One Year of Blogging

Today marks one year and 10 days of blogging our family adventures and what nots. We have accomplished a lot. Beautiful garden built, wood stove purchased (it was fun getting calls from the gas company asking if we needed any propane and us saying "No Thanks") and paid off (as soon as taxes come back), trees cleared around house and barn, learned how to can along with many other things.


As 2011 moves forward, so do our plans for becoming even more self sufficient. This year I fear is going to see some hard times in our state and community for many people. Gas prices are rising at a rapid rate which is not only going to make filling our vehicles painful, but it will also drive up the cost of everything else around here. I am glad we have the wood stove and our garden. We may also see some major fallout from our Governor's new budget balancing bill that he is working on. Don't get me wrong, we really need to get control of the state's budget, but the way he is going about it is going to hurt the education of our children and hurt a lot of us financially. Seeing is how he is pretty dead set on "His Way", I am going to try to plan and prepare for the worst.

Now that we have gone through one year of gardening, I know what I need to plant more of and what I need to can more of. I am going to get over my fear of pressure canning and borrow my Grandmother's pressure canner (she already gave me her hot water bath canner) that way I can can veggies and other things with a lower acidity. I am going to try and produce more potatoes so we can actually store them for the winter instead of just only getting a few meals out of them. We will have chickens so we'll have our own eggs eventually. I am going to do everything I realistically can to make us more able to be self-sufficient off of these 20 ac. we have. I will not get a cow! Here is to better days despite impending trials and tribulations, to looking for the silver lining in every situation, to having a positive & productive year with lots of learning.