How do you find time to Homestead??

mikec4193 · #21 04/20/14, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goatlady

I don't understand why, if you have no debts, you feel you HAVE to work 2 jobs to generate sufficient income! Who the heck is spending all the income you generate cause you centainly do not have the time nor energy to do it.

Hi Goatlady

I am making an extra $600.00 cash in my pocket from my second job every month (that is my spending money)...my first (real) job I am able to save $325.00 a week from it.
I think I want to be able to pay cash for everything so I am trying to get a little ahead each week. I have to cough up $1500.00 in the next couple of weeks to get the property surveyed. He will set corners, mark property lines and draw me up a survey map when he is done...to me that is money I have to spend....(better for a resale $$$ too)

On the property now is a dug well, a drilled well, a poured basement that is 22x34 in size. The fellow that owned it before died and actually was living in the basement. You wanna talk about a creepy looking place...imagine an 80 year old hermit and what that basement looked like....there is also a 22x34 garage type structure, 150 amp service panel to the garage with a sub-feed to the basement...2 open flat roof kinda lean-to looking Adirondack style sheds...maybe 30x30 with flat roofs on them....also a very small 8x12 wooden shed..

What I was planning was this to be my summer place, my son lives in Kansas and I wanted to be out near him for the winter monthes...my wife would come out after the holidays and stay for a couple of weeks and then go back to her folks in upstate NY area...where the 20 acres is...

You guys are great on here...I really gotta figure the money/time thing out tho......

Thanks again for all the insight...I am loving the feedback on here...

MikeC

mikec4193 · #22 04/21/14, 05:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Twobottom

Simple...I don't work all week and weekends too ( off the farm ). The whole point of homesteading was to allow me to produce the goods that I consume directly from the homestead.

When I started I got a part time job at a feed store ( nice discount ). Now I don't even have that. I make a small rental income and a little on farm produce/firewood, but generally I work to produce my own food and fuel.

HI Two Bottom

What is the trick to a life like that??? I cant seem to be able to break free from the 6 1/2 day a week jobs that I have been working since I was a kid...

How long did it take you to get to this point??

Did you have a retirement check to help out with monthly expenses??

I am just trying to figure out the life I want and not have to work 2 jobs to keep it...

MikeC

Alice In TX/MO · #23 04/21/14, 05:54 AM

Some people want to work all the time and some people want to sit on a stump looking out over the garden. Everybody makes their own life. You're making your tomorrow, right now. If money makes you content, good. If home grown fruit and vegetables makes you content, that's good too. You've obviously chosen the road you wanted to take, and took it. If you want to go a different way now, make your move. There's nothing complicated about life. You get one of them, and do the best you can do with it.

gweny · #24 04/21/14, 06:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Just Little Me

Make the decission............. Make the time, or let it go. It has to be something YOU want to do. Then and only then will you make the time for it.

This. People seem amazed at what I am able to accomplish in a week while raising 3 little ones, full time (very physical) job, and all the homesteading activities... I also paint, do shows, do side work (electrical), and I've started a baked goods business that is in the green for the last 2 months (woot!). All this along with growing most of our veggies, baking all our bread, canning/stocking up for winter, caring for the animals... Etc.
It's easy. The answer... I love doing it! I can't remember the last time I watched TV or sat in front of my computer (Im always mobile)? Who needs it?! I could be outside breaking down pallets to make another work bench while surrounded by clucking chickens and screaming children... Now that's exciting!
If you want it, you will do it. If you want it, you just can't help yourself.

"Follow your bliss" and "don't die with your music still inside you" are my favorite mottos.

willow_girl · #25 04/21/14, 06:52 AM

Quote:

I am just trying to figure out the life I want and not have to work 2 jobs to keep it...

BUDGET! You need to figure out where your money is going ... then you can decide if that's where you want it to go.

Get a little notebook, and for the next month, keep track of every dollar you spend. Get your wife to do the same. At the end of the month, total it all up and look for unnecessary outlays.

You're already committed to paying cash for things -- that's good! -- and you're out of debt, so you're smarter than the average bear. You can do this!

The nice thing about homesteading is it's not an expensive lifestyle. We heat with wood and grow a lot of our food. If I didn't have my cows to feed, I could easily get along on less than $1,000 a month. DBF already does.

Of course, we don't have flashy clothes, or shiny new cars, but that's OK -- those things aren't important to us anyway.

Twobottom · #26 04/21/14, 07:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikec4193

HI Two Bottom

What is the trick to a life like that??? I cant seem to be able to break free from the 6 1/2 day a week jobs that I have been working since I was a kid...

