2015 was not an easy year.
Notice I didn’t say bad year, as something being difficult doesn’t automatically make it “bad.” However, 2015 definitely gave us a run for our money, in more ways than one.
As the year draws to a close, I, like most people, can’t help but spend some time reflecting on the challenges our family has had as homesteaders, and well, just humans, these past 365 days…
The Things We Learned in 2015
Ever since my childhood, I’ve tended to look at my experiences (both good and bad) as opportunities for learning. And let me tell ya, this year was RIPE with learning experiences… Here are a few of the most notable ones:
It IS possible (although not always easy) to leave the homestead. I finally got in a semi-comfortable routine with making that happen. It may not sound like a lot of traveling to the globe trotters out there, but I’m proud of myself for getting outside of my comfort zone and traveling to Jamaica, California, Oklahoma (twice!), Idaho (twice!), and Salt Lake City (twice!) this year. And the homestead stayed (mostly) intact while I was gone.
Don’t say “I want another baby at some point, but NOT this year…” Because God will hear you and He has a funny sense of humor. You could have knocked me over with a feather when the pregnancy test came back positive in February.
Planning a major online essential oil educational event is a massive undertaking, and I wouldn’t recommend doing that while you are in the throes of morning sickness. Feburary, March, April, and May were rough months for this ol’ girl…
Hiding in the grass with your 5 year old daughter to watch the milk cow have her calf is one of the coolest experiences ever. And it’s even more cool when you go back outside an hour later to discover another wet calf laying next to the first one. TWINS!
Remodeling does NOT fit into a tight, neatly packed schedule. It just doesn’t. And sub-contractors aren’t always reliable. And after doing my laundry in the shop most of the year, I’m going to be exceedingly grateful once the washing machine finally moves back into the house.
It’s crazy-exciting to watch the house addition you’ve been dreaming about for 7+ years finally taking shape. The mere thought of having more room to live makes me giddy. I’m most excited about having a adult-sized pantry for the first time ever, and a designated office space… (Believe it or not, I’ve built this blog with 1,000,000+ monthly hits on my kitchen island, in the midst of splattering food and dirty dishes.)
Deep mulching is still my favorite. Especially since it allowed me to plant the garden without using the rototiller one bit this year. I had more weeds than last year, thanks to my ever-expanding belly and being away from home, but despite my neglect, the garden still yielded a bounty of food.
Sometimes I hate modern medicine, but I’m still thankful for it. We had a scare with Prairie Boy’s eye this year due to a freak infection, but thanks to the quick actions of the surgeons and a bunch of antibiotic eye drops, he’s on the road to recovery.
Homeschooling isn’t as scary as I thought. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a huge responsibility, but I’m finally at peace with the path we’ve chosen, as Prairie Girl started Kindergarten this year. It’s incredibly fulfilling to be there as your children explore and learn. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Apparently being 8+ months pregnant gives you get the urge to bring home a new puppy. Weird.
When your husband quits his traditional job to come home and help with the blog, essential oil business, and homestead, it’s exciting, yet scary, all at the same time. We’re still transitioning, but it’s been the best thing ever. We love having a family business, and he’s been able to spend more time with the Prairie Kids than ever before.
Having a newborn is approximately 170, 949, 327 times better than being pregnant. Prairie Baby #3 joined the crew on October 23rd, and she fits right in. I seem to get more and more laid-back with each kid I have. I like myself a lot better this way.
You have to be flexible. Good golly, I hate this lesson. I love being able to plan out my life on the calendar and have it never change. I have a hunch God was determined to teach me the lesson of flexibility this year. My initial response to that? A ginormous temper tantrum. But I finally gave in and have become much better at rolling with the punches. My homesteading plans didn’t happen like I wanted this year, my business plans didn’t happen like I wanted this year, and I bought more store-bought food than ever before .(Because sometimes perfect, from-scratch meals just can’t happen when you’re in survival mode.) But interestingly, the world hasn’t fallen off its axis, the sun still rises, we’re still alive, and life is good. Even though this year was certainly not what we had planned.
