With working both on our homestead and at conventional jobs finding a balance without burnout is a subject that needs to be seriously discussed. Jobs on the homestead can be handled in any way that works for you of course but delegated or assigned jobs and responsibilities are what work best for us. In order to get projects and other homestead responsibilities completed and not get ourselves burnt out and frustrated with each other. The list of jobs that need to be done at times seem endless.

Because my work schedule starts before the sun comes up that leaves morning animal chores to Kevin and the kids. This has worked well in the past. That is until the winter months when our youngest son didn’t want to walk, in the dark, all the way to the chicken coop to close down or open them up. We lost all but one of our ladies last year to predators and age so we will be starting from scratch again with chicks and a new coop with a new design which hopefully will be a more efficient set up.

I do most of the garden chores from planting to picking. The kids help a lot in this area as well and it is a good time to have some talks. Other times it turns into a whine session of “but why?” with the answer usually being a returned question of “Do you want food to eat?” They enjoy the picking time and when we allow a squash of their choosing to grow as big as it can. I feel it is important for the kids to get into the garden with us and appreciate the work that goes into what we enjoy at the table.

When it comes to the projects we have to plan in advance. This year we have from 1 to 10 projects. We have to schedule projects and pray there is no rain as most of our large projects have to happen on the weekends when both of us are home. We can work on the smaller parts during the week after work. There is also a lot of prep work before any projects can begin.

This whole year will be full of trial and error and in order to maintain a balance between our two work worlds planning ahead is a must. We have to take each others schedules in to account as well as the schedules our kids have. All the while we also need to make sure to take time to enjoy what we are creating with our family. A win-win!