HOW WE SPEND OUR DAYS

Maintenance on the farm

  1. Our water supply (checking for cloggs, leaks and squeezes on the system, fixing those)
  2. Fences (maintaining and building new ones)
  3. Pens, sheds and buildings (maintaining, building new ones, adding to existing ones)
  4. Car repairs and welding

In-house work

  1. Preparing meals and cooking for 10 persons.
  2. Homeschooling our children.
  3. Preparing large amounts of sour-dough to bake bread.
  4. Working off the mountains of laundry
  5. Cleaning our establishmets
  6. Processing what foods we have, depending on the season (we conserve meat, cann it, smoke fish, make ham and sausages, jam, cider and whine)
  7. Checking our products (5.) for their quality and the  different enviroments they are in as well as maintaining these (hanging moist cloth next to the sausages, keeping the temperature and air humidity level, keeping the smoker going, checking the cider and whine, stiring it and adding neccessary components [...])

Sustaining our lives on daily basis

 

  1. We milk the cows and goats and process what we can, quantity is heavily depending on the season (milk, a little cream, butter and cheese).
  2. Hunting and fishing are an essential part for our survival and incorporated almost daily. We try to conserve a great portion of it, but there is just that much a pantry and freezer can hold.
  3. Another very important task is the cultivation of the limited ground and few greenhouses we have available (sowing, harvesting, watering, weeding and cutting out of the plants).

What we do to survive finacially

  1. We process and sell  what goods we can spare (cured meat, ham, slef made canned hare, sausages, smoked fish, jam, bread, cheese, cider and whine).
  2. For tourists we offer tours and guiding to the region and sometimes fishing trips.
  3. We cut, split and stack firewood which we sell to town.
  4. Some of our animals or their offspring have to be sold every year...

Work the animals create

 

  1. We release them onto the pastures in the morning and lock back up in their stables at night.
  2. In the morning , we milk the cows and goats.
  3. They are fed in the morning and evening.
  4.  Every few days, we move the pastures not to exhaust the ground to much.
  5. Occasionally, the goats or cows wander of into the mountain or the neighbouring properties. Getting them back usually takes a day, sometimes even more, especially in winter.
  6. The neighbours live stock visits us sometimes too.
  7. Twice a year, the goats need help giving birth and a good portion of kids need to be reared and cared for.



Outside work

 

  1. Cutting firewood, moving lumber inside or between sheds or making new stacks.
  2. Plowing the fields and clearing them from overgrowth, fertilizing, sowing or harvensting.
  3. Process the large amounts of apples in summer (picking, sorting, grinding them per hand, squeezing the juice out and boiling or filling it into barrels)
  4. Processing of game (skinning, plucking, cleaning and butchering).

These are all things which happen every day, in one form or another.

A bit overwhelming sometimes, but it is worth it.