Time management and living self sufficient.......

[prairiegirl]

.........is there a way to do this and still have time to cherish the little things?


I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the appropriate place, hope so.

We have always lived simple by most people definition. But, in the last 5 years and since moving to this old farm, we have really moved forward in living simply - as self sufficient as possible. We still have a long way to go, but it is the way we live each day and it seems to touch every part of our lives.

As all of you that are living this way know (or perhaps it's us because we always do everything the hard way) it's not an easy way of living. We work hard! And, we still don't get everything done. I've learned to not fret each night when I don't get everything accomplished, but that's not always easy.

I find that I no longer multi-task. I've moved onto micro-managing each minute sometimes or so it seems. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to complain. I'd be interested in how you do it. Please share some of your tips or shortcuts.

 

[me&thegals]

Always do 3 things at one time

For example, I had a friend over yesterday. While we chatted in my kitchen, I worked on processing my garden pumpkins and turning them into pies and breads for the bake sale. I was happy to be working; she was happy to be chatting

I have youngish kids, so I work really hard to make our work fun so that I have good times with them while getting the work done, which never seems to end! Sun night we worked on dekerneling all our popcorn--a job, but it was actually nice to do it in front of the fire, making guesses on how much it would add up to, having contests on how fast to do it.

I try to think ahead when I can to avoid repeating jobs. For example, this 30+ cups of pumpkin won't get frozen, thawed and then cooked with. It's getting used now. Tons of things for a bake sale, pumpkin everything on the menu for my cookie exchange Sat and pumpkin items on our home menu until it's gone. It will save some time later (and dishes) to just use it up now rather than freezing. Or, when I'm picking in summer for my CSA gardens, I make sure to go way above that for our own use. You know, thinking ahead and combining jobs in order to not repeat them?

I guess I don't have too much to offer for help, but at least you're not the only one out there who feels like the work is never done. To me, it is so personally satisfying that it really is mostly fun.

I actually think that the longer a person lives any way of life the more natural it becomes. Some days I think I'm going to scream the kitchen is so full of things to be done, but the work goes faster year by year.

ETA: I also LIVE on books on tape/cd/PlayAway since I can get piles of work done while enjoying a great story/nonfiction! And, when my kids are home, we listen to music or they read to me while I'm working. That way we enjoy the little things in life while working

 

[inchworm]

This is an interesting question. I've struggled with similar thoughts. I've wondered if I'm really saving money by doing things myself. Am I making my life more simple or more complicated?

I think first you have to decide what your vision is - what is living simply? If you feel you are always doing things the hard way, is that living simply? What is your goal - quality family time? Fresh food? Not being dependent on a job to get by?

I sense you are on the road to what you really want, but you aren't really clear what it is yet.

Inchy

 

[FarmerChick]

I am struggling with the term "simple life"

Dacs reminded me it is what I want it to be...my perspective on how to live. I thought the simple life meant having time to sit on my duff and relax, smile, refresh, play with the kid, do whatever...NOPE...not even close..HA HA

I micro manage also and I am trying to change that.

The more self sufficient we become when using that term as "do it ourselves" the more work we have. That is what conveniences were.....they gave time back to you cause someone else did the work. We just pay for it with money we earned.

So, if you want fresher foods, a big garden, can things, use less dryer by taking time to hang clothes, etc. then we pay with our time. I don't see a way around it.

The farm is a noose yet a wonderful thing. I love animals so enjoy working with them, but when it is January and they kid out and I have 60 babies in the barn, UGH, I don't like it then....LOL

So it is give and take.

We must slow down by dropping off the unnecessary things in life.....hmmm...me, I cut down shopping like crazy. I gained back time from going to the store, but then it means staying home canning or something..LOL

I don't know.

I truly can't tell you how to find time in this day and age.

Debt means our life flows at a certain level also. If you were totally debt free life would be a different story for alot of us I think.



Just rambling cause I am trying to find a way to gain time also. I can't seem to do it. And women have it hard cause we feel we must take care of everyone's needs to top quality...talk about stress..HA HA..so maybe time for me to stop and meditate...or something..LOL...to find that slower connection out there in life. It has to be there right?

 

[mrs.puff]

Yeah, this is an interesting topic. Since we don't have a lot of the stuff that makes life "easy", it takes a lot of time and energy to keep things going. Like carrying wood, cooking, feeding livestock, etc. It's totally silly, but people are always asking me if I get "bored" at my place. Like I can't possibly occupy all my time without a TV!!!! Do you guys get comments like that also?? Someone once gave me a whole pile of old needlepoint kits cause she though I might need something to do.
I do sew and make things often, but I don't make them just to take up time, they're gifts, household items, etc.

