For those that work full time off the homestead...

[hengal]

how in the world do you get it all done??? Guess I'm needing a little advice/encouragement right about now. disappointed that my energy level is I commute two hours a day to work and get home at 5:30. I'm just a little overwhelmed and disappointed that my energy level is not where I would like it to be (after work especially) There is so much to be done around the property right now, and I know it's the same with everyone here probably. I would really like to know how you all schedule your chores/gardening/farmwork while working full time? Thank you.

[AuntKitty]

I am alone on the farm - not sure if you are or not but I get it done by taking small bites of the elephant and trying to work smarter, not harder. I have automatic waterers for the chickens and goats, a feeder for the chickens that will hold a 50 bag of layer pellets so I only have to feed them once a week and although I CAN carry the feed bags to the goat pen, I put them in my lawn cart and haul them over with the riding mower. I figure any little bit of time/energy I save lets me get on to the next project. My "daily chores" are cut down to 15 minutes now and then I try to work on a bigger project each night or multiple nights until it is done. Of course that only happens in the Spring/Summer when the days are longer. I got caught up in working on a project and seeing something else that needed doing and would only take a minute, and so on and so on, until I got nothing completed and it about drove me crazy so now I try to stay focused. If I see something that needs doing that doesn't involve an animal escaping or something/one being injured or permanently damaged, then I put it on the list and get to it later. I also hire help from time to time (kids from the local church youth group or sons of friends or coworkers) to get the "bull work" done as my Dad used to say. If I have a really big project, then I hire help & a whole weekend gets devoted to it to get it done and out of the way. There is a blog that I read where the 30 something woman talks about how she loves to haul water to her sheep and do things the old-fashioned way and complains that she never seems to get anything done. Well, that is because in the "old-fashioned" days families had 10 kids to help with chores and didn't work off the farm. I say "Honey in 20 years you will know the value of running a hose to an automatic waterer when your elbow & shoulder joints give out!"

I'm interested to see the tips that come from others, too.

Kitty

Ps. When my energy level was dragging, my doctor checked my vitamin D level & it was really low. I can tell a big difference now that I am taking a supplement. After the winter you had in the Midwest, I think everyone probably needs some vitamin D!

[davismanor]

I am the same. This time of year with an acre planted, 200 animals, three kids to homeschool, 45 hours a week working, and 10 hours commuting it's getting overwhelming. I just remind myself how much I wanted spring to come and how valuable my ideals are to me and keep putting one foot in front of the other.

[hiddensprings]

I am lucky that my corporate job allows me to work from home so I do not have to commute (or at least very rarely). Still with a hubby that travels away from the farm often for months at a time, I also feel overwhelmed especially this time of year. For me, I prioritize what must be done, what needs to be done, and what can wait. Livestock comes first including milking. My weekends are filled with the larger jobs and I learned last year that it is important to take some time just for me to relax. that's hard when you see everything that needs to happen BUT taking a couple hours to sit and read a book or just enjoy a glass of Tea really help my energy level.

[Bret]

I never keep up. I sometimes ask why I do it. I always answer myself with "because it's easier than mountain climbing." Poverty to me is not having sometime to do. I always have something to do and I have to remind myself.

I have to make lists, priorities and choices. Some things just have to be done now. Other's in season. When I think it is all important and out of whack, I walk away from it for a day or two, and miss it all over again.

[paradox]

Both DH and I work outside the home. The most important thing is to keep our homesteading activities to a manageable level. It is very easy to bite off more than you can chew and almost impossible to whittle back to a reasonable level once you have gotten attached to your newest livestock or spent money or time on a garden that is too big. So we don't add any new animals or projects without very careful consideration.

I get up early so I can feed and water the animals. I have a specific routine that keeps me from backtracking my steps or taking any extra time. It is as streamlined as possible. I also do something small in the morning like empty the dishwasher or put dishes in. I am always in charge of trash duty because I am the one who drives past the dumpster on the way to work.

As goofy as it sounds I have trained myself over time to think in terms of not wasting effort. For example, if I am headed out to the shed to get something, I take a second to look around and see if there is some tool or something that needs to be taken back out there. When I walk through the laundry room I check to see if clothes need to be moved to the dryer, etc. It adds up.

