The New Year is upon us, and with the changing of the calendar, comes a new set of plans for another homesteading year. As we move into the new year and make new plans, I find it helpful to review what we’ve done, what goals we’ve reached, and which we’ve yet to accomplish, as well what we’ve been through. 2025 has been another productive year, with plenty of growth in all senses. We faced a few challenges, and our productivity looked a little different this year compared to years past, but it was a good year.

In January, I set a resolution to compete a rough draft of the book on liturgical homesteading. I officially began to start the first round of edits on December 30th, so goal accomplished! I also set the goal to learn how to sharpen knives so I would be able to sharpen them in time for butchering season in the fall. I worked on it slowly throughout the year and eventually go the hang of it. In February, we set our goals for the homesteading year and ordered our seeds for the growing season. Two of the boys set up the sap boiler and tapped the trees for us, and my husband and a few of the boys worked on pruning the fruit trees. I began research for the book in earnest that month, and I joined the Catholic Writers Guild to see if I could find some support and inspiration, which I have. In March, we boiled sap, and I wrecked the KitchenAid mixer trying to make maple sugar. At least we got some syrup from the rest of the boil! I started to find books that might be helpful, and either ordered them or borrowed them from the library.

April brought warmer weather, and we were able to do a lot of the spring clean-up around the yard. Brush piles were made from the winter pruning, and the syrup supplies were cleaned up. The boys worked on splitting wood, and we were able to get some horse manure from the neighbors. We decided to do electric fencing, and the pigs were purchased. The gardens were tilled for the first time, and we celebrated the Major Rogation Day on April 25th. For our procession, we used a banner that I started painting. Wheat was planted. My husband took on a new job at work, which was a blessing in many ways, but also presented some challenges for us. We collected goose eggs and painted them for Easter. I connected with the historian for the local village to see what I might be able to learn about Catholic homesteading. The village has a unique history, and I thought it might shed some insight for the book. I definitely learned a lot, but didn’t find as much of what I was hoping to find.

In May, the work picked up even more. Learning the electric fencing for the pigs was a bit of a challenge, but overall, things went really well. Additional tilling was done, and the gardens were mostly all planted by the end of the month. Potatoes were planted early in the month. In fact, they were planted the day Pope Leo was elected. I came inside for a bathroom and water break when I saw the white smoke, so the break was extended. We planted a decent sized strawberry patch, but I struggled to stay on top of that throughout the year, so we’ll see how it does in 2026! We grafted many apple trees, as the intention is to run a fruit tree nursery in the next year or two. The new job took a lot of time and attention in the beginning, so one of the boys and I ended up assisting with the grafting. We observed the minor Rogation Days with processions and prayer, I went to the Catholic Rural Life Mass on the feast of St. Isidore. There, I was able to talk with a gentlemen I met the year before, and he connected me with the woman who runs the diocesan chapter for the Catholic Land Movement. She invited me to speak for the summer chapter meeting about liturgical homesteading. Another yardwork day was done at the local monastery, and we said goodbye to one of the monks as he moved back to Austria. Lots of reading was done throughout May as I continued my research.

We celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi in June, and a friend and I were in charge of decorating one of the altars, so I had some craft work to do, and then we spent an hour or so with some other people putting it all together. Garden work was in full swing, as I began the process of weeding. I waited anxiously for the first garden sprouts, which did eventually appear. I did have to replant the corn as just about nothing came up, but it did okay in the end. We started to discuss the possibility of building or buying a pre-made cabin in 2025, which is something we’ve talked about for years, but wasn’t on our radar when we set goals for the year. The boys worked on vehicle maintenance and splitting more wood, and cut up some old trusses to turn into regular lumber for other projects. I started painting the semi trailer that we purchased for storage purposes in 2024, with help from a few of the kids and one of my nephews. One of the boys planted a bunch of pine trees throughout the property, and my husband and the boys cut down some trees throughout our property as well. We got a burn permit, and cleared the brush, and we were able to begin the process of cleaning up the barn which fell last summer. Much of the wood was unsalvageable at this point in time, so it was burned. We had a bonfire with friends to mark the Nativity of John the Baptist, and my husband and the older boys took the annual dirt bike trip with the guys. I had set a deadline to stop my research by the end of June, just so I wouldn’t be tempted to go on forever. I made very good progress, and thanks to my husband, was able to start working on the outline for the book.

In July, I placed the order for the cabin! I was the one to do all of the paperwork for the project and sign the check which was a pretty big deal for me, as my husband has usually taken care of that type of thing. Garden work was fully underway. Beans began to be harvested before the end of the month, which meant that I pulled out the pressure canner a little earlier than normal. I did not get around to harvesting mulberries, as July ended up having a very full schedule, though I can’t remember what all with. We had the annual tea party for the girls with lots of family and friends, so there was some extra planning and yardwork going on that month. I didn’t expand the scope of my research, but I continued to read many of the books I’d picked up, and I started to compile notes. I gave a talk for the Catholic Land Movement meeting and we met some really nice people. My husband and I both agreed we’d like to get more involved with the group somehow, but that it’d probably have to wait a bit as we had very full plates. We prepped the ground for the cabin, scraped and leveled the ground, and put in gravel and tamped it down.

