Here’s Everything We Did in Our First Year on the Homestead

We moved to our new property of just over six acres in Georgia in July 2022. As we approach the end of our first year on the homestead, I think it’s important to reflect and quantify all that we accomplished in these first 12 months. Looking backwards will help us gauge how much progress we might expect in the future, as we’re always planning what to do next. Though they went by fast, we have achieved more than I thought possible throughout this year, especially considering the shoe-string budget we were on those first few months while adjusting our finances. I hope reading what we’ve done in a year will help you in considering what is possible to do in a first year on a new homestead. Every family’s situation is unique, of course, but having some data points is always helpful.

1. One of the first things we did was move our 11 hens along with their 30′ x 10 ‘ run and 2 attached coops. It was a major undertaking and something I couldn’t have done alone.
2. We unfortunately lost our bees within months of moving them to the property, but started again with a new hive (in a new location on the property) the next spring.
3. We broke ground (through our new rototiller) on our initial 30′ x 40′ garden space. We then fenced in the garden with T-posts and 8-foot cattle panels (sometimes called “handy panels”). These cattle panels were rarely in stock at Tractor Supply, which slowed down completion of the fence considerably.
4. We later extended our garden in Spring 2023 to include another 30′ x 20′ space for corn and sunflowers. Growing well so far!
5. Over Christmas of 2022, we experienced an unusual cold spell in Georgia that burst every pipe in the barn, despite leaving faucets dripping. My dad and I the installed (and extended) plumbing throughout the entire barn. We added two spigots to the front of the barn for added utility, especially for irrigation of the garden space.
6. Because perennials take time to begin producing, we planted 23 blueberry bushes, about 10 blackberry bushes, and 6 raspberry bushes. That’s a lot of holes to dig!

7. We also installed two 100′ muscadine trellises with T-posts and 14 gauge wire, each to support five muscadine vines. Although muscadines grow here natively and vigorously, the deer seem to nab most of them before we can. The wild vines aren’t nearly as productive as trellised muscadines, either.
8. Because I’m someone who constantly thinks how to optimize our property in the long term, we cleared a dozen or so small trees from a lightly wooded area in the back to prepare for a future expansion of pasture.
9. We added an herb garden on east side of back porch and planted cilantro, basil, peppermint, lemon thyme, and parsely. We also built four raised beds for each of our kids to plant in. The kids planted a huge variety of different vegetables…not expecting much from them…
10. We planted six euonymus bushes along the front porch (for pure aesthetic value) and six aronia berry plants on the south side of the house (for edible landscaping).
11. Also, we started a dwarf fruit orchard in front of house consisting of 9 apples trees (two varieties) and 3 peach trees. So far, I’m not very impressed, but perhaps that’s because the deer are vicious to these trees, despite some light netting to protect them.
12. Immediately upon moving to the property, I purchased 50 thuja arborvitae (“green giants”) and 50 persimmon trees from the Georgia Forestry Commission, each for less than a dollar a tree. We planted around 20 thuja seedlings along the front road for future privacy. We also planted around 8 persimmon trees along back of property for wildlife and some privacy from a new driveway built in the back of us.
13. Thinking outside the box when it comes to the chore of weeding the garden, we built a small mobile chicken coop for three bantam chickens…my “weed machine”. So far, it’s working okay. I think it’s best used around the perimeter of the garden where weed pressure is highest. I’ll update in a future post, as it’s only been a few weeks and the bantams are not quite full grown yet.
14. We also decided to try meat chickens this year, so we built a 5’x10′ chicken tractor for 14 Australorps We chose Australorps because we initially planned to use them for both meat and eggs, and also becuause they tend to look like crows to hawks (our biggest predator). We did lose one to a predator and one is a rooster (for breeding later), hopefully leaving us with 12 chickens for the freezer.
15. Though it happened much sooner than I ever anticipated, we got a tractor! I decided to go with a Bobcat CT 2025 HST (a 25 HP compact tractor). I’ll post more on why and a review of it in the future, but so far all is looking good.

16. For the first 9 months, I used plastic tubs to store all my tools (which was irritating), but I invested in two 4’x4′ metal peg boards to organize a shop area. Looking much tidier now.
17. I built a very rudimentary compost bin out of on-hand lumber and chicken wire. It consists of two regions, each roughly 4’x4’x4′. It’s the destination for kitchen scraps and bedding out of the chicken coops, but I hope to begin efficiently collecting and composting our copious leaves this Fall.

Working on all these projects didn’t feel like as much progress as it appears looking back. As I tend to underestimate what we can accomplish, quantifying the number and type of projects we completed gives me confidence that we can achieve more than is initially thought in our second year. Further, all this first year included the single biggest project not shown on this list, namely moving onto the new property, organizing everything, and settling in to our new home.

For our second year, some of the big goals we have include better fencing for an expanded garden area, fencing for livestock, a strawberry patch, and possibly some new gravel for the road out to the barn.

Never stop growing,

Christian