Steel Raven Farms

Where muck boots meet ground.

Leigh

How To Create A Digital Seed Inventory

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Every year, it’s the same problem, “What seeds did I buy last year?” I have yet to meet a person that only buys exactly what they need. But most people forget what they purchased last year, if they liked it, how much they still have, etc. Every gardener, farmer, or homesteader, needs a seed inventory. There are about a million ways to create a seed inventory, from paper to digital to mental. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter HOW you keep track of your seeds, as long as you do it. Today, I want to show you how and why I have a digital seed inventory and how you can do it too.

Before we get too far into this post, I wanted to give a suggestion about keeping a garden journal. A digital garden journal is a fantastic way to keep track of past, present and future gardens. Our Digital Garden Journal is a great way to keep up with everything without getting too overwhelmed.

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Why Have A Seed Inventory

I want to say this first, you don’t have to have a digital seed inventory. In fact, if you want to keep it old school with a pen and paper? Go right ahead. I’m not here to judge. I just want you to be able to keep track of your seeds. In my garden planner, I’ve got several charts that help me track everything from seeds/seedlings, orchard information, pests, and more. This is my printed planner that helps me keep track when out in the garden. But I prefer my digital seed inventory for a lot of reasons.

First, when I order seeds, I am on my computer. Rarely, if ever, do I go into a store and buy seeds that I NEED. Those seeds are the seeds I saw and thought, “Hmm, that looks interesting.” And they get thrown in my cart. The seeds I need for my garden are bought online. That’s because I know exactly what I need, the amount I need, and I can usually get better deals that way.

Second, it helps me save a TON of money. I am an impulse buyer. No matter what I try to do to stop that, I am going to see something and snatch it up because it looks cool, could solve my problem and so much more. But the reality is that having a digital seed inventory on my phone tells me EXACTLY what I have on hand, and which storage bin it’s in.

Third, it helps me keep track of start times, harvests, and more. I enjoy being able to quickly look back at a seed in my inventory and see that it germinated well, produced a ton, and, probably most importantly, how many seeds I have on hand right NOW.

One of our five year goals is to feed ourselves and animals 75% from our land. That’s a ton of food. But to get to that goal, I need to make sure that I am only buying or saving the seeds that I know will work.

If you are interested in learning more about my favorite garden planner. I highly recommend Seedtime! This planner has been instrumental in helping me plan out my gardens with WAY more efficiency than I could ever expect! It has also reduced overwhelm, stress, and calmed my ADD/ADHD!

More Info!

Creating A Digital Seed Inventory

A simple spreadsheet is really all you need. It can be as fancy and in depth or as simple as you want. My physical garden planner is pretty in depth because I want to make sure that I can track as much information as possible. But sometimes there is a need for simplicity and I that is where my garden journal comes in.

If you are choosing to start your own digital seed inventory, then you need to write down the things that you want to track. Do you care what color the pepper is? Do you care if it’s a transplant or direct sow? Where you bought the seeds?

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You also need to think about how you are going to access it when the time comes. Are you only going to use it at home? Then it probably doesn’t need to be web based. Are you looking for seeds from a local farmers market? Probably should be web based like Google Sheets.

Make sure that the things you want to know are easily accessible within that spreadsheet.

If you aren’t quite sure what you want in your spreadsheet, I have my digital seed inventory that you can purchase in our general store. This is the same one I use. The cool thing about it, is that while it is in depth, you can delete the things that you don’t want or need.

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Need Help Organizing Your Seeds?

In my digital seed inventory, the first column is “location”. Pro tip? Get yourself a couple of photo storage bins like this and put your seeds in it! This is seriously the best garden purchase I have made to date. These storage bins have 18 4×6 storage containers.

On the outside of the bin, I write which bin it is A, B, C, etc. On the inside 4×6 bins, I write A1, A2, A3, etc of the corresponding bin. This way when I look at my inventory, I can see that corn seeds are in bins C12-C18. That way when I go to plant that corn, I don’t have to go find it, lug out a million seed packets, and risk losing a couple packets. This has been my hack for the last 10 years and I will always use it.

Using Your Digital Seed Inventory

One of the things I do every year, usually in July and December, is figure out how many seeds I actually have on hand. This really helps to make sure that I have plenty of seeds for the growing season. The hardest part of having a digital seed inventory (or really any inventory) is making sure that you are consistently updating the inventory.

No matter if you are using a box to store your seeds, a pen and paper to keep track of how many seeds you have, or going all digital and super organized. The reality is that if you are buying seeds, using them and growing food? You’re doing pretty amazing!

If you like the content I put out, feel free to buy us a coffee! It helps keep this site running, marketing and the goats in grain!

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Deciding On Your Garden Plan

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Gardening is one of the things in life that teaches you great patience. But it also rewards your patience 10 fold. But before you plant the first seed or plant, you have to figure out a lot of details. Things like what you grew last year, what you plan to grow this fall, how long does a plant take to reach maturity, and so much more. While I will touch on those things in this blog post, I really wanted to focus on the emotional aspects of deciding on your garden plan. Because there is a ton of negative emotions that can come around with planning your garden.

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Are you looking for garden journal prompts, but aren’t interested in a weekly email? Check out our 365 Garden Journal Prompts! This is an amazing, all in one, yearly product that you only pay for once.

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My Garden Plan

As I sit here writing this blog post, I am actively avoiding one of my favorite parts of the garden…. the planning stage. I am a planner by nature and this is usually my favorite part of the garden. But this year, I am overwhelmed with a ton of other things and it’s bleeding over into my garden. Nothing bad, but the overwhelm means that I am looking at my list of things to grow, where to put them, and harvest times with dread.

I’ve been putting off doing this because it’s just not fun this year. And that’s okay! I’m still going to do it, it’s just going to be slower than previous years. So how do you decide on your garden plan? Well, I don’t recommend throwing seeds in the ground to see what grows. But if that’s what your mental health needs? You have my full permission…. Even if you don’t need it.

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Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

Includes:
✅ Schedule F Tracker – Simplify tax prep
✅ Profit Calculator – Track earnings
✅ Hay Calculator – Plan livestock feed
✅ Garden Journal – Digital & printable
✅ Herd Health Tracker – Monitor animal care
✅ Simple Budget – Manage finances
✅ Backyard Homestead eBook – Essential tips

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

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Start Your Garden Plan Out With What You Know

For me, I let both my kitchen garden and big garden go fallow (I didn’t plant anything) this fall/winter. It wasn’t for any other reason but a mix of laziness and needing a break. Yes, it hurt our budget a bit. But the mental break it gave me was huge. Because it went fallow, I don’t necessarily have to worry about timing harvests and figuring what to plant when. I get to start my summer garden with a fresh start.

If you aren’t starting with a fallow garden, look at what you have right now and start trying to figure out when that plant or bed will be ready for summer planting. Then, marry that information with your local weather. For example, you have a bed of broccoli that will be done producing around April 15th. That means that you can start planting your cucumbers, squash, and other not quite so frost tender things.

Are you getting overwhelmed in the garden? Stressed? Or just not enjoying the garden like you used to? Check out our garden prompts! We send out weekly emails that get you back in the garden and out of your head! Turn the garden back into a place of love and joy instead of frustration and headache!

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Figure Out What You Need

One of the things we are really focusing on this year is bulk growing the things that we eat a ton of and can preserve easily. Things like green beans, squash, tomatoes, peppers, etc. I don’t want to “waste” a ton of space on things that don’t preserve well like melons. We are still going to grow melons, but it will be a much smaller amount.

If you know that you need to put up 60# of green beans, make sure that you have plenty of space in your garden for that. Skip the melons so you can use that space for green beans.

If you aren’t sure how much a plant produces, Google it, then write it down.

Before we get too far into this post, I wanted to give a suggestion about keeping a garden journal. A digital garden journal is a fantastic way to keep track of past, present and future gardens. Our Digital Garden Journal is a great way to keep up with everything without getting too overwhelmed.

Buy Now

Consult Previous Garden Journals

I know I sound like a broken record, but make sure that you are writing down, taking pictures of, or some other way of documenting what is working or not in your garden. No, you won’t remember. Trust me.

A small notebook like this, or a full spreadsheet like this are great ways to keep up with what your garden is doing every year. Honestly, I don’t care what you use, as long as you are tracking previous garden plans, harvests, etc.

