Anita, don't look at it as 13 all new skills, Look at it as working skills that you will be doing, and at times only comes around once or twice a year depending.. example, lambing only comes once a year typically in the northern climate we have.. use the chance to practice your animal husbandy skills, if you need to milk out the mom, that's milking skills, if you are unlucky enough to have a stillborn, (the odd year we have none but most years there are at least one), wprk on skinning and preparing a hide or just work on skinning and give away the hide to someone else to work it.

Canning, drying, gardening and the list goes on and on on the farms, just sit down at the end of each month and I will bet you that you can come up with at least one to three things each month of the coming year that will fit easily into his skills list..

How is everyone doing on their goal list? Did you make a list, do you have a plan?

Part of my prepping in 2013 goals list was to ensure that I had at least 6 months worth of meals that I could make/get ready in under 10 minutes when I went back to work. A few of the things that I did were:

When I read Farmgal's blog and saw her goals list for 2013, I thought it was a great idea. I did one up for myself and posted it on my blog. I would update once a week on how I was doing on the goals. That is until I killed my blogs. Last night I found my goals list for 2013. Wow, I think I must have been completely out of my head to think it was possible to get everything done on my list. I broke the items down by room, subject but not by prepping. None of my prepping goals seemed to have made it to the list 😳 Here is a bit of what I had written up.

Critters
 Stay on top of the tank cleaning
 Buy a 30 gallon breeder tank and set up for Freckles
 Move the bearded dragons and salt water fish to dinning room
 Succeed in breeding live food for bearded dragons
 Grow food for bearded dragons
 Set up and try breeding tilapia
 Get rid of angel fish (not mine, boarder left them)
 Replace last filter that requires priming when restarting

Purge / Organize
 Basement
 Fish extras
 Xmas
 Kitchen
 Crafts
 Books / recipe books
 Food storage
 3rd floor

Back Yard
 Take down and rebuild back porch
 Build several raised beds for veggies
 Organize shed
 Finish building stone pathways
 Dump for items left by previous owner, previous boarder and cement/fence posts

Wow, this is a wonderful post and I need some motivation. I have learned some new skills this year already. As someone previously said, always stuff to learn in the garden and I have also learned beeswax candle-making and how to make beef bone broth. I am also slowly learning how to use my slingshot and what to put in our BOBs. So all in all, I guess that's not bad. I am moving to a new home next month (still in the city for now), so I won't be taking anything else on until September, but soap-making is something I want to learn and I want to buy a pressure canner so I can start canning my own soups, stews, chili, etc. Love the whole idea of setting these learning goals.

Oldschool: That is until I killed my blogs

Oldschool, you don't have your blogs anymore??

What, you stopped your blogs? Why?

Can't blog from my phone. Heck I can't even forward attachments or post links.

Livingpower, I hope your move goes smoothly.

So no updates from anyone else?

I am still working on the house renos when I can and reorganizing the house. Waiting for a sale on pantry cupboards so I can finish moving the kitchenware around. Most of my learning lately has been work stuff or letting go. Finally got rid of projects that I didn't think I would ever finish. 🙁

I have a list too but it seems like a moving target 🙂 Every time I get nearly to the bottom of the list I add so many more things that I never get finished. Oh well. We're working on a lot of infrastructure this year so it's not really very exciting to look at but it's really important. (Barn repairs and fencing)

Next week I am going to waterproof an old cistern I found on the property so I can catch the rain water from the barn roof. I'll then add a pump so I can move the water into the barn for livestock use or irrigation for the garden. I'll take pictures and post them when I get it done.

For now gardening and moving hay are keeping me busy but when it cools down a little I am going to set up a hoop house that I purchased on kijiji for season extension.
I'm also re-doing my BO Buckets which is also our camping stuff for better efficiency and less weight and setting up an outdoor kitchen for canning.

Almost all my kids have found jobs this summer so the lack of slave labour has slowed down my progress! 🙂