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Modern homesteading often means wearing multiple hats . Like most families , we have unconstipated menage chores to do , a task or two outside of the home , and duty of care for small fry .
But homesteaders ( even just part - time 1 like us ) also have things on their to - do list link to vegetable horticulture , animate being chore , land criminal maintenance , or plate haunt that others might not .
I ’m not trying to argue that we are more officious than common people who select other lifestyles – everyone has a to - do list – but that we have demands that are unparalleled to this way of life of life and call for singular solution .
Tip 1: Create an Annual/Seasonal To-Do List
Whether you grow your own veggie , tap trees formaple syrup , or have a work wood or an woodlet , prospect are you have task that you echo on a regular basis . Why rely on your over - tap mind to keep trail of those things ?
Instead , consider creating a master list of the task that you need to accomplish each twelvemonth and the approximate metre of class when you need to accomplish them . you could do this electronically with any one of the many apps that exist for to - do lists and reminder , or you could produce your own variation using something as simple as a word document or excel spreadsheet .
You could also deal something like a “ Gantt Chart ” which is basically a spreadsheet with job in the vertical column and clip in the horizontal column . It allows you to get a visual image of what your chores look like when they are all map out together over the course of a yr or a time of year . Here ’s how to produce a simple Gantt Chart in Excel .
similarly , a quick google search will land up a number of handy template and chores lists by time of year that can assist to get you bulge . For example , on our sister site we ’ve write aFall Gardening schedulethat can be adapt for your clock time zone ; this could become part of your yearly horticulture work plan . Just call back that eachhomestead , each climate , and each position is different .
There are also some corking resources you may gift in for plan purposes . contrive specifically for vegetable gardening , theWeek - by - Week Vegetable Gardener ’s Handbook from Storey Publicationsis a great resourcefulness for staying on track . I was lucky enough to incur a review copy of this issue and I was incredibly impressed . The first thing you do is enter your date of distinctive last Robert Lee Frost and then everything make from there so that the book is personally suited to your garden geographical zone .
Whatever approach arrive naturally to you , make certain that it is something you may edit , aline , and bear on back to you for many year in the future . One good afternoon of create the design can profit you for many years to come !
Tip 2: Keep a Garden (or other task) Journal
You know those chore you repeat each year ? You also take something from them every twelvemonth , and who want to learn the same problematic lesson doubly ? A garden journal is a great way to keep track of success and failures and things you want to keep in mind for the next year .
A garden daybook is also a groovy fashion to track your activities and results each year . For example , how many heads ofgarlicdid you plant last twelvemonth , and did they last you all year long ? ( here ’s our article withgrowing a class ’s Charles Frederick Worth of garlic , by the way ! ) Or what kind of weather did you have in the spring and does that effect your apple harvest in the descent ?
similarly , you could practice your garden diary to track where you ’ve planted things . This can be utilitarian if you want to use rotations in the garden , or if you plant perennial and desire to remind yourself what the name of the plant life was when it pops up in the spring .
A garden journal can be as simple as aspiral - ricochet notebook(we use a heavy duty hard - cover one that wo n’t well get lost or damaged ) , or something more fancy likethis pre - formatted Gardener ’s Log Book from the New York Botanical Garden .
You may have other tasks that would do good from a journal as well . For my husband ’s natal day , I bought him an officialbeekeeping log bookas well as a blank journal for our beekeeping book . We need to get good at keeping our bees sound . give chase what we call for to do each year as well as what we find out is a huge part of success .
Tip 3: Use Dry Erase Boards for Planning
One of the best investments I have made in the last year was amagnetic seven - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. ironic erase boardfor our refrigerator . On it , we not only write our family ’s agenda and consignment , but also our repast plans for the week . We usemulti - coloured ironic erase markersfor dissimilar category ( shaver ’ schedules , tasks , meals ) .
This is huge for folks who grow their own food for thought . We want to have as short waste as possible and we need to remind ourselves of what we necessitate to use . If we know we have 2 - 3 simoleons in the electric refrigerator and aubergine in the garden , we ’ll plan for haluska and eggplant parmesan that hebdomad . alike , we can make full habit of the food we have continue and frozen if we schedule out when we are going to use it .
We typically expend about a half - minute each Sunday write down our schedules for the week and our meal ideas . We do n’t always do the exact repast on the precise night it was plan , but we always have a inclination of idea and we can juggle as needed .
We also hap to have aneasel with a ironic erase board(the kind you buy for budding young artists ) . When our daughter is n’t drawing on that we often indite up the weekend ’s to - do tilt and make our elbow room through it as a family . It will include thing like pile wood and mulching the garden , but also fun things like “ go for a hiking ” or “ ride bicycle for cider slushies ” so that we have rewards as well as piece of work !
Our eventual finish is to build up a garden shed with an overhang and put adry erase boardright out in the garden to keep track of what we want to get done on a regular fundament .
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stay unionized can serve you to achieve your ego - sufficiency goals . None of these methods are fool substantiation – they are only as good as what you put into them , but they are some of our favorites that have stood the mental testing of time .
What works for you to persist unionized ? We ’d love to continue to build our list of strategies 🙂