When I consult previous garden plans, what I am looking for is what performed well, what didn’t, and how I felt about the garden. The last part is actually really important to me because I want to see if planting 300 bush bean plants caused me to get stressed, say screw it, and then let all that food go to waste. Because if it did, then I don’t need to plant that much again.

If you are pushing yourself to burnout every year, you aren’t going to truly enjoy your garden. And that’s not fair to you or your garden.

If you are interested in learning more about my favorite garden planner. I highly recommend Seedtime! This planner has been instrumental in helping me plan out my gardens with WAY more efficiency than I could ever expect! It has also reduced overwhelm, stress, and calmed my ADD/ADHD!

More Info!

Working Within Your Homestead Goals

I’ve talked repeatedly about how one of our big garden goals is to grow 75% of our family’s food needs from the garden. This is a huge goal, and is totally achievable. But.. and it’s a big but…. if I am growing a ton of flowers, that really doesn’t fit with my goal. Now, that’s not to say that you can’t have any flowers but make sure that you are being mindful of what you are actually growing.

I am constantly checking any new projects, plans or ideas against our why and our goals. If one of your goals is to put up a years worth of green beans, don’t waste your space on growing a bunch of roses. It’s okay to be picky about what you are growing and ultimately working towards.

In that same vein though, don’t be so goal oriented that you aren’t flexible. I talk about the art of semper Gumby here and it’s really a valuable lesson that we have learned over our lives. It’s the idea that it’s okay to have goals and dreams and plans. But it’s not okay to be so immovable with those things that you lose sight of life.

Deciding On Your Garden Plan

Personally, I will be getting back to work on my garden plans. It’s a huge garden plan because it encompasses about 1800 sq ft of raised bed space and about another 1000 sq ft of in ground space. But I have looked at previous garden plans, checked my goals and am ready to get to work.

My kitchen garden (about 700sq ft) is going to have stuff for fresh eating throughout the season. Things like slicing cucumbers, shelling peas, pole beans, peppers, cherry tomatoes, and a mix of herbs.

My big garden (about 2100sq ft) will be for bulky items or preservation quantities. This will be things like corn, bush beans, tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkins, winter squash, etc. It’s going to be a huge garden but I am so excited for the 2025 season!

If you like the content I put out, feel free to buy us a coffee! It helps keep this site running, marketing and the goats in grain!

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Don’t Be Afraid Of Being Prepared

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Years ago, the propaganda surrounding being a “prepper” got a lot of people scared of actually being prepared. For a long time, being called a prepper was this horrible thing that made a lot of people scared to talk about things like storing food, medicine, and other essentials in the face of an emergency. But over the last couple of years, we have realized that maybe being prepared isn’t such a bad thing.

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Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

Includes:
✅ Schedule F Tracker – Simplify tax prep
✅ Profit Calculator – Track earnings
✅ Hay Calculator – Plan livestock feed
✅ Garden Journal – Digital & printable
✅ Herd Health Tracker – Monitor animal care
✅ Simple Budget – Manage finances
✅ Backyard Homestead eBook – Essential tips

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

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Don’t Be Afraid Of Being Prepared

I could write a huge blog post on all the ways you can start preparing your household for the worst case situations. And I have. You can see how I cook during power outages, handle our food security, and even emergency gardens.

In this post, though, I want to talk about the fears surrounding being prepared. It’s not just the fear about being called a prepper. It’s also realizing that you don’t have to prepare for emergencies from a place of fear. So many people fear the unknown and it causes them to do nothing. Instead, let’s talk about what emergencies are and why being prepared for them is important.

Are you getting overwhelmed in the garden? Stressed? Or just not enjoying the garden like you used to? Check out our garden prompts! We send out weekly emails that get you back in the garden and out of your head! Turn the garden back into a place of love and joy instead of frustration and headache!

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What Is Prepping?

Simply put, prepping is just preparing for situations that may arise. This could be anything from meal prepping to disaster planning and everything in between. Today, I am talking about preparing in a home sense, and yes, this includes disaster planning.

When we got hit by hurricane Helene, we realized that while we were okay, there were things that we could do better. That lead to a list of things that we needed to start working on before the next big thing hit.

Our preparations don’t come out of a place of fear, but comfort and thriving versus just surviving.

If you are new to heating with firewood and are looking to master the finer points of it. We’ve got a great eBook that goes in depth of what tools you should consider, how and where to stack, how to build a fire and so much more!

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Prepping Out Of Fear

Prepping out of fear is the biggest issue I have seen so many people struggle with when it comes to prepping. Most of the “bad preppers” (and I use that term very loosely) are so into prepping for Armageddon that it scares the hell out of those that are just trying to figure out how to put up food for the winter. What a lot of people don’t understand is that there is a middle ground where most of us live.

I’m not preparing for Armageddon. I am preparing for another Helene. I’m preparing for the probability of power failure when we get another winter storm.

While you shouldn’t prep out of fear, you should be aware of the inherent dangers of not being prepared. It’s not fun trying to cook dinner when you have no power to work your stove and no other way to heat food. A job loss can come out of nowhere and you don’t have rice and beans stored. Or you have no idea how to start and care for a garden, and you have no ability to buy food.

These are all situations that are probabilities, not just possibilities. Having a way to thrive during hard times can make or break you mentally or emotionally. So have the hard conversations now, not during an emergency.

goat kidding

Before we get too far into this, I have a great course on the basics of goat care. I call it Goat Crash Course: Goat 101. In this course, I explain things like types of shelter, types of feeds and hays, basic assessments and so much more! Check it out!

Buy Now

Preparing Where You Can

I said I wasn’t going to get into the weeds on how to prepare, because I’ve already covered it. But I wanted to touch on a couple things.

I know that a lot of us grew up in an age were it is normal to only purchase enough groceries to last until the next paycheck. Also, I know that some of us are not able to stockpile huge amounts of food. Financially, it can be really hard to get a good food storage system in place. But there are some things that you can do.

Instead of buying a couple cans of beans, purchase a bag of dried beans. Purchase a 20# bag of jasmine rice instead of the boxes of ready to eat rice. Then learn how to cook those things. Just buying a bag of dried black beans is about $2/# instead of 4 cans of beans saves you about $2. A 20# bag of jasmine rice is about $16 instead of 7 3# boxes of instant rice, and saves you about $26.

Another thing to consider is how you are going to get water. This could be filtering rain water, or a manual pump for your well. If you can figure out your food and water, everything else is pretty easy…. ish.

The Ultimate Homesteader’s Starter Bundle – Only $47!

Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

Includes:
✅ Schedule F Tracker – Simplify tax prep
✅ Profit Calculator – Track earnings
✅ Hay Calculator – Plan livestock feed
✅ Garden Journal – Digital & printable
✅ Herd Health Tracker – Monitor animal care
✅ Simple Budget – Manage finances
✅ Backyard Homestead eBook – Essential tips

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

Buy Now

Having Hard Conversations With Your Significant Other

I think this might actually be the hardest part of emergency preparedness and being prepared. It’s easy to convince ourselves that we need to pick up an extra bag of rice or flour at the store. Sometimes, it’s incredibly difficult to bring it home and explain to your spouse why you bought it. Now, I’m blessed beyond measure because Jared is like, ok whatever about a lot of things.

The biggest thing to remember is grace, kindness and patience when it comes to having these conversations, at least with your significant other. Because if they don’t live with you, they don’t matter. I’ll get to that nugget in a minute.

When you are having the conversations with your SO, you need to really look at where they are coming from. Are they anxious about this kind of thing? Because I get very anxious when talking about these types of situations. Not scared anxious, more of a there’s so much to do anxious.

Are they more of an optimist and struggle to see the merit in spending money on things that probably won’t happen? Maybe they get scared by the possibility and just avoid the conversation.

I can’t tell you how to have this conversation with them. You know them better than I do. But if you come to them with kindness, grace and patience, you will get a lot further.

Our herd health bundle helps you keep track of your herd’s health. Includes the goat assessment, herd check sheets AND Herd Health Tracker!

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What To Do With The People That Don’t Matter

You may get a lot of push back from relatives or friends, or you may not. This is something that you get to choose to tell them. Obviously, if you are storing 100# of rice in the coat closet, they may get curious if they come over. But over all, and one of the hardest things I have learned as an adult, is that if they don’t live with me, they don’t matter.

