Hello, and welcome back. I hope that life has been treating you well. And for those of you who celebrate the lunar new year, Happy New Year!
Today, I thought I would sit down and give a bit of an update on the progress of everything so far and how I believe I could have done better; I will also have a quick talk about managing goals and why it is essential to be flexible if you want to achieve them. And hidden amongst all that, I also provide a brief tease of what I have planned for the rest of this year and the next.
In southern Tasmania, we are in the final weeks of summer. March and the start of autumn is just around the corner. During the change of seasons, I like to take the time to look back and reflect on what I have done, how I could have done it differently, and how it impacted working towards my goals. The thoughts and ideas gained from this exercise are used to help guide my plans and actions for the rest of the year.
In the garden
Starting with the garden, I wish I had done a lot differently. It would have helped if I had started preparing the beds earlier in the year, but I didn’t have much control over that, considering I didn’t arrive home until September. So, although I did what I could with the time I had, I will definitely be starting my bed preparation a lot earlier this year.
Better placement and planning of what I grow
Placement and planning are other points I will focus on more. Instead of spacing seeds with what looks good or simply trying to cram as many in one bed as possible, come spring, I plan to make more extensive beds so I can space out my seeds better. My beans and peas are a great example of where I went wrong with spacing. Cramming both into the same bed that already had potatoes in it was a bad idea. While the beans and peas were busy competing with each other, the potato plants exploded out of nowhere, smothering the other two. Overall, I had a pretty dismal harvest of peas and beans this year, which is disappointing as I was really looking forward to them. Next time, I will use a different climbing frame for the peas and beans, as I was not too fond of the string method. Using the garden twine looks good, but once the resident possum had wandered through, most of it was destroyed, and I spent far too much time re-tying bits of string that he had broken. I will also clear out the tomato bed next to the peas and beans and plant peas in one bed and beans in the other. That way, they will both have more space, and with a fixed metal lattice to climb, I should get a much better harvest.
Possum control
Speaking of the possum brings me to my next point: better pest control. Previously, while living at this house, I had some dogs that did a fantastic job keeping any stray wildlife out of the garden. Unfortunately, I don’t have any dogs at the moment, so during the spring of last year, a possum wandered into the yard and set himself up in one of the trees along my back fence. I kept him happy and out of the garden for a while by leaving him bits of fruit at the base of his tree. But he got tired of that and quickly returned to midnight raids on the garden. So, needless to say, I will make greater efforts to possum and birdproof my garden this year.
Importance of mulching
Another thing I didn’t do this summer is mulching. Despite having done it extensively in the past, for some reason, it just never occurred to me this year, but I have decided that next summer, I will change that. Over the past few months, I spent far too long weeding and watering the garden. Having mulch will help suppress the weeds and aid significantly in water retention. This means my water bill won’t be as eye-watering as it has been recently.
Go big or go home
And finally, for the garden, the last thing I will do differently is that I will be going a lot bigger than I had this year. By rushing around to get everything set up, I didn’t prepare as many seedlings as I would have liked. This meant that if there was bad weather or the possum showed too much interest, I could quickly lose all of my seedlings. This is why my zucchini and daikon never happened; as soon as a seedling got to a decent size, it was killed or eaten.
My corn also suffered greatly because of this. Having less than a dozen corn plants meant that after a visit from the possum and some destructive winds, I was only left with a fraction of what I had to start with. Additionally, the soil I had planted them in wasn’t prepared properly and given time to improve. So whatever survived the possum and lousy weather is stunted because it started in the horrible clay-like soil I have naturally, and they are nowhere near as tall or developed as they should be.
So, to help with this, I purchased a heat mat for seedlings, some new shelving, and some grow lights that I will set up. With my new seed-raising station, I will be able to have the majority of my seedlings ready well before spring arrives. And as I mentioned by preparing the garden beds earlier they will be more than ready for the seedlings when the time comes to plant them.
In the kitchen
Although not much regarding the kitchen posts needs improving, I plan to do more preservation in the coming months. I am currently looking at getting a preserving kit to make more pickles and preserve food in a shelf-stable manner that doesn’t require a fridge or freezer. Drying is another form of preservation I will be looking into more. There will still be a random recipe every now and then. Knowing your way around a kitchen is a valuable skill for homesteading; because of this, I will always have kitchen-related posts. But moving forward, I want to focus more on jobs and projects that can be done elsewhere to help both you and I reach our homesteading goals.
Progress of my overall goals
Considering all I have had to do over the past seven months since returning to Tasmania, I am happy with my progress. And although it looks like it will take a bit longer to move out onto the land than I had initially planned/hoped, currently, I am considering moving in mid to late 2025. But to be honest, the current time frame seems a little more realistic and a bit less forced than the original deadline of Oct 2024. However, remembering the Theodore Roosevelt quote that inspired me to start this blog and my journey, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”, looking back over the past seven months and even further to the past few years, I think I can safely say I have done that.
Since starting this blog, I have practised various skills and gained new ones. I have purchased a brilliant block of land that I can’t wait to get out on it. So, I can safely say I am progressing well. In the coming months, I will look at what else I can do to help reach my goals.
One project I am planning is that I will turn my house into an urban homestead. I plan to grow crops I can sell at the local farmers market. If this works, I can reduce my hours with my regular 9-5 job and focus more on what I want to do and what makes me happy. And as my bathroom renovations are nearing completion, I will soon have more time to devote to this project.
Reflecting on and managing goals
In summary, it is easy to look at this post as just another update or me talking about what I’ve done wrong and making promises for the future. But the point of this post is not only to share where I’m at regarding my goals but also to demonstrate the power of reflection and checking in on your goals to ensure they are still relevant and viable.
Each of us has our own ideas on what we want to achieve and how to get it, but regardless of how different our plans may be, we all have to deal with the curveballs that life throws at us. And nothing can derail a goal quicker than life throwing a spanner in the works. This is why you need to have regular check-ins as part of setting and working towards accomplishing your goals. That way, you can adjust your plans as needed and not grow disinterested or disheartened by the fact that you can’t maintain, let alone meet, a goal you set five or ten years ago.
When I started this blog, I had no idea I would be returning to Australia, yet here I am back in my home state of Tasmania. That was a move that had a massive impact on how I had set out my goals, but I adjusted then to suit my new surroundings, and they still go on just as strong as before. If your goals are similar to mine and you dream of escaping the 9 to 5 and living a more meaningful, self-sufficient life, you will face many obstacles. Even if you achieve everything and get your dream homestead, you will still face challenges.
And with that, we come to the end of another post. Thank you very much for making it this far. I know it’s not as interesting as my regular posts, but considering this blog is about working towards a homesteading goal every now and then, I like to touch on managing goals. But I do hope you enjoyed hearing about my mistakes, and I am pretty sure some people are thinking, “It’s bloody amateur hour here” as they read this post. But what can I say? I learn best through my mistakes.
Next week, I am excited to say I will be posting the first of a two-part series on strawberries. To begin with, I will be looking at how you can take cuttings from a strawberry runner and grow your own strawberries. In the following week I will be making a simple strawberry tower so you can maximise your strawberry crops. So stay tuned for that. Thanks again for dropping in today. Have yourself a great week and I will catch you later.
Vandemonian Homesteader 