Morning Chores???

When you get up in the morning, what is the first thing you do? You probably get dressed, make some coffee, read the news, scroll social media. Any of that sound familiar? Ever thought about what a farmer does every morning? Probably not, right? I don't consider myself a farmer, far from it actually. First off, I only have 7 acres, they sometimes have hundreds. My garden and greenhouse is tiny compared to what the average farmer has. But have you ever considered what their day looks like? What about a homesteader? What does their day look like?

For me...my day starts before my first cup of coffee. I'm woken every morning by the dog whining at my bedroom door telling me she needs to go out. After I get her outside and attached to her lead, my day really starts. Feed the chickens, check their general health and welfare (basically I stand there for about 20 minutes talking to them like a crazy lady and looking over each one). I also sweep out the coop, check their water level and the nesting situation. (I still have some teenagers who like to roost on the edge of the nesting area with their bums over the nest, so sometimes I have to change out the nesting material first thing in the morning.) Sometimes, I will rake out the run as well. But that's only if they're molting and there are too many feathers. Right now, I have 10 teenagers going through their last molt before the hens start laying, so there are feathers everywhere.

Once I'm done with the chickens, I go over to the garden plot and see how everything is doing. Which generally means checking to see if anything needs harvesting, checking to see if anything needs water and the general health of all of the plants. Next, is a short walk over to the greenhouse. I have to roll up the sides every morning, to allow the breeze in so nothing overheats and wilts. Sometimes I will water first thing in the morning, but I usually just walk through and check each plant, harvest anything that's ready. Then head out to check on the wild plants. I have found quite a few wild fruits growing on my property, so I try to go out and check on them to see if they need anything. The wild blackberries are ripening right now, so I usually do a quick harvest of them first thing in the morning. But everything else, just gets looked at to make sure that nothing is killing them or eating them.

Then it's time to head back to the house to get the dog, and any harvest I have to go inside. This morning I had a small harvest of peas, green beans and wild blackberries, which means getting everything cleaned up and put away. It took me 20 minutes to shell the peas, another 20 to wash, dry and put away the green beans. Then another 20 to get the black berries washed and dried to go into the freezer. I wash and dry mine then lay them out on a sheet pan to go in the freezer, this way they freeze separate before being put into a freezer

bag later. But this morning I had to clear the pan off of yesterday's harvest (which was huge because I didn't harvest on Saturday due to being laid up on the couch all day), before I could get this morning's small batch put up.

Not every morning is the same, sometimes things come up. Sometimes I end up spending less than 10 minutes doing my rounds (those morning are when I'm dragging. lol), then there are times when I spend a couple of hours out there. But every morning is roughly the same, check on the chickens, check on the gardens and greenhouse, harvest whatever is ready, then go back to the house and make coffee.

The best part about all of this is that I do the exact same thing, except in reverse, every evening around sundown. But I wouldn't change it for anything. My day may start out a little chaotic, but the rest of the day is easy and laid back.