With my first move to the country in the early 1980's came the need to keep a written record of what I/we accomplished. I was learning too much, too quickly and knew I would never be able to contain it all. So, I bought a hardcover, daily calendar. Each daily slot allowed about 5 lines of written records.
In this journal went things like the purchase of pullets (day-old chickens) and their cost. I would note the separate charges for their feed and whatever equipment purchased and where everything had come from. The receipts would be slipped into the pages like bookmarks on the appropriate dates.
I would also record things like when the wild red raspberries were ripe, where I had found them and what the total amount collected was. I'd include the yield of syrup and/or jam that I would later make from the free berries, too.
When the hens began laying eggs, I'd write down the size and yield. I also kept track of feed purchases so that I would later be able to figure out at what point the hens were paying for themselves in egg sales. And, yes, egg sales and yields were recorded on a daily basis.
The above examples may sound as if they take some time to record but they really don't. It's more a matter of getting acclimated to writing things down on a daily basis. I would keep this calendar/journal on top of a desk that I had in the kitchen (the most popular room in that house). Just seeing it would remind me to keep up with it.
The following year, I would start another journal, keeping the previous years' beneath the new one. Whenever I had any questions, I could flip through the older journal and find an answer very quickly. I did not have to depend on memory-- the facts were right there on paper.
If you don't want a calender journal, blank ones are available. Check out the nice one that Amazon http://www.amazon.com offers. Just enter Journals as the keyword.
A homestead journal can contain whatever is important to you. Believe me, they come in far more useful than you may think they would. Try it sometime-- you'll see what I mean!
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