* Each of one these goals will be developed into a full blog post in the near future, I just wanted to share a few of the important things that we are working towards here in the subdivision

1. Become debt free
I decided to list this goal first since it is the foundation of personal freedom and self-sufficiency in my mind. It will also give us the flexibility to pursue so many more options than we could if we were strapped with debt.
Many years ago we heard about Dave Ramsey and his Total Money Makeover plan and we become completely on board. Or so I thought. We struggled off and on for a long time (8 years) to pay off some credit cards and car loans. We didn’t have the discipline to create a budget and stick with it, or to pay off a car and not go out and buy another one. We’ve been doing much better the last couple of years and no longer have any credit card debt and only have one vehicle payment, which should be gone in the next 4 or 5 months. While we haven’t been following the Dave Ramsey plan completely, we are budgeting and have goals in place for many financial milestones.

2. Start a rabbit operation
My main goal for raising rabbits is to have an extra source of meat to supplement what we buy at the grocery store. In the past, we’ve raised New Zealand and Californian rabbits which are the stereotypical “meat” rabbits, however this time we were given a free, pedigreed buck and doe mini rex pair and we decided to start out with them. My early thoughts on this change of plans is that instead of just a meat operation we will be able to sell some of the little ones for pets and breeding stock.

3. Raise Quail
When it comes to raising quail I hope to achieve three things –
1: Extra meat source
2: Egg source
3: Extra income
Coturnix, or Pharaoh quail are very fast growing, maturing birds that will start laying eggs around 8 weeks and are also large enough to be harvested at the same time. They are easy to take care of and don’t require a huge amount of space so they should be perfect for a backyard homestead environment. I’m currently working on an 8’x8’ cattle panel hoophouse that I hope to use to house 25 – 30 adult quail. With a good mixture of hens/roosters and a couple of incubators I think I can maintain a self sustaining breeding and egg hatching operation.

4. Prepare garden soil
We have six 4’x4’ raised beds filled with a mixture of aged, composted horse manure and store bought soil that we have been trying to raise food from for the past few years with marginal success. I have never really put much effort into figuring out if the soil was good from a scientific standpoint, I just mixed some random “stuff” together and hoped for the best. My goal here is to research what needs to be done to have a successful and productive garden and work to build it up over the winter/early spring.