And I’m sure they do matter to you. But if they aren’t spending their money on your food, medicine, shelter, or anything else, their opinions don’t matter.

And yes, it’s still hard not to worry about the reactions of others. Especially, if you are a recovering people pleaser. But at the end of the day, what matters most is you, your family, and your home. Everything else should be secondary… or not matter at all.

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Are you looking for garden journal prompts, but aren’t interested in a weekly email? Check out our 365 Garden Journal Prompts! This is an amazing, all in one, yearly product that you only pay for once.

Buy Now!

Don’t Be Afraid Of Being Prepared

If the last 8 years has shown us anything, it’s that the world is one crazy place. We are all struggling with something. It could be food, health, finances, or something else. But there is a certain level of comfort in knowing that I have enough food to last us a year. And in that year, we won’t just be surviving. We won’t be stuck eating rice and beans to try and survive.

This level or resiliency was created with hard work, dedication and a lot of blood, sweat and tears. But you can absolutely do this too!

If you like the content I put out, feel free to buy us a coffee! It helps keep this site running, marketing and the goats in grain!

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If you like this post, feel free to share it and follow us below on our social media accounts!

Mastitis In A Milk Goat

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If you have goats for milk, it’s only a matter of time before you deal with mastitis in a milk goat. Even if you do everything 100% right, there is a high chance that they will end up with mastitis at some point. But if you are still in the research or preparation phase of goat ownership, this post is also for you. I’m going to go through the ways that I know to prevent mastitis as well as treat it.

goat kidding

Before we get too far into this, I have a great course on the basics of goat care. I call it Goat Crash Course: Goat 101. In this course, I explain things like types of shelter, types of feeds and hays, basic assessments and so much more! Check it out!

Buy Now

Mastitis In A Milk Goat

Mastitis can be causes by any number of factors but the most common is milk retention and bacteria. Usually, if you are milking, and not kid sharing, you are at a higher likelihood for your milk goat developing mastitis. If you aren’t cleaning teats well, this can also cause mastitis. Today, I’m going to first cover the ways your girl got mastitis. Second, how we can help prevent mastitis. Finally, I’m going to cover what to do if your milk goat ends up with mastitis.

Remember, raising goats is hard and you aren’t going to catch everything that happens to them. But mastitis is usually an easy fix if it’s caught soon enough.

Ways Momma Got Mastitis

First and foremost, I want to repeat that you can do everything 100% correct and the goat still gets mastitis. You can do everything wrong and the goat never gets it. However, we want to make sure that we are lowering her chances of getting it. So the important question is what IS mastitis?

Mastitis is inflammation of the udder or mammary glands. The inflammation can be caused by a ton of different reasons but the most common ones are going to be infection, stress, other sickness, milk retention or clogged milk ducts. If you have ever had a baby or breastfed, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Mastitis hurts… A lot.

Our herd health bundle helps you keep track of your herd’s health. Includes the goat assessment, herd check sheets AND Herd Health Tracker!

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Bella Got Mastitis

Now, Bella is our best goat. She is a backyard breed and not only is she super hardy, she is a fantastic momma and our best milker. The problem is she is a low rider and only sits about 24″ tall at the shoulder. That means that her teats almost drag the ground. We call her Yams because it looks like she is smuggling yams in her teats when she is nursing/milking. She out produces all of our other goats and gives us about a gallon of milk a day once the kids are off her.

Recently, we had two separate snow/ice storms hit Georgia back to back. Jade gave birth during the first one. Bella gave birth during the second one. But this year, when she had her kids, they died within about 36 hours of being born. While we were trying to nurse them back from the brink, we were milking her out to get colostrum into them. We *think* this is when she got the mastitis.

She could have had it before and we didn’t notice it. She could have just been more suspectable to it because of the stress of losing her babies. It could have been because of the milking. Or it could have been because she’s a low rider and her teats brushed the ground. There’s no way to really know.

The Ultimate Homesteader’s Starter Bundle – Only $47!

Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

Includes:
✅ Schedule F Tracker – Simplify tax prep
✅ Profit Calculator – Track earnings
✅ Hay Calculator – Plan livestock feed
✅ Garden Journal – Digital & printable
✅ Herd Health Tracker – Monitor animal care
✅ Simple Budget – Manage finances
✅ Backyard Homestead eBook – Essential tips

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

Buy Now

Preventing Mastitis In A Milk Goat

There are a couple really important things that you can do to make sure that your goat doesn’t end up with mastitis. First, always have clean bedding down for them while they are nursing or in milk. Second, have good milking practice, which I’ll go over more in the next section. Third, is going to be supportive care.

Clean bedding is important not just for mom, but also babies. Babies have that umbilicus that is usually dragging the ground unless you trim it quickly. By having clean bedding, you automatically reduce the chances of infection.

Our herd health bundle helps you keep track of your herd’s health. Includes the goat assessment, herd check sheets AND Herd Health Tracker!

Buy Now

Having Good Milking Practices

This seems like a no brainer, but there are some people that struggle. I’m not saying it to be mean, either. Because if you don’t know better, you can’t do better. Good milking practice is going to be things like cleaning off the udder and teats from big debris like bedding, poop, after birth, etc. Then cleaning the teats with something. I use a warm baby wipe to make sure that the teats clean. But some people will use iodine solutions to make sure that there is no bacteria before or after milking.

When you are think you are done milking, you should “bump” momma’s udder and then milk out a little more. Sometimes momma’s will hold back a little bit of milk or cream and we want to get that out too. You should wipe off her teats again to make sure that you got everything and the teats are clean. Finally, you should be putting some sort of something on her teats.

This could be udder balm and olive oil. We want something that is going sooth the skin but also create a barrier. If she is nursing, we want to make sure that whatever we use is safe for the baby.

If you are really worried about mastitis in your milk, you can absolutely do a mastitis test like these.

Regardless, making sure that you are cleaning before and after, completely milking her out, and supporting her is going to really help prevent mastitis.

Before we get too far into this, I have a great course on the basics of goat care. I call it Goat Crash Course: Goat 101. In this course, I explain things like types of shelter, types of feeds and hays, basic assessments and so much more! Check it out!

Buy Now

Supportive Care

Initially, I was going to put this with mastitis treatment, but I think it belongs in prevention instead. If we can support her as much as possible, it acts as a preventive. So we are going to talk about supportive care here.

What is supportive care? This is going to look different for everyone but the general gist is pretty easy. After your goat labors, we want to make sure that she is getting plenty of vitamins, minerals, quality hay and feed. But beyond that, I like to do a couple extra supplements.

I will usually give momma an injection of B12 Complex like this or Thiamine (this is a prescription from the vet). I will also give her something with a ton of concentrated minerals like Nutridrench or Power Punch. You can read more about laboring momma’s and all the things I do here. I don’t do all of this right off the bat. Nor will I do this for every goat.

Just doing these types of things will help her bounce back and take care of those babies and produce milk.

Our herd health bundle helps you keep track of your herd’s health. Includes the goat assessment, herd check sheets AND Herd Health Tracker!

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She Got Mastitis Anyways

I’ll say it one more time, it’s not 100% your fault that momma got mastitis. Life happens on the farm and despite your best efforts, she ended up with mastitis. Don’t get down on yourself. Now is the time to start learning.

First and foremost, if you are in over your head, go to the vet. Period. The common treatment for mastitis is antibiotics. But I also know that not everyone is as lucky enough to have a large animal vet close to them. The day I figured out Bella had mastitis, I had a vet appointment for her. If that is not possible for you either because of finances or not having a large animal vet, here’s what I would do.

I would go to your local feed store or Tractor Supply and get Udder Balm and see if you can find diluted peppermint oil. You may have to search different stores of the peppermint oil. Some udder balms have peppermint oil in it, if it does, you don’t need to add more to it. I would also get a bunch of garlic. I would recommend whole bulbs but work with what you’ve got.

PS if you can only find pure peppermint oil, you can dilute it yourself in oil. You want something like 2 drops of peppermint oil per teaspoon of oil.

Next, get a bucket of the hot water. If it’s super cold where you are, get it as hot as you can stand. We want to make hot compresses. I take a small bucket of hot water and a rag out with me. That way I can reheat the rag as I need to.