DH gets home earlier than me so he handles afternoon feed and water and will usually get something out to thaw for dinner or clean up kitchen so we can cook. After dinner is help with homework or relaxing with tv which almost always involves sitting in living room floor folding laundry. During commercials the kids and DH rush to put away a pile of folded clothes.

My mother waters plants and trees for us during the day. We built her a little house next to ours when she got to where she couldn't live alone anymore. She can't do much, but she helps as much as she can and really enjoys living at the farm. She also spoils the animals rotten with "treats" when we aren't home.

Weekends is when we do the larger work like shoveling poop, cleaning cages, or working on farm projects.

I also have fibromyalgia so I totally understand the energy level issue you mentioned. That is why my weekday chores are split up morning and evening, and I try to limit what I do. Weekends I can hammer at stuff better because I am not so tired from work.

Also we trade stuff to cover what we cannot do ourselves. I suck at gardening so we do very little of that. But I can "grow" rabbits like crazy and keep a happy healthy flock of chickens and turkeys so I can trade meat or eggs for veggies when we need them. We also have a friend who does animals too and he tries to always raise stuff we don't have.

[Chad]

I am in the exact same situation and have just had to come to terms with the fact that not everything is going to get done.

We have to put in a smaller garden than I would like and raise fewer animals. We have had to take the approach that we are trying to establish a homestead for the time that I am able leave my 9-5 job.

[FarmboyBill]

I worked 40 a week, + overtime many times for 45yrs. Over 1/2 of it by myself. Considering the help I had sometimes, id say way over 3/4s of it by myself. Its <UCH better now that Im retired, but I don't have the same energy lever I had, and I feel the zeal slipping away also at 66. Like another said, I work now smarter.

[RomeGrower]

I leave home at 7 AM and get back between 6:15 and 7:30 depending on the day. That leaves one or two nights and mostly weekends to do what we need to do. My wife is giving up her babysitting income to devote herself to our family and property needs. That should make it easier to get things done.

[Vickie44]

I find that if I am required to complete the more mundane or less fun chores before I allow myself time to work on something I am eager to get to then I get things accomplished quickly and with the pleasure of anticipation.

I also love keeping lists and really get a sense of accomplishment when I cross things off. I have a small chore list of those little things that just take a few minutes so I can knock them off while waiting for something else( like water to boil ).

I tend to ignore the inside chores in favor of getting outdoor work done at this time of year .

Sometimes I just power thru and work in the dark

I second the may need Vit D

[CountryWannabe]

I am retired now. DH took on another contract so he is back at work. However, when I was working full time I cut myself a lot of slack. I wanted to do everything and work as well. I felt guilty that I couldn't. So I did the basics, figured out how to make things easier by moving stuff around to make the work flow better. I made a smaller garden, cut down on animals so I could give proper care to the ones I had (who can milk 8 goats by hand before going to work - and when would you have time to make cheese with that much, anyway?) And I hired out a few things I just didn't have time to do (heresy, I know) the kids and grands wanted to make a few dollars - I had the $$ but not the time. It worked out great.

Mary

[surf]

I went to an alternate work schedule so I only work 4 days a week. 6:30 to 5:00. I get up at 4 am to do the morning chores. Weekends are for big stuff.

I pretty much trippled my garden this year.......so we shall see how that works out for me. It will be okay so long as stuff comes ripe toward the weekends...lol We all know it won't work that way though.

I just figure that so long as me and the family are healthy and happy and all the animals are too........we are doing something pretty close to right.

[Bubba1358]

Do what has to be done and be OK if projects have to wait. Combine things into 1. Take fewer trips to the back of the property. Carry everything at once to save time. Assess whether you're doing things as efficiently as you can to meet your goals.

[sammyd]

I took a 3rd shift job. 11-7 works out quite nicely.
I can nap in the morning and again in the evening or get home and work till 3 or so depending on what needs to get done.
Been doing it since 2005.
Wife works a majority time job (32 hours) and the hours vary from day to day depending on what area she's working in. That extra day off every week works well for us.
The boy is old enough to pull his own weight now and when we have animals around he takes care of chores later in the day so I can nap or get something else done.

