Homestead Updates – Our First Egg and it’s Time to Start Planning

I have had a lot of people ask me for updates on my homestead, to which my reply has been that things are a bit slow right now because of winter. This really is not much of an excuse because it has been a mild winter but much of our plans right now do center on spring arriving.

This DOES not mean however that we have not been doing at least a bit of planning. I have a lot of projects in mind for the spring, but before I say anything about that I wanted to share that after all of our hard work building a workable and almost free chicken coop and taking care of them all winter long they gifted us with our first egg.

Now I have to say this is not the first time I have had chickens so I was not as excited as my husband and daughter are, but still there is a thrill that never fails to come from knowing you are eating any food that you have raised yourself whether it is the garden or from the animals.

I have been telling my husband for a couple of weeks that our girls were getting ready to lay, and it was gratifying to know I was right. It should also be the incentive he needs to finish the last bit of work on nesting boxes this week I hope.

On To Spring and Homesteading Projects

As I said before, we really have not done much this winter, the last real projects we completed were making the chicken coop winterable and getting the leaks stopped in the front part of the house. Since then we have had more leaks that we have had to fix to get us by till spring when the roof will be done, and we have not done much else but work in the house.

I am getting ready to order seeds in the next week or two, I am actually late but, not too late just yet, but we were not sure whether health problems were going to put a roadblock up as far as getting a garden in so we held off as long as we could. This week it will be time to get the seeds ordered. Be on the lookout for more information about ordering seeds and how to order them as well as some tips about growing your own seeds.

We plan to put in a greenhouse this year, but we are honestly not expecting to get it up in time to use with the seeds, same goes for cold frames. I am hoping we will be able to get at least some of that up before fall so I can see how far I can push the growing season here.

Are There More Critters On the Way?

We have been talking about getting more animals but have not really decided which ones we want to get first. We are trying to choose between turkeys and goats, with turkey being for meat and the goats being for both milk and meat eventually.

I have just one more outbuilding to work with, and since it is the perfect size for a couple of goats I am thinking that is what I want to do, but there has been some debate in our home about which will come first. My husband has yet to help me slaughter a chicken so I told him we would wait and see how he does with that, since there is no way I could do a turkey by myself. (yes I have a very softhearted husband, it is one of the things I do love about him )

The outbuildings will need a lot of work before we used them, I will try to get some pictures when the snow goes away so you can see what we are dealing with. The one side has no wall or door, so that will have to be all walled in. We are also talking about making a door to the room from the chicken coop to make it easier to feed and water in the winter, but we will see how that goes.

Miscellaneous Plans and Thoughts

We have the usual long homestead list of things we want to do, we have also been talking about plans for doing some simple prepping and stockpiling, something that is a good idea for a lot of reasons and something I encourage all of you to explore. Even if all you are facing is a winter storm it pays to be prepared.

I am going to try to spend a lot more time posting on here with pictures of what we are doing as well as hints tips and ideas to help you with your homestead, I have been pretty quiet the last few weeks, it was a pretty busy winter for us, I think it will be a lot easier for me to share as I am thinking about this stuff all spring and summer long.

Share your spring plans with us here, and while you are at it tell us what animals you think we should get next, I might try to put together a way to do a poll on the website just for fun.