Hello everyone!
Goodness, it’s been a hot minute since I hopped on here.
With the insanity surrounding the holiday season, and the chores
and projects and everything else piling up, it was a necessary break.
Even so, I didn’t slow down with making any videos, so if
you’re interested in checking out what I was up to the last few weeks, you can
check it out here
Just because it’s winter doesn’t mean that the life of a
homesteader slows down! There are several things you can do during this time to
prepare for Spring.
My go-to winter projects fall under three categories:
Preparing for Spring
Starting seeds isn’t quite necessary right at the moment,
since we are still in January. It’s normally safe to move plants outside in May
in the zone we live in, so I generally wait until late February or mid-March to
start most of my seeds inside. But if you have an excessively short growing
season, now might be a good time to plant longer growing plants, like tomatoes
and many types of squash and melon. I’m actually tempted to start a couple
watermelon plants now, since our growing period is just long enough to tease me
every year into thinking my plants will produce, and then a cold snap will kill
the plants just short of the fruit becoming ripe enough to eat.
Since I still have time before starting seeds, I take the
time to go through what I have and order seeds that are running low or have run
out. You could also use this time to start shopping for fruit and nut trees and
for poultry. Right now is the perfect time for this, because you’re beating the
rush of orders once the weather starts to turn nice.
Since a lot of us are more confined to inside the house and
are cooking more, it’s also a great time to start a compost heap. This time of
year also offers a lot of moisture for us, so I don’t have to worry about consistently
wetting the compost. The biggest problem I face is whether or not I can
actually get to the heap, since mine is situated in a spot where winds push
through and create huge snow drifts and berms during heavy precipitation.
Maintenance and repairs
If you have a chicken coop, rabbit hutch, or fencing, now is
a good time to do some mending of any damage. It’s also a good idea to
winterize your coop or hutches to protect your animals from harsh weather. This
can be anything from stacking hay bales on top of or around the coop and
hutches, or adding plastic sheets as wind and moisture barriers. I added a heat
lamp to my chicken coop to encourage the birds to roost in a particular area
that was more protected from the weather.
This is also a good time to check out your pots and raised
beds, if you have any. Check them for cracks, weak points, and areas that need
to be repaired so they’re ready for Spring planting.
Just like fencing, tools also need to be repaired
occasionally. Sharpening, cleaning, and repairing your tools will help them
last longer and replacing old or broken ones with new right now is also ideal,
since there should be some in stock. Again, by doing this now, you’re missing
the early spring rush.
Learning new skills
Even with all the things listed above, you’ll still probably
still have plenty of down-time. I use mine to learn new skills.
Winter is generally the only time of the year when I break
out the sewing and knitting projects, since I’m too busy or it’s too warm to
work on them the rest of the year. You’ll also see me with a stack of homesteading
guidebooks and my notebook, working on garden planning and strategizing for
upcoming projects.
Since winter is a cooler season in most place, a couple
other skills to test out would be cheesemaking, canning, and soapmaking. You need
cooler temperatures for cheese and soapmaking during the aging period, and
canning is always a hot job to take on in the kitchen.
If you have any animals, they'll all still need to be fed and watered during the winter! Potentially even more than before, so be sure to keep that in mind when planning where to keep your animals. Because of where I built my chicken coop, I have to trudge through a snowdrift almost every day during the winter to feed and water them and collect their eggs.
I hope this gave you a good idea of some things you can
expect to do if you plan on making any changes toward becoming a homesteader. It’s
a lot of work and dedication, but so far it’s been incredibly rewarding.
Thank you all so much for checking out my blog, I hope you have
a freaking awesome rest of your week, and I’ll catch you next time!
-Alyx
