S4E171 Season Finale: 2023:A Season of Change

2023 has been a season of change on our homestead.  Some of that has been planned.  So of it, not so much.  On this final episode of season 4, I share with you some of those changes and some lessons I've learned.  I also share with you my vision for season 5.

Until next time, keep up the good work!!
Brian

Transcript

Microphone (ZOOM P4 Audio) & c922 Pro Stream Webcam: 0:02

On your host, Brian Wells. And I'm a fourth generation homesteader since 2008. My family and I have been homesteading here. Beautiful upstate New York. In 2019, I launched the homestead journey podcast to help people just like you get started and find success on their journey towards self-sufficiency. Self-reliance. And sustainability. This is the homestead journey. And this is season four. Well, hello everyone. And welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to another episode of the homestead journey podcast. My name is Brian Wells. I am coming to you as always from three beef ramen homestead here in. Beautiful upstate New York. This is episode number 171. And this is the final episode in season four. Can you believe that folks? We have calm. To the end of season four. And I hope that you've enjoyed it. In fact today's main topic as we wrap up the season is really going to. To be focused on what has been the topic for this entire season. And that is that 2023 has been a season of change here on. Three beef, farm and homestead. And we're going to just talk about some of the changes that have taken place. Some that were planned, some that were unplanned and really what it is meant and what it will mean to us. Moving forward here. On three B farm and homestead. Now at the end of this episode, I will share with you my vision for season five. I am planning on coming back. For a, another season, season five. I'm very, very excited. We're going to pivot just a little bit, before we get into all of that. I did want to provide you with one last homestead happenings one last update from three reform in homestead here in 2023. As I share with you what we've been doing here on three B farm at homestead. Now this past weekend was a weekend where we spent a lot of time off. The homestead. And one of the things that I actually had the opportunity to do this past week was to attend my first meeting as a new member of the New York farm bureau. This past week was the annual meeting where they talk about resolutions, where they voting officers. And so I had the opportunity to attend that and really to start networking with people, getting to know people. Re acquainting myself with some people that I already knew. Uh, and it really, really was a great time and it really reaffirmed to me. That I made a great decision joining the New York farm bureau, and I'm really excited to see where things go One of the other things I wanted to share with you about this past week is something that we did not do. As you know, normally I cycle my flock out every year either I send them to the small animal auction or I put them in not freezer camp, I guess we would call it Canon camp. I put them in dark. I don't know. What you would call that. But, uh, if I don't send them off to the small animal auction, I will pressure can my old hens. But because we got started so late this year with our pullets, my pullets haven't started lane. Now I want to say they haven't started lane. I have one or two that are laying, but they're not laying consistently enough to where I would feel comfortable that if I got rid of my hands, that I would have a continuous supply of eggs. And as you know, We have not bought eggs for ourselves here on three of your farm and homestead since 2008. And if I can keep that streak alive well by golly, I'm going to do it. So last weekend actually was the last small animal auction at the auction house that I normally use. And so Bonnie and I had a conversation and we just decided that we're going to winter over. Both our flock of hens, as well as our pullets. But that actually ended up, um, being a very positive thing because I had a friend reach out to me and said, Hey, Brian, I'm looking for six or eight hens. Do you have anything available? And so I am going to be able to reduce the size of my flock. By six or eight hens. But hopefully still keep enough hens on hand, even though their production is starting to tail off. Some of them are starting to molt. But hopefully I'll be able to keep enough production up, so I don't have to buy eggs and I will be able to keep that streak alive. No, as far as the garden goes, we have not yet had our first frost. Usually our first frost is around the 14th of October and we have not had one. As of yet. And so we're still harvesting things out of the garden, even though things are starting to slow down a little bit, but today I was able to chop up some peppers and put them. In our dehydrator. I think that's the end of my pepper season with the exception of some Thai chili peppers. And my Thai chili peppers are just starting to come on right now. But as you might recall, from a couple of