How long did it take you to get to this point??

Did you have a retirement check to help out with monthly expenses??

I am just trying to figure out the life I want and not have to work 2 jobs to keep it...

MikeC

Hi Mike,

I think the trick is just deciding to do it and following through. I did work a 6 1/2 day work week for a few years when I owned a route and I hated it. I knew I always wanted a life without those pressures and a nice farm that I could work at my own pace.

I was only 38 when I moved to my homestead ( also in adirondack area ) so no retirement check. I just decided my time was worth more than the money I was making and the life I was living.

Pretty much what Wobblebug is suggesting. I rented my old place and moved to this one. It is a small cabin on a nice piece of property with affordable taxes. A tractor and a few implements came with the place. I set about building a wood shed, plowing gardens, putting up fencing, built a chicken coop etc I got a part time job in town for something like $9 an hour, and spent the rest of my time building up the farm. I'm no millionaire by any means but I had a savings that I could draw on and that was important in the beginning as I was building the place up and accumulating equipment/tools/etc.

I met a young woman here and we got married a couple years later. She works part-time off the farm. Between the two of us, with the farm my rental income, and her job..we make less than 20k. But we eat well, we heat and cook with wood fuel, and our lives are simple. Our cost of living is in line with our small income and if I ever needed to boost the income for whatever reason I could go out and get any minimum wage job and probably save it all. We've definitely achieved a level of self sufficiency here and any work outside the farm is 'extra' and optional, not a desperate need.

blooba · #27 04/21/14, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikec4193

I don't even have a desire to go visit the place...it is like an hour away..

See, your looking at this all wrong, it is ONLY an hour away, I was 12 hours away from my property and still have gotten alot done. Now I am only an hour away and getting alot more done.

Just because you didn't get everything done doesnt mean you didn't get anything done. Everything you do is one thing you didn't pay to have to do. You will always have stuff to do with a homestead, it is never "finished"...lol

If you still have some big needed expenses it might still be right to keep working the 2nd job. Just keep in mind that you are working for your property and your future, a survey would fall into that category. Luxury items such as a tractor or something that isnt "needed" can wait.

I would focus on cutting my expenses as much as possible, so your maximum amount of money is being saved and so you can see how little you can really live on.This is the step I am in. I no longer eat out, no longer smoke, don't have cable tv, ect,ect.... Look at your bank statements and look at every purchase. Ask yourself if that is really needed? Every dollar not spent is that much sooner before you can quit your 2nd job.

Once you get your needed expenses out of the way and get to the point of quitting the 2nd job figure out how much gas you would spend driving back and forth vs how much rent your paying. It maybe easily worthwhile to move out there and commute back and forth. Yea its a long drive but people do it everyday because its worth it in some cases.

You say the place is "creepy" and only this and only that and what not but the previous owner lived there, its called roughing it and sometimes you have to rough it for a while to get where you want, we all can't just move into a paid off McMansion. Not sure what your "family" situation is but what do you really need to live? A toilet,sink,bed? It may not be much to start but you would be living rent free. It's all about how bad you really want it, if you don't really want to do it then let it go. But if you do, do everything you can to get it done!!!

thequeensblessing · #28 04/21/14, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by willow_girl

BUDGET! You need to figure out where your money is going ... then you can decide if that's where you want it to go.

Get a little notebook, and for the next month, keep track of every dollar you spend. Get your wife to do the same. At the end of the month, total it all up and look for unnecessary outlays.

You're already committed to paying cash for things -- that's good! -- and you're out of debt, so you're smarter than the average bear. You can do this!

The nice thing about homesteading is it's not an expensive lifestyle. We heat with wood and grow a lot of our food. If I didn't have my cows to feed, I could easily get along on less than $1,000 a month. DBF already does.

Of course, we don't have flashy clothes, or shiny new cars, but that's OK -- those things aren't important to us anyway.