Now, this is the hard part. You have to get your momma to let you put hands on her very tender udder and teats. This is going to be a freaking nightmare, especially if she is not milk broke. I would highly recommend getting at least one other person to help you.

The Ultimate Homesteader’s Starter Bundle – Only $47!

Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

Includes:
✅ Schedule F Tracker – Simplify tax prep
✅ Profit Calculator – Track earnings
✅ Hay Calculator – Plan livestock feed
✅ Garden Journal – Digital & printable
✅ Herd Health Tracker – Monitor animal care
✅ Simple Budget – Manage finances
✅ Backyard Homestead eBook – Essential tips

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

Buy Now

Treatment Protocol For Mastitis In A Milk Goat

First, offer your momma feed and garlic cloves. This will, hopefully, keep her on the stand. Next you are going to milk out as much of that milk as you can. Once you have as much out as possible, you are going to start your hot compresses and massage her udder to help break up all that milk.

As you massage the udder, make sure that you are always moving down towards the teats. We want to make sure that we are working to unclog anything that is stuck. Once the rag gets cool or cold, dunk it back in the hot water and start working to milk out whatever you were able to break up. This can take a long time, so keep at it as long as you possibly can.

Once you have finished milking her out and you are sure you got as much out as possible, slather her udder and teats in that peppermint oil and/ or Udder Balm. The peppermint acts as a vasodilator (widens the vessels) which will increase blood flow to the area. This will help get the blood and milk moving as you are milking. The oil or the balm will not only sooth the skin but also create a barrier.

goat kidding

Before we get too far into this, I have a great course on the basics of goat care. I call it Goat Crash Course: Goat 101. In this course, I explain things like types of shelter, types of feeds and hays, basic assessments and so much more! Check it out!

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Miscellaneous Information For Mastitis

It is totally normal to have blood in the udder. In fact, it’s sometimes your only clue that your goat has mastitis. You may find that as you are stripping her udders, you break vessels and she has bleeding. This is normal.

If you can get your hands on a broad spectrum antibiotic like Tylan or LA, it’s not going to hurt. Now, I don’t recommend the use of antibiotics unless necessary. But antibiotics do help with inflammation and obviously infection. So it’s not a bad idea.

No. If momma has mastitis, you should not let the babies nurse. Think about it, if momma has an infection, that baby is basically mainlining the infection straight into their gut. Not good.

Unfortunately, you now have bottle babies. You can read here how I care for bottle babies. This also means that you should not drink that milk, either. I’ve heard of some people drinking the milk from the unaffected side, but I wouldn’t. Sure, it may be fine, but I have enough gut issues.

Lastly, remember that this can take a long time to heal. Don’t panic. At least not yet. It’s a process and you don’t want to push momma to the brink.

If you like the content I put out, feel free to buy us a coffee! It helps keep this site running, marketing and the goats in grain!

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Infrastructure And Self Reliance

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When Jared and I sat down to go over our infrastructure for 2025; the projects, plans, and goals, we really wanted to get us to a place were the projects were done. That way we could focus our finances in other areas. Now, we all know that projects on the homestead are never truly done. But if we can get some of these bigger projects out of the way? We will be well on our way to self reliance and that is huge.

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✅ Hay Calculator – Plan livestock feed
✅ Garden Journal – Digital & printable
✅ Herd Health Tracker – Monitor animal care
✅ Simple Budget – Manage finances
✅ Backyard Homestead eBook – Essential tips

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What Does Self Reliance Look Like To Us

The best way to set up goals is to ask yourself some questions. Like WHY do you want to be self reliant? What does self reliance look like to you? How are you going to become self reliant? These questions will have answers, but more often than not, they lead to more questions. But to give you our starting off point, we see self reliance as a way to decrease spending, reduce off farm hours, and create a eco-system here on the farm.

The more we become self reliant, the less we will spend at the feed and grocery store. The less money we spend at the grocery and feed store, the quicker we can pay off the farm and any debt we have. The quicker we pay off our debts, the more we can reduce off farm hours. If we can create an eco-system where our garden and land feed our livestock, and we can harvest our garden and livestock. Then we will be back to reducing our need for the feed and grocery store.

This symbiotic relationship with our land and livestock are paramount in not only becoming self reliant, but being good stewards to our land and shepherds to our herds.

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Setting Up Our Infrastructure

As I’m sure you can tell, Self Reliance is the keyword for our lives for the next few years. It is the cornerstone of every single thing we are doing and planning. So we are starting the first year with infrastructure. I talked in depth about what infrastructure is in this blog post. But the point of that post was to get you to think about your own infrastructure and what that means for your homestead.

When it comes to our homestead, we are really trying to focus on self reliance. Keeping in mind that the 3 big dreams are spending less money, reducing off farm hours, and creating an eco-system are the most important things. We created our infrastructure list and plans around that.

The goal of the year is to set up the homestead with those three big dreams in mind. For example: we have made the hard decision that if we can’t sell our bucklings, they will become meat goats. We’ve also made the decision that we will no longer buy chickens because we like the way they look, or how many eggs they lay. All chickens will be a meat variety instead of dual purpose. The gardens are going to go be overhauled into a “bulk garden” and a “kitchen” garden. We are going to start working on water movement so that we are no longer laying hoses throughout the property to get water to animals and gardens.

Meat

Then there’s closing the holes in our food security. One of the things we decided was to focus on heritage breeds. While they take more time to mature, they are more efficient with what they eat. We recently purchased 2 American Guinea Hogs so that we can stop relying on other farms for our pork. We are also going to be purchasing several Bourbon Red turkeys to further reduce our dependance on the grocery store or other farms.

The caveat to these animals is that we are also only going to buy animals that can work as well. One of the things that we learned at the HOA conference in Virginia, was that the animals should work for you too. Pasture rotation is a thing we knew about, but when listening to the lectures, we learned about what pigs can do for revitalizing the soil.

goat kidding

Before we get too far into this, I have a great course on the basics of goat care. I call it Goat Crash Course: Goat 101. In this course, I explain things like types of shelter, types of feeds and hays, basic assessments and so much more! Check it out!

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Gardens

Our gardens are going to look very different then they did last year. We are going to bring the pigs and chickens into our side yard and allow them to root, scratch and poop on that area and will turn it into another garden. That garden will hold all of our squash, cucumber, melon, herbs, etc. Then we will turn our old garden into the “bulk” garden for corn, tomatoes, peppers and food for the animals.

We are making lists of what we buy at the grocery store and of that, what can we grow? One of the things we can grow to spend less money growing cumin. We use a TON of cumin and at $20 a container, that’s a lot of money every year. It’s the same thing with lettuces. We feed our bearded dragons mustard, turnip, collard greens. At $4 a bag, and we by 4 bags a month? That’s a huge savings if we grow those things ourselves. Not to mention, that the pigs will eat the excess turnips.

If you are interested in learning more about my favorite garden planner. I highly recommend Seedtime! This planner has been instrumental in helping me plan out my gardens with WAY more efficiency than I could ever expect! It has also reduced overwhelm, stress, and calmed my ADD/ADHD!

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Animals

We already discussed the hogs, turkeys and chickens. But to go a little more in depth, every single animal on our homestead is going to have a purpose. And if they require additional feed that the farm can’t produce? That is something we need to look at or they aren’t going to stay long. This has led to some hard decisions when it comes to our personal animals.

We aren’t going to just get rid of them. But this thought process has shown us the amount of money spent on the dogs, cats, dragons and snakes for pleasure, hurts our bottom line of spending less. That means 1) no new animal will be brought to the homestead unless it serves a purpose and the farm can sustain it. And 2) has made us really look into how we can feed animals alternatively without affecting their health.

Another point with the animals is keeping around animals that are not producing. The animal lover in me struggles with the idea of just butchering an animal because it is no longer useful. But the homesteader in me says, but that’s their job. It’s very conflicting and confusing.

goat kidding

Before we get too far into this, I have a great course on the basics of goat care. I call it Goat Crash Course: Goat 101. In this course, I explain things like types of shelter, types of feeds and hays, basic assessments and so much more! Check it out!

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Permaculture And Self Reliance

This word has been rattling around my head for the better part of a month. One of the things we have been talking about pre-conference was that while we could afford our $600/mo feed bill, we didn’t want to. After the conference, we realized that we could grow most of the food our animals need without having to use as much feed. This lead us to the idea of permaculture.

