Farm chores are a big part of homestead living, and in order for the homestead to run smoothly, every member of the family must do their part.
There are many reasons that draw people to modern day homesteading. Living simply, growing your own food, raising your own meat, and providing for your own family are amongst the top of those reasons. But with living this way comes a lot of responsibility and work, and in order for the family to find success, the farm chores need to be a family affair.
Everything on a homestead or farm must have a purpose. Without a purpose, the farm or homestead cannot thrive. Cows must provide milk, meat, or income. Chickens must provide eggs or meat. The rooster provides protection and potential to increase the flock. The land provides for a garden and food for the animals. And the family tends to it all, helping everything to survive and thrive as it should.
Farm chores take up a majority of a homesteader’s or farmer’s time, and for good reason. Without completing these chores, many of the most important parts of the homestead wouldn’t be able to be maintained, and so the homestead would fail. Animals will always need someone to feed and water them and to clean up after them. The land will not just grow all the food you need to live without being planted or tended to. Because of this, farm chores are a big part of life on a homestead.
Table of Contents
- Helping Children See the Value in Farm Chores
- Daily Farm Chores: A Glimpse at Life on a Homestead
- Age Appropriate Farm Chores
- Unexpected Benefits of Farm Chores
- Final Thoughts
- Share this Post
- Other Posts to Check Out on Homestead Living
Helping Children See the Value in Farm Chores
One of the best ways to help children see the value in farm chores is just to bring them along with you as you do them.
Involving small children with the farm chores of the day is not always a time-friendly option. Even so, it is still incredibly important to involve the children in the chores. Even though it does take time and make things more difficult, allowing children to help teaches them to recognize their value. Additionally, it encourages them to be contributing members of the homesteading family.
My two-year-old daughter has been toddling along with us outside during chore time as long as she could walk. More recently, she’s been really eager to help. She wants to carry hay to the cows and haul buckets of water down to the barn. And so, we hold her hand and let her toddle over to the fence to throw in her little handful of hay, and we walk ever so slowly as she holds her bucket filled with a cup of water to take to the cows. Does it make chores take longer? Absolutely. Does she feel like she’s helping out mom and dad? Yes. And that’s perhaps the most important part. She is learning that she is valuable member of the homesteading family, and her contributions are appreciated and valued. Even though it can wear on a parent’s patience and time, we still do this because the value of it far outweighs what would happen if we didn’t.
One of the key things to remind the children is that the work being done on the homestead benefits the whole family. It doesn’t make sense for just one member of the family to do all of the work. If the family wants milk, we all must take care of the cow. To have enough food for winter, we all must take care of the garden.
For even more on homesteading as a family and encouraging children with the lifestyle, read this post here.
Daily Farm Chores: A Glimpse at Life on a Homestead
There are some farm chores on homestead that must be done daily, while some are less frequently. Nevertheless, there is always something to do! Summer, specifically, is filled with preparing for the winter months ahead. The winter in Wisconsin is much too cold to do many projects, which means summertime is the main time to get many of the large homestead farm chores done.
Everyday, regardless of weather or season, these chores must be done:
- Feeding and watering all of the animals
- Eggs collected
- Milking the cow
- Bedding changed
In the summer time, the list is extended:
- Watering flowers and garden
- Weeding garden
- Picking potato bugs
- Harvesting vegetables and fruit
- (In late summer) Preserving vegetables and fruit
During the week, sometimes multiple days per week, you can also include these chores:
- Washing clothes
- Hanging out laundry
- Folding and putting away laundry
- Baking weekly bread
- Deep cleaning the house
Age Appropriate Farm Chores
As I mentioned before, everyone has to do their part. From very little on, kids want to help. It’s important to take time to allow them to help and make them feel like they have a valuable place in the family. If they feel as though they are a burden, they’re less likely to be eager to help with the farm chores.
Giving children age appropriate farm chores on the homestead can help them build responsibility, recognize their importance, and feel good about the positive impact they have on the family. Always remember, though, that they are still children. They will always need some oversight on the chores that they complete.
