Happy New Year, you wonderful people!

2016 was fun… but I have a great feeling about 2017. It’s time to Make Agriculture Great Again.

Here are my goals for the year.

Goal #1: Publish Three New Books

I got behind in my book publishing in 2016. I actually wrote two gardening books but didn’t get them finished and published. This year I’m changing that.

My first book of 2016 is slated to be published in March. It’s on zone-pushing, i.e. growing tropical edibles outside their “natural” range. After that I hope to finish Southern Beekeeping, the book I co-authored with beekeeper Allen Dovico. Then, if all goes well, I’ll be publishing a rather crazy follow-up to Grow or Die titled Tactical Gardening.

Goal #2: Purchase a Homestead

My gardening demonstrations and videos have been less than satisfactory to me since I’ve been renting a place.

It’s a marvelous little cocoa farm with an abundance of fruit but I can’t dig in and do some of the experiments I’d like to try. Getting some land of my own is a top priority right now and I’m praying something comes our way soon. I must – MUST – build another food forest!

I’m also looking forward to creating a few different test areas where I can experiment with small space gardening, pumpkins, sloping agricultural land technology and growing fuel wood.

Somewhere there is a place we can settle.

Goal #3: Return to Daily Posting

After a couple of months of dropping down to weekly posting here, and an announcement to that effect, I’ve decided to return to posting regularly.

I’m not only going to post on weekdays, like I did for four years: I’m going to post seven days a week.

It’s too hard to step away and I find writing here keeps my creativity flowing. So… this is the official announcement. My goal is to post at least 365 posts in 2017.

Goal #4: Reach 30,000 YouTube subscribers and Create 200 Videos

Here’s how many subscribers I had on December 31st:

I did well in 2016: over 600% growth from the less than 2,000 subscribers with which I started the year. Hitting 30,000 seems like a reasonable goal, especially as my videos just get better and better.

I hope to create 200 videos in 2017. That’s about 4 per week.

Goal #5: 10,000 Newsletter Subscribers

My newsletter is published once a week or so and features a bit of extra news and inspiration beyond what I publish on the blog. It’s also where I announce new books and sales.

Right now the newsletter has just under 5,000 subscribers. Let’s double it!

So – what about you? Any goals for 2017?