Re-Evaluating Your Homestead’s Needs

Sometimes it’s time to sit back, reflect on this past year so far and start re-evaluating your homestead’s needs.  My husband and I started our homesteading journey because of a passion we had as a family to live gentler on this earth.  A lot has changed since then first of all our children were younger, and our needs were different but we still have needs. Now that we have one foot in the empty nest and travel more than we used to we recently made the decision to scale back our chickens to now having only three hens here at our  homestead. Considering at one point we had 32 hens this was a very tough decision and we knew we would be giving up a plethora of eggs. I have had many folks share with me that they have lots of chickens, travel and manage it all but for me with working full-time and my husband’s job is very time-consuming this decision just works best for us and we are adding some other goals to our homestead.  I do think we all manage our stress differently and for me simplifying helps me to relax more and enjoy the little things in life-like time with family and friends.

On one of my more recent’ blog posts “So You Wanna’ Be A Homesteader? Advice & Inspiration From The Experts” many of the Homesteading experts who weighed in used the term re-asses, re-evaluate, and I think it is so important for us all to do this and take stock from time to time.   Do we love fresh home-grown eggs? Yes we do!  Will we miss having an abundance of them?  Absolutely.  So we compromised and decided to keep enough chickens on to ensure we don’t miss out on that yummy goodness for breakfast and they are so healthy too.

We also thought about the fact that us scaling back our chickens will most likely make our neighbors happy.   I am sure it will as chickens have their own issues they bring with them that are often not all that welcome in suburbia.  I urge you not to underestimate the importance of good neighbor relations especially when you are a beekeeper it is so important one to share with your neighbors the importance and value of the bees but to also stay in communication with your neighbors as well.

My friend at  J & J Acres did a you tube post that was my From The Farm Blog Hop Favorite last week that discussed the importance of permaculture and I loved what he shared.  He reminded us the importance of embracing food that loves growing right where it is; that’s when you get the ton of figs, jerusalem artichokes, or tomatillos just rolling in to be harvested on your homestead. Great food sources that grow easily and  are hard to get rid of that’s the kind of garden I strive to have eventually. Less work and more food….shouldn’t everyone have an edible garden?

So next on the home front we are wanting to grow more salad greens this fall I am a huge fan of Bok Choy, Swiss Chard, Kale, and Collards to name a few.  I will have my fall gardening post coming soon and it will be sharing all the goodies we planted this season!  I definitely see our gardens expanding in the near future but not becoming too complicated; if anything I see a move in a direction to simplify.  We plan to grow more of what we like to eat and of course we will experiment with fun plants from time to time like gourds or pumpkins we won’t be able to help ourselves since we are gardeners anyway!

Another goal is to expand our small apiary we will be having more hives hosted at other properties and hopefully we will be harvesting even more honey at this time next year!

What are your goals for your homestead?  Are you meeting them every year?  Are you taking time to step back and tweak them from time to time.

Have you re-evaluated your homestead’s needs lately?  I wish you all a beautiful weekend!

Fondly,

 

 

 

 

Other Homestead Posts On This Same Topic You May Enjoy!

7 Simple Gifts To Uncomplicate Your Homestead Life – Part 2 – Joybilee Farm

Homestead Reboot Series:  Evaluating The Water Bill – The Orange Jeep Dad Blog

Evaluating our 2011 Homestead Goals – 5 Acres and A Dream