I suck at outside relationships when I’m in survival mode. Some of our local friends probably have wondered where the heck we were this year. Our lack of local “appearances” has certainly not been intentional, but were necessary as we navigated morning sickness, a new baby, remodeling chaos, traveling, eye surgeries, and homeschooling for the first time. When I go into survival mode, I turn into a bit of a hermit so I can focus on my family as my first priority. I’m looking forward to spending more time with friends and neighbors in the upcoming year.
While I’m hoping 2016 won’t be *quite* as exciting as 2015, we still have a full year in front of us, because frankly, we like it that way. A few of our goals (homesteading and otherwise) for the upcoming year:
The Prairie Homestead in 2016
- Finish the remodel. Um, yeah, this is definitely priority #1. We’re guessing it’ll be mostly done sometime in February. Hopefully. Maybe. Please Lord.
- Build 2-3 greenhouses. Hallelujah… finally! Prairie Husband has greenhouses on his project radar, and I can’t wait to be able to extend our short growing season a bit.
- Raise a boatload of meat chickens. Wanna know my deep, dark homesteading secret? We’ve never raised meat birds. My husband has had a severe poultry allergy since childhood, so we’ve never eaten enough chicken to justify it. However, thanks to the NAET technique, his allergy was CLEARED this summer. That’s a topic of a whole ‘nother post, but needless to say, my mouth is watering for some homegrown chicken.
- Do more of the deep mulch thang. Yes, I’m still a fan and can’t wait to roll into year #3 of hay in my garden.
- Refine our animal operation. We’ve pretty much tried our hand at all manner of homestead animals thus far, but have decided it’s time to get a bit more intentional with our herd. We plan to look into more heritage-style breeds, and focus on raising critters with high-quality genetics.
- Make the blog even BETTER. I can’t spill the beans quite yet, but there are plans in the works to bring you even better homesteading content here on the blog in 2016. More videos, more tutorials, and more recipes in a format that’s simple and effective. My goal is to make homesteading as simple as it can be for you, so you can meet your goals and get in your homesteading groove. Plus, Blogger Blueprint will be coming back in January or February. Stay tuned– it’s gonna be good.
All in all? 2015 wasn’t easy, but I wouldn’t trade it. The lessons we learned were invaluable, and believe it or not, I think we bonded even more as a family throughout all the craziness. The opportunities were plentiful this year, and I’m thankful for every single one of them.
And you know what else I’m thankful for?
YOU.
The community here on The Prairie Homestead has become even more special to me this year. Thank you for supporting our family and homestead by purchasing ebooks and essential oils, among other things. Thank you for the tips and tricks you share with me via email and comments. Thank you for the overwhelming amount of love, and prayers you showed when Prairie Boy had his scary eye ordeal. And thank you for the happy well wishes you wrote when Prairie Baby was born.
This wouldn’t be possible without you and we appreciate you all more than you know.
So Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and all that good stuff. Here’s to a 2016 filled with lots of adventure, lessons to be learned, and mason jars, of course.
I can’t wait to see what is in store for the blog in 2016! I’ve been a reader for a while and you, your family, and your homestead have gotten me very interested in homesteading.
Congratulations on the new baby and addition on the house! I can relate to what you’ve said about sub-contractors and reliability, unfortunately.
It does seem like you’ve had a busy year. I hope you have a fulfilling 2016!
It sure has been quite a year for you! We’ve had a crazy year as well, leaving our city life behind and moving into a fifth wheel to start homesteading. It’s crazy exciting though 🙂 Can’t wait to see what you have in store for 2016!
Merry Christmas to you and your family. I enjoy reading your blog and the ideas you give me.
Congratulations on your new baby!…and congratulations on your homeschool endeavor! I bopped over to your homeschool post, but couldn’t leave a comment there so I just wanted to say here that it sounds like you’re doing a great job. Kindergarten should be a time of creativity, exploration and imaginative play. There’s plenty of time over the next twelve years to increase expectations. Be sure to read aloud from a quality book everyday even if all else fails.
I agree with one of the other commenters about checking into a Charlotte Mason education. It has revolutionized our homeschool. I’ve had a complete paradigm shift on thinking about child rearing and education.
