January 2025 On The Homestead
Well, we survived the first month of the new year! We had a great and busy January. Projects on the homestead was started, we ate some great foods and had a lot of fun. Check out January 2025 on the homestead, below.
FYI these homestead recaps tend to be photo heavy, and may contain affiliate links.
CLEAN UP & PROJECTS
It’s almost the beginning of the busy season on the homestead. I’ve slowly started indoor spring cleaning, and would like to be done by end of February. I really need to work on decluttering and organizing. Share with me your favorite household organizer item, especially if it’s for smaller spaces.
We’ve also been very busy with splitting and stacking wood. We received more than a few deliveries of wood this month, we’re set for next season. There was just too much to split ourselves, so we ended up buying a log splitter and I can’t believe we didn’t do it sooner.
We’ll be able to save electricity by using the woodstove everyday next year!
IN THE GARDEN
January is usually my garden planning month, and the month I purchase any seeds. After going through my seed organizer, I decide which seeds I need to buy more of or what new one’s I’d like to try growing this year. My go-to for seeds are Lowes and Botanical Interest – they have a good germination and are reasonably priced.
I’m trying to expand my pollinator and flower garden this year.
Piper and I started a few seeds; onions, flowers, and some cold-season crops. I wanted to be more on top of the early crops.
Here’s a few of our seed starting supplies we use;
We’ve seen a few of these “rare” hair ice this past month outside. Such a cool find, it felt like fluffy ice that instantly melted when I touched it.
Isn’t nature amazing?!
ANIMALS ON THE HOMESTEAD
Well, all the boys have been rehomed. Two of the roosters found a farm at the beginning of the month and the other three a couple weeks later on a large farm. I didn’t realize how difficult it was going to be. I either wanted to find them a home or have someone legitimately eat them. Too many sketchy people in our area.
One of them I sort of regret not keeping, but since the person was going to take all three of them I didn’t want to split them up. They were sweet boys and if it wasn’t for the constant cockadoodledoo and feed cost, I would of kept them.
Dogs, cat and bird are doing great. Just lots of resting and avoiding the rain.
The ladies(chickens), and Gemmy are all doing great just counting down the days until spring. There’s definitely been a slow down this winter for egg production – it’s winter and most of the chickens are 4-5 years old.
We started building our beehives, we’ll be starting two this spring. Piper and I are very excited!
IN THE KITCHEN
Not to toot my own horn, but I make some good food. My family should be more thankful! We eat a lot of home-cooked, full of flavor, foods.
Below is my juicy baked chicken, roasted potatoes, and delicious baked olive oil broccoli.
Are you looking for a tasty and easy chili recipe? I recently shared my go-to Homemade Chili recipe on the blog, check it out.
LIFE & WHAT I’M LOVING
January started off with a cold plunge in the bay water with some girl friends, it was the first one I’ve ever done and it really wasn’t that bad.
We also had the first week of the month to enjoy the end of winter break. We went to Zoolights, had friends over, hiking and park playdates.
I switched over to a different gym, our area recently opened a Planet Fitness so I joined that. It costs me less than half the other gym, so it just made sense with my busy season coming up on the farm. I feel better about not being able to get there as much, and I can use the massages, infrared light and tanning from the membership.
Beautiful view of Seattle for the New Year’s Day Polar Plunge.
We were also able to spend some time at Great Wolf Lodge, it was our family Christmas gift.
I can’t believe we’ve been going to GWL almost every year since 2014. I’ve learned a thing or two; take advantage of sales, and weekday trips. And bring your own food & drinks, it’ll save you a ton of money.
We wrapped up the month by celebrating the Chinese New Year. One of our favorite traditions is to go monkeyshine hunting in the community. It’s fun to get outdoors, exercise, and hopefully find some “treasures”.
Hope your year has started off well! Let me know in the comments if you’ve made any resolutions or did anything memorable in January.
