Daily chores - how long does it take?

[Deberosa]

Some people are intimidated by the workload of a homestead. I know it intimidated me until I finally got so fed up with being dependent that I made the leap to a small homestead (4.5 acres). I figured it could go wild is all if I lost control. ;-) At the time it was just me and I worked off site full time.

So what are your daily tasks that you must do to keep things going? How long do they take? I find it surprising that keeping everything humming along really is not that time consuming. Most of my time is spent in new projects.

[Deberosa]

I try to keep the Monday through Friday tasks as a bare minimum to keep up with things. On the weekend I take some extra time to stock up and set up for the next week. My chores on a daily basis that are absolutely required average less than half an hour. The other time I have during the week is for seasonal stuff like weeding, watering, harvesting, preserving, etc.

So, now that I work from home it becomes very comfortable! Once the sun is up (or at least it's light out a little bit this time of year) I take a break and feed the cat, cows, dogs and gather chicken eggs. The hens need a feeder refill once a week and this time of year all water is provided outside! I also have a float on the stock tank for the cows in case it doesn't rain enough.

Then I feed the Dark cornish birds and turkeys and a couple of times a week refill the feeders in the hoop house for the pullets. I haul in some wood and I am ready to get back to work. ;-)

Once a week or every other week I fill the feed bins - large garbage cans next to every feeder so I don't have to haul stuff during the week. That makes feeding a matter of scooping out more food and dumping it in the feeder. The outdoor feeder I put in on of those dog igloos - you often can get them for free and I have a wide selection! I use small kiddy pools filled for the free range birds' water supply. This time of year they keep themselves full. Rainfall here is around 70 inches a year and most of it occurs between October and April!

And if you have kids you could have even fewer chores! ;-)

[Katrina-Sisu]

I don't have a homestead yet, but someday I hope!

I just do general chores since I'm back in GA for the winter. We have two more cats plus our two. We spend alot of time feeding them, and they have their own little cliques so it's two seperate bowls lol.

Laundry, doing dishes, cleaning, take up the rest of my chore time. It's winter so we don't have a garden out.

Kat

[MadTripper]

We have about 22 chickens and they really don't require too much attention. I have a 5 gallon waterer and 10 gallon feeder. I check them about once a day but as the weather gets colder, I will check twice a day. Keep in mind they are not laying eggs yet but that will fall in with daily routine anyways.

Other than that, there are just the normal routines however not really chores. Laundry and cooking is something everyone does whether they have a small scale farm or homestead or apartment in the city. I do make pasta once every other week or so and I'm trying to get into the habit of making bread twice a week. Completely optional on my part but I enjoy both duties and feel I'm providing a better food for my family.

Tripper

[bee_pipes]

Right now poultry and dogs are the only critters that require daily attention. Like MT said, check the feeders and waterers daily. We let the birds out in the morning and they pretty much roam free all day. Lately it's been after 7 AM when the sun is beginning to hit the ground, here in the hollow. Try to be sure it's light enough for most predators to retire for the day. About 3:30 or 4 PM we call the birds back, give them scratch and lock them up for the night. That's also when we check for eggs - they come back to the house to lay. We have one silky that has gone broody, and every time I'm in the chicken house I snatch her up and carry her off. Nobody is laying right now, so she's sitting on an empty nest. During the day I poke my head into the chicken house and check waterers, feeders, sanitation, etc.

The dogs get their daily ration split across two feedings - morning and evening. The evening meal is a good incentive to bring them home before dark.

This all changes during the growing season - more daily stuff with tending the garden. Harvest time is more about picking, canning and butchering. This time of year the bees don't require much attention, during their season it is as needed, from week to week.

My wife handles all the cooking, I do the dishes. As needed I bake bread and biscuits, we freeze anything that can't be immediately used. Breads are sort of a day long job - you aren't on it all day, but rising and such take time.

This is a good time of year to get projects done. The weather is mild. My wife has us scheduled for one major project each month, I try to fill the time between with smaller projects. We just got done with building a fence before the holidays. December's project is rebuilding the well house. The original owners did a quick job on it and the insulation is getting torn up. I think we have mice and critters digging through it. I'd also like to get 3 or 4 outside outlets wired up to make it more convenient for running power tools. The outside needs battens to fill the holes between the boards, and we need to make the roof slope.

Beds have been prepared for fruit trees going in this month, garlic planted this month, and garden beds are getting a new load of cardboard, leaves and yard waste. We have some trees to drop and mill for a shed we're building, and an old trailer that needs to be torn down. The shed needs to be finished first to store salvaged parts from the trailer - windows, doors, metal, fixtures, etc.

The pace is pretty laid back, and I'm finding waiting for the appropriate time to do something requires more effort than the actual work. It's nice to get a jump on stuff, but a real bugger to interrupt a project waiting for materials or weather...

Regards,
Pat

[Backwoods_Bob]

It takes me at least an hour in the morning and another hour in the evening to feed, water and milk the goats, and feed and water the rabbits and horses.

But really, I can spend all day doing chores -

It takes a bit of work to do this because we're off grid and don't have running water -

Right now, because of all the snow, the horses are in the barn at night which makes feeding go faster, but now we have to clean the stalls every day.

We have to carry wood in from the wood shed, carry snow and ice in to melt, haul water out to the animals, take in the iced up water buckets from the morning so they will thaw and can be used later, fill, clean and trim the kerosean lamps, etc.... I can't begin to list them all.

Quite frankly, there is no way I could maintain our homestead by myself.
I go and work a day job most days of the week, and my wife stays home to tend everything.
She'll get to twon once in a while, maybe a few times a winter.