June 7, 2010

Keeping Track of All Things FARM...

I told you last week about how I have started this year to keep track of our produce from the garden. I also started at the beginning of this year to keep track of everything going on here on our little farm.

It may seem a little silly to some, and some of you just may not care to even do such a thing. But I have found it VERY helpful so far, and I have a feeling I will be glad in the years to come, that I was keeping track of everything- from food we are feeding each animal to what they have produced (eggs, milk, etc), and how much. I keep track of everything in my Farm Notebook.

Here is a 10 minute video walking you through my Farm Notebook:







I have so far been able to look back at when we got our bees, when we got our 2 female goats, the actual production of eggs, and much more. I have used this for a reference quite often. And I am sure I will be glad to have it for years to come.

One thing I have added since I made this video last week, is a Canning Page under Gardening. I picked some strawberries from a U-Pick Farm, and I canned some Strawberry Jam, and now I can add how much I picked, how much it cost me, and how much I was able to can from that.

I am not a hyper-organized person, but I could see the need for this in the future. If you see the need, start with a simple 1 subject notebook. That's how I started. Then as I got too many pages I expanded.

If any of you have questions, feel free to ask in the comments. Do any of you do something like this? How has it worked for you? DO you think you would LIKE to try something like this?

2 comments:

anotherkindofdrew said...

I don't do journal as extensively as you do. But we don't have as many animals as you. I do keep track of our produce though rather extensively on Excel spreadsheets. As for our chickens I keep track of the layers (amount of food per month, total egg production, notes) and our meat layer (amount of food, visible growth, notes).

One day I would like to journal more provided our farm growth.

Really organized and impressive though. Well, I expected no less. hahahahaha

Holly said...

Its good hear the voice of the farm keeper! Such a sweet subtle accent. Thanks for sharing. Maybe someday, I'll have enough things to need to keep track of! Right now we have two chickens and nothing producing in the garden yet.