[hengal]

Thank you for your replies. Guess everyone is in the same boat to different extents. Iam not alone but DH is really busy with work right now so its pretty much the same thing. I've always taken care of the animals (goats, chickens, ducks). I feed in the morning before I leave and at night. I have enlarged the garden this year as I have a very strong feeling we really need to start canning and preserving as much food as we can. Just a urgent feeling I have. Canning will be new to me this year...I'll have to make the time for sure. Our boys are both grown and gone so no help there but we did pay one of our youth boys last summer to clean out the chicken coops and goat pen. Didnt feel bad about that at all.
All in all I guess i need to do better at prioritizing. Thanks for allowing the ramble.

[bigjon]

55hrs a wk,2 acre garden.no critters yet.gotta say -i'm never bored!

[BobbyB]

I left for work at 5:30 and got home between 7 and 8 for over 10 years. Garden was small and any animals were pretty much just dogs.

Now I work 3 miles from home and with a few exceptions during harvest and such, I am home by 5:45. The garden is now 1/2 acre. and we have a lot of other stuff going on as well. Karla doesnt work away from home anymore so, that helps a lot.

There is always something to do, but a lot of Sundays these days, I will piddle some, but I dont hammer after it like I used to. I do what needs to be done, some of the stuff that should be done and there is always next weekend for the rest.

[V-NH]

My wife and I both work full time away from home. We just try to keep our homesteading activities managable and do most of the work on the weekends. Sometimes things don't get done right when they should, but we're usually able to catch up quickly. If I had my way, we would have more animals than Noah, but we keep the numbers pretty low. Right now we have 4 goats and a laying flock of 20ish chickens. We both have the summers off, so we add 50-100 Cornish X chickens and some turkeys/ducks/geese during that time with the intention that they have to be in the freezer by September. We limit our garden to about 100 sq ft at this point. I might expand it to 200 sq ft next year, but I don't want it to get out of control. We talked about adding a pig sometime in the future and if we do that will probably put us at max capacity.

I guess our philosophy really boils down to "you can't have everything." We like working away from home because we enjoy our careers and make a really good living, so we have to keep our homesteading activities to a hobbyist level. Once we retire (in 30+ years) I am sure it will spiral out of control.

[sweetbabyjane]

DH and I both work full time jobs. He has an hour + drive one way and I have about a 40 minute drive one way. Time is precious! Here are our biggest time savers:

1. For the garden:
Raised beds with waterers that run on automatic timers. Every evening at 7:15 one group of beds gets watered. At 7:30 first group goes off and the second group of beds gets watered. 15 minutes of daily watering keeps the gardens growing well and allows us freedom to leave for the week-end if we want to. The raised beds require very little weeding.

2. For the animals:
The horses and cows have automatic floats in their troughs that keeps them watered. They are sold at Tractor Supply Company and places like Lowes or Home Depot fairly cheaply. It is a great relief to know the animals never run out of water.

The chickens and rabbits are watered from one faucet. A splitter lets us hook up two hoses but you can get splitters that handle more than two hoses. One hose is split again a couple of times and is used to water all three chicken runs. The other side goes to the rabbits. All I have to do is turn on the faucet and the chickens get watered. If we go off we can leave that side of the faucet running at a dribble. Now the rabbits hose has a sprayer on the end of it for filling each water bottle so it takes a little more time--maybe two minutes. Not bad.

The dogs and cats have a big old pot on the carport by a spigot that stays full. (This may prompt visitors to ask "What did you BURN?" )

The only thing we do manually is to feed the animals, gather the eggs, and give a quick eyeball to make sure the waterers are working correctly each night. it takes me about 15 minutes to do the chores in the evening, and that includes brushing the milk cow, who is in a pasture by herself. (She's not milking right now. That will take more time when she freshens.)

By reducing the time we spend on repetitive daily chores we are able to spend the evenings and mainly week-ends doing bigger projects (harvesting\canning\build a new stall\whatever). Automate whatever you can and free up your time!


SBJ

[big rockpile]

I didn't sleep. Worked 12-18 hours a day, 10 hours off between shifts, 7 days a week. Took care of 100 acres, Garden, Orchard, Hogs, Cattle, Milked Cows, Goats and Poultry.

My wife worked 8 hours a day, off weekends, so she helped a lot. Only time she messed up in middle of Summer I told her to make sure the Hogs had plenty of water, she didn't and we lost Hogs.

I still managed to Hunt, Fish and Trap. No I didn't have a family life.

big rockpile