Letter from a Prepper Couple – 10 New Goals for the New Year.

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Our Goals for this New Year.

#1 Get internet – After three months of going to McDonald’s every time we needed to use the internet (seems a little counterproductive to what we are trying to do with food) we tried to get AT&T to hook us up.  Unfortunately, the serviceman came out only to tell us that we lived too far away from the internet to work.  Needless to say, order canceled. We may have to get creative!

As penance for our sins, we promise to perfect a farm to table McNugget once things getting rolling.

#2 Milk our goat – Due to Ginger’s lack of widening over the last few months we are fairly certain she is not pregnant.  We haven’t noticed her coming into heat through either, so we could be surprised!  Gracie, on the other hand, is showing all of the tell-tale signs of carrying a kid so hopefully on March 1st, we will be getting our first sip of goat’s milk!

#3 Mealworms – We are hoping to start a mini mealworm farm to help feed our chickens.  With the addition of 39 chicks in December, we are going to need all of the wormies we can get!

#4 Outdoor lighting – We currently have no outdoor lighting.  Our Front porch light was broken within a week of our moving in and we have been using flashlights and lanterns ever since.  Seems like such a simple task to prioritize, but after putting out the daily fires associated with farm life it is easy to forget!

#5 Hatch our own eggs – We are hoping to be able to hatch our own eggs for our new Ameraucanas, Cochins, Buff Orpingtons, RIRs, and silkies!  We will have to see how our straight run chicks develop and try to supplement with more hens and roos as needed.

#6 Meat Birds – After a good friend let us borrow Joel Salatin’s book Pastured Poultry for Profits (a highly recommended read!) I felt empowered to make the leap.  We are already doing research on how we want to start 50 birds for our personal use and hopefully take orders to raise birds for our friends and neighbors!

#6 More Pigs – Michael has become quite the hog farmer and I am so proud by all of the work he has put into them.  He hopes to have 10 pigs next round and I am hoping to have 6.  We will see where the compromise is!  I have no room to complain since he carries the heavy buckets of feed every morning and night, fills their water, and scratches their ears, all while I sit in the warmth of the house watching.  There seems to be quite a bit of interest in this first round of happy hogs, so the plan is to scale up a bit!

#7 Our Garden – Our current pigs have been tilling and fertilizing our garden for us all fall and I am getting excited about the harvest we will be seeing in a few months!  Last year our garden was destroyed by a gang of heartless thugs (also known as groundhogs) so we will be taking extensive preventative measures this year.  We have ordered a fat envelope full of heirloom, non-GMO, organic seeds that I am excited to put in the ground.

#8 Rabbits – Michael is itching for additional meat sources to help push us on our way to sustainability.  With rabbits propensity for quick reproduction and development of lean meat, a breeding trio can actually produce more meat in a year than a steer would.  I am struggling a little bit with fluffy tails and cute twitching noses, but I have been promised to be spared from the butchering process until I feel more comfortable.

#9 Be generous – We are hoping to create enough food to be able to share! Once we’re getting some delicious return from this project we’ll be able to build some baskets throughout the season to spread the love with some folks. I think that the hard work we put into developing the sustainability of our practices is incredibly important. With that being said, I believe that sharing our food and our story is even more important when it comes to affecting the way that we, and hopefully others, connect to the food we eat.

#10 Get Married – Michael is the love of my life.  I could go on for pages with mushy feelings about his hard-working spirit, his passion, his dedication, his wonderful hugs, how good he looks in overalls, and his sweet smile, but I will spare you!  Although getting married to your fiancé seems like a silly goal, as homesteaders (which double as firefighters since there are always fires that need putting out) taking the time and money to separate yourself from your farming ventures requires effort.  We have already been engaged for 4 months with minimal planning and since Michael doesn’t want to budge on his dream date of September 2017, we have our work cut out for us!  I can’t wait for the day when we stand with only our immediate family in a beautiful outdoor location to pledge our lives to each other.

We would love to hear about your goals or resolutions for the coming year!  Comment below or send us a message to share, we would love to chat about it.

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