How One Homesteader Prioritizes Her Time

Learning to live sustainably is not just about gardening and farming — it’s about our everyday choices and practices.

Reader Contribution by Jo deVries
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by Jo deVries
The grease-monkey degreasing her 1972 GMC C20.

Here in Ontario, Canada, our winters seem never-ending, so at the first sign of spring, we jump at the chance to start working on the plans we have spent months pouring over. Although we can usually get started on our gardens in April, the threat of frost is sometimes not over until the beginning of June. I am still finding patches of ice hidden beneath items that were left laying in the yard. The backroads are full of mud ruts, but the dark forested north-facing slopes are still frozen.

Making Best Use of a Homesteader’s Time

Consider bug-free weeks. During spring, I find myself longing to spend all of my time outside, knowing that I only have about a month before the bugs arrive. Blackflies arrive in May and remain fierce for a couple of weeks. They are followed by mosquitoes, which are then joined by horseflies and deerflies, and the ticks will remain until everything freezes again.

It’s important to use the few pest-free weeks in spring and autumn to our full advantage. The rest of the time, those of us working outside will be donning a bug jacket during the peak working hours of the day, to avoid certain misery. One quickly learns which tasks should be done in the cool of the early morning before the bugs wake up.

Use “down time” wisely. During this past winter, I turned 60 and now feel the urge to press forward with my plans, with new-found urgency. I’m taking more responsibility for my health with a better diet. I’m greeting my chores with more enthusiasm, being grateful for the health to be able to do them. I continue to make progress, slow as it is, turning my piece of bush-land into a sustainable homestead.

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