Futures

In additional to raising my little sheep for wool, I hope someday to add chickens back to our yard. With luck, that will be this Spring.

According to my parents, Ken and I will take over their property when they either no longer can manage the place or they pass on. I'm hoping they will let us start expanding our efforts to be more self-sustaining over the next couple of years. One thing I want to do this Spring is be the orchard back on track and plant some asparagus plants over there. I'm tempted to install other vegetables over there, but I'm concerned about the time commitment at this point with my job.

My mom has a lovely flower garden surrounding her pool and told me today her goal is to get the shady part in the wooded area near there, to become beautifully filled with woodland type flowers and plants.

I am going to attempt a strawbale garden here at my current home this Spring. If I can figure out how to grow potatoes successfully, I will feel confident that we can grow enough food to survive should something terrible happen to our world. I do plan to order seeds for a homesteading garden this winter.

I hope eventually to take over the three open acres where my parents live and raise a a milk cow along with a few dual purpose sheep. And someday I really, really want to get my own dairy cow. I may go with a Jersey for milk to start and hope that her first calf is a male so we can eat him. There are enough woods there, I can probably tuck a pig into a pen back there and get all the pork we could ever use.

Ultimately (and this is a big dream as I'm not a spring chicken anymore), I would like to get my hands on a section of land around the corner from Mom & Dad's that has about 5 acres open and 23 acres in woodland. The biggest challenge with this piece of land is the steep hills in the woods running down the backside of it and the lack of potable water on the property now. Fortunately, I do know someone who has a tractor and the ability to run it who could install a pond for me.

And perhaps, should things go very, very bad out in the world; my boys could come home and be sustained by the farm. But that, of course, would be up to them.