Ages 2-4:
- Help water flowers and plants
- Help harvest from the garden
- Help collect eggs
- Help pick rocks from the garden
- Help pick potato bugs from the potato plants
- Put silverware away from the dishwasher
- Tidy shoes
- Empty clothes from washing machine into basket
- Hand clothes to parent as they are hung on the clothesline
Ages 5-7
All of the above, plus:
- Put laundry away
- Feed and water chickens
- Turn on the water for hoses
- Weed the garden
- Give grain to cows
- Empty dishwasher
- Make beds
- Help to make applesauce
- Cut lettuce from the garden
- Shuck corn
- Pile firewood
Ages 8-11
All of the above, plus:
- Milking the cow
- Move chicken tractor
- Pick and snip beans
- Pick and Shell peas
- Wash and hang laundry
- Mow lawn
- Take out trash
Ages 12+
- Help with fencing
- Help with younger siblings
- Split firewood
- Help to bake bread
- Help with food preservation and canning
- Help with meat processing
- Help with hay making
- Bake bread + help with cooking nightly meals
Adults
- Complete any and all of the chores above that children are not yet old enough or cannot yet do
- Oversee all of the children’s chores and ensure they are done well
- Cut firewood
- Maintain fencing, fix, and build fencing
- Waterbath and Pressure can vegetables and fruits
- Cook nightly meals
- Rototill the garden
- Operate large machinery
- Process dairy into butter, cheeses, etc.
- Complete weekly baking
- Complete weekly laundry
- Maintain cleanliness of the house
Unexpected Benefits of Farm Chores
Besides the obvious benefits of a bountiful harvest in the garden and healthy productive animals, farm chores also have some unexpected benefits as well.
Farm chores require discipline.
Rain or shine, snow or sun, the farm chores have to be done each and every day. They require discipline and help to foster a work ethic in whoever is completing the tasks.
Farm chores force you outside.
Now, this sometimes isn’t very appreciated…especially when it’s -20 degrees Fahrenheit and your house is toasty warm. But, it also forces you to get outside on days when you probably wouldn’t have chosen to go outside yourself…and that can be hugely beneficial to your health.
On days when it’s cloudy or a bit chilly outside, you will still have to go outside to do farm chores. And with the proper clothing, you probably will be glad you had some time to be out there. In the dead of winter, there’s something special about the absolute stillness, darkness, and quiet of the evening chores. The stars are often bright and brilliant. The only noise is the crunch of the snow beneath your feet. Though I don’t always look forward to doing the farm chores, there’s almost always something to notice and appreciate in nature while I am actually outside doing them.
Farm chores bond you with the natural pattern of life
Working with animals everyday will naturally connect you to them. Similarly, as you work in the garden daily, you’ll start to form a connection to that space. Anything you do and anywhere you go day in and day out, you’ll form some kind of connection.
That connection being formed during farm chores is a powerful one that connects food to table. It helps to put into perspective the hard work that goes into creating dinner and the lives that were lost so that a meal could be served. To me, it feels like it’s God’s way of keeping humans in check- teaching them that they shouldn’t take the gifts of this world for granted.
It’s a powerful, impactful thing. If you’re not able to raise livestock or garden, consider buying local and spending time on those farms. That, too, can give you a real (and otherwise sometimes lost) perspective of what it takes to put food on the table.
Final Thoughts
Farm chores really are the most important tasks that happen on a homestead. They are what keeps everything running smoothly, efficiently, and puts the hard earned food on the table. It’s not always easy, but homesteaders and farmers alike will share how proud they are of the food that they produce. It’s that feeling, that connection between food to table, and that desire to make a change in the world, that keeps homesteaders moving forward.
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Help others discover what farm chores look like on a homestead.
Other Posts to Check Out on Homestead Living
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- WHAT 200 HOMESTEADERS WISH THEY WOULD’VE KNOWN WHEN THEY STARTED
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- Even more here
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