My self sufficient and Frugal New Years Resolutions

[Hinotori]

We'll see how many of my resolutions I manage to keep.

Make raised beds in the garden
Build new chicken coops
Get the layers light on solar power (just ordered a panel and charge minder for this)
Fence in a small pasture for a couple goats/sheep
Build a goat shelter
Get the storage all cleaned up and junk tossed
Reduce wheat and sugar in my diet
Exercise more
See the doctor regularly like I should

Yeah that last one will be the hardest. I hate going to the doctor.

 

[the funny farm6]

well, here goes:

1. put distance between us and people who seem to use us or put us down
2. produce as much of our food as possable.
3. find a way to make a little money at home so i dont have to leave the farm to work.
4. pour a cement pad for our wood stove.

there is probibly something i am missing...

yep..
5. no more soda that is going to be the hard one!
6. get "some what"away from the gmo food. (ordered all my seed from organic and non gmo places this year)

 

[IW]

Finally get a green house up and running.
Get back into raising turkey along with the chickens (I haven't raised any turkey for a number of years.)
Get back into canning.
Learn how to dry foods.
Move my raised beds from one spot to another that's closer to the house.

 

[Wannabefree]

Mine, is to do everything I did last year, and add on to the farm with more buildings and animals....and MAYBE quit smoking....again....maybe...

 

[snapshot]

Grow another garden.
Build chicken tractor and get chickens.
Start satsuma tree, apple tree and blueberry bushes.
Can more!
Do some sewing projects.

 

[ducks4you]

Hey--haven't been here much lately, but I've been back for a few weeks.
Since I left, I expanded my gardens and double-dug 4 of my nine raised beds, to the depth of 30 inches below ground. If you don't know this enables every plant to shoot the roots really deep, and you can scoop the dirt out to harvest or transplant.
In 2013, I'll be double-digging the other 5 beds and using new wood to box them in, instead of the next to death leftovers I have been using for those beds. I'm also subdividing and creating two beds that aren't as wide, out of the space for one, and the gap in between beds.
I resolve to study up and learn to use the 2 pressure canners I have. I will need replacement seals, and for any other parts that have worn out--they were used and were gifts.
In 2013 I will be learning how to get off of the grid. We had a power surge one week ago and it fried the tv, DVD player, satellite receiver, boiler, upright freezer, barn light and the barn electric door opener. The power company won't help pay anything, so maybe it's time to change and give them the heave-high-ho in 2013!! Stupid monopoly--ALL of my lines are buried, and we were the only ones without power!! If I had had a forced air furnace instead of a boiler, the house would have been at 22 F degrees the next morning, instead of 50 F, and that's only bc the water in the pipes takes longer to cool.
Don't be too quick to buy meat only chickens. I have been incubating eggs, taking in free roosters for my layers, and butchering the young roosters. The roosters weigh double what the hens weigh, from non-meat birds, and are more meaty than the hens. If you buy meat birds, like Cornish crosses, you have to take away their food for 1/2 a day so as to not let them eat so much that they break their legs. ALSO, I can harvest whenever I want to, instead of harvesting them at ~ 16 weeks old.
2 of my mutt roosters were EE crosses, bc I have olive eggs from their daughters. In 2013, I'm keeping one of the roosters and buying him a harem of 5 EE pullets, so I can get really blue eggs from them.
In 2013, I will FINALLY build the coop and get my birds out of the horse stall in the winter!!

 

[Denim Deb]

Sounds like you're making progress.

 

[Mattemma]

Aside from losing weight to get off BP meds I want to prep my house for sale,and see what offers we get.No one but me wants to move,but they will appreciate it when we do.As for SS goals...

Less lawn more gardens.Get rid of the pests that eat my produce which means some serious dispatching.
More fruit trees and bushes.
Raise some meat birds and actually kill them
Buy some more emergency suppiles like rocket stove,water filter,buckets for food and toileting.
Stop using the credit card for food.
Downsize the pets from 7 to 2.

 

[Marianne]

This requires thinking on my part.

1. Finish kitchen instead of having bouts of 'busy-ness'. I'm so busy doing other things that I don't focus on what I 'should' be doing - like I MUST make jelly today instead of doping the drywall. That kind of stuff.

2. Plant two more fruit trees, do a bit more landscaping with edibles. Cherry bushes don't seem to ever produce, but raspberries seem to like it here.

3. Start gathering for winter goat browse much earlier. Section off an area in the spring so there is a 'goat garden'.

4. Buy/barter from local farmers before harvest for cheaper wheat, etc.

 

[baymule]

Here goes,
1. Really clean up the backyard, get rid of the junk piles of "good stuff" I dragged home and have done nothing with.

2. Give thought and planning to the spring garden to maximize my limited space.

3. Buy an Excalibur food dryer (after I pay off the credit card I had to put the new wall oven on, 'cause mine died)

4. Tape and float the sheetrock in the middle bedroom. Texture and paint.

5. Buy more bulk foods to store.

6. Transform the little hall closet into a pantry/food storage.

7. I just bought 20 layer breed chicks today for more egg production. I also want to raise some chickens for the freezer.

8. Build a chicken tractor for the meat chickens BEFORE I get them!

9. Build more compost piles.

10. Plant the 4 blueberry bushes in the backyard that I originally planted in big tubs. Plant the pear tree in the front yard that I stuck in a big tub because I didn't know where I wanted to plant it.