Author: melodyg

And welcome to Cedar Hollow Homestead, or welcome back if you’ve been here before. I’m hoping to share lots of things with you this year considering there’s lots on my to-do list. Which, in all honesty, is nothing new for the new year, it’s just my ever expanding to-do list that seems to be a few miles long. What is new is that I’ve been slowly rearranging my schedule to allow a bit of quiet time for myself so I can actually put together thoughts to share with everyone. Plus, we FINALLY seem to be settling into a routine here on the homestead. YAY!

As far as big homestead goals these are inked into my planner in no particular order:
1) fence as much of our property as possible and hopefully enough so we can get sheep this year
2) add onto the chicken pens so they both have an external coop and a tin roof over part of the run to collect rainwater which will fill their waterers. I have the idea solidified, sketched and planned out already. I’ve been pondering over this for about a year now and I’ve managed to work thru, what I hope is, all of the kinks by now.
3) convert Nikki’s old outgrown swing set into a chicken coop to house smaller White Leghorns that I want to get again for their awesome egg production. Something similar to this but with some changes. Instead of whatever that is at the back, I’m planning on transforming her old Little Tykes playhouse (that’s currently in another chicken run) by sitting it on a raised platform at the end of the coop and adding on some nesting boxes thru the windows and putting roosting bars inside of it. Nikki’s old swing set is bigger than this one, so it’s going to need some wheels on it so I can easily move it around the yard. I’m also going to cover the top portion with tin to give them some weather protection and collect rainwater for an automatic waterer.

4) build some raised bed planters – hubby does traditional row cropping which I absolutely cannot stand due to there being easier, better for the soil, and less time commitment ways of gardening. Now that we’re settled into this old farmhouse and property, I’ve had time to figure out just where I want to have things located so they get the attention they need. Think permaculture basics. Plus, I’ve gotten to know the lay of the property, where the sun hits at different times of day at different times of the year, and so on. I’m planning on doing something like this because I can get lots of random tin for really cheap thanks to one of hubby’s friends.

5) I really, REALLY want to transform as much of this grass yard into something that doesn’t take me hours on a riding lawnmower to cut each week. I’m slowly building mulch beds around the trees all the way out past their drip lines. So far I’ve only started on the fig tree, but I’m hoping to get all the fruit and nut trees done this year. *fingers crossed* Plus, once I get that done, I’m going to be expanding those to include a tree guild around each for beneficial edible plantings. The slow speed come from lack of funds. Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to talk hubby into buying me a wood chipper yet, and since we live so rurally, the only way I can get mulch right now is to buy it bag by bag from the store… The milage to have a truck some dump a load out here is so great that it exceeds any savings I would get from buying in bulk.

That’s it for my homestead goals for the year. I’m trying to keep them manageable.

Nikki and I also have some goals for the inside for this year. After much discussion we’ve come up with a plan. Our main focus is going to be on her bedroom and the playroom/cat’s room.

First we are going to work on her room. After getting it decluttered, we’re going to build her a stuffy zoo in the corner behind her door for a bunch of her stuffies to reside in. I already have the wood, paint, and bungee cord to build it with. Plus, with this being a 98 year old farmhouse, there’s only 1 of the 3 bedrooms that have a closet! Right now Nikki is using a freestanding shelf that has a bar to hang her clothes from. But, it’s open so it always looks cluttered. I’m hoping to find a sturdy enclosed wardrobe for her at a decent price. After that we’re going to be painting her room. I’m not sure of the background color, we talked about either white or a light sky blue, because she wants a rainbow starting in one corner, going up and across her ceiling and bursting into rainbow colored polka dots in the opposite corner of the room. The last major change in there is that she wants to get rid of the bunk beds and go back to a regular bed. I’m debating hard on building her a 4 poster bed myself. She’s already stated that she would like a bed with storage, so I’ve been mulling over the Farmhouse Storage Bed with Drawers plus altering it to be a 4 poster so I can make her a canopy also vs the Classic Storage Bed but adding a frame with 4 posters onto it as well. I think the 2nd option would be easier, but the first would give her a much-needed headboard.

