Goals for 2009

I have never been good at new years resolutions.  In fact, I once joked that the only time I kept a resolution was when I resolved to never make resolutions again! I think part of my problem with them is, if you want to make a change in your life- do it- you don't need to wait until the beginning of a new year.  That being said, I do think the new year is a good opportunity to reflect on the old and plan for the future.

2008 was tough on us:  Job stress, changes and loss, illness, floods. I don't want to try this one again.  But it has also been a year of growth.  We started looking for an acreage last year in February but didn't have much luck finding one we could afford or that we liked.  One the land was perfect but the house needed a bulldozer, another was too far away, another had a great house but not much useable land.  Another for sale by owner house we wanted to go look at, the guy just never called us back.  But I have managed to bring V on board with the whole thing.  He was very interestedly looking through the root cellar book since that is something we decided we wanted even before we got the book.  I have been working on my food preservation skills and we made much more of a concerted effort to be sure where our food came from.

Yeah, the good and the bad.  But 2009 is a fresh start.  So much of what I want to accomplish this year is dependent of V's ability to find a new job.  That said, here are the goals for 2009:

1. Food production-  Plan, plant, weed and harvest garden.  Last year with all the flooding the weeds got out of control in a large section of the garden so we'll have to try extra hard to keep on top of it this year.  I need to make getting out to the garden more of a priority.  The biggest problem is that I have to drive a few miles to get to the garden so it turns into an expedition rather than being able to take advantage of little bits of time that I may have.

2. Food security- By the end of the year, I would like to have at least 50% of our food be either grown ourselves or locally produced.  I hope for a higher percentage but I'm going to keep it realistic.  Even 50% is better than the average person.

3. Home front-  Find and purchase our homestead acreage.  This one really depends on V's job situation.  This also entails getting our house ready to sell so V has a list of projects that he is going to work on while off work.

4.  Health-  I want to get into better physical shape.  Some of that involves shedding a few of the extra pounds I have acquired over the years but also just getting back into shape.  I do walk back and forth to work but it's easy to use that as my exercise and ignore all the other components. Being able to spend more time in the garden will help but I need to come up with an exercise plan I can stick with.

5. Learn something new-  I want to learn to knit.  I haven't been making time for it lately and I am determined that I'll figure it out.

6.  The 3 R's- I want to reduce more waste at home- both of stuff and money.  We need to be more deliberate about our purchases and decide if we REALLY need something before purchasing.

I hope these are all things I can manage in the year ahead.  They don't seem unreasonable to me.  Granted, finding the homestead will be the biggest challenge.  I'm just glad that I don't have to worry about planting my garden and then moving since we don't garden at our house anyway.