Well, it’s pretty soggy around here. That limits what we can do outside. You can cause a lot of damage to fields and paths by driving through and rutting them up in really wet weather. You can see what I mean in those ruts in the picture below…

But there’s still always something to be working on.

First, there’s always housework to be done–and these soggy days can multiply that with everyone’s muddy boots and clothes! There’s a constant balancing act on the homestead between the basic housework and home maintenance and farm work and farm maintenance. If I’m outside helping with fence all day, I’m not washing clothes, mopping floors, prepping freezer meals, scrubbing baseboards (who am I kidding, I’m never scrubbing baseboards!) or any of the thousand other jobs that make a house run smoothly. But if I’m inside doing that, I’m not fixing fence, weeding the garden, repairing the shade shelter, cleaning the chicken house…you get the point.

On wintery days since Christmas, I’ve been working on managing our family paperwork and organizing our upstairs. My sister’s recent visit was a HUGE help to me, and I’ve claimed a whole new space in our house as a craft space–which I’ll have to show you soon. But it involved scanning and disposing of piles and piles of old papers and miscellaneous junk I hadn’t seen since it was shoved in that space 10 years ago!

Mr. Fix-It and the crew also took the time to do a pretty thorough clean up of the garage. Having a space open enough to work on–and organized enough to be useful–out of the weather adds a ton of productivity to winter days!

On halfway decent days, we also had some yard work to do. Red has a bad habit of digging. And digging. And digging. So we had to fill in holes…and trenches…and caves…through the backyard. Fixed up some raised garden beds while we were out there, and threw some backyard grass seed down, then worked on adjusting some gates.

Lambing is right around the corner, so we repaired and cleaned some feeders and organized our lambing and medical supplies. We could not do a very good job cleaning out shelters, but we use a deep bedding method, so we added fresh bedding and cozied everyone up. We also got a load of hay and feed and dog food. (Man, it seems like we go through a lot of dog food lately!)

I’m starting to get the gardening itch, with this weather in the 50s. I heard we’ve got another cold snap coming, so that will probably help remind me that it’s only January and slow down. {smile} This weather is also good for clearing scrub and limbs along the paths and tackling anymore “farm junk” that got blown around in the recent storms, while the leaves are gone and there are no snakes. (Please, no snakes!) The kiddos are so much better about not leaving a mess behind them everywhere, but we still have scrap piles of tin, metal, fence posts, pallets, block, etc. that we have to manage.

What are you up to around your home place this weekend?