I recently saw a post on

Hive account@kiaraantonoviche 's post regarding a homesteading challenge. Since I was in the middle of making a post regarding things I plan on doing with my homestead in the future anyway, I thought I'd share as part of the contest. :)

Heat

First, I'd love to get a fireplace installed back into our house if at all possible for wood heat in the winter. We are off grid heat wise - we have an oil drum in the basement for heat.
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Something either dual purpose for cooking like this.
This would be great so I could do simple cooking as well as heat the house. Or a smaller simple one just for house heating would be good. We have a small space so a huge clunky one may not be the best option.

Power

Next I'd love to get solar power so we could get off the power grid if possible. We have a generator that came with the house, however we seem to have lots of little power outages here or there, which makes it frustrating when it's -40 and blowing outside. Even a small amount of power to keep basics on would be great. Not sure how I'd like the panels to be yet - either on the roof or not.
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Solar roof panels would cover our roof on the south side.

We would also consider coupling with wind power just in case something happens which causes the solar panels to fail.

Building

I plan on building a straw bale/cob structure in the corner of the yard by the garden - my "office" so to speak - where I can keep all my belongings in a separate space away from the kids and have a place for guests/me time. It doesn't need to be terribly large and I doubt it will be 2 stories, but I'm in the current process of designing as I'm learning some building stuff at the moment.
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As for other structures - I plan on building a Walipini (underground greenhouse) for winter as well as a smaller regular greenhouse for veggies such as cauliflower.
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Livestock

We got our chicken barn up and running, and we're looking at converting one of our buildings on the yard next year into a barn - hoping to get a cow next year for meat.
The plan is to eventually get a few cows, a couple pigs, chickens, ducks, horses etc. Although it's a small space, we'd love for it to be fully functional for livestock.

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Birth Rooms

I would really love to build a couple small straw bale buildings on the yard as birth rooms for birthing women to rent - as our house is close enough to the local ambulance service, some of the midwives are comfortable attending birth at our house (they did it twice for our little people). Or it could be rented out to individuals planning a freebirth but have no place at home to be able to do it (for whatever reason)

Garden/Field/Orchard

There is a section of yard over by the burning pit I plan on turning into a field next year for wheat and barely. It currently houses old parts cars - and while I would love to fill half the burn pit and turn that entire section into a field/orchard, that will take some time and thought to decide where things go.
Currently we have some crab apple trees on the yard, I'll be getting some trees next year to plant - preferably pear, apricot, plum and apple.

Permaculture

I fully intend on getting a hold of native plants - flowers, bushes etc. and starting a permaculture garden on the yard - particularly around the dugout as there's water there so good moisture for plants. May turn the dugout into a natural swimming pond - however i'm not sure how well that would go over, and especially with the current drought it may not go so well with having fish in the next couple years.