Yes, I wish to discuss this quietly. There is a reason for this. I am obsessed with my hobbies, and I believe that if I discuss this quietly, like a secret, that maybe my subconscious won’t kick in and go craft-crazy.
Sounds easy, but when your “to-do” list is as huge as mine, just a thought of having a moment to myself for hobby stuff is insane. There is always something that MUST be done now, especially on a small farm like ours.
Don’t get me wrong; I love the rural life. I love the space, the gardens, the critters, and even the chores (a little less weeding would be nice). But I also love my hobbies. When it gets right down to it, I prefer my hobbies. I can easily do them any time of the year, day or night. I don’t have to wait for good weather, or a certain season to get things done. The bummer is that they are still just “hobbies” and do not pay the bills (yet).
I have been taking some online classes (all freebies-yea!) to learn all I can about running a home crafts business. I think I have boiled it down to one major problem – TIME. I never have enough time to do what I want to vs. what I have to do:
- Every morning by 5 a.m. I have to start the watering cycle.
- When it gets to be 90+degrees here, this must be done every day. We have some drip lines set up (in the corn & tomatoes mainly) which I can just turn on and let run for the allotted time.
- The rest is all hand watered. We have new, spring-planted, fruit trees which must get major watering every day right now. I know it’s working because the “shock” part is over and new leaves have appeared (woohoo).
- Then, while it is still cool out, I work on weeding. EVERYTHING needs weeding this year – all the time it seems. Normally we are not this wet so once weeded; an area would stay clear for a month, maybe the rest of the summer. Not this year. It was so moist and so cool this last spring, I swore I was back in upper Wisconsin. I even have a 10’x10’ canopy that I can move around to help shade me while I weed. It works great except that as soon as I move on to the next area, the last cleaned area starts to weed-up again – grr!
(NO – not THAT kind of weed.)
If I had less weeding in the front yard, and just concentrate on one major area each morning for about 2 hours (By then, it’s getting to be noon, and the wind dies – makes it awful to be outside because of biting black flies – hate them worse than mosquitoes. ); that would leave me time in the afternoon for my hobbies.
The only thing harder to do is decide which hobby I want to work on first:
- Card Making
- Beading
- Embroidery
- Knitting
- Crochet
- Sewing
- Painting
- Calligraphy
- The list just goes on.
Oh well, tomorrow is another day, and another area to weed. Perhaps a moment or several for one of my crafts?
Happy gardening – or hobbying!
You can also check me out at: www.lifelessonslived.com for all the fun things I have learned in life.
HELBERG FARM STORIES 
I hear ya about the wet spring. It has continued on into our summer. The weeds just keep cropping up. And the lawn, I can’t remember having to mow this many times. Usually we mow about 2 or 3 times in the spring and early summer then it gets too hot and dry so the growth is greatly slowed. I think we will be needing to mow again shortly and that will make the 5th time.
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You need to make things easier…lol Why can’t you use a timer on the drip lines? I don’t have a lot of weeding because I use a bunch of mulch and even straw in the garden. We only have 2 and a half acres though and we don’t have animals. You are amazing!
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Easier-hahaha – I wish. We tried timers, we tried (our first & 2nd years here) designated drip lines, special drip system, special layouts -you name it, we have (and still are) tried it. We used heavy mulch but our weeds are very strong and invasive even in drought weather. The geese helped with the goat-head weeds as they loved to eat the flowers (which are the picker once dried) then the coyotes ate the geese. The ducks were great at the grasshoppers until they started sitting in the shade of the tomato plants and eating our tomatoes just as they were ripe enough to pick – jerks! Then the coyotes got them. Chickens and guineas were also great bug eaters but every year we lose some (or occasionally all) to foxes and coyotes and the occasional hawk or Great Horned owl. So even with our best methods, there will always be something. Ahhh just another day on the farm – LOL
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How about a dome…lol I do have a secret for tomatoes but you probably have a huge field of them. Did you know that if you pick the tomatoes just as they start to blush, bring them inside and set them on the counter they will ripen perfectly? We do this every year because once they start to turn they don’t get any bigger and the bugs and critters can’t get them inside the house. They just need to be starting to turn. I seriously don’t know how farmers do it! If it’s not too much rain, it’s not enough. Then bugs and critters God bless all the farmers!
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Tried everything. Too many for domes but we do use fine mesh sometimes. When we do that it takes a ton of hand-polinating. We usually wait till just before first fall frost to pick everything. We wrap the tomatoes in newspaper (all non-ripe including green) in newspaper and stick them in boxes. Then check them every 3-4 days. They ripen beautifully this way and we usually have enough at each viewing to can them up.
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