The Emancipation of the Working Wife
Zak:
Happy Sunday to everyone. This week is a little different from usual, Jackie has written the post, sharing a small slice of her experience of living on the farm. When we first moved from Germany to Portugal, we lived for a year on the money that we brought with us, but of course that ran out, so we needed to make a living again. For many young families who try to live on the land (though this is changing), the mother usually prioritizes child care and the father earns the money and/or works the land.
We decided to switch things around. During the four years that we worked and saved in Germany, I worked at the post and Jackie worked part-time and studied remotely from home. Here in Portugal, it is sort of the opposite, Jackie works full-time and supports the family, while I work part-time (unpaid) on the farm, and look after our toddler when he’s not in kindergarten. With that in mind, over to Jackie;
Jackie:
Normally, Zak writes the newsletter, but recently I’ve been inspired to note down some things from my side as well. Easier than setting up the camera from different angles.
The rain pelts on the roof. Sitting in front of my work laptop, in the dark, I try and keep my fingers warm by wrapping them around my tea cup. I like those early morning shifts. I don’t particularly enjoy getting up at 04.40AM, but to sit alone in the kitchen, sometimes with the stove on next to me, and just have the peaceful quiet around me is actually the nicest part of my day. And then, at 02.00PM on the dot, I shut the laptop down, and I am free to work outside in the garden or on one of our various building projects. Wherever I am needed that day, really.
I do think a lot though about how this job, in a way the pinnacle of emancipation for us women, made me more of a housewife than I ever anticipated. Yes, I do earn my own money that I then use to support my family. But I also can’t really leave the home during these 9 hours. So I clean, I cook, I do the laundry, I preserve our food. In between, I take calls, hit targets, do my bit to keep the ever-grinding millstones of capitalism rolling.
I didn’t quite imagine for life to turn out this way, but compared to my ancestors, who did this work for free, I am at least getting paid indirectly by my employer. The job will become more busy during summer, but for now, we have this space. It also greatly benefits my mental health. Over the years in Germany, I realised that a big contributor to my anxiety and negative moods is clutter. I feel better when everything has a place, when things are not in the way. We don’t have cupboards and drawers, and it has taken a real toll to always have stuff everywhere. We try to be minimalistic, but you always need more tools for increasingly more detailed farm / construction jobs. As an inherently forgetful person, mess starts to accumulate fairly quickly if things don’t get put back. To be able to have a fairly clean space for the first time in two years is actually a huge improvement.
Having this much time during the slow winter season, I’ve started working on projects that we haven’t found the time for so far. Last May, we sheared our sheep Frankie and Crusoe, and the wool has been sitting in bags ever since, a constant reminder of our inability to keep up with the work that comes with running a homestead. Thankfully, we live in times when clothing is readily available at our local swap shop, for if we’d depend on those fibres getting carded, spun and knitted into clothes, we’d be naked at this point. One day, I walked past the accusing sacks of wool watching us from the corner of the future bedroom, and decided that this is it. Now is the time to start processing it.
Wool, when it first comes off the sheep, is terribly dusty. Not only poop (we cut that out already right after shearing) but dust, twigs, plant seeds… It all finds its way into a fleece. Over the course of two days, I hand-washed and dried the first half of one fleece, the second to follow soon. That one I might try in the washing machine on a gentle cycle.
After that follows carding and sorting. I’ve collected many dye plants over the last two years, I am excited to try them out on raw wool and I really wanted to do some rug weaving with it. I am dreaming of the deep red that St John’s Wort brings, the browns and greens of the eucalyptus, the pink and yellow hues of safflower. I’m not a fibre expert, in fact, I’m only vaguely proficient in crocheting oven pads. Over the years, I’ve tried knitting a couple of times but found it to be a rather frustrating experience (I can’t keep count of my stitches) and one that truly bores me, because I need to focus so much on said stitches.
Thankfully, my mother and grandmother supply me with plenty of knitted socks and pullovers, we’re not missing out on winter woollies. I feel inclined to try again soon, but as with all of my passions, they tend to be rather short-lived, so I’m hesitant to make investments. These fleeces are not very easy to card with what we have at hand. The fibres are fairly short, or at least they seem so to me. From what I’ve seen online, I should be able to get fluffy straight-ish “sausages” after carding and combing, but they clump together. So the goal is to felt a nice winter blanket for our son’s bedding until we can invest in better carding and combing gear. Right now, his winter blanket is a cheap polyester thing that gets rather sweaty. For one, I don’t like him sleeping and sweating in plastic, and it’s also not a very environmentally friendly product.
The felted blanket can then be sandwiched between cotton sheets, sown into place with boxes similar to a down duvet and then used during the colder months like you would a normal duvet. We shall see when this actually happens, hopefully before next winter.
All in all, I don’t mind doing these more traditional chores right now. Would I prefer being outside in the sun instead of scrubbing the gas stove - totally! But in the past, it was always a choice between urgent projects on the land or having a clean floor. The housework was often in last place, until I had the inevitable small breakdown over the messiness of life, and we needed to take a day for a “deep clean”. Everything else seemed all the more pressing. There’s always more leaks, escaped animals, weeds, wood hauling that seems more important. Now the choice has been made for me, and I don’t feel bad about leaving other things to prioritize this one. I can see the practicality in it, and I am not left alone to do the entire housework. We still share where it makes sense.
I totally see what you mean. Having an inviting and clean house is very essential for everyone. It does not have to be magazine clean of course, that's impossible with farmwork and a toddler. I know a lot about wool, spinning, carding etcetera so if you have questions I'm happy to answer. You don't have to felt the wool before making the duvet, rather not actually, it will become stiff and not cosy around the body. If you fluff the clean wool out, by using simple dog brushes as carders or even with your fingers and lay it in layers on the bottom sheet, rolling it up inbetween sessions you can work on it, you can stitch it secure in small rectangles with the top sheet along the way. It will felt a bit during use as a duvet.