This! This is what we did/still do. We budget and we cut back on "spending money". All of our spare money (whatever that is anymore) went into our favorite hobby, our homestead. We stayed out of debt, except for our farm. We knew if we waited until we had cash saved up for a homestead, A. it would happen when we were too old to enjoy it, or B. It wouldn't happen because we'd be too exhausted to even care. We wanted to live a homesteading lifestyle to GET OUT of the rat race. We had no desire to continue in the rat race until such time as we could perfectly afford our dream. To us, that's like waiting to have a child until you can afford one. With all of life's distractions, you may find yourself with a lot of regrets later.
Homesteading isn't expensive. We find it takes more, or at least as much, of a time commitment than a financial commitment. Its a scary plunge to take for some, but you dive in and you do it.
Hubby still works off the farm, and he drives an hour to the city to work because he can make twice in the city what he can make here in our rural area. He's here on most weekends (he's committed to work so many Saturdays a year), so we make the most of those Saturdays. He also has evening daylight hours in the spring, summer, and fall where we make a list and try to accomplish at least one project per week. But none of that would be possible if we didn't live here.
When we first bought our property, 10 years ago, we built right away and we fenced the property for pasture right away. We were living an hour and a half away, and we came and spent as many weekends as we could, camping out on the property. It was a wonderful, bonding time for us as we'd sit around the camp fire together in the evenings after working on the property all day, and talk about our plans and dreams for our homestead. Sometimes we'd bring friends for a working camp out and have a great time, but more often than not, it was just the two of us, and somehow, that was just so much sweeter than lots of people here.
We too were, and still are busy in our respective church callings (I"m the relief society president and he's the ward clerk in our church), but we made arrangements in advance for someone to take over our responsibilities while we were gone for those weekends.
Yes, its all about budgeting, budgeting time and money. You can break yourself down totally by working so hard now that you have nothing left to invest in your dream except money, and with homesteading, money isn't enough.

Andy Nonymous · #29 04/21/14, 11:43 AM

Scripture points out the difficulty of "being of two minds". Yoda (of Star Wars fame), said "do, or do not: there is no try".

You don't find time to homestead. You make time. Figure out what gets you up in the morning, what keeps you going where others would quit. Find that passion, and that is what you should be doing. Figure out what is worth giving up to "make this happen". Maybe it's foregoing a new(er) tractor for a much less expensive one (with implements) that still works after 50 years of use. (I have about 4k invested in enough equipment to plow and fit ground, cultivate all summer, cut, rake, & bale hay, and push snow in winter - it's between 40 and 70 years old, and many parts are still available, but when they're not, I make them. Why? because it's more important to be here, homesteading, than off at some job, working to afford new equipment that won't last as long and will cost more to fix).

A homestead is a jealous mistress that demands attention and is never satisfied. You have to draw the line with what you can give, and realize it will often draw an even shorter line on what it will tangibly give back. If you don't have a "burn" to be there and make this work for you, you don't have a 20 acre homestead (a place you live on that supports you), you have 20 acres of vacation property that you will be forever supporting, and there's nothing wrong with that either. I'm just not clear with you being clear on what you expect there.

What is your 'vision' for this place? What are you going to do with it? What "called" you to buy it in the first place?

BTW: Flat (low pitch) roofs in snow country are asking for a lot of trouble: they need to be shoveled off periodically because they can collapse if you don't, and they often leak if you put heat under them. This doesn't sound like a place I'd leave to it's own all winter until you get roofs on buildings that will either shed snow, or hold 6' of it without a problem and allow it to run off fast when it melts - nothing less than a 5/12

ronbre · #30 04/21/14, 11:58 AM

might i suggest craigslist..we sold MIL's place on there..buyers saw it first day it listed..we used a lot of photos

mikec4193 · #31 04/21/14, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy Nonymous

Scripture points out the difficulty of "being of two minds". Yoda (of Star Wars fame), said "do, or do not: there is no try".

You don't find time to homestead. You make time. Figure out what gets you up in the morning, what keeps you going where others would quit. Find that passion, and that is what you should be doing. Figure out what is worth giving up to "make this happen". Maybe it's foregoing a new(er) tractor for a much less expensive one (with implements) that still works after 50 years of use. (I have about 4k invested in enough equipment to plow and fit ground, cultivate all summer, cut, rake, & bale hay, and push snow in winter - it's between 40 and 70 years old, and many parts are still available, but when they're not, I make them. Why? because it's more important to be here, homesteading, than off at some job, working to afford new equipment that won't last as long and will cost more to fix).

A homestead is a jealous mistress that demands attention and is never satisfied. You have to draw the line with what you can give, and realize it will often draw an even shorter line on what it will tangibly give back. If you don't have a "burn" to be there and make this work for you, you don't have a 20 acre homestead (a place you live on that supports you), you have 20 acres of vacation property that you will be forever supporting, and there's nothing wrong with that either. I'm just not clear with you being clear on what you expect there.

What is your 'vision' for this place? What are you going to do with it? What "called" you to buy it in the first place?

