Homestead mailing list

["Sharon Gordon" <gordonse AT one.net>]

Here are a few things I have found that help with this situation.

1) More long term planning.  More thinking about how things will be when
everything is mature.

2) Trying to stagger things over time, so not everything needs to be done at
once.  At some point, I'd like to add a four season green house.  This way
we could have more fresh food longer, plus less time would be spent on
preservation in the fall crunch.
http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/ for inspiring pictures

3) Working on projects with friends.  If a whole bunch of us work at one
person's place, we can get a whole project done fast and go on to the next
person's place.

4) Once we have a resolution list or wish list :-), scheduling specific
components of the projects.  Somebody once said that a goal without a plan
was just a dream.  I've found that to be  true.

5) Planning things out in measureable specific chunks.  So instead of
putting Weed garden on the things to do list which is something that would
never actually be finished, I would put something like the folowing on a
daily task list
Weed Vegetable bed #3 for 20 minutes
Weed East Herb bed #1
Pick up one wheel barrow full of kindling
Split 8 logs for firewood
Prune or saw limbs off 10 branches for future stakes
Can 24 quarts of tomato sauce

6) I try to figure out how often something actually needs to be done and do
it on that schedule instead of doing it once a day or once a week.  For
instance, I have had garden beds that needed weeding every 10 days and ones
that I weeded every three weeks which only had a few weeds in them.  It just
depends on whether previous gardeners let weeds go to seed or not.

7) I like keeping a list of finished projects too.  It's very satisfying to
see all the acomplished items.  Before and after pictures are great too.

And I agree about what some of the other posters said about prioritizing
things and thinking about why you are doing what you are doing.  Every once
in while I try and figure out how much time is going to the things I most
want to do.

It's also fun to get together with other people who care about doing the
same things you value for social times as well as work projects.  It's good
to be around other people who understand what goes into the fact that you
have a wood pile of split, stacked, and covered wood that will last you five
months, nine months of home grown and canned tomato products, that all six
of your new goat babies lived, and that in August you only spent $12 at the
grocery store.  The encouragement you get from people who understand give
you more energy to proceed.

Sharon
gordonse AT one.net