episodes ago, a friend of mine from work gave me some Thai chili peppers gave me some Hoben arrows. And so I've been making some fermented hot pepper sauces. And today, I went ahead and ground them up and made the sauce. And overall, I'm very happy with how it came out. I did a little bit of different batches. I did some with garlic. Some was some sweet pepper in them. And overall hot, hot, hot. Oh, so hot. But also tasty it just a little different flavor profile between each batch, which I really, really enjoyed. And so I'm going to take a little bit. For me each batch and give them to my friend from work that gave me the peppers just so he can. Try them out and kind of give me his feedback. But certainly that was something that was exciting to do. Up in the garden. We still have a few things that are, are holding on. I've got some Dickinson pumpkins that are just about ready to go. Some trombone and CNO squash. That's about ready to go. I've been letting my beans kind of hang on because I'm wanting something to be dry beans and some to be shell beans. And so I usually will push the envelope a little bit. And usually the night before a frost is predicted, we'll go out and we'll pick all the beans and we'll sort out which ones are gonna be shell beans, which ones are gonna be dry beans. And then kind of go from there. I do have a couple of heads of, of cauliflower left. A few heads of cabbage left. And then we have a bunch of root crops in the ground. Still. Some. Ah, turnips some rutabagas, uh, some beats, some carrots. Uh, and those are things that will withstand a light frost. So I'm not very worried about those. And then we still have some kale. And so, uh, you know, a few things left to harvest, but not a whole lot. Do you need to get up there and do some clean out? And then we will get things, uh, put to bed. Uh, for the winter, hopefully I'll get some garlic planted. I am planning on taking, uh, some of the garlic that we harvested this year and I'm going to replant that and hopefully that will grow and do well for us. And, uh, so that's kind of where we are at with the garden. The last thing I wanted to share with you is this past week was Brian Jay's birthday. And so on Saturday, Bonnie and I actually had the opportunity to go over, to take him and his girlfriend out for lunch. And that was such a joy. Certainly did take us away from the homestead and getting some things done here. As far as buttoning things up. But I would much rather go spend time with my son to do anything else around here on the homestead. That's just how it is. That's how it's always going to be. And it is all good. Well, I do hope things are well, wherever you are at. And if you have come to the end of your harvest, I hope it was a successful one. Certainly wasn't the best harvest that we've ever had here on 3-d farm and homestead. But as they say, there's always next year and it's all good. All right. Let's jump on over to this. Episode's charting the course. So this certainly has Benny season of change here on three B farm and homestead. And that's something that we've been talking about this entire season. And so on this episode, I wanted to share with you a few of the things that have changed here on our homestead. Uh, by choice and a few things that happened well due to circumstances outside. Our control. And then really to wrap things up with regards to how how all of that impacts our homestead. Moving forward. So certainly our biggest change here on the home side was the fact that Brian Jay has left. And now Bonnie and I are empty nesters. And we talked a lot about that. On last week's episode. So I'm not going to dive into that all whole lot, other than the say, it certainly has been a huge change here on the homestead. And the process of getting to the spot where he has left us certainly had a huge impact on our homestead, just because of college visits and graduation, and then getting him moved to college. All of that took energy that otherwise probably would have gone into the homestead. And directed at otherwise and you know what? It's all good. It is certainly all good. That's one of the things I think that we as homesteaders need to keep in the back of our minds is that there are seasons in life and there are seasons in homesteading. And as life happens. We just need to be okay with that. And there are going to be times when situations arise, whether it's a child going off to college or whether maybe it's an elderly parent that needs some care or it's a job change, whatever it is, there are things that are going to arise in life that are going to sometimes impact the size and the scale. At which you can homestead. And Brian J heading to college has certainly been something that has impacted us that way. This year now, the second major thing that was a change here on the homestead was the fact that we adopted the Mediterranean diet or the Mediterranean way of eating. night, I'm going to be totally honest with you. We kind of fell off the wagon a little bit around June timeframe. We did really, really great with the Mediterranean diet. The first