27 Mar 2013 | 10:43 PM PDT | Posted by Tricia Fawkes | Category: Maintenance And Techniques
I know you have all been there, that overwealming feeling weighing down on your shoulders...that feeling that you have too much to do and not enough time. This is a reality in my life, as we added more kids, more animals, more squarefootage, more yard and of course a large family business, I stopped seeing my life as a blessing. I started to see my life a long list of chores that could never be finished and as I plug away at that list a three year old is creating another disaster for me to clean. Part of the problem is me, the fiber that I am, the way I was raised. My mother's house is always clean, her yard is perfect and her hair always done. She is truely a domestic master and you can pull up to her home with a moments notice for a white glove inspection, never to be dissapointed. We moved to this home when I was 6 months pregant with our third child, I was in loved with the size of our yard. It is exactly 65 times the size of our last yard and the house about 1500 sqft more. I was awestruck and had so many dreams, but my dreams usually mean a lot of work. Mainaining the yard, the vegetable garden, the lawn, the house, the kids, the vehicles......blah blah blah you get the picture, proved to be hard. We had to come up with a plan, a maintenance plan. But before I could implement this plan I had to learn to let a few things go. My house was not going to look like my mothers when I have three active children, my vegetable garden is a work in progress that I enjoy with my kids.....therefore someone under the age of 8 is always digging in it and my yard will not always be perfect....there will be weeds!!! Letting these truths be OK, letting them be the norm, to be acceptable was hard but neccassary. Rick on the other hand is good at letting go. He is good at reminding me that is ok to buy store bought cupcakes or let your kids have the occasional manufactured snack, escpecially if that means getting more time with your kids.
Our second stage was setting up a weekly maintenance routine. Every Saturday morning we get up and began two hours of outside chores. We clean the coop, give the dogs some extra exercise and clean and weed a little bit around the yard. Lately there has been a lot of wind storms so Rick also has the chore of clearing fallen trees with the chain saw. Whatever the task we make it a family event and try to get everyone involved.
Coop cleanup is done every week to stay on top of things. Keeps the eggs clean and the hens happy.
Farmer Devin cuddling his chickens while we clean the nesting boxes.
And more cuddling...we have some very patient hens.
Garden Clean-up in the old strawberry patch.
He will do anything to keep the kids interested.
Saturday morning work ends with a relaxing visit to the hammock.
