The most wonder time of the year!

So here I sit coffee in hand looking out the homestead window to a natural skating rink that Mother Nature has pleasantly provided us. You have to hand it to her though it's pretty amazing to watch the ice layer on top of the snow glisten as the sun peaks out from the clouds, it fills the soul with warmth and a rather carefree feeling! If only moments like this could last forever but as everything else in life, moments like this come and go so we just have to appreciate them as they come.
This Winter has been an unpredictable one so far as we have dealt with snow, ice, rain and the above seasonal temperatures and yet while others are wishing for warmer weather I have to admit I don't mind it at all! No matter the weather this is my favourite time of year, I feel like a child at Christmas as I search through seed catalogs, plan our garden and get our paperwork for the year in order. Sure we have had a rough go at things but this year we have the stability we have lacked in the past and I'm ready to take on the year.
I could tell you everything I want to plant but my list goes on and on. I have picked staple foods for my market garden and family favourites to grow and preserve for ourselves, not to mention the hubby and I have decided to take this year for all it's worth and plant a field of corn and try a few other grains this year just to figure out what works best for us. Trying to become totally self-sufficient is a hard one but if we play our cards right by the time I hit my 37th Birthday, I am hoping to be there!
I have to say it's a challenge to learn this whole farming lifestyle when you really have no one to teach you, but luckily I love to read so I am educating myself and my family as much as I can, but the hands on experience is what really helps the most. You can read and read but until you encounter the situation in real life you really haven't learned all there is to know.
We have decided to do what works for us and our family which seems to keep growing 😂. With our nine children and now currently our grandson our house is full of hungry tummies like all the time so we raise our animals just to feed ourselves and our fruits and vegetables will be for ourselves and our farm. It may sound easy but when you consider the amount of food I need to preserve for our current family of twelve, I am glad we have 92 acres to play on. Our family requires four to five bushels of pickling cucumbers to do us from fall 2017-fall 2018 so I have to figure that into my gardening plan so to have enough for us and our market.