Happy Holidays Everyone!
All the folks here at Roberts Roost hope that the Season is filled with Joy and the weather is as you would like it. (for us that’s snow everywhere except on the roads!)
Life has been crazy for us as it is for everyone this time of year, but some of our craziness comes from our homesteading choices. Homesteading is often a choice to do things for your self rather than buying the service from someone else. We get many things from this kind of life, security, satisfaction, simplicity, a slower paced life (sometimes), more connection to place, etc. Most of this comes from spending time rather than money to meet our needs. However, in the world as it is there is a need for at least some money. It is used to secure things we cant produce ourselves, to pay taxes, land payments, utilities, etc. It is at this interface between homesteading systems and conventional consumer systems that life sometimes gets chaotic. That’s what has been happening here for the past two months.
One of our goals here at the Roost has been to produce what we need from our little farm. This includes the money we need to live in the world as it is. To do this we have tried several things, produce stands, egg production, farmers market, and most recently a goat milk fudge business. We have has some success with all of these, but the fudge business seems to be fitting into our life the best. It utilizes a resource we have in excess, it is not as perishable as produce, it isn’t mass-produced, and we can ship it all over. Perfect… right up until the Holiday Rush. We were ill prepared for the increase in demand that would come with the holidays. The increase in orders used up the one resource we very little of – time. As a result everything suffered. Many of the thousand little things needing to get done to prepare us for winter and for the holidays didn’t get done (there are still several storm windows not put up, the last load of firewood is now buried under 4 inches of snow, etc…) Some things got done poorly, like my recent posts on this blog, and some not at all, like posting to our farm blog.
So now I find my self rethinking many of the things I thought I could do. Now that we are almost through the holiday season and the fudge shop is closed until February, I will have to take a really hard look at how I spend my time. Blogging is one of the things I have to evaluate. I love blogging. I love the sharing of stories and information, the community, the friendships. But it has to be something I’m proud of, and lately my posts don’t pass muster. I don’t know exactly how things will work out as we go forward. I want to keep this blog going, and remain a part of it. I want to keep my personal blog going to. I want to do a bit more business next year than I did this last year, but … I don’t know how it will all fit.
I would be sad to see you go. As a future homesteader and small farmer (15 months away!) I find your posts informative, encouraging and useful. Although I understand that there is only so much time in a day…
Don’t forget the power of this season (I call it the busy season) to make one soooo tired, you feel you may be ill or old or depressed. I find a short rest a the beginning of January, sitting by the fire and reading seed catalogues and the energy and spirit returns. I hope you will stay with us 🙂
I so enjoy your homesteading stories reminding all of us that there is a different way if we make the choice to do something different. Even though I will never homestead, the window into your world helps me look at things in my world and see how and what I can do differently.
Thanks for sharing and Happy Holidays!
Is there a way to get a jump on the holiday fudge orders? Would you consider making extra in advance and then freezing it?
Even if your posts haven’t “passed muster” lately, all of us newbies appreciate what you do have time to share 🙂
I am a new blogger. I look forward to seeing more posts but don’t know exactly where to look.
The following might not fit what you usually blog about but I find that I have to save everywhere to get closer to my dream homestead.
I have always been the aunt that gives the unusual, inexpensive gifts that everyone seems excited to get. One young nephue (my nephue’s son) said one year, a week before his birthday, “I wonder what Aunt Margie will get me for my birthday.” “She always gets something Different. I like Different.” Well, where this story is going is that I came up with a cute, inexpensive idea for a Christmas present for each household this year. I made drawstring bags from felt (on sale, of course) and filled them with a deck of cards (buy 2 for $1 at Dollar Tree), a set of 6 colored dice (10 pack cost $1 at Dollar Tree) and 4 sets of directions for dice games (copied from the Internet). These gifts cost about $1,20 each.
Margie