I am late again.
For the weekly update that is!
And my my my, what a crazy week it’s been. I have a surreal feeling something is coming. With delta outbreaks rampant in NSW and VIC now, it won’t be long until the border is shut – yet again – and restrictions continue to be enforced.
Now, I really, really don’t mind any of that. Predominantly because I can stay home and get paid to work from home. And if you haven’t gathered, I am a total introvert and could stay in my house until the Apocalypse. It’s my jam. But I understand it isn’t for everyone. Some people are quite opposed, and feel their civil liberties are being impacted. I don’t tend to think that but I can understand the perspective.
And the best thing we can do in times of uncertainty is not fight or argue or bicker, but just understand that there is no one size fits all, and we need to be respectful of each others circumstances.
For me lockdown or no, life on Milo’s Farm must go on. I got around to lots of small projects this week. But many of them felt like inside jobs so the last two days outside have been fantastic.
I got a 26kg meat delivery the week before last and finally whipped out one of the pork shoulders. 6.6kg of yumminess which I turned into pulled pork. We had it on homemade pizza last night and it was phenomenal. Recipes are coming this week.
I did manage to get my brisket recipe up though, so if you’re wanting to do something with brisket or a nice slow roast cut of beef, then this slow cooker BBQ brisket may just be the hearty, beefy meal you add to your rotation!
I also took some time to write about gratitude as a homesteader after seeing inspiration of a similar post from another homestead blogger. With all this covid uncertainty in Australia at the moment, it was a good opportunity for me to take stock of my circumstances, of the systems I’ve setup to ensure that whatever happens “out there”, will mean things are still steady sailing at Milo’s Farm.
To read more about my gratitude as a homesteader, read Seeing gratitude as a homesteader.
I’ve also mentioned recently that I started a new work schedule of 4 days, 10 hrs long instead of 5 days, 7.5 hours long. And as a result I am also finding my week has become less spontaneous. As in, Tuesday is the day I schlep into the office for a few hours to satisfy a bullshit WFH policy that stipulates I must be in an office for 20% of my week, and the other 3 from home. So it made me realise I kind of, have to do certain things at certain times, to make sure I keep on top of all the chores (and keep all my other obligations!)
I think once my husband gets back on his feet then things will be a lot more different. Currently, I feel as if I am just keeping everything bubbling along so it doesn’t all fall apart. But when the surgeon gives him the all clear, then it will be much easier as he will slowly start taking up some of the slack of chores.
We don’t have his and her chores – we have farm chores. We share our workload whether its inside or outside. If I have a busy week and need help unloading dishwashers or taking clothes out to dry, then he picks up the slack. Same as, if he is working off the farm and it happens to be a bin day or gutter cleaning day and he can’t get to it, I do it.
So despite writing a post called A Day in the Life – Winter Weekday version – it really is just a sad mid-week post that made me reflect and realise what I said in my first paragraph….my week has become less spontaneous!
The other week on Instagram I posted about the deep mulching I had done in the garden when I moved the hay from the stable and sorted it into what Moose could eat and what could go in the garden beds. Turned out fantastic and fit perfectly. So I wrote about using deep mulch in the garden because it really has upped my gardening game. With the introduction of a horse to our farm only within the last year, there’s lots of excess, shall we say, horse shit – and deep mulching is a great way to use it up by helping prepare your garden beds.
It also helped us work through some other cosmetic gardening we’ve done around the house on some beds that were neglected when we moved in back in the day. We’ve planted some Muraya’s (mock orange) in these beds and some other drought tolerant plants to make the house yard pretty! And as smart as we are, we – my husband and I – added sugar cane mulch initially to which said horse, who nobody needs to name – ahh hem, Moose the Clydesdale – decided would be tasty. And he ate it.
Way back when I wrote about clearing one of the smaller paddocks to make an arena, we had a lot of oddly shaped trees. Some we cut for fireplace logs, some we burnt off, and some we mulched. The mulch pile was something we finally tackled today and put it on top of the sugar cane mulch in the pretty garden!
TJ 1 – Moose 0….although, in reality that is just in relation to the mulch. He definitely won the game when it came to eating the sugar cane mulch from the garden.
In catching up on social media and the like, I also saw a fantastic comment made by a youtuber I follow, who says that (and I am paraphrasing here), there are varying levels of sustainability and self sufficiency. And even if you can’t do them all, start somewhere, and do something. And that made me think about how much my husband and I have evolved as homesteaders and how different our lives are as a result.
It has definitely played into the mindset shift and the ideology of self reliance and its interesting to see how homesteading and self sufficiency are synergistic with each other. It also was a nice way to reflect about how much we didn’t know when we made the shift to a homestead and how much we just took a chance to change our lives.
I think the post I’ve written on this topic does consider the more analytical components of making such a change, but I think what needs to be reiterated is that, if you are deciding on whether or not to get into homesteading, maybe the whole magic of the change you need in your life is the one where you just take a chance, without all the SWOT analysis behind it. Maybe what the world needs more of is people who feel a deep cultural shift within their being, and who go out into the world to make change without it being all a big song and dance.
Who knows. I do feel quite philosophical about the topics in discussion and I feel that there is a lot to be explored.
So if you’re interested, read so you want to be self sufficient – what does it means and how do you start?
With the work week kicking off tomorrow, and some new projects also starting, I can’t wait to share another week on Milo’s Farm with you next week!
If you’re interested in seeing what else we do around the farm, make sure to keep reading and link in with our socials. We update regularly on the progress of our projects. You can also subscribe to our blog to make sure you get all the round-ups and updates first!
