+ January is the month for purchasing! I pre-ordered all of my chicks and ducklings (two sets of 150 broilers, 20 hens and 15 ducks!), with the first bunch arriving in mid-March. I also ordered a ton of seeds, onion bunches, potato tubers, a few pepper starts for May arrival, and even a mushroom growing kit! We also bought straw for the pigs. It’s always hard to put up so much money on the front end, but I know it all pays off.
+ I started the big planning process: sketching out crop placements, figuring out what seeds to start and when, and envisioning any potential projects. The fire in my belly for farming is coming alive again. I can’t wait to begin.
+ I also started constructing my DIY version of a very expensive seed starting system. I may need a few more lights, but I’m so pumped about the set up. I now have enough room to start 500+ seeds at one time!
+ Farm story of the month: We have our two pigs together in a permanent pen for winter. Before we moved them in, we were supposed to fill the bottom with 24+” of wood chips. The idea is that you’re creating a “carbonaceous diaper” (a Joel Salatin term) using deep bedding materials to soak up all of the pigs’ waste products through the winter. Well…we were feeling pretty burnt out by this point last fall and only filled the pen to about 6″. And man oh man, do I regret that. We definitely didn’t think this one through! A good farm is a non-smelly farm so we quickly needed more carbon products to cover manure. And with no excess supply, that meant we had to start using the wood chip pathway around the food forest/garden. Although I would be totally justified in sobbing at all of the wasted work, I’ve actually been quite unhappy with the wood chip pathway and this was the perfect excuse to pull it out. So that’s a lot of what I’ve been up to this month: shoveling wood chips from the paths and flinging them into the pig pen. Here’s hoping I have enough to last us until March, when they go back on pasture!
+ Our chickens started laying in odd, inconvenient spots, like in with the straw bales and under the front porch. We gave them about a week of forced morning time in the coops and they quickly remembered the correct place to lay. I much prefer collecting eggs from the nesting boxes than playing hide-and-seek all over the property.
+ I started laying the foundation for a hugelkultur bed, an idea I’ve been intrigued by and want to try out on a small scale. We still have so many poplar logs from the storm last summer and I think this is a great way to use them. We’ll see how this goes.
+ We’ve been selling our eggs to a few friends. The price of eggs at the store is crazy right now so people think we’ve got a great deal. (And for free-range non-GMO organic eggs, we definitely do!) One more little financial avenue to paying off the mortgage.
+ Lastly, I decided to start an “accomplishment journal” for the farm. Last year, I constantly felt behind or incompetent and never really acknowledged how much I achieved. So for 2023, I’ve started using a wall calendar to jot down the things I do each day. Definitely a confidence booster.
The smell is one of the big reasons my hubby refuses to let me get pigs! Wood chips for free have been harder for us to get this last year as more people are getting on the list for our local power company/tree trimming crews. Our chicken pen is in serious need of more wood chips.!!
I am always impressed by how much you are accomplishing on your little farm! You do a great job! and i only see what you post on the blog.
According to Joel Salatin, a variety of carbon sources is ideal, so I’ve been adding in used straw and other random weeds and things from around the property. Getting creative around here, ha! Thankfully, once they’re out on pasture, the smell is practically non-existent.
Keeping a list of accomplishments is such a good idea. The day to day grind of motherhood, let alone homesteading, can make it tough to see what actually HAS happened.
Yes! Totally agree.
The accomplishment journal is such a great idea!
I have never gotten into seed starting primarily because I have never been organized enough to count backwards to figure out when to start…. not to mention not having the set up for lights and trays etc. Your simple chart of when to plant each pack was like ‘facepalm’ – how could I be overthinking this or not getting how easy it looks!! We moved some racks around our basement and I may be able to start some this year. We will see.
So excited for you! You’ll have to let me know what varieties you plant!