This article about embracing seasonal rhythms was originally written for The Hillsider Magazine: Winter Edition 2023. You can get the full publication here.
I am so grateful to live in a place where there are seasons.
Last year, after months of being inside more frequently due to the cold, I could not wait to get my hands in the dirt come spring.
After a long summer of working the soil everyday, I was more than ready for a break come fall.
Our Story
My family homesteads on 2.5 acres at a little farmhouse in the city. We are surrounded by a traditional suburban neighborhood, but our property was never developed. We get a little bit of the city and a little bit of the country all in one.
My family moved to our fixer-upper farmhouse about 2.5 years ago. It had been extremely neglected by the previous owners and needed a tremendous amount of work.
We spent the first year-and-a-half fixing up our home and cleaning up our land. This last year has been focused on learning how to grow most of our produce, buy and store bulk food, raise backyard chickens, and plant a mini orchard.
We experienced a lot of success with our first big garden this year. Sure, it had an abundant amount of weeds, but we also harvested enough food to feed our family, plus extra to share with our extended family, friends, and neighbors.
I attribute this success mostly to the months that I spent researching, planning, and preparing over the winter.
Before we started homesteading, I used to think of the seasons in terms of weather changes and holidays. Now, I think of them more in terms of both physical and mental work and rest.
Summertime: A Time for Physical Work and Mental Rest
The spring and summer is full of hard, physical labor when you have a homestead. This past year, I moved 12 tons of compost onto cardboard to start my no-till garden. We moved truck-fulls of mulch to build pathways, one wheelbarrow-load at a time.
I spent hours upon hours working the soil–adding amendments, pulling weeds. We installed drip lines, planted trees, and re-built a chicken coop.
My family harvested hundreds of pounds of produce and spent many evenings chopping, preserving, and canning the food to get us through the winter.
I went to bed tired, albeit happy, nearly every evening.
While learning how to garden and preserve food definitely required some thinking, I found that the often repetitive chores gave my mind a chance to rest.
Spending time working outside in the garden not only provided food for my family… but also created a space where I feel the most at peace. I enjoy the quiet, the tranquility. As a mom with young children, evenings in the garden offered a quiet calm that was very rejuvenating despite the hard work.
I love to read and learn; however, due to the amount of time I spent tending to my garden and preserving the harvest, I read much less over the summer. The learning that I did was much more hands-on during this season.
The seasonal rhythms of summer involve more physical labor and less time to read and rest.
Winter: A Time for Physical Rest and Mental Work
The winter is a time for physical rest. While there are still chores to be done and work that needs tending to, the amount of physical labor is much less than the warmer seasons.
Although I am still relatively new to homesteading, I am grateful for this change of pace. The work of growing and preserving your own food and raising animals is good work, but it is simultaneously hard, grueling work.
I am grateful to live in a place where there is a natural cycle of work and rest due to the seasonal changes.
As I mentioned above, last winter was a time where I spent so many hours reading and learning and preparing for the season ahead. Each day, I set aside a little bit of time to read a few pages from my collection of homesteading books. (Here are some of my favorite homesteading books for beginners).
Preparing for the Year Ahead
I read several gardening books. I researched about what to plant and when to plant it in my zone. Additionally, I made friends with the employees at our local garden center and asked them questions about how to prepare for the growing season ahead.
I read about backyard chickens. I researched what breeds I wanted and pre-ordered them way ahead of time.
Furthermore, I began learning about permaculture. I created budgets and plans for the gardening year ahead.
It was a different kind of work, but it set me up so well for a successful first garden.
During the warmer months, I long to spend as much time outside as possible. I’d rather be working in the garden than reading about it. However, on those cold, blustery winter days, there is nothing quite like seasonal rhythms such as curling up inside with soft lighting, a cozy blanket, a warm drink, and a good book.
Refining Generational Skills During the Winter Months
While I consider many generational skills to be physical work, they are often more focused on fine motor skills that require precision and practice over strength and grit.
A few years ago, I wanted to learn how to sew clothing for my baby. So, I spent the winter watching Youtube videos about sewing and trying and failing and trying again.
I am a mama to young children, and I am in a season where I have limited time to work on projects that require close attention. This summer, the garden took up most of that time. However, I am planning on using the winter to improve my sewing and baking skills and perhaps begin to learn new skills such as knitting or crochet.
Here are some indoor skills to practice or learn this winter:
- Sewing
- Knitting
- Crocheting
- Soapmaking
- Candlemaking
- Baking
- Sourdough
- Cooking from scratch
- Preserving food
- Woodworking
- Canning (you can use store-bought food if you didn’t have a garden this year)
A Time for Organizational Tasks
The busy summer months don’t allow for a lot of extra time to organize. If you’re like me, you may have started off the gardening season extremely organized and ended with a disheveled mess.
Use these colder months to re-organize and create systems that you can stick to. Write down your organizational pain points for your garden, your animals, your home. Then, use this time to regroup and implement systems that are an improvement from the year prior.
Organizational Tasks to Focus On this Winter:
- Planning your garden
- Organizing seeds
- Storing bulk foods
- Ordering seeds
- Ordering bees
- Ordering chicks
- Cleaning out food storage
- Taking note of what is in your freezer
A Season for Everything
Whether you are a new homesteader or a seasoned one, the winter months are a time to reap the benefits from your hard labor over the summer. Learn to embrace the natural seasonal rhythms that come with this simple way of life. These cold winter months are the perfect time to continue learning and preparing for the year ahead.
