Why I Love Winter...

Actually, I love all of the seasons! I love Spring for new life, green grass, warm sun and sowing seeds. I look forward to summer and getting a farmer's tan from endless hours spent gardening, cutting grass, pulling weeds (hopefully not so much this year! I have a plan!!). Fall time is filled with harvesting and canning and enjoying the blessing of the year's hard work! I hope you all will join me throughout this year, its gonna be busy and like I said 'I have a plan!'. And that's why I love winter!....

Winter is a season of reset. You get to look back at the past year and see your successes and your failures, and find ways to improve on them. Winter is a time of hibernation, all is at rest.

In our barnyard, the chickens and guineas stay nestled in the coope, out of the cold, blistery air. The pest trap is empty and no tracks are found anywhere, the coons and possoms are even staying close to home. Our dogs are snuggled in our warm basement, sleeping peacefully. And the littles and I don't venture out unless absolutely necessary!

We enjoy a slower pace during these winter months. Hot drinks, cozy, oversized sweatshirts, a more lax schedule. Oh, how I do enjoy winter! I'm guessing right about now some of you are probably disagreeing and possibly thinking I'm crazy for saying this, but I really do enjoy winter!

The other day, we got our first big snow fall for this winter season, and I was thinking of the cold, the icy, snowy roads, the need to keep the fire going ALL day and I started to grumble  a bit. But then I realized I can't do a single thing to change it! Winter is here and there's nothing I can do about it!

I started thinking of all the good the winter brings. Then a thought came to mind.,.

"Embrace your circumstances... Don't fight against them."

We could all go through the rest of winter, grumbling about the snow, whining about how cold it is, being upset that spring isn't here...... But we are going to make ourselves miserable until spring! 

Instead, we can accept that its winter, its cold, its snowy. We can't change it. 

Take this time to reset yourself and your homestead. 

Plan your goals out for the year to come and what will be required for each one.

I always pull out a few of my favorite homesteading and gardening books and read up. I plan out my gardening goals. Educate myself on any new veggies and herbs in plan to grow. Learn how to prune raspberry and blueberry bushes. 

Here's some of my favorite resources that have been extremely helpful for gardening, homesteading and raising barnyard animals.

Backyard Homestead 

I highly recommend this book to anyone with a small lot of land, a large lot of land, starting a homestead, already have a homestead, have a small garden or a large garden! This book is packed full of info. It is laid out very orderly and easy to read. I give it to my kids so they can read up on chickens, rabbits, gardening and sssssooo much more! You can purchase a copy of it HERE.

Backyard Homestead-Barnyard Animals

This book is great for raising animals from ducks to cows, chickens to pigs, rabbits to turkeys. This really helped us when starting out with chickens. My daughter has read it many times anytime she had a question about them! She has also gained a lot of information on rabbits and is hoping to start raising them someday. So wether you have small barnyard animals or large, this book is for you!
You can purchase a copy HERE.

What are your plans this winter? What homesteading resources do you use?

Well off I go to have a warm cup of tea!
Keep warm and rest!
-Tiffany