Happy New Year! Have you set some homesteading 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 and live by goals and lists. If you are looking for some homesteading goal inspiration or how to set some achievable homesteading goals for 2023, then you’ve come to the right place! Check out my homesteading goals for 2023.
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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. When we moved out of the city and on to some land. 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 homesteading goals for 2023, I did just that. I’ve learned how to set homesteading goals that are attainable.
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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 attainable homesteading goals for 2023. Check out this FREE Homestead Goals Planner!
Looking Back My Homesteading Goals for 2022
Last year I set three homesteading goals. I tried to blog about these three goals as I accomplished them as a way to hold myself accountable. In total transparency, I only met two of the goals.
Put in a raised bed.
In early spring, my husband built a raised garden bed. I started some seeds indoors and was able to fill the garden with vegetables. Despite a cold spring and a dry summer, I was able to get some produce from the garden.
Learn to make one new sourdough recipe.
Although I have been making sourdough for several years, I was in a rut as far as recipes. This year I learned how to make sourdough English muffins and fruit pizza. I also tested tortillas, bread, chocolate chip muffins, and crackers.
Learn to can tomato sauce.
This was the goal that I didn’t achieve. I had planned to use the tomatoes from my garden to make the tomato sauce to be canned. Unfortunately my garden didn’t produce the tomato crop I had anticipated. I didn’t even get a tomato until October. By then, it was about to freeze. The tomatoes should have grown to a large size, instead they only reached the size of cherry tomatoes. I got one small bowl of tiny tomatoes. Hopefully next year’s crop will be better and I can learn to can tomato sauce as part of my homesteading goals for 2023.
FREE Homestead Goals Worksheet
My Homesteading Goals for 2023
Master a sourdough bread recipe.
I have been testing a recipe for sourdough bread. It is an artisan loaf and tastes amazing. Although I’ve made several of these loaves, I am still tweaking the recipe. This year my goal is to master the recipe so that I can share it and make a consistently good loaf. The flour to water ratio is finally right, but now it’s the temperature and bake time.
Put in an herb garden.
This year all of my herbs were in pots. I planted them in pots when we moved and haven’t been able to plant them back in the ground since then. My homesteading goal for 2023 is to make an herb garden to put them all in, plus a few new ones. With my interest in herbal medicine, I’m ready to expand my herbs beyond the pots. We’ve started building a bed, but there’s a long way to go before I can plant anything.
Keep chickens.
Of all of my homesteading goals for 2023, this is the big one. I’ve finally talked my husband into letting me get chickens. He is going to build a chicken tractor this spring. I will incubate and hatch eggs with my preschool class and then keep the chicks. I’m hoping to have enough eggs that I no longer need to buy them from the store.
FREE Homestead Goals Worksheet
The site may contain links to affiliate websites, and we receive an affiliate commission for any purchases made by you on the affiliate website using such links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. As a Revive EO Affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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