I am not a workout person. I tried joining a gym when I was in college. I went once. I have been thinking about working out ..again? or at all? since having the baby. The thought of it makes me cringe though. Last night however, as I was working in the garden I came to the realization that this is an excellent workout, actually running a homestead in general is a workout, constantly. Who needs to spend $30 or more a month on a gym membership when they can grow their own food and get the daily workout for free?
In the past two days I have finally built my chicken run and moved some of my chickens into it. The run has to be moved every day to ensure the chickens get adequate nutrients and aren’t living in their own filth which can make them sick. The run itself is upwards of 75-100 lbs and i have to lift and drag it about 6 feet every day. Some of our roosters are about fryer size so we may also start taking down some of the bigger guys. Have you ever killed, plucked, and processed multiple chickens in a day? Its hard work. My arms and back are killing me by the time I’m done.
Then there is the garden. Everyday we go out and pick everything we have and check on what isn’t ripe yet. It’s probably at least 30 minutes of squats. Then I do another 30 minutes of weeding. We bought a hoe which makes weeding SO much easier. Last year we weeded without a cool tool and we hated it. In fact, I don’t think we weeded at all after June. I go through the garden and hack apart all the larger weeds with the hoe. It’s quite a workout on both the arms and the legs. Add in chasing after the kids and housework and It’s no wonder I am tired all the time.
Once we get the house done, or done enough to be able to start putting animals out on the farm, we will be getting our milk cows and goats. That will add that much more work. Plus there is the processing of all the food we bring in. It’s hard work but it’s totally worth it!!
Talking about being tired, i think it’s a two coffee morning.
Homesteading on any level is, in fact, a workout. I was washing clothes with two buckets, a plunger and my upper body before the accident. You couldn’t have paid me to set foot in a gym!