Homestead Goals

Happy New Year! Have you set some homestead goals for the new year? The world is divided into two types of people, those that set goals and those that don’t. I am the first type. I live for goals and lists. If you are looking for some homestead goal inspiration or how to set some achievable homestead goals this year, then you’ve come to the right place! Check out my homestead goals and how I create them.

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Too Many Homestead Goals

In college I would sit down and write out goals for every aspect of my life. Health, hobbies, personal development, finances, religion, and skill development. Then I would break each goal into twelve baby steps so that I could assign each month a baby step. Then I would make calendars, schedules, checklists, and journals to help me organize and achieve my many goals. Only once did I ever follow through with even one of the goals. There was too much to focus on at one time.

Although I was writing SMART goals, I was writing too many of them. This left me feeling overwhelmed and unmotivated, so therefore nothing was accomplished. This is how I approach most things in life. We moved out of the city and on to some land this summer. I immediately started making plans for chickens, pigs, a cow, a garden, an orchard, and a fully stocked fish pond. I decided that I would raise and preserve all of our produce. Plus, I had plans of making all of our food from scratch. We had no infrastructure or fencing. I’m the queen of putting the cart before the horse with my wild ambitions.

While my ideas are great and my dreams wild, I must reel myself in once in a while. When creating my homestead goals for the year, I did just that.

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How to Write Attainable Homestead Goals

When I sit down to write homestead goals, I first list out my big goals. This is everything I want to eventually do on the homestead. These are the big things like growing most of our own food, producing all of our own eggs, and making all of our own dairy products.

Next I pick which big goal I want to work towards first. I know that having a dairy cow and making my own cheese is not going to happen anytime soon. So it doesn’t make sense to work on that goal first. I don’t even have a barn. Growing our own produce is a much quicker goal. I have some knowledge and experience already. The cost is considerably less than building a barn and buying a cow too. So, building a garden is a good place to start. This becomes my focus goal.

Then I take the focus goal and break it down into smaller pieces. These are what I call baby steps. I get down to the details on this part. For example, building a raised bed is a step in my dream garden. So is fencing it in, building a greenhouse, and adding several more beds.

Finally I decide on the first logical baby step to take. That’s it! Now I have an attainable homestead goal for the year. Check out this FREE Homestead Goals Planner!

My Homestead Goals for 2022

My homestead goals are going to be pretty simple this year. I’m still working full time, plus some, as well as blogging. I know there’s only so much I can do without getting overwhelmed and giving up. When I achieve small goals, I get excited and often do more than what I originally planned on doing anyways.

Homestead Goal 1: Put in one raised bed.

This year will be our first full year on the property. We didn’t move in until the end of July, so I missed the growing season. I had a few things in pots, but that was all I was able to manage while moving across the state and starting a new job. This year, I plan to put in a raised garden bed. I decided to only commit to a single bed for a couple of reasons. I know it is possible both financially and time wise. We likely already have enough lumber to make a single bed. Building a single bed will take less than a day to complete. Plus, I know that I can maintain a single bed. If I really wanted to get the most out of the space I could plant three gardens in it this year. One in the spring, summer, and fall.

Putting in a garden bed is a step towards my big goal of raising the majority of our own food. It also isn’t going to be too much of a learning curve because I’ve had a garden before. It is a homestead goal that I know I can achieve and will be a step towards my big goal.

Homestead Goal 2: Learn to make one new sourdough recipe.

My next homestead goal is for the kitchen. I’ve maintained and used my sourdough starter for nearly two years. Although I use it on a weekly basis, I tend to stick with waffles and biscuits because they don’t require any brain power. I’m hoping to expand my recipe box this year. This goal won’t necessarily take a lot of extra time, but will require some extra thought. I’ll need to decide on something to make and start testing recipes until I find one that I really like. Sourdough English muffins are begging to become a household staple.

My big goal is to make most of our breads and baked goods. Obviously that can’t happen overnight. It can’t happen in a year without a lot of free time and some serious dedication. I have neither, so making a new sourdough recipe into a staple is the best I can do right now.

Homestead Goal 3: Learn to can tomato sauce.

It never fails that when I plant tomatoes, I go way overboard. The girl that hates tomatoes somehow determines that she needs five tomato plants. That means I make a lot of tomato sauce when harvest time comes around. It is the only acceptable to eat tomatoes. Currently, I freeze all of the tomato sauce. I had no pantry in the old house, so it worked well. That is until the deep freeze went out. At the new house, I’ve got a big pantry and no deep freeze. Therefore this homestead goal came about out of pure necessity.

Eventually I would like to be preserving what I worked so hard to grow in the garden. Canning has always made me a bit nervous. This year, I am determined to can tomatoes and prove to myself that it is safe to eat.