The plan, and resulting infrastructure, is that we are going to use electric netting to rotate the pigs and chickens throughout the property. We’ve had a lot of predator problems with our chickens and we are hoping that by giving them a safe space, with electrified netting, this will keep the predators down. For the pigs, we are planning on giving them a large space to root and poop in hopes that they will break the soil and allow the good things to get into the soil.

After they have worked the soil in that area, we will move them to the next area and let them continue through the property. The area that they worked will be seeded with a variety of grasses, legumes, and other plants that will help the soil and feed the livestock.

While I love my compost, and we will always have and use it, the idea of schlepping wheelbarrows up hill and all over the property is not my idea of a good time. BUT I can take bedding waste, wasted hay, and other compostable-s and just put it in where the chickens are. They can spread it around and the soil can break it down there. I talked here about other uses for goat bedding and we are doing that as well.

Another part of permaculture is instead of ripping out gardens when they are done, we can put the pigs, chickens or goats in there and let them “rip out” the garden. This will reduce our work load, feed them, and put them to work. That seems like a win to me.

If you are interested in learning more about my favorite garden planner. I highly recommend Seedtime! This planner has been instrumental in helping me plan out my gardens with WAY more efficiency than I could ever expect! It has also reduced overwhelm, stress, and calmed my ADD/ADHD!

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Bringing Self Reliance Into The House

While at the HOA conference, we were told that the house is not as important as the land. I, wholeheartedly, disagree. While the personal how’s and why’s of that is not important, what is important is that having a safe, secure, and comfortable home, is just as important as the land. And yes, part of it is vanity on my end. While I don’t want the best of the best and need designer things. I do need my home to be safe, secure, and comfortable.

We have to update our electrical panel, breakers, and some wiring. We need to take down some trees that would absolutely demolish our home if they fell. Then there’s the fire safety aspect of putting in tile accents in front of the fire place. We have to paint the exterior of our home because cedar siding will be damaged if it is not taken care of property. Oh, and our back deck is about to fall of the house. So while yes, the land is important so is the house.

I understand what these other homesteaders were talking about in regards to making sure that the land is the priority. But at the same time, so is the home. I know that they don’t mean, “Don’t worry about the electrical panel! You need to put pasture rotation into effect first.” But at the same time, me being comfortable in my home is equally as important as the land. And to be honest, we can do both.

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✅ Garden Journal – Digital & printable
✅ Herd Health Tracker – Monitor animal care
✅ Simple Budget – Manage finances
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The Food Storage Room

One of the other ways we are going to work on our self reliance is to finish up our food storage room. While most will call this a pantry, it’s going to be much more than that. In this storage room, we will have all of our canned goods, garden harvests, coffees, etc. It will also have a dehumidifier and vents on a thermometer to help control the temperatures. It will be insulated and have a door to keep animals out. We will also be storing our crockpots, stock pots, and other larger kitchen appliances in there so that we can reduce the amount of space they take up in the kitchen.

So I will be working on making the house comfortable for my family, while Jared is out there cutting down trees and replacing the electrical panel. I may even help him paint the house.

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Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

Includes:
✅ Schedule F Tracker – Simplify tax prep
✅ Profit Calculator – Track earnings
✅ Hay Calculator – Plan livestock feed
✅ Garden Journal – Digital & printable
✅ Herd Health Tracker – Monitor animal care
✅ Simple Budget – Manage finances
✅ Backyard Homestead eBook – Essential tips

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

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What Is Your Self Reliance Infrastructure

At the end of the day, you have to do what is right for your family, your land and your animals. It’s not about them or me. It’s about you and what you are trying to accomplish with your life. I hope this post has opened your eyes to what you want to do with your homestead.

If you like the content I put out, feel free to buy us a coffee! It helps keep this site running, marketing and the goats in grain!

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How To Deal With Cabin Fever

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The days are short, the nights are cold, and you are probably bored out of your skull. If you are like many new homesteaders, you are chomping at the bit for spring and summer. There is no big garden harvests and sunlight is at a premium. But there are a ton of ways to deal with cabin fever as we wait for spring and summer.

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Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

Includes:
✅ Schedule F Tracker – Simplify tax prep
✅ Profit Calculator – Track earnings
✅ Hay Calculator – Plan livestock feed
✅ Garden Journal – Digital & printable
✅ Herd Health Tracker – Monitor animal care
✅ Simple Budget – Manage finances
✅ Backyard Homestead eBook – Essential tips

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

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What Is Cabin Fever

My definition of cabin fever is simply being stuck at home, inside for too long. For someone more outgoing, it’s probably spending a day or two at home unable to leave. For those of us at prefer to be home, it’s usually the boredom that comes with winter. There’s not a whole lot to do in the winter because winter is a time of rest.

If you think about the seasons, spring is the season of new beginnings. Livestock is laboring. Plants are starting to sprout. We are ALMOST ready to put the gardens in. Summer is the season of rush, rush, RUSH. There’s gardens to plant, fertilize, harvest, and preserve. Animals are getting fat for butchering. Fall is the mad dash to get everything finished up. Livestock is being butchered. Gardens are in their final stages before buttoning them up for winter. Kitchens are completely taken over by canning supplies, produce, and complete insanity. Firewood is being stacked for the cold months ahead.

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But winter? That is the time to sit back and reflect. It’s the time to sit in front of the fire and enjoy time with your family. It’s the time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

It’s also the time where I am ready to go insane. I am a very type A person and I don’t do well with idle time. I always want to be doing something. So I decided to share the things I do to deal with cabin fever in hope that you can take advantage of them and not go insane.

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How To Prevent Or Deal With Cabin Fever

Plan

I am a planner. I love to sit down, organize my thoughts and goals. I like to use Bullet Journals to keep me on track with what I’m doing. Since they are fully customizable, they are the only planner that I use. That way when spring comes around, I can just start doing. This is also the time that I start looking back at my garden journal to see what did well, what didn’t and so on.

Also, I will start looking at various seed companies like Territorial Seed Company and Eden Brother’s to see what seeds they have, and when to order. I will also make lists of things that need to be done, things that worked or didn’t, and all the other type A planning that goes with a homestead.

Interior Projects

Since winter is the best time to do in home projects, I start looking at our infrastructure list and see what I can work on. Usually it has something to do with filling cracks in the paneling and painting, though this year it’s probably going to be flooring. Another project that we will be working on is organizing the basement… again…. yay…. I’m not super excited about that one.

Livestock

At this point in the year, I usually have several goats that are pregnant. So I hang out with them and make sure they are doing ok. This really helps to deal with cabin fever simply because they are amazing and are very expensive therapy. I also check on their hay levels and our feed stores. Since I’ve been tracking how much hay they have used, I can start planning on what they will need for next year. I will also keep an eye on their bedding and pine shaving stores to see how much we are going through.

Organize

I try really hard to keep everything organized throughout the year but let’s be real, the only downtime I have is winter and the first part of spring so I usually organize the house and declutter sometime in December and again in March. I call it my winter and spring cleaning.

This is also when I put up or bring out the flannel sheets, heavier blankets/ curtains, etc. Another thing I do is organize my deep freezers so that I know how much meat we have, used, and how much more we need for the following year. Lastly, I go through my canning jars and supplies to start looking at what was eaten, how much and how many jars I have left.

Canning

Lastly, I can to help pass the time. Usually I will get about 50# of beans and can them so that I don’t have to mess with them later. Since dried beans are shelf stable on their own, I don’t have to worry about them in the height of canning season (July through September). I will also can soup left overs so that I have extras on hand. And I work on breaking down any bulk purchases of flour, sugar, mesa and rice.

I don’t push canning hard throughout the winter. It’s mostly to help myself out come summer when the very last thing I want to do is deal with what to make for dinner.

Hobbies

One of the best ways to reduce boredom that comes with cabin fever is to work on your hobbies. I am a reader and consume (physical, eBook, and audio books) about 300 books a year. During the spring and summer, I’m not reading as much unless I’m at work or listening to books while in the garden. But come winter? My butt is planted on the couch and I’m reading like crazy.

I also crochet during the winter to keep my hands busy to give my eyes a rest if I’ve been reading a ton. Plus, who wants to be under a huge blanket in the heat of summer…. not me.