BTW: Flat (low pitch) roofs in snow country are asking for a lot of trouble: they need to be shoveled off periodically because they can collapse if you don't, and they often leak if you put heat under them. This doesn't sound like a place I'd leave to it's own all winter until you get roofs on buildings that will either shed snow, or hold 6' of it without a problem and allow it to run off fast when it melts - nothing less than a 5/12

Wow Andy

Whats gets me up in the morning???....making money...that is about it now...just trying to save enough $$$$$ so when in 4 years...I can leave this area and go hang out with my son in Kansas (for 6 monthes) and putter around on some dirt that is kinda local to where I am now...my wifes kids are all here...mine grew up and left the area for more rural settings...

Northeast Kansas is where I really wanna be but my wife wont go...this is our compromise...

I got into a govt job with a pension...so I cant leave that until I have at least 20 years in it...

What so I expect from it???....I want to be left alone...I want peace and quiet...I currently live on a state road...semi trucks and commuter traffic is in my front door yard mostly all day long...

A vision that I see for it????...a big garage for my old trucks...a small house to sleep in...a small barn maybe for chickens and some storage...a garden attached to the house...the 20 acres will be a buffer from the real world that I so desperately want to leave in the back of my memory...

My wife wants me to go up up in my free time and hang out...I work 2 jobs...I don't have hang out time...I am trying to finish up a vehicle that I can use to drive back and forth to work...kinda takes up all the hang out time...

What called me to the place???...the price...20 acres for $30,000.00 with electric and 2 wells, a basement...a crude septic system...and a small garage...and 2 open type barns..a small pond too...I could not pass it up...

Not sure right now if I made the right move really...taxes are more on the this (basically vacant)property than they are on the current house that I live in on 2 acres...

I think I am going to get it surveyed ($1,500.00 for that part) and then maybe just sit on it for a little while...I don't hate it there...but it is not doing it for me like it did before...

I will be praying on this for a while I am sure...

you guys are awesome...I learn so much when I am on here.

MikeC

**Terri** · #32 04/21/14, 08:05 PM

What you do, Mike, is to draw up a budget that allows you to live off of the income from one job.

I started by writing down every penny I spend for 2-3 months, and then add in the bi-yearly things like life insurance. It helped that I wrote checks for everything.

Then you add things up and look at your expenses: I was shocked to see that I was paying $25 a week for soda! I now use home-brewed ice tea. There are other things that I did to bring down our expenses without changing our life style by much at all.

I have a migraine tonight and my DD is visiting for Easter: I will be more specific tomorrow.

wogglebug · #33 04/21/14, 09:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikec4193

I got into a govt job with a pension...so I cant leave that until I have at least 20 years in it...

Now you're talking!
They are generally more into flexible working hours than private employers. Look into what is possible there.

Instead of eight hours a day, five days a week;
can you work ten hours a day, four days a week;
or thirteen hours a day for three days;
or nine hours a day for four days, and four hours Friday morning?

This would not only give you a long weekend each week to spend on the farm, but it could also cut down on the number of days you'd need to commute from the farm, and hence the commuting hours and dollars in a week.

Incidentally, in one sense it's not fair to think of the commute to/from the farm as an hour each way.
You must already spend some time getting to and from work, let alone to and from your extra work on weekends.
You need to think of the differential time to and from the farm.
If it already takes you twenty minutes, then to and from the farm is only an extra forty minutes.

If your weekend job takes half an hour each way to get to, and you give it up, then you've clawed back for yourself not only the work time, but an hour of commute time as well.

It doesn't sound like you want to have the homestead as a way to make a living,
more as just a way of life, to let you de-stress.
That's fine, everything you do on the farm (like building, or a vegetable garden, or Muscovy ducks, or whatever) can be a hobby. At the same time, as well as saving money in daily living, you can be building value in the place, that you can take out again when and if you sell and get "Gone to Kansas".

You've just got to find the time to kick back and enjoy.
You can't make time - there's only so much room to move in a week, and your week is already plenty full.
You have to take time from something else,
so you can give yourself time.

Incidentally, did you say you have a building that's exactly the right size to fit over your dug basement?
A building that's pretty big compared to most apartments (which don't even have same-sized basements under them).
That's something to think about. It would instantly raise the value of your place, and it might even reduce your taxes, depending on how they're calculated.

Also, don't forget there can be tax advantages to living on and running a farm, even if all you do is rent the land to someone else for a crop, or offer agistment for someone's livestock.

cfuhrer · #34 04/21/14, 09:48 PM

You might try giving the place a name.