Blessings in the New Year,
Melissa
I have a goat question and I am hoping you may have an idea for me. We have dwarf nigerian who had babies 9 weeks ago and the babies went to their new homes this week. This was their first freshing. Here is my question. I have been milking for a few days. At first I was only going to do once a day and I was getting about 3 cups each doe. I decided to go to twice a day milking and now I am getting 8 oz each. Will this increase or is it better to do once day milking? Also, did you pasturize? Were undecided on pasturize or not to pasturize. Thanks for any advice you might have. We have been homesteading for just over a year and it always feels like a learning curve. Thanks!
We too have NDG and we milk twice a day. We have only been doing this (homesteading/goats) for 1.5 years.
Your does were used to “getting milked” all day long (with the kids). When you went to once a day their bodies may have decided they didn’t need to produce as much. Not really sure since we milk twice a day.
Are you giving them enough to eat on the stand. Milk production requires extra calories and lots of water.
Once a day milking is something people do. Here is a great article on it: http://gianacliscaldwell.com/2013/07/27/once-a-day-milking-a-viable-option-for-quality-of-life/
First time fresheners are more difficult because you don’t have a history of what to expect. I would make sure they have plenty of grain/alfalfa on the stand and milk every 12 hours.
love hearing about your year – thanks for sharing what’s going on with your family 🙂 yay for changes, challenges … and GRACE!
Thank you for sharing. Your little family is making memories to last a life time. I homesteaded during the 60’s and 70’s and homeschooled. My children loved it and so did I; it has filled my mind with the happiest memories of my life; even with all the difficulties (digging water lines by hand, living in a partially finished house with no indoor plumbing, working long, long hours….). We raised goats and had all kinds in those days. Lots of multiple births. The Nubians and Alpines were my favorites…oh, and the Toggenburgs and Saanens…..I guess I like all the goats. Keep on with it. “Just keep swimming.” Lovely new baby and the prairie….and garden seed catalogs give us added hope for the New Year and the spring to come. I hope all is well. Kathie at Prairie Cottage Corner.
Excellent wrap up. Looks like a normal life to me. Ups, downs. sideways….its all good.
We’ve been doing meat chickens for five years. We are not experts by any stretch. But I would love to share with you some of the lessons we learned. We do fifty meat chickens every year.
We built Salatin-style chicken tractors. We decreased the amount of galvanized tin (you can see pics on our blog: http://homesteadexperiment.blogspot.com/search?q=chicken+tractor) and used 1×2’s instead of 2×4’s which made it easier for me to move. As you can see from our blog, we enclosed our tractors in solar powered electric fence. We had used different types of predation control, which always was overcome by the sneaky little varmints. If you are raising for sale, this is crucial. I have lots more to share but don’t want to put it here in case it doesn’t interest you.
We built a tub style plucker, ala Herrick Kimball: http://whizbangplucker.blogspot.com/. Best thing we’ve ever done. Along with kill cones and a trash can scalder, makes butchering day a breeze. We use a large oval galvanized water tank as a soaking zone and in the spring it doubles as a brooder. We sterilize it in between with Shaklee’s Basic G. We also use Shaklee’s Basic H as a surfactant in the scalder water. Works great.
We use poultry shrink wrap bags as it reduces any freezer burn and when we sell a few or give a few away, they look more professional. We get them from Mr. Kimball as well.
The first few years we bought Cornish cross’s from McMurray’s hatchery. We were very satisfied. Except it bothered us that the chickens were not sustainable. So we switched a few years ago to their Pioneer, which is a hybrid, but we’ve been hatching our own every spring and some of the hens go to be layers and the rest are meat birds. The roosters end up being 7-8 pounds and are very tasty.
We use the feet, gizzard, livers, hearts, and necks for soups and stock and special treats. We compost the feathers, blood and remainder of the entrails.
About 1/3 of the chickens I parse up and make bags for the freezer. You can use the shrink bags as freezer bags to do that as well. I then freeze the carcass’ and in the winter, make a ton of soup/stew or stock. We LOVE chicken pot pie. I have gotten very good at making them and freezing them. Just like Marie Callender! Only homemade and very fresh tasting despite being frozen.
