Homestead Resolutions for the New Year

Making resolutions for the year might seem silly to some, but it’s a fun way to set goals for yourself to strive towards in the 365 opportunities that are lying ahead of us. Hang onto your muck boots because here we bring you resolutions for 2020 homesteader style:

Stay positive, share positive

Keep Learning

Better book keeping

More grazing

Better organization with equipment & tools

Keeping it simple and achievable!

One of the reasons we started sharing our homesteading journey was because we set out to cultivate a more positive mindset for ourselves and hoped to share some of that influence with those around us. It has brought so many insanely cool people into our circle who have the same desire to be better humans and so good by one another. This is how our little community was created and it will be a top resolution to sustain every year!

Each new year of homesteading shows us how far we’ve come, but always has subtle ways to remind us that there is ever more to learn. I like to think of myself as a perpetual student devouring books and articles to dive deeper into my interests. The future of agriculture is bright and exciting! This lifestyle has influenced how we raise our family, cultivate our tribe, and feed our community. Each of us with a flock of chickens or a garden plot is an advocate for agriculture.

Book keeping...boooooooo! A necessary evil, but an evil nevertheless. I’m currently a feast or famine type of bookeeper. A few times a year I slump over the spreadsheets and die a little on the inside crunching numbers. It just isn’t my thang, but is a primary piece of being a successful small business owner. I’d love to see myself setting time aside every month to update the books instead of playing the catch up game constantly. Wish me luck!!!

Looking at numbers always leads you to the bottom line, the expenses, the costs. Where are they and how do we improve? Any time you keep livestock there biggest expense will always be feed. With the goats we can cut down on some of the cost of hay in the warmer months through grazing. We’ve been working on creating more pasture for them and hopefully this year will see them on grass more days than last year. Or Atleast that’s the goal right?

Homesteading seems to lead to collecting. What does that mean? Ask a homesteader if they’d ever pass a pile of free pallets on the wide of the road or a 50 gallon barrel or someone offering free fencing. Yup, that’s how the collecting begins because the truth of it is that this isn’t the lifestyle where you’re going to save a buck! We’ve invested lots of green into this operation, so when we can cut corners with expenses on materials we do. This may or may not have resulted in piles of gates, random rolls of fencing, and a smorgasbord of other goodies. I like to think it makes the barn look authentically weathered...farm chic? That’s not a thing. It’s actually just clutter and I need to get my hands dirty organizing!

Will all these resolutions be achieved? Maybe not, but when I set out to better myself that can never be a bad thing! I challenge you to do the same. Find small ways you can do better and be better. Set achievable goals for the year and when you slay them brag about it and if you don’t then come here and commiserate with others who have likely missed a few marks as well. Let’s be more authentic and connected this year...I dare ya!

~ Nicole