goals for the new year

 

[Bettacreek]

Build a solar generator?! I'd love to hear more on this!

 

[so lucky]

That's a long list, heatherlynn! My resolution is usually to exercise more, and I keep it about a week. I don't really have any resolutions that are particularly self-sufficient, except try to produce more out of my little garden. I guess I should add "to eat what I produce" as I like to grow it better than eat some of it. If my DH was more involved with SS, there would be a long list of stuff to do, but by myself, there is only so many things I can achieve. Oh, I do want to get some more laying chickens, and plant some blueberry and blackberry bushes. And look into fruit trees. Hmmm, more than I thought!

 

[heatherlynnky]

To be honest I would like to hear more too. I wanted to buy one but my husband is one of those that says " I can do that". And so we are going to do just that. I swear he and his father can design the patience right out of me at times but the results are almost always great and they are so sweet while doing it. So I am determined the kids and I will do this as a school project. He will teach all of us and it will ( crossed fingers) get us one step closer to independence.

Thats a great plan though. Eat more of your own produce. I determined last year to learn to cook more of it because that was half my problem. I didn't cook it as well as I liked and so we were not eating as many veggies. I am always for fruit trees and the berry bushes. We are really really close to producing all our fruit. Of course with the exception to bananas. We do our own raspberries, black berries, blue berries, lemons, even have a rarely producing orange in the tropical greenhouse ( heated by wood), apples, asian pears and regular pears.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Finish building the barn.
Plant my herb garden with about 30 medicinals I have listed
Take on a minimum of an hour a day with some kind of SS project, everyday.
Remove a few trees that are serving me no purpose and replace them with fruit bearing.
Breed both my goats and deal with the consequences.
Plant a massive garden, in a big, thick spread of woodchips.
Catch a few more swarms of bees.
Find a buyer for a few orange crops.
Put my geese and ducks in the orchard, to keep down the grass/weeds.

 

[Bettacreek]

For us, I'd like to produce all of our greens and maybe most of the veggies. We'll also be getting our start in fruits, though most will be at least two years out for production. But we'll have apple and peach trees planted and raspberries. I've already gotten a good start on producing our own chicken and eggs.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

I really want to find a place we can garden more successfully. Our property doesn't get much sunlight and that really restricts my choices of crop. I want to reopen our well and get rid of the poisonous city water. I want to finally get the garage and shed cleaned and organized so I can turn the shed into a "guest house" or "mancave". The shed is 16' by 18' with a loft so I think it would be a nice size to "escape" to from time to time. Oh, and I want to start homeschooling my daughters so they can receive an education rather than the sheep training they get now....and I really want to win the war with our cattails because while they produce more edible starch per acre than anything else, I don't want our pond over run with them and the processing of the rhizomes into starch/flour is a PITA.

 

[Denim Deb]

My goals:

Finish everything out at the farm I need to do to make it easy to care for my horses.
Finish getting rid of all the junk in the house
Finish the house
Get the yard all cleaned up and nice looking

W/the schedule we're on right now, we should have the majority of our debts paid off in early 2014. Then, if we have everything done here, we can hopefully start looking for out own farm. I'd love to have this by the end of 2014. Hubby and I both know that it would be so much cheaper if we did since we'd be saving the money from boarding the horses, gas to get out there, and I'd probably need a lot less hay.

 

[BarredBuff]

Well I add mine too,

1. Purchase a water filter to make our tank water drinkable in case of Emergencies
2. Learn to caponize roosters for meat
3. Raise a lot of meat rabbits
4. I'd like to setup my chicken coop to work off grid, with a panel for electricity and water collection system. But this one ain't that likely.
5. Grow lots of winter squash
6. Grow celery, and start asparagus and rhubarb
7. Learn to tan hides
8. Bring home a deer this time
9. Target practice more, and begin ammunition supply
10. Add more things to the pantry like homemade dry mixes, and things of that nature.
11. Start a new herb garden

My goals this year!

 

[Corn Woman]

Find a nice piece of property so I can have a space for gardening ,one that I own and not just borrow. My setup is nice but its hard to make any sort of improvement that's permanent. I will have to borrow some to get it but the plan would be buy one with a small home and rent that out to make the payment or most of it.