2011 is just around the corner..........

[patandchickens]

Nothing especially exciting or picturesque.

1) Hopefully the sheep are currently bred or becoming so, and I will be milking and making cheese next spring. If there are no lambs, my alternative goal for 2011 is to figure out how to explain to my husband that after buying $750 worth of sheeps and spending a bit more than that on extensive fencing and so forth, all we have to show for it is woolly lawnmowers (Although I notice they are really improving the horse-pasture quality where I've been rotating them)

2) Fewer tomatoes, more potatoes, and maybe THIS will be the year that I finally figure out where to plant a few pumpkin vines for the kids (well, I mean, *they* will plant them but *I* have to figure out a reasonably fertile and rat-free location)

3) The usual physical-facilities upgrades, mainly replacing or moving some leany old fencelines and I have really *got* to dig up the barn and chicken waterlines and do repairs.

4) NO NEW ANIMALS, especially no new poultry except things hatched with the intent of going in the freezer. Well except we need to get a second dog once the worst of winter is over, but I mean, that's not an *animal*, that's *family* LOL

5) The boys will be 4 and 7 next year and I am hoping we can do more construction, gardening and cooking projects together.

Pat

 

[Wifezilla]

4) NO NEW ANIMALS, especially no new poultry except things hatched with the intent of going in the freezer. Well except we need to get a second dog once the worst of winter is over, but I mean, that's not an *animal*, that's *family* LOL

I'll have to remember that one

 

[i_am2bz]

My #1 goal is to expand my raised-bed gardens...hoping to plant taters for the first time!!

 

[Blackbird]

My goal is the get the bleepity bleep out of the city!

 

[tamlynn]

Plant new pear and blueberries that will arrive in Jan. Make sure to get the soil for blueberries right.

Plan garden better for year-round harvesting.

Finish vacation house at parent's farm so we can visit more often and enjoy the country life. Also for processing fruits so we can legally bring them home.

try artisan breads.

 

[BarredBuff]

Well I guess its my turn

1. Homegrown feed for the animals (yard hay, corn, some boss)
2. MEAT (chickens, ducks and rabbits)
3. Replace a few layers (got some small doms Im not fond of so some BO is coming next spring)

BB1 I hope you do get out of the BLEEPIN city

 

[i_am2bz]

Finish vacation house at parent's farm so we can visit more often and enjoy the country life. Also for processing fruits so we can legally bring them home.

Ummm...don't mean to go off-topic, Tamlynn, but...why can't you bring processed fruits home? Is that a Calif. thing...?

 

[tamlynn]

We can't bring FRESH fruits into CA. There are checkpoints in CA where they can confiscate fresh produce and live animals. So if I process the fruit (can, freeze, dry, whatever) first, then I can bring them home without worry. My parents live in the middle of orchard country in UT and it kills me not to bring home fruit when I visit. $5 for a full bushel of apples? Makes me green with envy.

For live chickens, I just cross my fingers that we don't get stopped.

Our little vacation house on their property will have a work kitchen for canning, etc.

 

[BarredBuff]

We can't bring FRESH fruits into CA. There are checkpoints in CA where they can confiscate fresh produce and live animals. So if I process the fruit (can, freeze, dry, whatever) first, then I can bring them home without worry. My parents live in the middle of orchard country in UT and it kills me not to bring home fruit when I visit. $5 for a full bushel of apples? Makes me green with envy.

For live chickens, I just cross my fingers that we don't get stopped.

Our little vacation house on their property will have a work kitchen for canning, etc.

Could you by some chance slip thru on a back road?

 

[Dunkopf]

California had a major fruit fly infestation in 1980. I lived there at the time. They flew helicopters side by side 4 to 6 wide with sprayers and sprayed darn near the whole state. The source of the infestation was tracked out of state. They lost millions in crops that year. So they check you at the border.

2011 is the year of the credit card purge. It's time to get the financial house in order. Hopefully our turkeys will all be breeding and we can do something on that end. I sure hope so after all the work I put in to the additional coops and fencing.