That way it isn't just that creepy place that is so far away and so not finished.

Grandmotherbear · #35 04/21/14, 10:21 PM

My empathic powers are telling me that this "homestead" is not something you are, now or in the past, liking or enjoying. Your heart is not in it. You said yourself your heart is in Kansas with your son.
You said you bought this place as a compromise because your wife doesn't share your dream of living in Kansas. If it's a compromise it implies your wife had some say. Does she like the property? Can she spent some time working on it? Would she live there with you?? If she is not emotionally invested in this land, how can purchasing it be a compromise???
I'm a Hospice nurse and have seen far too many people put off what they really want to do until "someday"...and someday, never comes. I have no suggestions except for, if you like the land, and really want to spend time there in the future, research fruit and nut trees and try to get them planted soonest. Trees are a longterm investment.

countryfied2011 · #36 04/22/14, 06:09 AM

It seems to me that you are finding all the negative reasons/excuses not to do it...instead of all the positives reasons to do it.

Maybe you need to sell the place~

Andy Nonymous · #37 04/22/14, 11:36 AM

I didn't mean to come off as 'hard', but the right answer is in the right questions, and those are not usually the easy ones.

It sounds like you "need" a quite place to putter on your old vehicles, to spend time with your son, she needs to be near her children, and this place fell into your lap looking like it fit the bill. You aren't saying what SHE thinks of it, and what SHE is willing to make of it, and that will probably go a long way toward a better answer.

Maybe, just maybe, what you need more than a piece of rural property, is a good, heart to heart with your wife. Sometimes compromise works, like when there is benefit to both parties and their walk together becomes better. Sometimes it doesn't, when one (or both) end up with shoes that don't fit for the walk the one wants the other to walk. Gotta figure out what shoes you are trying to get fit into, and what shoes she will end up wearing.

There is always an answer that works to our good (says the Lord), if we but have ears to hear it. It often isn't an answer you expect, or sometimes even want to hear, but it's there.

**highlands** · #38 04/22/14, 11:53 AM

I decided I wanted to do it, found land, realized I didn't like the neighbors a few years later, found new land with more elbow room, continued my 'career' work to pay for the land, gradually started doing more on the land that paid until a bit over a decade ago where we got to the point that our homestead was providing all of our income and that is where we spend our time. It was a very slow and gradual transition. While making that transition I set a lot of things on course so they would be ready as we needed them such as clearing out old fields (hired loggers, sold the logs, money then pays for the land and infrastructure like fencing, etc).

It's a bit like juggling for a long time. Persist.

Cheers,

-Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/

mikec4193 · #39 04/23/14, 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grandmotherbear

My empathic powers are telling me that this "homestead" is not something you are, now or in the past, liking or enjoying. Your heart is not in it. You said yourself your heart is in Kansas with your son.
You said you bought this place as a compromise because your wife doesn't share your dream of living in Kansas. If it's a compromise it implies your wife had some say. Does she like the property? Can she spent some time working on it? Would she live there with you?? If she is not emotionally invested in this land, how can purchasing it be a compromise???
I have no suggestions except for, if you like the land, and really want to spend time there in the future, research fruit and nut trees and try to get them planted soonest. Trees are a longterm investment.

HI Grandmother

You are so right with my dreams and hers....she loves the mountains. I love the plains...she told me if I could put a trailer up on the property she move there tomorrow...I plan at least 4 monthes (winter time) to be out in Kansas with my son.

We have already planted 2 apple trees the week after we closed on it...there is also an asparagus patch where the fellow used to garden it...

As far as liking the land...I am a garage guy...I cut I grind I weld...I fabricate stuff...as long as it is quite outside and I cant see or hear the neighbors I will be good. And I am not shoveling snow 3 times a week for 4 monthes I will be good....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy Nonymous

I didn't mean to come off as 'hard', but the right answer is in the right questions, and those are not usually the easy ones.

It sounds like you "need" a quite place to putter on your old vehicles, to spend time with your son, she needs to be near her children, and this place fell into your lap looking like it fit the bill. You aren't saying what SHE thinks of it, and what SHE is willing to make of it, and that will probably go a long way toward a better answer.

Maybe, just maybe, what you need more than a piece of rural property, is a good, heart to heart with your wife. Sometimes compromise works, like when there is benefit to both parties and their walk together becomes better. Sometimes it doesn't, when one (or both) end up with shoes that don't fit for the walk the one wants the other to walk. Gotta figure out what shoes you are trying to get fit into, and what shoes she will end up wearing.

