Cycles/Seasons of the year:

Over the years we’ve figured out that there are optimal times to be most effective and times when you’re just wasting extra time doing things “out of season” for example, “Post Hole Digging Season” starts around mid-April and extends to mid-June. During this time it takes me about 6 minutes to dig a 34 inch post hole unless I hit a few rocks. If you dig outside this time–soon and the ground is too wet so the mud sticks to the post hole digger tool and it takes too long to get the muck off. If you dig after the optimal time, it takes about 30-40 minutes to dig a post hole. What a waste of time. We need to keep within our cycles to make best use of our hours. Here are some of the cycles we try to comply to:

• Bees
• Building
• Canning/preserving: Fit in during rainy days or after work hours
• Chores for Rainy Days (paperwork, cooking/freezing, cleaning inside the house, trips for supplies)
• Chores for times when it’s too early to make noise that disturbs the neighbors
• Chores inside the house or garage for winter time (taxes, sign packages, courses, reading)
• Chores when it’s too hot to work outside (I set my phone consults up for these times)
• Chores, daily (like cleaning out a bed, pruning up plants and feeding the chickens greens)
• Collection of coffee grounds (all year)
• Flowering
• Forest cleanup (as soon as we can get out there and before fire season really kicks in)
• Gardening (weed and cover the ground or it’s just not worth our time)
• Grafting: March-April
• Harvest: We’re trying to spread this out with increased variety to make it easier
• Kelp tea-spray before leaves come out
• Manure collection: As we can access the ground and when the weather is right
• Moon cycles: We’re learning more about this and how to plant with the moon
• Planting: Starts inside in March, in the hoop house in April and in the outside gardens in May
• Post hole digging season
• Propagation: Spring and Fall
• Pruning: Winter for apples and stone fruits in the summer months
• Soil building: Always and as much as humanly possible!
• Swarm seasons (May/June/July)
• Tick season (we don’t work out in the forest at this time)
• Water: Getting drip systems in saves us hours a day to work on our Priority To Do List. Must do more of this this year!
• Weed eating/chop and drop: Starts late spring and slows down in August
• Wood cutting: We usually take a couple days here and there to clean up spots. Our goal is one acre/year