If you don’t have a hobby, I highly suggest getting one. It’s not healthy for your entire personality to be a homesteader. Trust me.

Whatever you do to deal with cabin fever, just remember it’s temporary. The spring and summer rush will come and you will be praying for the boredom of winter. Be sure to leave a comment below about how you deal with cabin fever!

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Can You Free Range Goats

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The short answer is no…. ish. I say ish because we are able to free range our goats, but it’s not something that I would recommend for most people. In fact, I would say the rule is that you can’t, but the exception is that you can try. I know, I know, that’s clear as mud. But let’s talk more about how we free range goats, and what you could do to see if it works for you.

Before we get too far into this, I have a great course on the basics of goat care. I call it Goat Crash Course: Goat 101. In this course, I explain things like types of shelter, types of feeds and hays, basic assessments and so much more! Check it out!

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Our Free Range Goats

As you can see, our goats are obviously not in their fence. The reason was because they ran out of grass in their pastures and feed is expensive. And to be honest, I couldn’t fathom spending hundreds of dollars a month of grain, pellets, and hay when we have an emerald forest full of tasty and delicious browse for them.

But getting to this point was a huge stress for Jared. We all know how much I love the goats? Well, he is Papa Bear when it comes to these creatures. He was so freaked out at the thought of them being outside the fence, that he would stand and watch them for hours…. Y’all, HOURS. Man, I need you to do chores, not watch the goats!

Free Range Goats

But the reality was that because he watched the goats, he was able to direct them and keep them on the property. So okay fine.

How Did We Get Them To Successfully Free Range?

First and foremost, it was accidently on purpose. Yes, I know. But there was never ANY intention on free ranging these goats. Jared wanted long term lawn mowers but after figuring out that we were going to have to fence them, that idea went out the window. We simply can’t afford to fence in our entire property. So we fenced in three pastures and seeded them for grass. Well, that grass didn’t take very well and the grass that did? They don’t really eat it.

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When we realized how poor Champs body condition was just prior to her kidding, we started giving grains and alfalfa pellets. But that shot our feed bill to over $600 a month. Which may not seem like a lot for some farmers, but that’s a lot for us. I started brainstorming on all the things I could do to get them out of the pastures and eating the weeds, briars and other yummy things that they love.

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Electric fencing?

At first I thought our magic bullet would be electric netting like this. I’ve heard great reviews on it and a lot of fellow farmers swear by it. But it’s also expensive and some of the areas we would put them doesn’t get a lot of sunlight for a solar energizer and is too far away to run electricity. We had a poultry net and I figured, let’s try that. It didn’t really work. The goats chewed a few of the strains and effectively shorted out a $250 fence. Thanks guys.

Tractor Supply

At this point, I was/am milking every morning and the goats have learned that when Mom comes out? She usually has yummy things, and it’s usually in a bucket. Without even trying I started training them to come when I shook a feed bucket. This really helped because they would come when “called”.

Once I figured out that they were following me around because I had feed or they thought I had feed, a lightbulb went off. If they come when I have a feed bucket.

Free Range Goats

Maybe I can let them run loose?

Enter Champion and Stella. These two girls are my most friendly. Jade and Sapphire are friendly, but Champ and Stella seek me out. So I said, screw it and let them out one day. Then the next, I let out Champ, Stella, Jade and Sapphire. A couple days later, I let out those four plus Oakley, Bailey, Bash and Finn. By the end of that week, I had 12 goats running loose on the property and coming when I shook the feed bucket.

Thankfully, Jared was at work because when he came home? He threw a fit when he saw his girls running a muck in the yard. He wouldn’t come inside unless they were back in the safety of the fence.

It has taken about a month or so for him to finally be okay with the girls running loose. The emerald forest, what we call the briar and weed choked property, has never looked better.

We have never looked back. Now, they have run of the property from sun up to sun down.

So Can You Free Range Goats?

Uh, maybe? I would definitely not go into purchasing goats with the expectation of free ranging them. The biggest thing I noticed with our goats is they want our attention and food. If we had a herd of Bella’s, this would be laughable. She is still extremely skittish and the only reason why she free ranges now is because all of the other goats are able to free range. Since goats are herd animals, they will follow the leader (Champ) where ever she goes. Including Bella.

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Potential Steps To Take

I’m not saying that these steps will work. What I am saying is that this is what we did and it worked for us. The key here is making sure that your herd is capable of free ranging. If they are going to take off and never come back? I don’t know that anything on this list will work. But we have worked hard to make our homestead a place were animals don’t want to leave. But that doesn’t mean that the urge to take off will go away.

  1. Make sure they know where their barn is. If they know their safe place is in that barn, when the spook they will run to the barn. Same thing with their fencing. This will take time!
  2. Start making noise with that grain bucket and “make” them come to you. I say make, but really goats do what they want. The grain just helps things along.
  3. Bond with your goat! I am 100% positive, with proof, that if you take the time to bond with your goat and they are happy to see you, there is a chance you can let them free range. My proof is Bella. We have had her from the beginning and if the other goats had not bonded to us, she would have run off the first time we let her out. But because we have bonded with Champ, Stella, Oakley, Bailey, Jade, and Sapphire, they will come when we call them.
  4. Get to know your goats, preferably over winter. This goes along with bonding, but timing is important. If you spend time with them throughout the winter, giving them hay, grain and other yummy things, come spring they know that you are the bringer of yummy things. They will follow you into the gates of hell…. But only for yummy things.
  5. Do not let any new to the farm goats out of the fence until they are 100% accepted into the herd and listen to your established herd queen. This is really important because if your herd queen will follow you or come to you, this will show the other goats that they need to do the same thing. Bella will follow the herd and the herd follows Champ.
  6. Do NOT let your bucks loose. They will either get into your doe pen or they will take off to find girls of their own. Maybe once they are out of rut it could be okay. The caveat to this is that our bucks also love us and want yummy things. In the height of rut, we cannot let them loose. But when they are allowed to be with their girls over winter? They can all free range together.
  7. Predator load is also very important here. If you have an extremely high predator load? This is probably not a good option for you. While our load is mild, we only let them out when we are home. If we are going to be gone, they are locked in their pen.
  8. Probably the most important on this list, make sure that anything that could un-alive these goats is put up. Nails, paint, loose deck boards, you name it, they will try to die from it.

Since we sit on 8 acres and that bucket doesn’t make a ton of noise. I started working on training them to a dinner bell. Weird, I know. But if I ring the bell when they are close and give them a feed bucket, in theory, they should come to expect feed when that bell is rung. It worked for Pavlov’s dog right? Well, it’s also working for the goats. They usually haul ass to use when the hear that bell because they know mom’s got nom noms.

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Master Planting List

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Over the last several years, I have tried to figure out the best way to help new gardeners, garden effectively. Sometimes it helps new gardeners, other times? Maybe not so much. So today, I am going to give you my master planting list for my family of 4 and livestock. I’m also going to give you what I would have done differently if I needed to start over with the knowledge that I have now.

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My Master Planting List

The biggest problem with new gardeners that I have learned is that people expect gardening to be easy and then get discouraged when they struggle. They think they have a black thumb and give up. Or, the exact opposite happens. They have a GREAT year, and are overconfident next year. But if you aren’t exactly sure where you fall because this year is your first garden, let me help you out.

In this blog post, I am going to give you my master planting list but also how to figure out exactly how much space you need, how many plants to start or purchase, and then finally, how to put it all together.

How Much Space

Realistically, you only need about 100 Sq Ft (10ft x10ft) of space per person for a fresh eating garden. If you are looking to put up food for winter, then you need about 200 Sq Ft (10×20). This is going to vary greatly based the space you have, what you are growing, and how much meat you consume.

But what you “should” have may not be what you actually have. So how can you increase your space? Container gardens are a great option. Especially if you are focusing on fresh eating. A 5 gallon bucket with good soil and drainage can easily grow a tomato plant and it only has about a 12 inch footprint. And with vertical support, a cucumber plant can easily trellis and give you a ton of food.

Another thing to consider is adding additional plants within a space. A good example of this is planting green beans with tomatoes. A tomato needs about 12-18 inches of space between tomato plants. But that doesn’t mean that those 12-18 inches needs to be empty. You can plant something else in between those tomatoes.

