I can't believe that it has been almost four years since I have added to my homesteading blog. How the (my) world changed in that time. I stopped blogging when I took a new job that I had to be at work by 4:30 in the morning and working every day of the week without a consistant day off. I just was not able to keep up with everything on the homestead, the job and the blog.
This is my attempt to get back to the mission of documenting the seasons on the homestead.
So, some of the major things that have changed for myself and my family in the last four years. I now have a Monday-Friday regular hour job, well almost. We are doing overtime right now but at least it is only 10 hours per day.
I am also a grandmother two times over. I have a two year old grandson and a brand new granddaughter. Expect that you will hear more about these two special people in our lives.
All of you are certainly aware of the changes that Covid 19 has brought about over the last year. Both my husband and I are considered essential workers so except for wearing masks, screening to enter work and such we both have worked right through the pandemic. Praise the Lord that we did not have to try to make heads or tails of the unemployment benefits during this time.
Not a lot has changed on the homestead because of the pandemic. The changes come more because both my husband and I are getting a few years older and although we never thought we would move our grandchildren live out of state. Because of that in a few years when we are able to retire we will relocate to their state, Texas. It is exciting and daunting at the same time. We have become very established here in Maine and build our homestead over the 30 years we have lived here. The thought of beginning again is fun.
There are a lot of things that we did here in Maine that we will not be able to do in Texas due to the environment. I am used to growing a garden in zone 4 and that will be so different in the Lone Star State. Hopefully what we learned here we will be able to use and improve on when we chose our new homestead.
We have continued to raise laying chickens and broilers. However this year we will not raise any meat birds. We have also not raised any pigs in a couple of years. Turkey raising stopped about 3 years ago when our butcher went out of business. It was not practical for us to butcher these large birds ourselves during the freezing late part of November here in Maine. We have cut back on the meat production due to the huge amount of meat that we currently have in our freezers. Our goal is to use up as much as possible before the move to Texas.
With all the changed in the world it has gotten so important that everyone be prepared to at lease raise part of their own food. While we take the next few years to prepare for our move we will also be focusing greatly on being able to be more sustainable for ourselves. Come back and join us in this journey.
Blessings,
Merrie