Short story: I do the day to day "farming" alone. Long story:
My hubby is my best friend and support. He is the tether or string, and I am the helium balloon. He is a city boy with country benefits. He likes to mow the lawn, and is a jack of all trades, plumbing, construction, electrical. He steps up where needed, but for the most part, I do all the gardening, animal care, food prep and processing, and a lot of the building projects.
I have built: stone walls, and stone retaining walls, hauled lots of rocks off the property, leveled and seeded the rubble left behind by an excavator over 1 acre we had cleared a few years ago, dug with pick axe and planted an orchard in bone hard clay strewn with boulders. Built a HK mound, and hauled and spread many yards of wood chips for BTE style orchard and garden.
I built my first coop (cattle panel), 2 chicken tractors, a CP green house. I also do smaller building projects: book cases with ceramic tile tops, rolling carts for portable green house and feed barrels. He and I built the second coop together, with him doing the bulk of it.
DH will feed the birds or gather the eggs when I am away. In the beginning, he helped me with the necessary processing. But, over the last 3 years, I do that chore alone. I figure that "farming" is "my hobby", not his. So, it's not fair for me to expect him to get involved in managing the poultry.
He will come into the garden and pick raspberries when the crop is in full swing. Or he may run out to the garden and grab some lettuce or an onion when I'm cooking supper. Aside from that, he rarely enters the garden (my domain) and when he does, I have to be on guard b/c he's just as likely to trample a newly seeded bed as he is to walk in the path. If I have a heavy task that I simply can't manage, or that requires 2 sets of hands, he'll help me. He will supervise when I use the chainsaw. When I go to town recycling center for mulch, I do all of the physical labor involved in that, but... he often goes with me. The recycle center is in an out of the way spot, and there have been times when I've felt vulnerable b/c of the folks who sometimes hang around there.
Snow removal: He actually likes to snow blow. But, I am usually home so end up doing it unless weather and storm pattern cooperate so it can be left until he has a day off. It takes 2 hours to do the necessary snow blowing, AFTER the snow plow has come and done our driveway.
But, I'm 62, he's 65 and has had 2 back surgeries, and has a bum shoulder. So... It's a juggling act at this point doing the heavier stuff with limited physical ability.
DS helps a little bit here and there, but honestly, most of the time he makes more work for me! No big projects going on here though, apart from taking care of the chickens, garden when it's not freezing, cutting firewood and digging old stone buildings out of the backyard lol
