While we haven't had the animals (or ourselves) here for a full year yet, we have officially owned our homestead here in Windsor, Maine for a solid 12 months! We just wanted to take a minute and celebrate all the things we have accomplished on our path
We put in a new septic and leach field
We had the house jacked and the foundation beam replaced. Now the house won't fall in - yay!
We have begun to demo out upstairs so that I can have an office to keep farm paperwork, write my articles and pay bills. And write the blog of course!
We have added seven goats, three turkeys and numerous ducks and rabbits to our critter collection! We are also taking a bee course right now in preparation for bees this spring. We are working with a local gentleman to have our field fertilized and seed spread for more bee-loving flowers.
We build a new fence down back for summer pasture, removed a bee hive from the barn, put up a new chicken shed to give the birds more room, built a rabbit colony, did a little "fix it" on the barn and created a separate winter spot for the boys so that we didn't have any off-season babies.
We planted our first (small) garden and got our first harvest! We also raised and processed 53 chickens this spring and are planning for more in the coming year. We haven't had to go to the grocery store much at all this year!
We also began prepping for future plans! We became an official rabbitry with the American Rabbits Breeders Association, had our first litter in the new colony, developed this web site, joined the American Livestock Conservancy and are working on our official, five year business plan.
*WHEW!*
We have lots more plans for the coming year, and we hope they will involve more people! We are looking forward to raising chickens, selling chicks, canning, and having eggs for all our neighbors, near and far. We hope that at least one of us will be able to be home more often in order to keep growing, and we really hope the fairs will be running this fall so we can meet more of you in person!
May it be a wonderful next year for us all.
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