I also recommend a good thermometer (I use a Pampered Chef with probe type) and long, water and heat proof gloves for scalding. We use Wells Lamont gloves.
You will need very sharp knifes and a very good sharpener on hand as you will need to sharpen them frequently. We use tin snips for the neck. Saves the knives.
We were fortunate and were able to obtain stainless steel prep tables with holes for putting offal and other things into. We use LOTS of buckets. The only other thing I wish we had was running water. We use the hose for the plucker but some running water for the gutting table would be superb.
I made a list of equipment and temperatures after the first time and put it on my phone. Have tweaked it once and every year we refer to it prior to set up. Makes life simpler.
Oh, one more thing, we just invested in large poultry transport cages (we raise turkeys too) and have different size cones for the ranges in size.
Good luck with all your endeavors. I thoroughly enjoy your newsletters and blog. Loved your brine recipe. Best turkey we’ve had yet.
Cheers,
Pam Baker
One more thing, despite our best efforts, we sometimes are troubled with invisible bird mites and so we have made a habit of both wearing waterproof aprons and then completely removing our clothing and washing them in hot water immediately. We have tried diatomaceous earth but they birds don’t seem to get what it is for.
Always something to work on!
Pam
I’m so excited to see everything you share on this blog in 2016! Really enjoying following your journey! Best wishes for a happy new year!
This city girl LOVES your blog – I get to live vicariously through you. I daydream about life the way you live it!! Thank you for sharing your journey and family! Sure hope you add even more pics this coming year. { hint, hint 😉 }
Blessings and best wishes for a New Year that goes the way you plan!
I always enjoy reading your blog. Even as an oldtimer, I am still learning from you. Your family is precious and your lifestyle, even though it is difficult, is much to be envied. Keep up the good work and will enjoy reading your blog in 2016. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOURS.
I absolutely love reading your blog! You have a wonderful family and a great lifestyle! It takes me back to the days when my hubby and I raised our three kiddos on our ranch in SE Montana. Wishing you all the best in 2016!
When you say use hay I use straw as hay is twice as expensive where I live.
Also as to breeding cattle please look at some of the English breads. I heard a professor speak once saying the old breeds are looking at extinction as everyone thinks they have to have Angus beef. It would be great if you could find one or two that could live in your area. The meats are very different tasting according to the talk I heard. \
Enjoy your blog immensely. Thanks so much for all your work keeping us updated on your homesteading life. Hope you have a wonderful 2016 without too much excitement. Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! The girls (our four chickens) and I love your blog. Thanks for giving me the courage to just start things that I have been dreaming about. Fresh eggs in the morning are pretty wonderful. My reluctant husband has turned into Mr. Chicken building the coop and even chicken couches. The girls are so funny to watch. We are blessed in Ohio to have things a little easier climate wise. Looking forward to expanding our garden this coming year trying your deep mulch idea.
Jill, I am wrapping up 2015 over at http://www.modernmissouripioneers.blogspot.com I am referencing a post you did a couple years ago; https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2013/05/you-cant-do-it-all-5-tips-for-staying-sane-as-you-homestead.html I can’t make a comment there, so I just wanted to say thank you. You are a role model to me as I progress into the blog world with our lifestyle. It’s been a year of challenges on our front as well, and I enjoy my time I get to spend with your family and watch the lessons learned over at your place.
There’s nothing like a new baby! What joy.
Can’t wait to hear how the meat chickens go – I’m sure it will be fun, challenging and entertaining! We have raised them several times – ugh & ugh… Taste great- and super easy if you can keep the woodland critters from eating your chicken dinners!
Homeschooling is a blessing- it’s gets easier as they get older.
Urggghg Jill, whatta year for you, my friend! Thank you for sharing your fears and vulnerabilities and your successes and failures. Oh, and raising meat birds? You’ve got this. I learned something cool from my meat birds this year, by the way, if you don’t mind my sharing my post:
http://vomitingchicken.com/my-new-chicken-tractor-brand-new-digs-for-the-meat-chooks/
Oooh… sounds intriguing!
It does amaze me how much we accomplish but how little we feel like we did. The list of to-do’s is always longer than the list of done(s). I’m desperately hoping our sainfoin takes so I can get one of your calves. 😉