What to do in Winter

Well it's winter here in Michigan. A strange winter, but still way to cold to plant anything. Which is giving me time to do some planning. I've had gardens in the past but never really put allot of thought into moving toward homesteading, like I am now. REALLY trying to use this time to put on my thinking cap.
Here's what I've been using this time to think about:

• Garden planning-extreme garden planning compared to what I am used to. What do I want to can/freeze/preserve....how much of what do I need to do that....and what's the best strategy for planting so that I'm not overwhelmed by all of it coming in at the same time.


• Organizing our home. This is going to be huge, but needs to be done. What we don't use needs to be shipped off to salvation army and what remains needs to be put where it can be used or stored in a way that we can actually find it when we need it.


• Organizing my sewing room. This is a headache and a half and pretty self explanatory. But I really want to start doing some real sewing again and that's hard to do when I have to dig my machine out every time I want to use it.


• Learning to do things like....bake bread, make homemade sauces, stews and granola.

So I feel like I'm heading in the right direction and that is exciting to me.

Bread was a big triumph for me, because I have been trying to make bread for a while now. Usually I end up with a rock that has a doughy center. yeeee! I have found a basic sandwich bread recipe and a recipe for tasty crunchy bread. They both take some time to make, but are simple and have turned out for me. YUM