August is always a busy month for us. I decided we’d wait until the beginning of October to begin our school year, as it was clear I wouldn’t have much time to get things ready before then. I had 3 events to organize/plan for church, one of which would take place in the middle of the month, and two of which would take place the first weekend in September. I will not be leading all 3 in 2025… that was too much! More garden harvest took place throughout the month, as well as food preservation. The pigs were doing well, and the egg layers we purchased the year before were also doing quite well. The cabin arrived on August 11th. We ordered one that was unfinished on the inside, so we had a lot of work to do to for it to be useable before the winter. A couple of the kids helped me install insulation and the tongue and groove walls. I had to make a very concerted effort to focus on the housework and gardens, making that a priority over the cabin, which was a challenge, as I love to throw myself completely into a project. The husband and boys began fixing the corner foundation of the house, and made good progress, considering how many interruptions and problems they ran into. They bumped the electric lines that run out to the septic system, so repairs needed to be made. We harvested wheat, made some unleavened bread from it, brought it to church for a blessing from the priest. We also harvested herbs and had our priest bless them on the feast of the Assumption.

September was busier still. We completed the two events for church, went on a mini-vacation that a friend invited us on, and spent a lot of time on harvest and preservation. We mostly finished the inside of the cabin, installing trim and flooring, and setting up what we could of the furniture. Some relatives gave us a beautiful old cabinet that I cleaned up for the cabin, and I found a bed frame on the side of the road that was exactly what I was looking for. It got a paint job, and a couple of the younger boys helped to set it up. After plenty of prayer and research, I decided the cabin would be called “St. Hildegard’s Hermitage.” She’s a saint I came across in my research that was truly inspiring. She lived as a hermit or anchoress at the beginning of her religious life, and her work with herbs was of great interest to me. I missed dedicating the hermitage to her protection on her feast day by a couple of days. Again, I had to force myself to focus on things at the house over the cabin, and do what I could to complete some of the other projects around the property that we had actually planned for at the beginning of the year. We had issues with the septic tank that were both related and unrelated to the electrical problem the month before. The foundation project was completed. I was able to paint the business logo on the side of the semi-trailer, and one of the boys helped me to get the floor joists installed in the future walk-in cooler. Neither of those projects are totally complete. The wording still needs to go on the trailer, and the cooler is just a shell right now. It has to be finished off completely on the inside yet. I observed the fall Ember Days. We harvested apples and pressed cider.

I thought things would slow down in October, but they never did. The frost came late for us, so I ended up harvesting two weeks longer than normal, and was pretty much desperate for the gardens to die back by the end of the month! The preservation felt like it took forever. The Job’s Tears that I grew for rosary making were finally ready to harvest, and I spent a lot of time making as many rosaries as I could with the help of our older daughter. That was a fun project! I didn’t know before we began the process what it would be like, and when I discovered how difficult it was to clean the seeds after a certain period of time, we worked almost non-stop on the seeds to make as many rosaries as we could. We began our homeschool year, but the start was slower than I wanted because of the late harvest season. Our priest came over to bless the hermitage, and brought us a few gifts, as well. Dad and the boys cleaned up the garden for me, tilled, and got more horse manure from the neighbors, and spread it on the fields. We bought more firewood from a friend, and the boys picked it all up. Enough to get us through the winter. We’d hoped to get more firewood made throughout the year, but that wasn’t in the cards. I spent one night in the cabin at the beginning of the month, but couldn’t use it more until it had heat.

November was the month of butchering. We slaughtered 4 pigs and butchered 4. The fourth went to friends who would butcher the rest of the animal when they had time. I made sausage and prepped the lard for rendering (though I still haven’t done that). I cured bacon and started dry-curing ham and prosciutto. Our son shot a large buck, and we butchered that as well. Some of the meat was canned. We had friends over to celebrate Martinmas, and I cooked a pig’s head and pork belly for our meal since we didn’t raise a goose this year. I was able to sharpen the knives as we worked, which made the job much easier. I still need to spend some time just really working all our knives into shape, because they were a lot worse than I thought. I began to do more cooking, and was excited to get back to it, with all of the food we’ve put up. We hired my dad to install a woodstove in the hermitage, and he got it done right before we got a big snowstorm. I spent the first overnight in the hermitage with the stove with one of the boys. We read books and baked cookies on the stove (somewhat successfully). I finally got around to making some quill pens from our goose’s feathers, because I want to do some calligraphy and more with them. The Friday after Thanksgiving, we found out we are expecting another baby!

December went a much different direction than I expected, in part because of the pregnancy. I had hoped to work on some sewing projects throughout the month, but morning sickness got the better of me. Our 3-year-old cut her hair, then cut her friend’s hair, and then gave herself yet another haircut, all within a week. A few days later, our oldest daughter broke her leg in a sledding mishap, and the next day, one of the kids had an asthma attack, so we spent a lot of time between then and Christmas running to doctors’ appointments. When I didn’t feel too nauseous, I did my best to sneak in some baking, shopping, and gift-wrapping. But little was accomplished otherwise. I had plenty of time available, but I didn’t feel well enough to be very productive. And our holiday season has been marked by multiple rounds of colds, so amidst celebrations, we were also battling illness. I was able to make mashed potato casserole for Christmas, and I was able to use potatoes we grew and bacon we cured! This was the second batch of bacon I’ve ever made, and it turned out well. Still a little on the salty side, but not too bad! I attempted to observe the winter Ember days, but I was unable to fast, and felt so ill that I didn’t keep good track of all three days. I spent another night in the cabin and finished the rough draft, and since then, I’ve been working on the first round of edits.

The biggest blessings of the year were a safe surgery and speedy recovery for our youngest, a pay raise with the new job that has opened up new opportunities for us, the hermitage, and a new baby on the way. I’m incredibly grateful that I was able to really get back into the swing of growing and preserving so much of our own food, and it was fun to work on the book and explore all kinds of traditions. I’m looking forward to putting more of that research into practice!

What are some of the highs or lows from your year? How did you see God at work?

In Christ,
Danielle