Two weeks of 2017 are in the books. Have of January is gone. And what have I done around the Suburban Steader homestead? The simple answer is: not much. But that’s about to change…

This Week’s Milestones

Much like last week, this week was kind of mild around the old home front. It was mostly due to two things.

First, I’m on the downhill part of a really nasty cold. This thing has run its course through our house. While I managed to hold out longer than everyone else, I was not immune to its potency. The good new is that I’m on the road to recover. And none too soon as I’ll be heading out in the next few weeks for an annual adventure – a snowboard trip I take every year with my buddies. More on that as it approaches.

The second reason I didn’t get a whole lot done around the Suburban Steader Homestead is that the lovely Mrs. Suburban Steader was travelling for work. She’s got this whole working mom / homemaker thing on lockdown. The best I can do is make sure the fire department doesn’t show up when she’s out of town (it happened once, true story).

Despite these two setbacks, I was able to get a few things done. I spent some time in the woods this past weekend testing out the Survival Hax Survival Shovel. There’s a video and a write-up on that coming next week. Most importantly, though, I was able to spend some quality time in the woods enjoying the quiet solitude that comes before a big snowstorm. I just love woods time and wish I could get more of it.

The rest of the week was spent getting the homestead in order for and then removing the snow we got over the weekend. All in all, we got about 6-8” of very light and fluffy snow.

Quick story: my snowblower is Old Faithful. I do very little maintenance on it and she starts up no problems every winter. Well, not so much this year. I couldn’t get her to turn over and had to shovel about a quarter of my driveway by hand (not fun when you’re at the pinnacle of the Death Cold) before I could get her to turn over. Eventually, she did start and I made short work of the snow. I guess I’ll have to spend some time with it this spring and do a real tune up before I put her away for the warm months. The good thing about snow – I got to play around with my four-wheel drive! Oh, and there may have been some donuts done in an empty parking lot…

Next Week’s Goals

Next week is lining up to be a busy week. Since it’s already mid-January, I need to start planning my garden and order any seeds I need. Truth is, I’ve already started planning my garden.

The Grow Veg Planner is a great tool and I highly recommend it to all your suburban homesteaders and gardeners out there. It’s especially useful for those of you, like me, who utilize the Square Foot Gardening Method.

I’ll also spend a lot of time tying up loose ends and doing some work on the truck since I’ll be gone the next week. I have to make sure the vehicle is in tip-top shape for the drive up to Vermont. Likewise, the home front has to be on lockdown for the Mrs and kids. I can’t have them having any problems with me that far away.

On the blog front, I’ll have the previously mentioned review coming out on Tuesday (along with a YouTube video). I’ll also be posting my Week 03 wrap-up a week from today. And, in case you’re wondering, I’ll have a new article up the week I’m gone. Not to fear, I take care of my readers!

Long Term Plans

Long terms plans haven’t really changed much – that’s probably why they’re long term plans. I’m still looking at getting the early season crops started ASAP. Hopefully by end of the month at the latest. I think I have an area set aside in the basement where I can get them going without interfering too much with my wife’s work area (or the kids’ play area).

In addition, I’ve been keeping my eyes out for a hunting class to take so I can get in on deer season at the end of the year. Those of you with a good memory may remember that I was all geared up to take one at the end of the summer and my wife broke her foot the morning I was to go. Obviously, I had to take care of priorities and a hunters safety class was secondary to making sure my better half was on the mend.

OK, so Week 02 is in the books. Did you like this article? Let me know in the comments. Also, let me know below if there’s something you want me to talk about on a weekly basis in these posts. I’m currently free-flowing these articles – almost like a journal – so there’s definitely room to shape and contort them as you all see fit!

Thanks for reading!

Dan

Founder/Owner at Suburban Steader

I am a middle-age guy with a wife, two young kids and a crazy dog. We live on Long Island, NY and had an interesting experience with Hurricane Sandy. That experience led me towards the self-sufficiency movement and eventually led to the founding of SuburbanSteader.com. I aim to provide suburbanites with the confidence and know-how to become more self-reliant by providing content on topics such as gardening, personal health, financial responsibility, cooking, self-preparedness and self-protection.