There is always an answer that works to our good (says the Lord), if we but have ears to hear it. It often isn't an answer you expect, or sometimes even want to hear, but it's there.

Oh my gosh Andy...so true so true...we need to figure out the shoes we wanna wear...I want my oil covered chippewa boots and she wants her garden boots on and her hiking shoes too...hopefully we can make the two work as one...

Quote:

Originally Posted by highlands

I decided I wanted to do it, found land, realized I didn't like the neighbors a few years later, found new land with more elbow room, continued my 'career' work to pay for the land, gradually started doing more on the land that paid until a bit over a decade ago where we got to the point that our homestead was providing all of our income and that is where we spend our time. It was a very slow and gradual transition. While making that transition I set a lot of things on course so they would be ready as we needed them such as clearing out old fields (hired loggers, sold the logs, money then pays for the land and infrastructure like fencing, etc).

It's a bit like juggling for a long time. Persist.

Cheers,

-Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/

Hi Walter

I think I have a plan in place...the property is getting logged as we speak...then I have local guy lined up to survey and then I have a guy to come in and get the well and septic up and running...we are looking at about $4,500.00 for those 3 items....

If I have any money left maybe this late this summer get a full blown bathroom set up in the existing basement. I have a guy I work with at my second job who is a licensed plumber. So then at least we have a place to wash up...

I will keep planning...my gov't job I will be able to retire from in about 4 years....hopefully GOD willing we have something in place that we can call home...

You guys are awesome on here...

Any more folks wanna add there insight I would love to hear from you.

MikeC

Belldandy · #40 04/23/14, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terri

I can find the time because I homestead my back yard, and the 5 acres I also own are only 20 minutes away.

I usually do something really quick in my yard once a day. Yesterday, for example, I planted a pot on my deck. I have perhaps a dozen more pots to plant, and they all have cheap saucers under them so that they are easy to tend.

Every spring I rough up the soil in a pot and sprinkle chard seeds or spinach seeds or whatever, and I do about one a day. Every couple of days during the summer I use the hose to fill those saucers. That keeps the salad greens just outside my door and so it is convenient to pick and use greens. It also takes just a couple of minutes a day.

I also have chickens but they are in a pen and they only take 5 minutes a day to tend. On the way to tend them I usually do something brief: this morning I picked a big handful of alfalfa greens to give the chickens and on the way back I brought in my knee pads so that I did not have to make a second trip.

The alfalfa grows in the garden and there I CHEATED! I bought woven greenhouse flooring and punched holes in it every 3 feet for the plants! It is hard to keep the edges of the garden tidy because I am afraid the lawn mower will catch the edge of the greenhouse flooring and rip it off and so I am in the process of spiking it down with 8 inch spikes with washers against the head. 2 days ago I hammered 5 into the edge of the greenhouse flooring-on the way to care for the chickens, of course- and 2 days before I got 6 in. That way, once I have gotten the edges entirely spiked in, I can run the lawn mower over the edges.

Watering the chicken and the garden is simple. I turn the water on as I go outside and the end of the hose has an attachment on it that connects to 4 hoses. I direct the water to the correct hose and what needs water gets watered.

I do all of this on 5 to 30 minutes a day in my yard.

The 5 acres outside of town gets visited once a week, if that. I have a lot of bulbs and asparagus planted so I often come back with vegetables and flowers. That land is my break from daily life: it is my chance to get away from it all. I *HAD* intended to do great things with it but them my health got poor, so instead I work my back yard and the 5 acres is my recreation.

I also try a few space hogs out there every year, some work and some do not.

So my homesteading time averages about 15 minutes a day. It was not what I intended, but I tire easily. I *DO* get fruit, vegetables, eggs, and honey (before my hive died of a disease) out of my 15 minutes a day.

And, because cooking from scratch takes longer I pick one day and I cook it the next. For instance, I will make a salad out of the vegetables in the fridge, and then in the evening I can pick more vegetables but I will stop before it stops being fun. Some days I will weed and tie up tomatos but other days I will just grab some cucumbers for the next days salad. That way homesteading is fun and it STAYS fun!

This has been of such help to me!

All I have is a yard, too (no livestock, lol), and not much energy, and even less sun.

I checked out records and the last time we had a garden was 2001. But two days ago we set out a big planter and planted a sprouted cabbage, a sprouted celery, and two sprouted onions. Based on your post, I'm going to start some lettuce and hope it's not too late.

Thanks!