As you stretch your gardening muscle and learn what works and what doesn’t, you will find more space for more plants.

How Many Plants

This is the nitty gritty of what everyone really wants to know when it comes to new gardeners. How many plants do I need…? There are a ton of formulas to figure this out, and to be honest, they are all really useful. And completely overwhelming.

If you are starting from scratch and you don’t have a clue what is going on, that’s totally ok. My rule of thumb is a minimum of 1 plant per person. At the very least, this gets you started on a garden and gives you plenty of information for your next garden.

If you are a family of 4, this means 4 tomato plants. If well cared for, that tomato plant will yield you about 25 to 40# of tomatoes depending on variety. But this doesn’t work well for say corn which only gives 1 or 2 ears of corn per stalk.

You will have to do some research about what you eat, what you are comfortable preserving, your space, etc. Which is why I say that you have to work on your gardening skills.

Putting Your Garden Together

First, let’s say that you have a 25ftx 50ft space that you can convert into a garden and are a family of 4. Then let’s say that you are not super comfortable with pressure canning but you have plenty of freezer space. Here is what I would plant within my garden:

50 Tomato Plants- That is 1 row in my garden and will give me approximately 400# for fresh eating and preservation. I can water bath can tomato sauce, dice tomato, and salsa.

4 Cucumber Plants- If put on a fence, cattle panel or something to get it off the ground, it will take up 4 sq ft and yield approximately 100#, if well cared for, for fresh eating and livestock food. If picked small, you can pickle them for shelf stability.

4 Zucchini or Summer Squash Plants- This will take up approximately 8 sq ft and yield approximately 40# of squash if reasonably cared for. Summer squashes do not can well but if flash frozen does well in the freezer to be used in soups and stews. Excess can be given to livestock.

50 Corn- Plant in a square instead of a row to increase pollination. This will yield between 50-100 ears of corn. It can be eaten fresh OR decobbed and put in the freezer for later. Cobs, husks and silks can all be fed to livestock.

8 Ft (16 plants) Green Beans- If you really like green beans and you have room, add more. They only need about 6in between plants. Green beans are super easy to grow, are delicious and usually yield about 1/2# per plant, if well cared for. They also hold up well to being frozen. Unfortunately, you should pressure can green beans.

8 Ft (16 plants) Peas- Now, peas are a cool ish weather crop. So make sure that if you are planting them in the summer, they are in shade and get well watered. Shelling peas usually yield about 2# for 16 plants but this will vary on variety and care.

10 Pepper Plants- If you don’t like peppers, plant extra tomatoes. Peppers do not need or want a ton of water and usually do well in high heat, high sun areas. You will get about 200 hot peppers or about 70 bell or sweet peppers with 10 plants. Peppers do not can well unless they are in something like salsa or relish. But they do freeze or dehydrate extremely well.

10 Potato Plants- Potatoes are the unsung hero in a world that tells us starch and carbs are bad for us. Personally, I freaking love potatoes and could eat them every day. Regardless, potatoes yield about 10# per plant and can store in a cool dry place for months. If you get an indeterminate variety, that number goes up to about 15#. You can pretty much forget about your potatoes and are all but guaranteed to get something.

Tips From A Not So Master Gardener

  1. Start where you are and learn as you go.
  2. Don’t panic if you can’t do all organic, everything. Simply growing your own food is better than nothing.
  3. Gardening should be fun, not a horrible chore.
  4. Gardening is not intuitive, it is a skill and should be treated as such.
  5. WRITE IT DOWN! Trust me, you will not remember.
  6. Learn to save seeds, but don’t sweat it if you can’t.
  7. Start small and grow as you learn.
  8. Gardening is not easy.
  9. Mulch is your friend.
  10. Learn to grow your own soil!

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Master Garden List

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At the end of every year, I go through all of my gardening stuff and make sure that I have everything that I need for the next season. As I was doing that, I realized that a lot of new gardeners may not have a clue about what all they will need. Then they end up making several hardware store runs or having to wait for packages to arrive. I decided to make my master garden list for you (there’s a printable at the end) so that you can avoid those hassles and make this year the best garden year yet!

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Master Garden List

I have broken this down into a couple of different sections, that include; tools/ extras, soil/ amendments, and seeds/bulbs. Then I’m going give you my master planting list for my family of 4 and our livestock. My hope is that you have everything you need to have a great garden season that doesn’t included last minute trips to the hardware store or unplanned seed orders.

Master Garden List- Tools

There aren’t many tools that I use regularly, but I have multiples of the items I use all the time. I do not need a ton of tools because of the way I grow my veggies and the way that I handle my soil. Because I do not till, I don’t need a tiller. Things like that. But I have a ton of shovels because there are four of us and when we do big work in the garden, we are all working. So let’s get into my list:

Hoses- Every year, we either buy new hoses or have to repair our old hoses. Do yourself a sold and don’t waste your money on the heavy duty, mac daddy hoses. They aren’t worth it. We’ve bought just about every brand out there and all of them have been destroyed within about 2 years. That being said, we aren’t gentle with our hoses. If you are, then buy the good hoses.

Sprayers- Again, don’t waste your money on super expensive sprayers and hose nozzles. We are lucky to get a full season out of them. And again, if you are gentle with your stuff, buy the expensive ones. We aren’t. But there are some things that the nozzle needs to do, shower and jet. I want power when I need it and I want gentle power on baby plants.

Hand Tools- I have three hand shovels for planting, but when it comes to filling me seed start trays, I use an old coffee mug that the handle has been broken off of. It just works better for me. But get yourself some good hand shoves, weeders, etc. This “kit” from Amazon is a good place to start if you aren’t sure which tools you want and which ones you’ll actually use.

Extra Tools To Make Life Easier

Shears/ Blades- Now, I am snobby when it comes to my hand tools. I am a Fiskars girl through and through. I have found that they stand up to a beating. Even the blades stay sharp and I am not careful. These little pruners have been a lifesaver for my hands. You should have at least two smaller pruners, a large branch cutter, and then a smaller leaf pruner. Honestly, if you’re short on cash, get the smaller pruners and be done. Whatever brand you choose, make sure that they are always sharp and try to remember to bring them inside….

Hemp/Jute/ String- Lastly, you will need string. Now, I prefer a natural fiber like hemp or jute, but that is more expensive than nylon or other fibers. You will need string for tying up tomatoes, peas, etc, or training squash. I’ve used old hay bale twine to fix gates and hang cattle panel. Do what makes sense for you. String has endless uses so make sure you’ve got plenty.

Soil/ Amendments

If you are starting your garden from scratch, or you just need a really, REALLY good brand of soil, I buy from Fox Farm. Yes, it’s incredibly expensive. But you are getting what you pay for. This soil has amazing microbes already thriving in it. And if you have dirt, but it’s not great, this soil will jump start your dirt and turn it into soil.

If you already have good soil, I recommend getting a soil test kit every year. I really like the My Soil test kits because it gives you suggestions for both organic AND conventional fertilizers based on your specific soil needs. They also tell you about your nutrient density and more. My Soil Test is who I will use every year.

I am incredibly picky about my soil and amendments but also incredibly lazy. I talked here about how I build my soil, so I don’t need a lot of soil amendments. In fact, I really only ever add goat bedding to fill the beds and that’s usually it.

BUT, if I am going to use any kind of amendments, it’s going to be OMRI listed and I need to be able to figure out where it came from. Things like fish emulsion, kelp, bone meal, etc are okay. And really, just doing the best you can here is the most important. Don’t get hung up on the details.

At the end of the day though, I know that I am not going to add any amendments to my soil. Not because the plants don’t need it, but because it’s just not something I’m thinking about. So again, do what you can.

Seeds/ Bulbs/ Tubers

I figure out my seed needs totally based on my seed horde and what grew well last year. This year (2025), we are focusing on putting up more food than we normally do. So we are focusing more on things like tomatoes for tomato sauce instead of cherry tomatoes for fresh eating and pickling cucumbers over slicers.

Typically, I bulk order my seeds from Botanical Interests, Eden Brothers, and Baker Creek Seed Company, with Botanical Interests being my favorite. My seed order is usually about $150, again depending on what I have left over from last year.

Every year, I order leeks, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and garlic. I haven’t successfully figured out how to start leeks yet but it’s something that I am continuing to work on. I also totally forget to set aside seed potatoes and garlic every year…. oops.

