Right! I've found it! It's a quote from "The Fat of the Land" by John Seymour. In the last chapter of the book he talks about what sort of people he thinks would be suited to his lifestyle, and who wouldn't.
This is the bit that makes me feel better when things start to get on top of me and I feel guilty for working outdoors when the house is such a mess inside:
What are the sort of people who are likely to consider such a life?
Retired people with a little money are obviously one sort.
Their money will help them; but their habits of mind I feel will be against them.....
They are likely to be too tidy. You have no time for too much tidiness in this sort of life. It's a matter of first things first -- I would love to get some sort of order into my workshed -- but at this very moment I know that, next time I go out of doors, I must put up another piece of pig fence, to give access to more artichokes to my three pigs. These urgent jobs must come first -- tidying-up gets left until afterwards which means, all too often, it just gets left. A very tidy-minded person would just get nowhere....
Health is more important than cleanliness: cleanliness is a very negative virtue, terribly overrated by the urban English.
OK, we may not all have pigs, or even artichokes, and it may not be fences we need to erect, but we all have jobs that have to be done right now, before the tidying and cleaning of floors, etc., etc.
Now I'm going to get Katie washed and dressed and get outside. Seeds to sow and all that
Later on, DD1 is going to meet me at the allotment after school to do some digging in return for me topping her phone up. Her BF is coming to watch - well, that what he
thinks he's going to do
Maybe today then, I'll do the rest of the house....... 
(thanks)
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