Why Farmers and Homesteaders Can (and should) Vacation

Reader Contribution by Shelby Devore-Farminence
Published on January 25, 2019
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If you run a farm or a homestead, then you understand how much work goes into running it every day. Many of us feel blessed to wake up each day and tend to our gardens and livestock. But we also understand the fatigue that comes with hard work day in and day out. Many farmers and homesteaders feel like they can’t vacation or leave their farms. I want to explain how we manage to run our small farm, vacation 3-4 times a year and keep our sanity!

Plan Ahead

This may sound obvious, but planning well ahead of time will make sure that your vacation gets off on the right foot. It’s not a vacation if you’re worrying about your farm and what’s going on the whole time that you’re gone.

Do you have plans for a big project? Maybe you want to finally put those shelves in the tool shed or strip out the stalls. Plan to complete this project before you leave. It’s never a good idea to leave for vacation when you’re in the middle of a project. I’ll tell you from experience, you’ll spend your entire vacation thinking about the fact that you should have finished that project before you left.

Start writing stuff down, and early. You’re going to have to find someone to take care of the place for you while you’re gone. More than likely, they’re going to need instructions on what to do. I like to start writing stuff down about two weeks before we leave, so I know I’m not forgetting anything. Write all of the instructions down, even if it’s something that seems common sense to you (fill the feed scoops three times to the top for the pigs, water the tomatoes at the ground, not the tops, etc.) . That way your helper will have more than enough information to go by.

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