part of the year, and Bonnie really saw significant health benefits or A1C levels dropped back into normal range. And she no longer was considered pre-diabetic. We also lost weight and we both noticed a great impact with regards to our energy levels and our overall feeling of, of health and wellbeing. But just because of, of things that were going on in life, we certainly have not adhered to that way of eating as much as we were during the first part of the year. And both of us have felt the impact of that. And so we are on a journey back in that direction. Uh, starting D more compliant with the Mediterranean way of eating. And, uh, we will continue to do so because we really do believe in that and the benefits that it has created for us. As a part of that change though. And as a part of Brian J heading off to college, We got out of pigs and that has been a huge, huge change for us. Now it's almost three months since the pigs left three beef farm and homestead, they left the end of July. Here we are towards the end of October. And while it certainly was a huge change for us emotionally, it wasn't as traumatic as I thought it would be. I thought I would really, really be sad. I'd be mopey and that I would really miss the pigs. And I have not up to this point. But I have noticed an impact on my activity level. You see, I have a pedometer on my phone and I keep track of the number of steps that I take every day. And since we got out of pigs, I certainly have found myself not taking as many steps. As I was when I had the pigs, because I'm not taking food and I'm not taking water out to them and I'm not walking around. Checking on them and I'm not chasing them around trying to get them back in where they're supposed to be. Certainly having pigs led to a more active lifestyle. And so I've had to really force myself. I don't wanna say off the couch, but I've had to find other ways to make myself active. Um, because of getting rid of the pigs and that really was not something that I had anticipated. Having to do, but getting rid of the pig certainly was a huge part of the change here on the homestead in 2023. Now, those are all of the things that we planned. Uh, as far as changes, there are a few things that happened this year, major changes that were not planned. The first being that we did not raise meat birds this year. Now, when I say wasn't planned, we did not go into 2023 thinking that we weren't going to raise meat, birds. What ended up happening is my dad ended up having to have knee replacement surgery back in the spring. And as a result of that, and as a result of how. The Southern Adirondack homesteading festival fell. And because of Brian, Jay graduating. We just felt like doing a spring batch of meat, birds, wasn't going to be a good fit. So our thought was, well, we'll do one in the fall, but then as we started looking at our fall calendar, And looking at the home centers of new England event and Brian J going off to college and the fair and all of those things, we opted this year, not to do meat, birds at all. And that was a huge change for us. We have done meat birds every year. Uh, for, for the last six years, seven years. Um, intentionally done meat, birds. I'm not talking about just cycling out our flock, but actually doing batches of meat, birds. And it certainly felt weird this year. Not processing a single chicken here on three B farm. In homestead. The second major change this year, that happened, that was outside of our control is the fact that we did not do turkeys. Now we didn't do turkeys last year, but that was my plan. But this year we plan to do. Uh, a batch of turkeys. And actually I was very excited about that because we had a plan for what we were going to do with the turkeys besides just sell them. And besides just put them. In holes or halves in our freezer, but we were going to take that Turkey meat. We were grind it up. Because we do eat a lot of ground Turkey. Um, in our diet. And so I thought this is going to be great. It's going to pair well with the Mediterranean diet. We're going to have this ground poultry. Uh, it's going to be awesome. And so I ordered turkeys from a hatchery and then they had a bad hatch and they weren't able to send them, but they said, well, make it up in a, in a week. And then they weren't able to make it up in a week. And by the time all of that got figured out, it was so late that if I were to order from somebody else, it just would've made no sense. And so this year we opted not to do turkeys. And so this is going to be a really, really lean year. As far as putting meat in the freezer. Now we did have some pigs. Back in the spring that we put into the freezer, but we're not putting any of our own chicken or any of our own Turkey. Into the freezer this year. And that feels very, very weird. And that was certainly all outside of our control. But the third major. Issue of the third major change on our homestead this year has been the sheer lack of food preservation. And that's not Ben because I didn't want to do it. And it hasn't really even been because I didn't have time to do