Sunday, October 26, 2014

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Tuesday, October 14, 2014

A Few Rules Of Homesteading, Just In Time...

In my youth, still young to many at 44, I found that I had a drive that was matched by few. Only true people that had the same passion as I did could even keep up with my task. I pride myself on doing more than people expect of me and showing/sharing the fruits of my labor.

Like planting a garden, all the prep work that goes into it, the rewards come later. We live in such a society where people want it, want it now, and if they don't get it... Well you know....

With nearly 10 cords of hardwood split and stacked, my hands are sore, and each day I split a little more. It is a homesteading rule to do things, and I mean all things with pace. A pace makes it sound like I want to put things off or stretch them out over time as if I were lazy. But I assure you, that isn't the case.

I make rules with myself, rules that allow me to do more over a longer period of time without getting burned out to quickly. Sure, when push comes to shove I will double hands down and burn the midnight oil if need be...

So one of the rules I have is to split one wheel barrel or two a night from the second week of August until I have at least 9 cords completed. I split about 6 cords by hand, and the rest I will use a machine. This rule falls to many things here, do a little each day...

There are times when we must demand more from ourselves than normal, but I have learned to do more in each season before the next. It helps so much not to try to do everything that needs to be done in the season.