For many homesteaders, I included, spring is their most favorite season of the year, bringing us ideal temperatures for outdoor activities and enjoying comfortable evenings. Top this off with any spring activity, then spring is indeed one season to enjoy.
Unfortunately these days, we can’t really do much outside our territories. Between the COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdown, and the self-quarantine, our activities are relegated to our own property, visitors not allowed. But that is not to say, however, that we can’t do any spring activities anymore.
Even with this pandemic, here are the things you can do in your home when the flowers start to bloom.
RELATED: 9 Ways To Get The Homestead Ready For Spring
Livening up the Homestead With Spring Activities
1. Heat up Your Incubator
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You should entertain hatching chicks during spring if you don’t have a hatchery yet. The eggs and chicken meat you’ll receive from your own chicken coop will help provide you with protein during the summer up to the colder months.
2. Remove the Insulation
Since the weather will become warmer and warmer, the extra insulation you’ve set up in your pens and coops need to go. Start taking them down to make sure your animals won’t suffer from excessive heat.
3. Make Necessary Repairs
The colder months can be brutal on your house and your farming facilities. If your roof needs work or you need to fortify a wall, spring time’s the best time to make repairs.
4. Time to Milk
Come springtime, animals start reproducing and making babies. And where there are babies, there’s milk. You should go to your cow every day this season with your milking equipment and supplies.
You should bring your small kids along since letting them see where milk comes is a good idea if you’re thinking of spring activities for toddlers.
5. Do Spring Cleaning
remains one of the more traditional spring activities for adults to do during this time of renewal. You should start tidying up your barns, sheds, and any place where you keep the animals.
6. Construct Tractors
Tractors provide chicks, ducklings and baby rabbits an enclosed space for them to safely forage. Not only does a tractor protect them from predators, but it also allows homesteaders to save on feed by allowing the animals to look for food themselves.
7. Make Your Fertilizer
You should start working your fertilizer heap for the succeeding seasons in spring. Making sure you have a compost heap piled up means you’re just drawing steadily from it as you plant new crops.
8. Make Room for Flowers
It’s spring and it follows that there should be flowers everywhere. You should make hanging planters near your windows and flowerbeds near your walls so you’ll have inspiration for the rest of the year when the buds blossom.
9. Repair Fencing
The cold of winter can break the hardiest of things, even fences. What’s great about spring is the weather’s warm enough for you to work on repairing your fences.
10. Starting a Seed Nursery
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Some homesteaders prefer cultivating their own seeds and sprouts. In case you’re of the same mind as they are, you should start thinking about making a seed nursery.
The climate in your area, the season, your land’s soil type and its fertility will inform what seeds you can grow. Investing in a seed nursery will save you the trouble of having to buy them and will give you enough lead time to establish them.
RELATED: Survival Seeds Storing Techniques For Homesteading
11. Fix Tools
In case your tractor goes down or your mill stops working, don’t wait for the rest of the year to make repairs. Do these chores while the weather’s nice.
12. Lay Down New Seedlings
Springtime is the best time to prepare for a new harvest. You can make this task one of the spring activities for kids in your household.
13. Clean Your Homestead
Having a clean homestead keeps you organized. Plus there are some spaces around your homestead that needs your attention every six months or so. This is a good time to focus all your attention so your homestead can transform into an organized dwelling space.
14. Reap Winter Crops
When the first days of spring come along, there’s a chance some seeds you planted late may be ripe for harvesting. Harvest them and enjoy them on your table before the influx of spring crops fill up your plates.
15. Do A Chimney Sweep
When the last embers on your fireplace grow cold, you better start cleaning your heating equipment and facilities so they’re all good for the next winter.
Letting soot linger on your chimney may damage the stack and make it vulnerable to burning. Performing maintenance work on this as early as you can protect and prolong the life of these items.
16. Make Garden Beds
allow you to grow vegetables and succulents. You should see to building some or repairing them so you’re all good by harvest time.
17. Clean Your Refrigerator
While the young go for spring break activities, the adults go to work. One of these chores involves cleaning your refrigerator to remove mold and smells. Don’t forget to wear the proper equipment, though, masks and gloves and all.
18. Ready Your Greenhouse for Spring Crops
Maybe winter’s still doing overtime in your greenhouse. It’s time to bring the heat in there and bring down your winterizing solutions.
19. Time to DIY That Patio
In case you’ve been hankering for outdoor spaces, it’s the perfect time to do some carpentry work and start those projects. Setting these nice places to linger during warmer weather means they’ll be up come summer and fall for your family to enjoy.
20. Prep for Livestock Births
Drying the kid GIF via GIPHY
After animals mate during the season, babies will start springing out. You’ll need to make sure you have all the tools and supplies you need to make sure your animals give birth successfully.
If you have a goat, for example, you should be ready to clean all the kids coming out to help their mother focus on childbirth. This means you’ll definitely need clean towels to wipe and pat the babies dry when they come out.
21. Work on Your Water Catching System
You can store rainwater to water the crops instead of using the faucet. This way you’ll have a readily available stockpile to water the crops during summer.
22. Update Your Wardrobe for the Warmer Season
It’s spring, and it’s getting warmer. It’s time to keep your winter clothes back to the closet and bring out the lighter ones.
23. Clean Your Canners
After all that meat or vegetable canning projects you’ve done during the winter, of course, you’ll want to clean your canners.
24. Teach Your Kids How to Cook and Can
If you have kids this is the perfect time to get them involved in homesteading, teach them how to prepare your dishes on your homestead. You can also teach them how to can, or preserve food.
25. Put out Outdoor Equipment & Furniture
If you have equipment or furniture in your shed that you have kept during the winter months, now is the time to bring them out under the sun. Give them a good clean!
26. Clean Your Chicken Coop and Run
When the snow melts, the chicken coop smells. So make it your duty to clean your chicken coop and run, and other farm animals housing.
27. Clean Your Gutters
To prevent expensive repairs later on, make sure to clean your gutters and downspouts while the sun is out. You can also do this on other equipment and furniture such as ranks, deck boards, air conditioners, and gas lines.
28. Prune Shrubs or Trees
If you grow fruit trees, you should always prune them so that they become healthy and are ready to face another, warmer season.
Finishing your spring activities early—even with this COVID19 virus—means you’ll be waltzing into the other seasons with your most urgent tasks done. You only need to harvest the fruits of your labor—ones you’ve laid the groundwork for in the earlier months.
What homesteading spring activities do you do? Give us a list of tasks we might have missed in the comments section below!
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