A Fairly Normal Saturday

Several have asked about what a typical workday on our mini-farm might look like. First, in the spirit of full disclosure, there aren’t very many typical, or normal days. While we do have routines and schedules, life the way God created it has its variables, particularly in regard to when things need to happen.

Our goats need to be milked everyday, and so are central to scheduling whatever else might happen on a given day. The goats and all the other animals must be fed and watered, their shelters and bedding tended to, and whatever other husbandry needs to happen--like the daily egg collecting from chickens and ducks, daily watering and weeding in the garden, daily checks and adjustments in the fish farm.

Then there are the additional chores for Saturday: harvesting poultry and fish, making soap, making soda pop.

There are also chores related to the garden harvest which we like to be continual, but usually come in waves. Harvesting and preserving the harvest is the most labor intensive aspect of the farm. For example, when the Roma tomatoes are ripe, we have just about a week to get them all picked at their peak, and then comes the processing for canning or drying. It is a good thing for us when this work can happen on a Saturday, but it doesn’t always.

When possible, we plan for the “extra” work to occur on Saturday. Our weekdays are pretty well used up with the daily farm chores, school, work, and a few extracurricular activities. Sunday is the Lord’s Day, and we try to devote ourselves and our energy more completely to Him and His work and worship on His day. So that leaves Saturday.

Saturday is the day we can all work on projects together that take more than an hour to accomplish. On weekdays we set aside an hour in the morning and an hour at midday to do our farm chores. Each takes his or her turn to feed and milk the goats, weed and water the garden, tend the poultry, feed the dog, sweep the porches, mind the baby, and so forth. If we need to put up a fence, or to build raised beds,  do some plumbing, or harvest some poultry, Saturday is the day.

So far with today about half over, we have harvested four chickens, made 5 pounds each of Italian and breakfast pork sausage, picked snap peas and cauliflower, changed a wheelbarrow flat, took down the last of the Christmas lights, and started work on some new raised beds. After a break for some refreshments, we'll see what else we can get into: possibly haircuts, making soap, and/or making toothpaste.