2016 Accomplishments

At the beginning of the year I sat out a list of things we were going to try to get done. You can find that here.

As I write this I recognize that I completely and utterly failed on getting gutters installed. Along with cisterns, ponds, and tree planting - though I did order in all the supplies and seeds, so we'll try that again in the spring. I was pretty pissed at what I didn't done until I sat down and wrote out what we did get finished. Overall we moved the ball forward quite a bit this year.

Here's a list of what we did get accomplished:

1. Moved Andrea and the Reds to Texas with possessions and Pug dog intact. A special thank you to Bill and Diane who were gracious enough to drive the Reds to a memorial service for their great grandparents in Michigan, and then on down to Texas.
2. Bill built two spa benches after arriving in Texas.
3. Built Andrea a Farm Table and bought the wood working tools to go with it as a Mother's Day/Birthday Present.
4. Built a kitchen island that turned out awesome.
5. Got a great deal on two top bar beehives and will try to add bees come spring.
6. Found a really good looking registerable, full blooded Belted Galloway Bull.
7. Went in halfsies on a shorthorn steer that will be in the freezer next fall.
8. Bought a Red Wattle barrow and a Red Wattle/Duroc cross barrow. Sold 2 halves and put the rest in the freezer.
9. Got 6 paddocks set up and working.
10. Figured out how to better ground the electric fence and had 0 breakouts this year.
11. 20+ broiler chickens put up.
12. 25+ laying hens raised and should start laying in March 2016
13. Bought and installed a pellet stove to keep the house Africa hot for Andrea during the winter.
14. Bought a large smoker.
15. Bought a tractor, shredder, disk, hay fork, blade, and plow.
16. Bought a cattle trailer.
17. Bought a car hauler to haul our vehicles as they age and inevitably break down. :-)
18. Bought a four wheeler.
19. Picked up a aerator, sprayer, and seed spreader from a generous co-worker.
20. Bought organically grown hay from two neighbors and put up 18 bales for winter.
21. Bought several new farms tools, pull ax, pitchfork, etc.
22. Andrea picked up a used washer and dryer.
23. Let a buddy use my Seqouia and got a small deep freeze in exchange.
24. Worm bin.
25. Put in a clothesline for Andrea.
26. Composted a ton of grass clippings.
27. Picked up a large deep freeze and filled it with meat we raised.
28. Added two additional garden beds for the 2017 garden.
29. Found a compost supplier locally and brought in and spread 8 inches of compost on all the beds.
30. Raised 2 hogs successfully and have greatly enjoyed reading them.

2017 Goals will go up soon.