If you are looking to start your own seed horde and not sure where to start, I am working on my Master Planting List. But a good general rule of thumb is one or two packets of seeds for every type of plant that you know your family will eat. For example, if your family likes cucumbers, get one packet of slicers. But again, I get into the details of this in Master Planting List.

Master Garden List- Printable

If you would like to download my Master Garden List, sign up below and follow the prompts! Or if you are already subscribed to Steel Raven Farms, it is in the Member’s Only Library along with all my other downloads for you.

If you like the content I put out, feel free to buy us a coffee! It helps keep this site running, marketing and the goats in grain!

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50 Homestead Goal Ideas

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With it being the start of a new year, a lot of homesteaders may be struggling to figure out exactly what to do with themselves and their homestead. Some people have already set their goals for the year and are chomping at the bit to get going. Others are still trying to figure out where last year went. But in either of those situations, here is my guide for homestead goal ideas and how to make your own.

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Homestead Goal Ideas

Before we get into my homestead goal ideas, I want to talk to you about how we set goals around here. First, we are going to talk about the do’s and don’ts of setting homestead goals. Then we are going to talk about actually selecting and timing your goals. Finally, I am going to give you my master list of how I come up with yearly goals. As always, I will explain everything below.

Do’s and Don’ts Of Homestead Goals

The very first thing that you need to do when you are figuring out your homestead goals is to be kind to yourself, family, and animals. If the stomach flu wipes out your family for the whole month of May and all of your plant starts die? Don’t panic. Just step back, be thankful that it’s over and do what you can. Be kind to yourself because getting down on yourself, your family or your animals doesn’t do any good.

Another don’t is to space out your goals. It’s very easy to set up and jam pack your entire year. And let me tell you, that will lead you to burnout faster than you can blink.

DO make sure that you’ve got back up plans in case something goes sideways. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

DO make sure that you pick some Finish Line Goals (which I will explain more in a minute) to give yourself that little boost to push through the hard stuff.

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Selecting Your Homestead Goals

One of the things that I love to do is create a brain dump for the year. This is a list of all the things I want to do or get done for the year. This is where I allow myself to dream big and go wild. There is nothing too big or too crazy to go on this list.

Once you have made your brain dump, start going through and, realistically, mark out anything that really can’t be done this year. For example, I want a new goat barn. This can be on the brain dump list, but cannot actually be done this year because we just don’t have time or materials for it.

After you have worked through your brain dump list, now we turn our goals into tasks and start scheduling them.

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Includes:
✅ Schedule F Tracker – Simplify tax prep
✅ Profit Calculator – Track earnings
✅ Hay Calculator – Plan livestock feed
✅ Garden Journal – Digital & printable
✅ Herd Health Tracker – Monitor animal care
✅ Simple Budget – Manage finances
✅ Backyard Homestead eBook – Essential tips

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Timing Your Goals For Maximum Potential

There’s a saying that a goal without a deadline is just a dream. Well, this is where we turn our dreams into goals and our goals into tasks.

As you look at your revised list of goals and dreams, I want you to really think about when the best time to do it would be. To give you an example from last year, we wanted to expand our big garden and install raised beds. We had two options, do it before planting season, or after.

Me being stubborn, I wanted it before. So this is how we did it; January we took down the old fencing and started cutting down trees. February was finishing the trees and putting the fence back up. March was building the beds and starting to fill them. April was filling the beds and starting to plant.

Timing your goals is extremely important in making sure that not only that you have enough time to get the goals done, but also making sure that you’re doing that goal in the right season. A good example for us is doing house projects in the cold months.

We do not do any upgrades to the house when it is warm or hot. The reason for this is because there are so many outdoor projects that need to be done that wasting time inside isn’t worth it. The other side is that we aren’t going to be spending a lot of time outside when it is too cold.

Another good reason to time your goals appropriately is something like building a shelter for your animals. We want to make sure that these types of projects are done BEFORE bad weather sets in.

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What Are Finish Line Goals

I wanted to give you my hack for not only setting goals but also something that helps my mental health on the days when I just can’t fathom going outside. I call these goals Finish Line Goals or FLG. These are small, easy to hit goals that make a big impact, either mentally or physically. These goals are a quick dopamine hit that really get me motivated to get moving.

FLG’s are great for those dreary days that you can barely get out of bed, let alone go feed the animals and they will look different for everyone. But in the list below, I will give you a bunch of my FLG to pull from or help create your own.

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Master Homestead Goal Ideas

This list is off my master list that I use when I am floundering to figure out what I want do. Because a brain dump is great when you have a bunch of ideas floating around in your head. This master list is great when you either have no idea where to start or so many ideas that you have become paralyzed with options.

The point of this list isn’t do answer the questions but to use it as a prompt to give you some ideas about what other goals you can do for the year.

  1. Chickens- Is their watering system working?
  2. Chickens- Does their feeding system work for them?
  3. Chickens- Is their shelter suitable for the weather?
  4. Chickens- Is there a new system that you want to try this year?
  5. Chickens- Is raising meat chickens “worth” it?
  6. Chickens- Am I getting enough eggs?
  7. Goats- Do they have access to free choice minerals that actually works?
  8. Goats- Is their shelter secure and keep out the weather?
  9. Goats- Do you have a section of your property that you want cleared?
  10. Goats- Do you have your breeding plan set up for the year?
  11. Goats- What is your plan with kids, milking, etc?
  12. Goats- Do I have time to milk my goats?
  13. Goats- Do I want to raise any meat goats?
  14. Garden- What did you grow last year that didn’t work?
  15. Garden- What did your soil tests say? What amendments do you need?
  16. Garden- How is your soil doing?
  17. Garden- Are you preserving your garden well?
  18. Garden- Do you need to expand or reduce your garden space?
  19. Garden- Is there something you want to change with the garden?
  20. Garden- Did we save seeds?
  21. Garden- Are you actually enjoying your garden?
  22. Garden- Are you tracking your garden with a journal, spreadsheet, etc?
  23. Food Storage- Did we use what we put up?
  24. Food Storage- Was there a preservation method that didn’t work well?
  25. Food Storage- Is there enough storage for the amount of food we put up?
  26. Food Storage- What can be improved with our food storage systems?
  27. Emergency Prep- Was there a power outage that we did not do okay with?
  28. Emergency Prep- Did we have what we needed in an emergency?
  29. Emergency Prep- Is there something that we could have done better?
  30. Emergency Prep-Did we run out of anything during an emergency?
  31. Emergency Prep- Where there any medical situations that I wasn’t prepared for?
  32. Emergency Prep- Where there any situations my animals didn’t do well with?
  33. Home- Is there anything within the home that we want to change?
  34. Home- Are there systems within the home that isn’t working?
  35. Home- Are there any big expenses that are coming up that need to be handled?
  36. Home- Is there a skill that I can learn that will help reduce the costs inside the home? (Think learning to do tile, plumbing, etc)
  37. Home- Can I reduce any monthly expenses without sacrificing comfort?
  38. Finances- Can I pay off any small debts?
  39. Finances- Is my budget working?
  40. Finances- Am I putting enough back into savings?
  41. Finances- What am I spending on subscriptions every month?
  42. Finances- Is my emergency fund big enough?
  43. Personal Goals- What is my reading goal this year?
  44. Personal Goals- Do I really want to become even more physically active?
  45. Personal Goals- Am I doing any self care?
  46. Personal Goals- Do I need any mental health care?
  47. Finish Line Goals- Repair hoses
  48. FLG- Hang new curtains, blinds, etc
  49. FLG- Change the blankets on the couch
  50. FLG- Deep clean one thing: bookshelf, desk, seed box, etc (one small thing that isn’t overwhelming)

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Homestead Goal Ideas

The list above is just a quick way to jog your creativity and give you something to use as a template. But feel free to use all of them. At the end of the day, your homestead is yours and you’ve got to figure out what works best for you and your homestead. I will tell you that you need to make sure that you work some sort of self care into your goals.

This could be something as simple as grounding in your garden or taking time off farm to do something for yourself.

Burnout is real and even though you love homesteading, too much, too quickly will lead to frustration, guilt and anger really quick. So make sure you are taking time for yourself.

If you like the content I put out, feel free to buy us a coffee! It helps keep this site running, marketing and the goats in grain!

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