Is there anything SS you'd rather not do?

[hwillm1977]

I dream of the day I can get rid of my 'off-farm' job... seeing as we don't actually have a farm yet, that is YEARS down the road.

For now I garden, have chickens, will get turkeys and pigs, but have to continue making that work along with a 45 hour a week job... hubby works 60 hours a week...

At this point I don't think there's anything I wouldn't enjoy doing on a small scale, but I never want to get to the point of being a commercial farm with any one thing... I just want a hobby farm that provides us and our families with fresh, organic, food... meat, dairy, eggs and produce.

Once we're retired I'm sure we'll want to scale back and be able to travel, but for now I'd be content to live entirely on a farm.

I agree with FarmFresh though... I don't want to sheet rock anything, let alone a ceiling. We've been reno'ing this house for 2 years, and with a baby on the way we're now on a tight schedule... so I guess that I wouldn't buy an old house to fix up ever again. I've enjoyed doing this one, but I want a clean house without drywall dust and without walls and rooms torn apart, working plumbing, modern electrics... etc

 

[freemotion]

I thought of something! I won't clip my older poodle, I would rather pay $40 to have him bathed and clipped. I will clip the other one, as he is easy. The older one hates the entire process, is ultra-sensitive, and wiggles the entire time. A professional can get him done in under an hour, and it would take me many hours to get the same job done. And lots of cussing!

 

[modern_pioneer]

I hate weeding and need to get some ideas how to grow a more weed free garden.

I also find it harder to purchase green energy points with my local electric company. I spend on average an extra $35 dollars a month more to purchase those. Although the money is used to pay for new green energy I think we should have a choice to have green energy close by and I think that federal government should pay to put a wind tower over on the ridge across the valley from me. I think the government should pay the land owner fair value for it and put up wind towers everywhere.

I also think that if we want solar power, my state should give us a tax credit to do so. Solar power should also be twice as cheap as the current cost. I also think that the government should have a lotto for 50,000 free solar systems in America.

 

[partyfowl]

I hate weeding and need to get some ideas how to grow a more weed free garden.

I also find it harder to purchase green energy points with my local electric company. I spend on average an extra $35 dollars a month more to purchase those. Although the money is used to pay for new green energy I think we should have a choice to have green energy close by and I think that federal government should pay to put a wind tower over on the ridge across the valley from me. I think the government should pay the land owner fair value for it and put up wind towers everywhere.

I also think that if we want solar power, my state should give us a tax credit to do so. Solar power should also be twice as cheap as the current cost. I also think that the government should have a lotto for 50,000 free solar systems in America.

Amen!!!

 

[old fashioned]

You people are truly amazing!!! Balancing jobs & farm chores, diy renovations, etc....sheesh it exhausts me just thinking about it.

MP-I'm with you about the weed thing. I've worked so hard to get the veggie garden or flower beds all nice & pretty & within a week I find 1,000+ weed starts taking over everything. Not to mention those in the lawn & elsewhere.
Maybe the gvt should pay to use weeds for green energy! Sounds good to me.

Free-I had a black half Standard poodle with papers even, named Dax growing up and we always clipped him ourselves for the summer months. It was truly a tedious job. He was always glad for the cut but whenever our groomer friend would do him up like a "proper" poodle cut, the dang dog would actually prance!

 

[Bettacreek]

I'm with many others. I'm not here to be completely self-sufficient. I like several areas of it, and have tried others. The ones I like, I continue to do. I just like being "well-rounded" and knowing that I CAN do this and that. I don't expect to be able to live off of a farm, but I want to try small scale food raising (a small garden, probably 10x20, a "warren" of rabbits, quail, ducks and chickens and MAYBE turkey). I still will have my job once I get through schooling, but, my job will be to help me venture into more of the hobbies that I like. I mainly see it as a hobby, the things I do here. I also like saving money, lol.

One thing that I would never do again if it weren't necessary... BUILDING WIRE CAGES!!! Oh my goodness, my fingers were killing me, my arms looked like I had been attacked five times over by vicious, rabid cats, and it just plain and simply STANK!

 

[bibliophile birds]

hay. i HATE doing hay. i'm super allergic and every step of the process makes me sick and mad. getting up early is not my favorite thing either.

and, as much as i hate to admit it, recycling totally ticks me off a lot of the time. living way out in the country, i've got to load it all up (which is usually A LOT cause i let it go forever), take it into town, get gross throwing it all in the trucks, and, inevitably, end up picking up stuff that OTHER people just left laying around the trucks. it's a major chore. luckily, the more SS i get, the less crap i have that needs to be recycled. so that's good!

Butchering. Now I find, that the older I get, the more soft hearted (headed?) I get. I still raise animals for food, but I tend to get attached to them too easily these days.

yeah, i would MUCH rather have the chickens loose all their feathers, walk into the house, and conveniently drop dead on the cutting board. i can eviscerate with no qualms, but the killing part just never gets "easy." i doesn't bother me anymore, but i would really rather just not.

Solar power should also be twice as cheap as the current cost.

have you looked into the newer thin-film photovoltaics? they are much cheaper and easier to install (they are actually starting to make "shingles" with the cells built right in). they still have a lower conversion rate but it's getting better.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Hanging laundry on the line - I absolutely hate it. Yes, we do it ever summer, yes I know it saves energy - I just really don't care. With five kids and laundry always piled up (or so it seems) it's just far easier to toss in the dryer and use that electric to dry our clothes. And faster.

 

[FarmerDenise]

The have-to-be-done chores like letting the chickens out early in the morning in the nasty cold wind and rain, or in same bad weather, making sure everyone is in a nice dry and warm spot, while I am getting soaked and freezing my booty off.
Having to get up early for anything. Having to go out late and locking the chickens up, after I am exhausted from a day's work outside.
The time it takes from starting a fire in the stove till the house is nice and toasty warm.
In summer I hate working outside in the heat. We can never leave on those super hot days and go to the coast to cool off, even though the coast is only 45 minutes away and soo much cooler. We have to stay here to make sure none of our animals get overheated.
I wish we could go away for a weekend without having to make all kinds of arrangements to get the animals and the farm taken care of.

But it is all worthwhile. I get to be greeted with enthusiasm whenever I go outside. I eat the freshest of organic produce and the yummiest eggs. And I have enough to share.

It sure beats the old 8-5 job, where I still had to get up early every morning, put on uncomfortable clothes, wrestle with traffic and be at the whim of all kinds of annoying people while being stuck in a cubicle with insufficient artificial light getting no exercise nor fresh air only to be told I should wear more stylish clothes and don't I want to go shopping at Macy's?

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Hanging laundry on the line - I absolutely hate it. Yes, we do it ever summer, yes I know it saves energy - I just really don't care. With five kids and laundry always piled up (or so it seems) it's just far easier to toss in the dryer and use that electric to dry our clothes. And faster.

You know, while you have little ones, use the dryer and do not feel guilty. You will have lots of time to use the line when they are older.
And a little trick I often use for the line, that may help if and when you use it, is to put everything that is normally hung on hangers, on them when you are hanging them to dry.
You will save a big step in the process.