With a new year just a few days away, now is the time to set 2024 goals for your homestead and plan for ways to increase your self-sufficiency! In this article, I will outline what my 4 goals are for this upcoming year to reduce waste and create more products from scratch!
A look back at 2023:
In 2023, I started to educate myself more about modern day homesteading and what opportunities I would realistically be able to incorporate into my life. With a long commute being a routine part of my life, a major way I took to learning was through listening to Podcasts. There are a few that have really stuck with me, that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in learning more about homesteading and self-sufficiency. My top 3 would be:
- Simple Farmhouse Life. A podcast by Lisa Bass from Farmhouse on Boone
- Homesteaders of America: The Homesteaders of America Podcast – Homesteaders of America
- Pioneering Today by Melissa K. Norris
As I reflect on 2023, I realize that I made a lot of progress in achieving my unwritten goals of being more sustainable and self-sufficient. I have been creating what I am going to go ahead and call a “halfway homestead.” This year I water bath canned well over 150 jars, to include roughly 300 pounds of tomatoes! I freezer preserved peas, made from scratch pesto, and homemade jellies. Countless sourdough loafs, muffins, and cookies we made, and I even made my first batch of tallow balm. Despite all this, I realized I need to be intentional and really outline some 2024 homestead goals for myself. Goals are important to continue to propel forward on your homesteading journey.
Tips for Setting Goals
For those of you who don’t routinely set goals, I will give you a few tips to get you started as you read through my goals for the year. Remember, goals should follow the “SMART” methodology. This is something I learned in nursing school that is really universally helpful. Make sure your goal is Specific. Measurable. Achievable. Realistic, and Time Sensitive. If you consider all of these when setting your intentions for the year, you’re more likely to achieve it! Another lesson I have learned from being a little TOO ambitious. The biggest competition for achieving your goal is… all of your other goals! Keep focus and think baby steps! Okay, now to get on with it. Here are my top 4 goals to become more self-sufficient!
1. First 2024 Homestead Goal: Get a Garden Established
This one may come as a surprise after I just shared that I canned significant amount of produce this past year. We actually moved in the middle of this past year, and most of my bounty of produce came from my in-laws garden or local farms in the area. Over a year ago, my husband and I scored 200 feet of 8 foot deer fencing at a yard sale, and have been hanging on to it to finally be able to create a forever garden space. I am so excited that 2024 will be the year! We already drove posts into the ground to create a 50X40 enclosed garden space outline. I look forward to sharing the progress and we transform this space in our field into what we hope to be a personal grocery store!
2. Plant Fruit Trees
I mentioned that we moved this last year. What I didn’t mention is that we now live on a piece of beautiful land that was used for farming prior to us moving here. That means that there was not a single tree on the property. My family loves fruit (and I mean, who doesn’t?).
While I know that planting a fruit tree this year won’t lead to me to a bountiful harvest come fall time, I do know that it will make me 1 year closer. We haven’t fully decided on variety, or number of trees, but I do know we are looking forward to at least one apple, one pear, and probably a cherry tree too!
3. Make all shampoo, conditioner, and body soap from scratch.
Growing up my mom made a lot of soap. I’ll be honest, as a kid, I had almost no appreciation of this hobby she chose to take up. Fortunately for me, she was still willing to teach my sister and I how to make soap from scratch when we finally got enough sense about us to understand the value of homemade soap. For about the last 4 months I have been exclusively been using body soap bars made from scratch with locally sourced goat milk. I also switched from my very expensive shampoo and conditioner, to using the more sustainable bar option. I have been searching the internet for recipes and have the supplies ordered and on their way to test some new shampoo bar recipes!
For those wondering why this is something that hits the top of my list, I will share that the more I research and understand the chemicals used in most beauty products in America, the more horrified I am at the negative health effects including the hormone disruption that occurs. Knowing every ingredient I put on my body, and well as my child’s is a high priority for the new year!
4. Last 2024 Homestead Goal: Bring on the Quail!
Okay, so I’ll be honest here. I’m not a bird fan. I know people love their chickens, turkeys, ducks, and yes, quail. I am not one of those people. While I do love the idea of this, and will gladly take farm fresh eggs any day of the week, I am a little bit afraid of birds. I am going to continue to blame this on a childhood experience. When I was a kid visiting my friends house, one of the family’s ducks flew over and bit me. I know it sounds dramatic, but I really do get quite skittish around birds.
For most people, introducing chickens might be their one of their very first “no-brainer” 2024 homestead goals. For me, adding animals to our daily responsibilities was something I took seriously. This year though, I decided I am in that place that I really would like to introduce some productive animals to our property. I have been researching quail quite a bit, and my husband has finally given the green light too! This spring I will be focusing on creating a suitable enclosure, getting the necessary supplies, and conquering my fears! I am hopeful we may even be able to add a few chickens, because this is obviously a great way to become more self-sufficient. Wish me luck!
Think about YOUR 2024 Homestead and Self-Sufficiency Goals!
I hope that this post and hearing about my goals for 2024 inspired you to set some goals for yourself. There are lots of ways you can become more self-sufficient, so get your wheels turning! Living the homestead dream doesn’t happen overnight, so think baby steps. I hope you check out future posts as I share my progress and journey in achieving my 2024 homestead goals!
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