Homesteading Burned Out

In that case, I'm comin over with a few friends



I agree pretty much with everyone else. I am home full time. I do my husbands invoices and book work for his business part time at home. I have what I want and no more. A few hens a couple of goats a pet PBP a few dogs, a descent garden but not huge. I grow and can what we eat a lot of or what I enjoy and nothing more. My garden is never perfect but it gives me what I want. The hens give me eggs and I don't mind carrying water for the few animals I have. I only carry about 3 gallons a day to the barn and pasture so it is not a big deal for me. Am I you? No. I may have too much for you but not enough for someone else. I am me and this is good for me. If my husband was here without me he wouldn't have any of it. He works too many hours and 6 days a week most of the year. He has no time for it. He thinks it's easier to buy it at the store. That's fine, that's his life. As long as I am here ther will be animals and a garden or 2. Because I like it, I take care of it(the kids help with the animals). Am I homesteading. I don't know. I don't sew well, I buy soap and clothes. I am in awe of those that do, but I am just not good at it. I would rather be out trimming goat hooves or brushing them or the dogs down or watching the chickens, dogs or goats running and playing.

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We just bought our property so I'm not looking at animals at least until spring, but for the things that I do right now I work on a schedualed plan. Instead of doing laundry soap every month I do a BUNCH of it at once, store it in an air tight container and refill my regular jar as I need it. Same goes for making pasta, soap, you can store up cream to make a bunch of butter at once. It just seems a lot easier to me to do a year or quarter year's worth of stuff in one day. For you maybe a Saturday a month you could devote to doing a whole bunch of one thing so it's made up in advance! If you don't do that already, that is.

Very well said! For me, homesteading was moving out of the city to our cabin in the woods, getting horses for my girls and a few colonies of bees for myself. I commute to the city each day. Tried a garden one year; it failed miserably, and haven't had the inclination or the time to try again. Much easier to buy at the roadside farms on the way home and support my neighbors at the same time.

Life is a balance. NO one can tell you what yours is...

Sounds like you've set your self up with a lot of "should be doing" instead of "want to be doing".

Not saying that it's easy to find your balance, or get rid of the "shoulds". When you do, you'll find life a lot easier.

I took a 3/4 time job so I could take care of some things around here. Now I find I need more money (repairs, etc) to keep my lifestyle, so I'll have to adjust my balance. Happy about it? Not especially, but, then, that's life & I need to be able to bend with what's happening.

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Terri, I don't understand that post...was that for me (since it's addressed to me I thought it was)

Preach on, brother!

Do it to the level you find comfortable. I have slaughtered my rabbits and chickens and put them in the freezer 3 times during the time I've produced my own just to avoid the winter hassles. When I wanted to start raising them again, I bought a breeding pair and did so.

Why do you think slaughtering is traditionally a fall happening? Old farmers found it easier to winter livestock in the smokehouses.

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"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

Shelly-
Here we haven't even moved to our land & I'm telling you what to do!
Read 'Shepards' post-You Are Doing Too Much! Even I know it.

Figure out what you really really want. If it were me, one of us would quit the job. Maybe the one with the least wonderful benefits. But to think it's gonna be fun working full time jobs & running a homestead! whew! Personally, I know we can't kill & cook animals so that's out. But maybe we could keep chickens...then again I'd be devastated if any got killed by preditors. So this is how we will work out what we'll do when we get to our land. You just have to find what you can & WANT to do.

No one here has a set of rules to homestead by!

Patty

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OOOPS!!!!!!!!!!!! :baby04:

SHELLY! I meant SHELLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My suggestion is find labor saving devices....get one of those trash can lid looking chicken waterer heaters that the waterer sits on...get one of those 7 gallon chicken waterer, I only had to fill those once a week with our chickens back when we had them during the winter.

We invested in an automatic filling livestock waterer that has a 250 watt heating element, so no filling stock tanks or breaking ice or paying for 1500 watt stock tank heaters any more...the one we put in paid for itself in one winter, not to mention the reduction in twice a day tank fillings..

Homestead smarter, not harder, haha.

Excellent idea. Some friends of ours decided to move back to the city and left behind a LOT of stuff they just didn't have need for, which included a lot of things in their chicken coup. They told us to go help ourselves. I came back with feeding trays and a huge hanging feeder.

I've finally broken down and purchased a heated water bucket; prior to that I used one of those heated water dog bowls to use in the winter. I can now avoid those chores for 3 days because there will be enough water and feed to last them that long before more attention is needed. The only thing I have to worry about is gathering my eggs.

A lot of people think this way, which is fine, but to me Homesteading is a "state of mind", not a place.

Do what you can, be it growing a garden, raising animals, canning, drying, recycling, doing your own repairs, building, and generally getting by on your own as much as you can.
The "standard is up to you, the reason most people Homestead in the first place it to please themselves, and don't care "what people think".

