People with lots of land!

[Rosalind]

DH's chores: Clean cat boxes, take out trash, vacuum, dishes, mow grass (or anything he thinks won't damage the mower, really), all bills which are not my credit card, arrange for the kid down the road to cut wood for us, walk dogs 2-3X daily.

My chores: Maintain swimming pool, care and feeding of all outdoor plants which are not grass or grasslike, walk dogs 3X daily, feed all pets, water houseplants, cooking, cleaning bathrooms, cleaning kitchen countertops, laundry, chicken maintenance, pay my credit card bill out of a separate account.

Grocery shopping is a joint effort, as is dog grooming. Also, I am responsible for home improvements while he is responsible for telling me I'm doing it wrong.

On rare occasion, he builds me something if I nag for a few weeks about it.

One of our two acres is woodlot. We are slooooowwwwwly hacking out some of the crummy little trees and the dangerous ones, making them into stove wood, and then this fall we're putting in flowering & berry bushes for the understory, hopefully they will shade out some of the effin' weeds. Also, some of it has hickory trees that we maintain as a nut orchard; in an ideal world, where I have infinite resources, I would rip out some of the crummy little maples and fallen trees that are currently in between the hickories, and put in hazelnuts/filberts for the understory. I tried doing walnuts, but they didn't take.

Most of the time, I can only guarantee that the downstairs part of the house will be clean. Upstairs...well... not so much.

 

[Suellyn]

I call myself a "Lawn Widow" this time of year 'cuz DH on the riding mower every spare moment... and we only have a bit over 2 acres!!! Grows so fast, and so little "spare time" available, that by the time he gets thru it, it's time to start over again!!!

As for the house...

I REALLY need to come up with some sort of "system"... It's ironic; I just resigned from my beloved career of 19 yrs to be home with the kids, work on house, etc.... Figured I would have TONS of time & things would look lovely... *NOT* the case, ugh. I'm frustrated... does "Flylady" really help???????

 

[gritsar]

We have 80 acres. Our meadows are kept under control somewhat because we leased them to a neighbor for his cows. He also cuts hay off of the meadows. The nice lease check at the end of the year comes in handy too.
The rest of the gazillion things we need to get done around here we keep saying we'll get to when my DH retires next year. Now he's refusing to retire.

I keep up with the animals and their housing. No sense trying to do any landscaping. The cows would just consider it a buffet.

 

[JennsPeeps]

I live on 0.1 acre. I repeat, 0.10 acre. Yes, it's a small city lot. I commute 70 miles roundtrip and it's all I can do to stay up with the household chores (and BYC, of course).

One of my friend confessed that she likes me more when my house is messy and imperfect, because it reminds her that she doesn't have to be perfect, either. My house gets company clean when we have company. The rest of the time it's "lived in" and loved. I'd rather live with dust than to not have time for the people and things I love.

That, and I can't afford a maid. Yet.

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

hmm lets see.

I am totally with you here. I have 4.5 acres and we mow about 3 of them. HA, WE my butt, I mow them with my JD lawn tractor that I don't allow anyone else to touch

We just finished mowing all of it for the first time this year but now we need to weed whack all the areas close to the flower beds and whatnot.

I have 4 large gardens that I haven't even started yet.
I have a small orchard area that I haven't tended to yet.
My house was clean, but then I took two days to process meat birds for customers and because no one else who lives here can clean, it's now a complete mess.
Saturdays I usually deep clean things, wash floors, etc. but this week I am so tired from processing those birds that all I want to do is curl up and watch a movie in bed.

I don't know how to get it all done. I have definate areas of my house right now that I wouldn't let company see and that I would deem "danger zones"

My sons 6 month old male cat is suddenly spraying everything with urine and I have to wait another month to get him fixed when the low cost clinic comes. I HATE cat spray

Sorry, I didn't mean to hijack. Can I just take a nap?

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

I think I scared everyone off

Sowwy...

 

[TammyTX]

Quote:
nope.

But I should be working! I did three hours on the deck, now I should start on my kitchen....but there was that apple tart from Martha Stewart yesterday.....hmmmmm

I think I have housework ADD.

 

[mechagrue]

Back in my city/apartment days, I used to look down my nose at lawns. All that big empty space being wasted! Useless monoculture! An ecological desert!

Now that I live on some property, I have grown to love the areas that are lawn. Drive the mower over it and poof, it's done! And since I use a riding mower (5 acres, about 3 cleared) I don't even have to stand or push or anything - I just sit there and drive in circles while sipping a Coke Zero.

The other thing I've come to appreciate is dwarf fruit trees as a form of gardening. There are several dwarf apple trees, pear trees, and a frost peach on the property. Prune once a year, circle with mower on mowing day, wait until fall and pick fruit. No ladder required!

Now THAT'S the way to garden!

The flower beds... ugh. I just got back inside from spending an hour with the weed whacker on one big bed, and there are dozens more.

If I ever get my own property (I'm renting) I will re-landscape as follows:

1. No less than 50% untamed woods. (Habitat! Carbon sinks! No maintenance!)

2. Lawn.

3. Dwarf fruit trees.

THAT'S IT.

 

[Cats Critters]

It is called woods, my family has 42 acres, 22 of them we hardly ever touch its on the other side of rode from are house, the other 20 on which the house sits are neighbor mows are yard (because we are death to all mowers) which is a couple acres and the rest is woods, I'm in charge of my two gardens (which I should be working in right now) and the chickens, my two grape vines (which I think I killed) and anything out there that I think needs tending, Inside is always a mess and we just try to keep it livable.

 

[lizardz]

We have 40 acres and even though we only maintain a small portion, it's a lot of work. DH is out of town all week, so that leaves it up to DS and I to care for most everything. Have a good size veggie garden, plus the landscaped area around the house. Have NO LAWN!!! but still have to mow/weedeat around all the roads, the house, coop, barn, etc. to keep a good defensable space around everything. DH does some mowing/weedeating on the weekends, but most of it has fallen to DS (who would rather be tied to an ant hill than weedeat). All animal care is mine, house work is mainly mine, garden/yard-mine, house maintenance/painting/etc - mine, leisure time-not mine! Still, would not trade it for a smaller lot/apartment or anything. The house is neat, but far from ideally clean - impossible with all the pets and kids running through (DS has a R&R band which practices here at least twice a week), but we're all fine with it. When we built the house, I brought carpet and tile samples to our site and kicked dirt over them. The ones that best matched the dirt are what was chosen - can hardly tell if they haven't been vacuumed/mopped recently! Unlike my brother who put in off-while carpet and has to steam clean at least once a month to keep it from looking absolutely disgusting. If your friends love you for how clean you home is, they aren't true friends, and will the kids remember more fondly a sparkling clean house or a house that was slightly messy, all were welcomed in, times spent outside and meals prepared from fresh produce you grew yourself. I'm betting on the latter. Rember - Don't sweat the small stuff (and an overly clean house is definitely the small stuff!).