I'm a lover of nature, animals, gardening, growing, food, all things simple and sustainable. I'm sure this started from how I was raised, my mom had the biggest gardens, she grew so much, preserved, I remember meat chickens. Oh the strawberry garden, I remember going out in the early summer mornings and picking a few quarts of fresh strawberries for your morning cereal. Fantastic memories to have as a kid.
It was natural for me to become a gardener, I had watched my mom do it my whole life, not only with a vegetable garden but also with her flowers, she still to this day has the most beautiful gardens, that bloom all summer. All through my adult life I have enjoyed both vegetable and flower gardening, I often joke it's my therapy, it truly is my happy spot. In the last few years, especially how the world has looked I have taken it more serious each year, and put more thought into how we provide and source our food. Last year was certainly my biggest year not only growing vegetables but also growing my first batch of meat chickens, we officially had 21 we put in the freezer, nothing short of amazing in my eyes.
So can I really say this is homesteading, maybe, it's defiantly not traditional homesteading, so that's why I'm leaning towards modern homesteading, I do love all the modern amenities we have these days. So I have talked myself into needing to have a farm animal with 4 legs for me to officially be able to call this place a homestead, Ha! I'll be honest it wasn't hard for me to talk myself into this conclusion.
We are going with sheep. They mow my grass, they can be easy going, they have wool, I love crafting!, they are the cutest, they have great manure I can add to my gardens and they don't eat everything. Its a win win. Lots to still get done before we welcome sheep but the plan is there and everyone is very excited.
I have some big goals this year with our property soon to be officially called our modern homestead lol I want to triple our meat bird production, increase of laying hen flock so we are achieve 2 cartons of eggs a day, that leaves plenty of room to sell eggs each week, bring sheep to the property and expand on the vegetable gardens. I also want to start keeping track of costs and really lay it out that I can find some profit making activities with in it to help cover some animal food costs. To say I'm excited is an understatement.
All these things are going to bring me such joy, education, gratification and bring us closer to sustainability.
Stay tuned for how this spring, summer and fall play out!
Cheers
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