Suddenly everything is green and lush and winter is a distant memory. We had our very first volunteers of the season, (back in April actually) a very kind fellow and his little energetic daughter. An array of jobs were tackled while they were here, mainly building a new tool shed at the roundhouse site, bush clearing, and some planting.
In the meantime, Andres and I have been trying to tackle as much as we can, however it is incredibly difficult to tick things off the to-do list while he works full-time and I am constantly chasing our intensely active one-year old daughter. We often discuss how we can progress further and quicker in our homesteading project. This seems to be our biggest challenge so far - dealing with the lack of time to do so many things. And I know we are not the only ones. Everyone, everywhere in urban and rural areas alike have little time to accomplish the things we need and want to do. How can we get over this obstacle?! The more I think about it, the more I am in favour of a reduced-hour work week. I think it is important for folks to have decent downtime for themselves in addition to some work time at home and/or in the community. For us, we are building our whole infrastructure - from scratch, with very limited utilities and with the aim to become as close to entirely self-sufficient as possible. This is not easy and it makes me feel in awe of all the people we visited on our volunteering/wwoofing travels in the UK who have children and who managed to do all this and continue to do it! Thinking of them sometimes is what really keeps me going.
This is a general list of the jobs we are working on at the moment.
Gardening tasks include: maintaining the annual garden, organizing and caring for our growing collection of perennials into a forest garden, caring for our newly grafted apple trees, building a greenhouse.
Building tasks include: completing a small scale roundhouse structure which will be our temporary home until the main house (an Earthship) is ready, finish building 2 outhouses, a root cellar, and a tool shed.
Landscaping tasks include: transplanting trees to make natural fences/barriers/hedges, carving out trails, paths and driveways through the property for hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, and general access.
Other homesteading tasks include: preserving our harvest, harvesting firewood, and maintaining tools, equipment and structures which includes cleaning, sanding, grinding, painting, and oiling.
Other creative tasks include: making signs for our property and other decorative features, basketry and ornamental weaving from our own harvested wild materials (we are not experts at this yet but would love to learn from someone or learn together!), and other wild crafting such as harvesting plentiful wildflowers for medicinal and cosmetic uses.
Told ya we're busy :-)
On that note.... I posted some ads on a couple volunteer networks. Links are below if you want to have a look or pass on to anyone. I am also setting up a host profile on WWOOF Canda and there should be a posting on the Earthship Ottawa Meetup group soon.
Goodwork Canada
Helpx
That's it for now. Will try to post some photos next time.
In the meantime, Andres and I have been trying to tackle as much as we can, however it is incredibly difficult to tick things off the to-do list while he works full-time and I am constantly chasing our intensely active one-year old daughter. We often discuss how we can progress further and quicker in our homesteading project. This seems to be our biggest challenge so far - dealing with the lack of time to do so many things. And I know we are not the only ones. Everyone, everywhere in urban and rural areas alike have little time to accomplish the things we need and want to do. How can we get over this obstacle?! The more I think about it, the more I am in favour of a reduced-hour work week. I think it is important for folks to have decent downtime for themselves in addition to some work time at home and/or in the community. For us, we are building our whole infrastructure - from scratch, with very limited utilities and with the aim to become as close to entirely self-sufficient as possible. This is not easy and it makes me feel in awe of all the people we visited on our volunteering/wwoofing travels in the UK who have children and who managed to do all this and continue to do it! Thinking of them sometimes is what really keeps me going.
This is a general list of the jobs we are working on at the moment.
Gardening tasks include: maintaining the annual garden, organizing and caring for our growing collection of perennials into a forest garden, caring for our newly grafted apple trees, building a greenhouse.
Building tasks include: completing a small scale roundhouse structure which will be our temporary home until the main house (an Earthship) is ready, finish building 2 outhouses, a root cellar, and a tool shed.
Landscaping tasks include: transplanting trees to make natural fences/barriers/hedges, carving out trails, paths and driveways through the property for hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, and general access.
Other homesteading tasks include: preserving our harvest, harvesting firewood, and maintaining tools, equipment and structures which includes cleaning, sanding, grinding, painting, and oiling.
Other creative tasks include: making signs for our property and other decorative features, basketry and ornamental weaving from our own harvested wild materials (we are not experts at this yet but would love to learn from someone or learn together!), and other wild crafting such as harvesting plentiful wildflowers for medicinal and cosmetic uses.
Told ya we're busy :-)
On that note.... I posted some ads on a couple volunteer networks. Links are below if you want to have a look or pass on to anyone. I am also setting up a host profile on WWOOF Canda and there should be a posting on the Earthship Ottawa Meetup group soon.
Goodwork Canada
Helpx
That's it for now. Will try to post some photos next time.
