2015 goal review, plan for 2016

My goals for 2015 were set at a pretty low bar. I attained all of them except for visiting 2 alpaca farms, but I intentionally put those on the back burner. I'd still love to have alpacas on my future homestead, but 1) it's a much lower priority compared to raising produce, chickens, and rabbits, which are all much easier to get into, and 2) I want to live in the Tri-Valley, which is probably too hot in the summer for alpacas to be happy, so I might need to give up on that idea.

Let's set goals for 2016 which are attainable, but will force me to stretch a bit more:

• Implement a new marketing strategy for my dog training business each quarter. (This will be a challenge!)
• Watch at least 24 hours' worth of dog training DVDs from my stack. (2 hours each month - doable, right??)
• Observe or help with chicken slaughter, to gain hands on experience.
• Practice sewing/crafting with rabbit hides. I have a small stack of prepped hides but haven't done anything with them yet.
• Learn more about fiber. Hopefully take a spinning class AND see about volunteering on someone's farm on alpaca shearing day.
• Sew up the 3 pattern and fabric sets that have been sitting in my closet for a year. I just finished up a 3 day, intensive pants class at Stonemountain and want to make multiple pairs of pants from my new personalized pattern.
• Generally speaking, set aside larger chunks of time for myself, particularly for sewing.
• Continue cooking, gardening, crocheting.

Christmas crochet presents

Baylee Bear Cowl:

I modified the pattern to widen the bottom section, so that it fits loosely over the shoulders. I also used a different stitch (ripple stitch) to add texture to the hood, so it would be more interesting. This is for my sister, to keep her warm during Burning Man nights.


Basket Weave Headband:

This was also for my sister to wear to festivals. I wanted to make a headband that used some of the feathers my hens had dropped while growing up. I first chose the yarn to match these feathers from the Rhode Island Red. I used the basket weave pattern, then added small black beads and copper ornaments. I am so in love with the matching button with four marks, sticking up just like the four feathers.


Egg Cozies:

My parents and I like to eat fresh boiled eggs, usually 2 per meal. Now we can keep the extra eggs warm. I made this pattern myself. I kept the one on the left and gave a set of the one on the right to my parents.


Kitty Collars:

These are for my sister's boyfriend's 2 cats. I made the pattern myself. I think I'm going to write it up and try to sell it on Ravelry. (Though I need to take nicer pictures first!)

Recently finished crochet projects

They all needed buttons, but now they're finished!

Lacy Cowl:

This didn't quite come out right. When I brought the two sides together to sew the buttons on, I realized that the right side is taller than the left side. (You can see it in the top photo.) I have no idea how that happened. It bothers me enough that I might frog and redo this entire thing.


Petite Scarf:

It's okay. This was actually one of the earliest pieces I made; I just hadn't gotten around to putting a button on it.


Margaret Button Cowl:

Simple but warm and elegant. I've already gotten a number of compliments on it.


Crocodile Stitch Booties:

These are fun. The lighting here is terrible but the colors made a sort of pink camo print. My only problem with the pattern is that it asks you to tightly pull together 6 stitches to close the top of the slipper section, which is difficult to do and looks messy.

Zipper replacement

Last year the dogs chewed on my down jacket because I'd left it hanging over a chair with a few treats in the pocket. Surprisingly, they only messed up the zipper and did not actually put a hole in the fabric, which they mostly just licked. Yesterday I finally sat down to replace the zipper. The most time consuming part of this was using the seam ripper to remove the old zipper. I then proceeded to sew in the first half of the new zipper, and I was happy with my handiwork:

I even put a binding over the edge of the zipper. Good job, me!

Then it was time to unzip the new zipper and pin it to the other side of the jacket and I realized...

I'd purchased the wrong type of zipper. This one did not separate.

So I used the seam ripper to remove the new zipper as well, and put in an order for a separating zipper. Lesson learned.

Rabbit broth

4 liters of rabbit broth. Guess what happened the first time I poured myself some soup.

Molting chickens

Egg production has steeply dropped off. At first I assumed it was due to the shorter days, but this morning I noticed that the coop had a handful of feathers scattered around. It seems my girls are molting for the winter.

However my least favorite chicken, the Ameraucana, is redeeming herself by continuing to lay one blue egg nearly every day.

Coop upgrades

The 100 foot extension cord is still stretched across the yard to the chicken run, which is handy for making quick little upgrades like this latch to hold the door open. (We'd previously been using a large rock to prop it open.)

At some point I should invest in a power saw, but my cheap handsaw was enough to cut through this plastic trellis I picked up at Urban Ore.