 

[patandchickens]

prariegirl, which simple things were you wanting to cherish? Doing things yourself is a good way to cherish simple things like the call of the bobolinks in May when you pause to catch your breath from digging postholes, or the feel of mud between your toes when your boot suddenly comes off as you're clearing ot the drainage ditches in the spring thaw, or the beautiful way the light reflects from the irridescent wings of the beetles that are eating your squash plant leaves. If you were thinking more along the lines of sitting on the back porch for the afternoon, sipping tea, and admiring the wildflowers blowing in the breeze, that does not IME happen nearly so much

But you know, I'm not being sarcastic there about bobolinks when digging postholes or any of the rest of it -- all that stuff is really pretty cool if you actually do pay attention to it. Well ok maybe cold mud is more of an acquired taste, but you know what I mean

To me, the biggest way to free up chunks of time and energy is to take a hard look at definitions. Does <task X> REALLY need to get done? If it's something like 'clear the ice and snow out of the ditches so the barn doesn't flood in the thaw and swamp all your hay" then it really does, but I've come to the viewpoint that a lot of things in life are actually optional or even fairly unnecessary, like dusting the house every week. (Different people will have different examples of course). If they get done, that's great, but they aren't on my To Do list and I don't stress out about them.

By the same token, the more you can redefine things from "tasks" to "kind of enjoyable", the more leisure you'll seem to have Obviously some things like changing the oil on the car are not going to be fun to any but a small number of strange people <g> but I tell you what, I've come to look at digging post holes as a PRIVELEGE. I'm outside in decent weather (on account of it's pretty hard to do in the rain or with frozen ground), it gives me an opportunity to be alone without having to watch the kids (DH takes care of them when I'm working outside), I always notice interesting new things about our soil and wild plants and bugs and so forth, and as long as I am not on a severe break-the-world-record-for-posthole-digging-speed deadline it really DOES turn out to be a lot of fun

That said, I think a lot of the pleasure from doing things yourself is not so much in the ACT of doing, but in the KNOWLEDGE that you done it and done it well

JMHO,

Pat

 

[the simple life]

Pick your battles basically, do what you can or needs to be done in order of importance and don't beat yourself up over what you haven't done.
Its not the end of the world if every single thing on your to do list does not get done, usually.
What will really happen if you don't get your kitchen clean today? What will really happen if you don't get the fence painted today?
Nothing will happen and you may have taken the time to enjoy life a little during the day.
It will get done and you may enjoy it more when it comes time to do it because you took some of the pressure off.
I find that when I have alot of stuff to do I just run it through my head and pick what really really matters.
If it does not have any significant fall out then I let something slide.
If its not going to be life altering if I don't get it done today, I let it slide.
I find that sometimes we take on more than we need to or make more out of something than we really need to.
I use to add more things on to my list of things I had to do, now I streamline it all and try to include the family in it as much as possible. Like someone else said, bringing the kids into a project can really be enjoyable or a complete nightmare but its usually a good way to get stuff done and spend time together.
My kids are only going to be small once and then its over, I don't want to blow that by trying to be all things to all people.
The house will still be there, the yard will still be there and all the work that goes with it when the kids are grown and gone.
Do we really have to be superheroes all the time?
Its obviously important to carry on through our lives the way we choose to live them,the ideal that we have set for ourselves, but sometimes you need to just give yourself a break and enjoy life.
I still say pick your battles.

 

[Beekissed]

I can't stress this enough....run, don't walk, and find your Joel Salatin books at the library and peruse every page! Most of it won't apply to you if you aren't actually farming....but in the middle of all his methods you will find some very surprising tips about how to make the simple life more simple. Some great advice about cutting to the chase and making farming(or SS) work FOR you instead of against you.

The man runs what , is now, a very large farm with numerous animals and irons in the fire. In the busiest times of the year, his total regular, daily chores only take 4 hours! In the winter, 1 hour!!! This man's farm is his job, he doesn't have to go off the farm to work, so he can develop a good routine. Regardless, his helpful tips and theories can be applied to much of every day life. Yeah, he's a little preachy, but get past that and see the real meat of the meal.....he gets things done in a reasonable amount of time and makes good money doing it...and then has plenty of time with his family.

In his books he describes, in detail, how to cut your time spent on many things and let some things go, as they don't yield enough for the time spent. It was an eye opener for me and what made me decide to let this big yard/orchard work for itself and make me some money to boot!

His book You Can Farm is a good place to start!

 

[prairiegirl]

I'm pondering all that has been shared and will comment later.
I do appreciate all the replies. Thank you!

 

[dacjohns]

For me self sufficiency is a goal with many different levels or stages of being self sufficient. I don't feel that I will ever or can ever be totally self sufficient. There are things like wheat, salt, and sugar (just off the top of my head) that I am not willing to produce myself. I can do things that will help me to be less dependent on the vagaries of the economy and its associated things like grocery stores and the transportation industry.

I have 100 acres with enough to do to keep me busy until I die. I raise chickens, have a stocked pond, have an orchard and some small fruits started, have a garden plot (unsuccessful last year for a number of reason), and a few other things going on. Despite all this we still make trips to the grocery store, have to buy fuel for the cars and tractors, have to buy chicken feed, have to pay for gas, water, electric, and telephone.

Our goal is to be as sufficient as possible and have enough to share with others. It is happening in small stages but we feel we are better off than others we know that are not striving to be more self sufficient.

Just some quick thoughts is all.