The second room we are going to focus on is the 3rd bedroom in the house. It started out as her playroom, but she’s going to be 11 years old in 74 days and doesn’t really sit and play with toys that much anymore. Plus I cannot remember the last time she even touched any of the BIG Barbie houses that are in that room… I think she has 6 or 7 in there! Then when we got indoor cats (to help keep the mice out of the house – a problem for old rural farmhouses) and hubby doesn’t like them wandering around the house at night carrying on. At first I was putting them in large animal pens at night, but I really got tired of cleaning all those littler boxes, so I started just putting them in the playroom at night and shutting the door. However, since that room isn’t really being put to use, it’s also turned into a storage room of sorts. Uggggg. Sooooooo, Nikki and I have been pondering what to use that room for and we came up with a good idea. First we’re going to declutter that room and sell any of her toys she no longer wants (like those massive floor space hog Barbie houses). Then we’re going to turn it into a combination cat room and exercise room. Nikki bought a really nice used elliptical machine from her Aunt almost 2 years ago but there’s really no room to set it up yet. So we’re going to put that in there. Plus I’m keeping an eye out for a good used treadmill to also put in there. Then we’re going to buy a small tv to hang on the wall so we can watch something while in there. I’m also hoping to score something like a bowflex or similar. With this old house, I’m afraid of having a free weight set in the house being thunked around… Aside from the exercise equipment and tv, I’m hoping to build the cats some stuff in there to stimulate them – climbing areas, little bridges between wall cubbies specially for them, and such. Plus, I’m wondering if I can turn one of the walls into a custom built-in of sorts complete with a window seat… It’s hard in a small room when there’s a fireplace sitting catty-corner taking a chunk of space, plus 3 walls have windows in them. But I’m the concept I’m thinking of is basically designing a box around the entire window which would have a bench to sit on. Under the bench would be an enclosed litter box. Then the rest of the space on that wall would be a series of shelves, cubbies, and such for the cats to climb on. The wall I’m thinking of using is at the far end of the house which juts out (which is how there’s windows on 3 walls) and it’s the only wall that’s not connected to Nikki’s bedroom or the hallway so we wouldn’t hear them banging around as much at nighttime when it’s quiet.

Other than that, we have our usual going ons.

In Girl Scouts, we’re busy getting ready for Girl Scout cookie time!!! Presales actually start today, but I’m trying to finish up some last minute paperwork before we get started. We get the actual cookies right around the beginning of February. This year we’re a bit better planned for the demand in our area and Nikki has set some lofty goals. She wants to sell 3,000 boxes so she get’s the trip to Sea World down in Florida. Last year, we weren’t really prepared and had to keep making the 3 hour round trip to council to get more cookies to meet demand. She still managed to sell 1,369 boxes though!!! Plus, at the end of the school year, she bridges up from a Junior to a Cadette.

Don’t get me started on the end of the school year… OMG!!! My little girl is finishing up 5th grade. Her reading level is still behind, but now that she’s getting the hang of phonics, she’s doing really well. It’s hard for something without dyslexia to try to teach someone with it how to read, but we’re getting it done.

Nikki is wanting to start up her own business designing stickers and other printables so we’re going to be taking that journey together. Plus, I’d like to restart reselling vintage bits and books on Etsy and eBay like I used to. Lord knows that I have more than enough in boxes in the garage building that I don’t need to buy anything for at least a year… Plus, I really want to start selling some of my upcycled makes but we’ll see.

In other news, the only other major thing is to focus on is shifting our eating habits to decrease the amount of processed foods we eat and include more nutrient dense foods into our diet. That may not sound like much, but it’s going to be a major commitment on my part both for time (planning, cooking and shopping) and cognitive process. It’s hard when all 3 people in the house have differences of what they prefer to eat… I have a nutrient dense high carb preference, plus seafood, pork, and plant-based protein preference. Nikki has an empty high carb preference, plus chicken based protein preference. Hubby has a low-to-no carb, chicken and venison protein preference. Factor into that I have to take into consideration that my health doesn’t allow me to eat certain things (gall bladder doesn’t like high fatty, creamy or oily foods; lactose intolerance doesn’t care for much dairy; and deteriorating jaw joints means I can’t eat meals that require a lot of hard chewing such as a plate of fresh veggies or anything more than a few bites of a juicy steak). That’s a lot of things to work around! Now add in the rural life we live which greatly limits the foods we have access to at the stores in town. It takes me about 30 minutes each way to drive into town where I have the option of grocery shopping at Walmart or Harvey’s. If I want to go anyplace else, it’s going to take me at least an hour’s drive each way to get to a main city with more retail locations. So, trying to change our eating habits is not as simple as it may appear on the outside. BUT, I’m making this a priority regardless of the time commitment.

So, those are my big plans for the upcoming year. How about you? Do you have any big plans for 2024 that you’d like to share?

Until next time, I hope you have a wonderful day and remember to enjoy life. We only get one and we don’t know how many more moments we will be given.