There used to be a section in Mother Earth News Mag, where the would check in on feartured "Homesteaders, 10 years after". They don't do this anymore.

Alot of them have given it up entirely, and "moved back to the city", for a lot of reasons.
So, hang in there and follow you own heart.

I couldn't have said it better!

Another thing I've never really understood when having these type of discussions regarding burnout, frustrations, etc is why there seems to be only the two extremes to choose from. You are either a "homesteader" living in the country, or you are a "city person".

Is there some law against having a place in the country but not having a bunch of animals, barns/out buildings, 50 acres, ponds, hayfieds, big gardens, equipment, etc? I enjoy living rural for far more reasons than just the ability to have animals, garden etc. Chief among those reasons is increased privacy, seclusion etc. Just because we may choose to not have animals for awhile, or let one of the gardens go to pot, or sell a piece of the back acreage, or let part of hayfield grow over does not mean I need to pack it in and move to the city.

I just don't understand why people feel the need to abandon rural living just because they can't live up to some pre-defined standard of "homesteading" or rural living? Does this always have to be an either OR deal?

I had to laugh at this! I am 27 and have been on the dairy farm since I was able to walk. Been working full time since 2000 after college. I haven't worked an hour farming that I got paid $20 for!

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/e...message/105165

Here's the article you need to read. Should cover your burnout and many other questions and issues you have.

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When I wasn't working outside the home, gardening, raising animals for food, making crafts for sale, and manning a farmer's market booth were my jobs. My husband worked 40 hours a week, and so did I -- keeping the house and garden and critters.

Now I'm working full time in the store we own, so the garden went by the wayside as did most of the chickens and all of the ducks. The goats and llamas are pets and get fed and loved the same as our dogs and cats do. I have a couple of chickens that give me the eggs I need and are fun to watch. I buy my veggies from other folks who garden. I hire someone to come in every other week and do the major cleaning. (it took me a long time to break down and hire this done, but it's the best $40 I've ever spent) I still make and sell soap, cause I like doing it.

We get a finite amount of hours to spend doing what we'd like to. Do what fulfills you and let the rest go. Especially don't compare yourself and what you're able to get done with someone who is able to devote themselves to their homestead full time.

im shure the drought this year has increased the burn out rate . in any homestead / farm ther ewill be changes in what is being done from one year to the other here we have eliminated the rabbits this year and cut way back on the poulty, fertilize prices were high this spring so only planted 1 acer of corn just to stay in the heirloom seed down from 20 acers just a few years ago , silage is no longer put up180 tones a year just not enough time and i dont haul grain feed anymore i have it delivered its cheeper and better feed than i was wearing out my truck hauling ,i have my hay mowed and bailed cheeper than i can do it myself and leaves me more time to deal with other problems i still garden and milk my dairy cow ,some days when i get home at 9:00 at night its hard to push myself to go ahead and feed the cows but the farm will still be here when the job isnt and im too lazy to get any exercise unless its a bi product of working at somthing that needs to be done . it must be working because i see the men my age getting feeble and the young bucks at work seem amazed when i do my strong man tricks at work . besides the farm has to show a profit

All of us here are at various stages in the homesteading expirience. I am married to an engineer who declares, no bones about it, that he likes his electronic toys and will not live without them. We have a 10 ft projector screen, a 42 inch plasma tv, two gaming systems, stereos, and a arcade style racing chair he made out of an old audi seat complete with pedals and a gear shift. There is a fire engine red Camaro in our front driveway.

But, I love raising chickens for meat and eggs, gardening, making food from scratch, so I feel like there is a little homesteading spirit here in the house. I will never live off the grid because my husband won't, and I have to respect his wishes.

Bingo!

We use the heater thing under the 5-gal chicken waterers. Love that!
The cattle have the pond, which never freezes over, and the goats have water inside the barn, as well as outside. Inside the barn doesn't freeze. The horse's water was a pain because he wouldn't use a de-icer. Sold him last week, but not because of that, and he will be replaced by another.

Now, the rabbits, on the other hand. We had rabbits for 2 yrs. They don't take heat well, so in the dog days of summer we'd keep frozen water bottles in with them. In the winter, the metal balls in their waterers would freeze long before the water would freeze. The effort involved just wasn't conducive to our lifestyle... which is, to do what we love. Ya can't love drudgery... not for long, anyway. So, a few weeks ago, they all went on the grill.... moms, dad, teenagers.. ALL of them. YAY!


Shelly, once the fun is taken out of something we do, it becomes work. There's nothing wrong with work, but if it's fun, it won't feel like "work".
If something seems unduly hard for the return, find an easier way to do it. (Using one's own definition of "too hard", of course.)
If there is no easier way, and it isn't a necessary action, replace that action with one you'll enjoy more.

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