New goals on a frigid morning

On this incredibly cold -10F morning, we have no new photos because we didn't want to be outside that long to get said photos! This morning the rabbits all had silvering around their mouths, and the Lady of the House realized that all of them had their breath freezing on their whiskers making them look like they'd gone white around their muzzles. It was a bit of a "Oh wow" moment, and we are going to be looking in to what they can survive safely.


Remember this river photo I got a while back, the river is about this high, but frozen solid on the surface, even the rapids section you see in the background. Again, we didn't get a photo because it's damn cold, also we were in a bit of a hurry to go to work. So, the goal for the post today is to list our goals for the upcoming year as a homestead. As people is a whole different thing, and isn't really the focus here.




My goals
Continue improving the rabbit hutches as I make new ones, and adjust the old ones. This will include getting a second level in every hutch, whether in or our of the private space. It will also include trying to make improved breeder hutches that make the mothers and babies more comfortable, as well as providing a stimulating safe growing environment.

Design and build a strong and safe chicken coop that will provide sufficient capacity for chickens, and keep them safe from our various local predators. I specifically want to do this using reclaimed wood as much as possible rather than just buying wood if I can avoid it.

Continue to monitor the growth rates of the baby rabbits up through week 8 with every litter as is it born. The data has helped us stabilize a pair of babies before they got really sick and risked death at least once, and we'd like to continue that trend.

Finish the art studio space fully including installing the wood stove.

Lady of the House's goals
Plan out and implement a nutritious and interesting garden of food and herb plants that successfully yields at least some crops for us to eat and seeds to save. This one is a big goal both in terms of time and its breadth. It is also probably the most important of all of our goals since we really need that part. I am going to be attempting to help her with this as I can, but she is the point person on it.

Continue keeping the indoor/outdoor mobile herb garden alive and well to provide us with herbs.

Insure that no rabbit hides are wasted through lack of time and minimal waste happens due to processing mistakes.

Overall household goals
Get the chicken coop up and running, and a laying flock of hens.

Keep the rabbits doing well, and expand our herd.

Get vegetables into the ground and start eating our own.

Buy and plant at least a few fruit trees for long term fruit production.

Plan for water and energy saving technologies and habits over the next year including looking in more detail into how solar can help heating and energy with a cost benefit analysis, and consider siting an outhouse.

Continue our move towards eating only our own or local foods as much as possible. We're not going to never eat out, but we'd like to make it so at least most of our breakfasts and lunches are home made by the end of next year.

Blog goals
Have at least one new photo every blog post.

Not miss blog posts except in extremely extenuating circumstances.

Build up a blog post buffer.

Include more food politics information.



I think we have realistic goals, and some of them are measurable. My biggest concern is the maintenance goals because just keep doing something is actually harder than a set goal. Things like keep the rabbits healthy, happy, and alive is easy. Things like make lunches gets difficult since sometimes you want time off, something different, etc. We will try to find ways to make these goals easier and keep folks updated on how we are doing.