it, but it's Ben because our garden didn't produce like it has in the past. Now I have done some candy and I've done some jams and jellies. I've done. Uh, some beans and so forth, but it certainly has not been at the same level that I have done in the past. And I have canned nothing tomato related this year at all. I have a few bags of tomatoes in the freezer. Not quite sure what I'm going to do with them. I'm not sure if I will make tomato sauce. Or if I will do stewed tomatoes, I've actually been thinking about trying my hand at making tomato soup, something I've never done before. So, I don't know, but certainly nowhere near the tomato harvest that I'm used to getting, and certainly nowhere near the level of canning and food preservation that I've done in the past. But if the garden doesn't produce the garden, doesn't produce, no, I could have gone to local truck farms and I could have bought tomato. I could have bought. Other vegetables to, can I have opted not to, for a variety of different reasons. But that has felt very, very weird. This year, our homestead has been the least productive. It has been. I think since we, we really started doing this. With a plan and with a purpose. And that has felt very, very odd. And at times I've kind of second guessed myself at times. I've kind of beat myself up a little bit. But what I'm learning is that I need to have a little bit, a little grace with myself, and I need to remember that there are going to be ebbs and flows. There's going to be seasons on your homestead. There's going to be times when life happens. Either life circumstances, get in the way of you being able to pour as much time, effort and energy into your homestead, as you would like, maybe you are sick or you have a family member that's sick. Whatever it may be. There are times when changes come in our lives and it just really impacts our homesteads in ways that we never imagined. And we need to be okay with that. There are some times again where things happen that are outside our control. And we could try to force things to happen. But usually what we need to do is just take a deep breath. And remember. Bless it or the flexible for, they shall not get bad, a shape. All right, that's it for this episode, that's it for this season. I hope you've enjoyed it. I hope that it has been helpful to you. It really has been helpful to me, as we mentioned last week on last week's episode. The episodes that we did with regards to empty nest homesteading, I really do strongly believe we're very beneficial in helping Bonnie and I make the transition into being empty nesters in much in a much less traumatic fashion. And so thank you so much for being along for the ride. I really, really appreciate it. Before I sign off though for one final time here in season four, I did want to share with you my vision for season five. In season five. I am planning on doing just a little bit of a pivot. We're still talking homesteading stuff. But my plan is to do a series that I am tentatively calling my journey into. And what this series will be is a series of interviews with homesteaders and small producers across the United States and around the world, as we talk about their journeys into specific areas within homesteading. So my goal is to really focus on things like maybe soap making. Or maybe someone's side hustle or how someone got into homestead blogging, or maybe how someone got into podcasting. Or how someone got into goats or cheesemaking those kinds of things. And really to understand how someone got into it, what they've learned along the way and why it matters. And so if you have a story to share, I'm not necessarily looking for journeys into Homesite and in general, but really into a specific. Skillset. If there is something. That you really have enjoyed learning to do, and you're passionate about it. And you want to share that with other people. Reach out to me. brian@thehomesteadjourney.net. I would love to hear your story. And to share that story with other people, because I really believe that those stories can be very, very inspirational and help people. Decide. Maybe they want to get into it or maybe after they hear your story? Nope, I'm good. Don't want to go there. Either way it's beneficial. And so if you have a story you're interested in sharing. Reach out to me, Brian, at the homestead journey.net. And I would be glad to have a conversation with you and we'll see if it fits into season five, my journey into. And whatever the topic is. Now I am planning on launching season five, probably somewhere around the first part of February. Uh, so definitely keep an eye out for that. If you don't follow us on all of our social media accounts. Give us a like, or a follow on Facebook on Instagram. Um, I will do my best to keep you up to date there. One we're getting ready to launch season five, or if you haven't already subscribed to our newsletter, you can do so by heading on over to our website, the homestead journey.net. All right folks, that's it for this episode, that's it for season four. As always. Until next time. Keep up. The good work.