I used it to fence off the corner of the run where I dump used chicken bedding. The girls had of course been scratching in it and spreading it all around. Keeping it in a pile will help it heat up and decompose more quickly.

The Ameraucana seems to have been playing a prank and laid a half-sized egg last week, followed the next day by a quarter-sized egg. The third day's egg was back to normal. I'm told that this just happens sometimes with young hens.

Raised bed update

I made a big mistake when I put this squash plant into the southeast corner of the bed. It's casting a lot of shade on the plants behind it. D'oh.

The lemon balm was finally starting to grow nicely went something did a number on it.

Next to the raised bed, my dwarf mandarin has grown nearly two feet in the past few months. Pretty soon I'll be trimming those top branches. Maybe then it will finally have energy to grow its fruit to maturity, instead of dropping the still-green balls?

Tomato seeds

Another recent experiment: saving tomato seeds from the two best plants.

Since I had multiple tomato varieties, these seeds will be hybrids. It'll just be a fun experiment to see what comes of them.

I've been drowning in tomatoes this year, and haven't been able to keep up with pruning the plants lately.

The other day I decided that I was done with tomatoes for the season, and hacked most of the plants back. I just left a handful of branches that had almost-ripe fruit on them to finish up.


Next year I plan to buy just one or two seedlings, then see what comes of those seeds.

Dehydrating fruit

I've been experimenting with dehydrating apples and peaches in the oven.

I'm still working out the timing - not so dehydrated that they turn into crisps, but enough to prevent mold for a few months at least.

Unfortunately the resulting fruit is so yummy that none of it has lasted more than a week so far.

Parsley

This parsley plant was going nuts.

I hacked off all of the fronds...

And hung them up to dry.

Within three days my cat had decimated the ones that were hanging over the counter.

The bunches in the window seem to be fully dry and ready to chop up and put into spice jars.

Jackfruit seedlings

Last time I found jackfruit at the grocery store, I saved the seeds, soaked them for 24 hours, then planted them. 2 seedlings have come up so far. I'll have to baby them over the winter, but so worth it if they take off.

Rabbit quesadilla

Quick to prep and heat up once you have the ingredients. The chives were from my garden.

Papaya

There was nothing left of the papaya a few hours later.

Starting at bottom, going clockwise: Welsummer, Ameraucana, Black Australorp, Gold Laced Wyandotte, Rhode Island Red.

Reusing fencing

Urban Ore regularly has old fencing and gates available.

I wish I had a friend with enough space to let me stockpile building materials until I get my homestead.

Urban Farm Tours in Hayward

The Institute of Urban Homesteading branched out the popular Urban Farm Tours to Hayward this fall. This was my first time attending a tour. I wanted to see how different people made use of small spaces (though some of the properties were multiple acres), and how the techniques I'd read about really looked when put into practice. Here are pictures of some of the things I wanted to remember for my future homestead:

Homemade greenhouse - wooden frame and plastic walls, plus a real glass door.

Tiny greenhouse made by stretching clear plastic over an existing frame. On the left, a raised bed delineated by extra cinder blocks.

This raised bed took advantage of old bricks.

And this one simply used stones.

Vegetables planted straight into rotting hay (had been left out in rain).

Tarp/plastic making a planter out of a shopping cart. Makes it easy to harvest tubers, and keeps highly invasive plants contained.

Using a shade cloth to grow leafy greens that can't tolerate full California sun.

C-shaped bed maximizes planting area while keeping everything within easy reach (like a keyhole bed).

Another c-shaped bed.

Failed experiment at using old rain gutters as strawberry beds. Cool idea for vertical gardening, but the high surface area allows the soil to dry out too quickly in a dry climate.

Successful trellising of tromboncino squash. These things were HUGE.

There's nothing to show scale here, but these bamboo shoots were at least 10 feet tall. Bamboo tends to be highly invasive, but it does create a great visual barrier, shade, and construction material.

This passionflower vine was growing onto a rope extending across the yard, and starting to make a living curtain. Great visual.

Fences don't have to be expensive, if you use scrap materials.

Sheer height is what's needed for keeping deer out.

A pop of color makes everything look great.

Gates can also be made from bamboo or scrap materials.

Reused outdoor sink.

Composting: top bin for depositing fresh stuff, middle bin for the hot pile in process, and bottom bin for finished black gold.

How cute is this?!

By later afternoon it was chilly and we were surprised by a drizzle. This fire felt SO nice. Even though the Trivalley is in triple digits in the summer, I get cold easily, and an outdoor fire pit would be a nice play to sit by during winters on my future homestead.