What are your homesteading strengths and weaknesses?

[Mysweetseven]

As we continue to look and prepare to move back to the country and become more self sufficient and eventually able to live off of the land. I find myself thinking of all of the areas that I feel are my weaknesses. Does anyone else feel like they are "lacking" (I"m sure there is a better word for that) in a certain area? gardening, canning, sewing, livestock knowledge etc? Just making sure that I"m not the only one.

[chloecat]

i hate cleaning up outside and being outside in general. my husband calls me a housecat. i have to do some outside chores with the animals and the garden. but if i dont' have to be outside, i won't go out

[Mysweetseven]

I have to admit I don't overly care for being outside in the high heat during summer. Spring, Fall and for the most part Winter I'm ok with but when it comes to the temps over 90 I'm happy to stay indoors.

I need to gain more confidence when it comes to canning and sewing. My mom does most of my canning for me now but this is the last year she is doing it, we live about an hour apart from each other and she won't be able to have a garden after this year so she's informed me that next year I get to do the canning for both of us which makes me nervous.

[Funky Birdie Boutique]

Originally Posted by chloecat i hate cleaning up outside and being outside in general. my husband calls me a housecat. i have to do some outside chores with the animals and the garden. but if i dont' have to be outside, i won't go out

Glad to know I'm not alone in this! I refer to myself as the queen of my very own kingdom (queendom?) I love most all indoor jobs. I do wanna learn how to love garden time. Gardening and livestock are my areas I'd like to become more adept with

[igotmywings]

I HATE being outside during the summer and generally despise yard work. I am a okay with working in the garden and livestock and the fruit trees buuuut anything else im like..oh heck no

[aiyana4969]

organization, adhering to a schedule, wish I knew a lot more about livestock, and wish my sewing skills went beyond diapers, pants and t-shirts. I'm a self-taught seamstress, actually self taught everything, it's definitely a 'learn on the job' thing for me but I don't have any sort of mentor, just trial and error. Makes things a little stressfull that way.

[aiyana4969]

Oh and I hate the cold, I'm sure I'm going to hate even taking care of the chickens when it's -10F or worse and I have to trudge through several feet of snow.

[Geckmumto3]

I am not a good worker in the humidity/heat of summer. I am so unmotivated. I also wish I would sew better. It's one of my winter goals to drag out the machine and do more, so I can get better.

I am also not as handy as I would like to be. My DH loves to do handy jobs, etc... so there is not much call for me to do them. I want to do more that way, too. We do work together on them a lot, but he is the workhorse. I plan on surprising him with a few jobs this winter -- I saw a great crib-turned-drying-rack that I want to put in my sunroom.

[Agla]

I can improve in most areas. I think it might be easier to list my strengths because its a short list.

I think my biggest shortcoming is my fear of bugs which makes outdoors a nerve wracking place for me sometimes.

[aiyana4969]

Originally Posted by Agla I can improve in most areas. I think it might be easier to list my strengths because its a short list. I think my biggest shortcoming is my fear of bugs which makes outdoors a nerve wracking place for me sometimes.

I used to be terrified of bugs, spiders especially. I don't know how it happened but over the past 10 years DH and I have been married his Non0fear of these things has actually rubbed off. Maybe it was deployments where I had to kill them myself, or not wanting the kids to be afraid of them just because I am (I think a lot of fears are learned, some are inherited from the caveman days like being out in the dark and hearing a pack of cyotes close), but my learned fears have lessened so much because of DH.

I went from litterally screaming and running over the tiniest spider to letting them live peacefully in certain areas of the house (including my bedroom I have cellar spider in the corner not far from the bed who's beautiful and catches moquitos).

This summer I also relinquished most of my fear of bats letting them fly close enough to brush me. Dh thinks they're beautiful. I'm learning to live with the creepie crawlies and appriciate those that benefit me by preying on the ones that destroy my crops or annoy me.

GL Mama!