A particular quote comes to mind when I think of the patience required for a happy, healthy homestead:
“The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.” —A. H. Glasow
I’ve been homesteading (in one way or another) since before I knew a term existed to define the lifestyle. It started with a simple garden on the outskirts of town. From that garden, a dream was planted from a seed and the dream came to fruition; it may have been little by little, but the buds finally bloomed.
Before I begin, let me just say … mistakes were made, and many lessons learned.
I tried to dive into everything all at once. My enthusiasm was through the roof. I was learning about many new things and relearning old ones. In the process, we moved from one property to another, the new one being unfamiliar territory over 800 miles south. This means new terrain, weather patterns, climate, and growing zones.
Nearly 13 years later, patience and I are on an entirely different level. After all, the ability to wait for something without getting frustrated is a precious trait whether you’re on a homestead or in a big city.
From Seeds to Saplings
It can take from as little as 30 minutes up to hours seeding garden bed. Patience is a requirement that all gardeners face. Not only are we waiting for the appropriate growing seasons to arrive so we can plant outdoors, we also wait for the seeds to take root.
Finally comes the day that we have sprouts, and we’re waiting for flowers, fruits, and other plants. All met with the required patience to allow the fruits of our labor to ripen before we can reap what we’ve sown.
Isn’t it funny how quickly tables can turn? As the fruits ripen, we have to harvest and process them, especially when we’re growing to preserve. Patience is still required. Sometimes patience is about waiting for something without getting irritated, while at others, it’s keeping our cool and maintaining composure because excitement can quickly become frustration, especially after hours of peeling, trimming, and processing pounds of produce.
Then everything revolves back to demonstrating slow patience while we wait to taste a batch of pickles or pickled jalapeños that won’t be ready for weeks or months.
Too Many Irons in the Fire
Whether establishing a new foundation or rebuilding an old one, there is much to do on a homestead on any given day. What started as a small garden developed and grew into composting, raising chickens and rabbits, and setting up rainwater catchment. I was excited to get started on anything and everything.
Between working the earth for gardens, turning an old shed into a chicken coop, building rabbit hutches, setting up water barrels, and revamping an old bus into a tiny home, time was not on my side. All of those projects, on top of daily tasks and chores, left me and my partner drained. One evening, with my head in my hands, I pondered if homesteading wasn’t my calling.
Thankfully, both my mom and my partner reminded me that sometimes, we have to focus on one project at a time. It was okay, and even necessary, to focus on one project instead of a handful. Otherwise, you can feel like you’re not accomplishing anything.
Waiting for the Weather to Clear
When you have a homestead to run, the seasons and weather dictate what projects, chores, or tasks need to be done. Seasons and weather conditions have positive and negative aspects. Whether it’s the rain, cold, wind, snow, sun, or heat, if there’s too much or too little, it can pose problems.
For instance, when we first moved further south, the new area had been experiencing a drought. Everything was crispy and dry. We had to wait until cooler weather brought the rain to learn where water catchment would be most suitable. Picking a garden space was a hit or miss because everything looked like a desert. Then once fall arrived, we were waiting for the rains to let up before chopping wood. This list could go on. The point of it all is that here, again, we needed patience.
Nature teaches us to roll with the punches and go with the flow.
Raising the Bar
I remember my excitement when we put our first eggs to hatch in the incubator. We didn’t have any birds yet, and we wanted to have the whole experience from the egg to the bird. Our friend helped us get our hands on some fertile eggs, and we set them to hatch.
We kept a mindful eye on our potential babies. It takes around three weeks for chicks to develop and hatch. Of course, along the way, we checked their growth, dealing with excitement and disappointment. Finally, the day came when we heard the birds start to pip. Yet, we still had to sit patiently for their arrival.
Weeks were spent caring for and cleaning up after our first chicks. I had no clue how to tell which birds were roosters and hens, so it was a bummer when we found out that over half of our new flock was roosters. I felt broken the morning I went to tend to the birds, only to find that a predator made off with all the hens and a few roos. We were left with all males. Ugh!
Patience and persistence led to perseverance. We had a healthy flock of 20-plus chickens with quail eggs in the incubator, ready to hatch.
During our first round of incubation, we also obtained a male and a few female rabbits. We should’ve waited until the birds were well established, but an opportunity came knocking, and I rushed to open that door. It’s not that we had too many animals. It’s more about not being 100 percent prepared. I willingly dumped more tasks in my lap and wondered why I was tired.
The art of patience is a skill necessary for all aspects of life, including on the homestead. It’s easy to bite off more than we can chew. It’s all fun and games until tensions and stress levels rise, and our patience blows out the window. However, patience is a requirement. You get more bees with honey, so they say, and I find that to be true. If only things ran as quickly as honey instead of being slow as molasses.
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