Monday, October 5, 2015

Projects galore

We just -- and I mean just -- finished the busy season for our woodcraft business. The last shipment went out Friday, by the skin of our teeth. Don's been putting in long, long hours, stressed and harried, as he rushed to get everything done.

For weeks, tankards shared space with garden produce...


...and monopolized the kitchen table. We all picked our way over and around drying tankards, crates, newspapers, glue, rubber bands, rubber hoses, and other accouterments of our trade.


Then, suddenly, it's over. The season is finished. At last my dear husband can take a deep breath and relax. (And today is his birthday too!)

Now he can tackle the endless farm chores that need to be done.

No really, this is relaxing for him. He's been salivating at the thought of getting projects completed before winter, and finishing neglected projects started awhile ago. The first thing he did was sit down and draw up a preliminary "wish" list of what he wants to accomplish:


There's no telling how much of this list we'll get done before the snow flies, but as we're fond of saying, wish lists are free and we can put whatever we want on them.

Yesterday he came inside and felt the need to immediately rush to the next task. Then he paused. "I keep telling myself to slow down," he said. "I have to stop with the hurry-hurry-hurry mentality. NO. It should be steady-steady-steady."

And so, little by little, slow and steady, he's working to his heart's content on projects galore.

11 comments:

  1. I've been wondering what you were up to! You're not usually so quiet. So glad you can now breathe a bit. Enjoy that nesting before the snow comes!

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  2. In our house it's a To Do List, not a Done List. :)
    Although it is fun to look at all the tasks accomplished, especially on days when it feels like we are not making progress.

    And a very Happy Birthday to the Husband of the Boss!

    Suz

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  3. LOL! ok, I know I've got bad eyesight but .... when I first saw the first picture, I those corn cobs were those fancy pastries with the creme filling. hahaha! I thought "what are those deliciously fattening pastries doing by the tankards and they got to be delicious cause I just gained five pounds by LOOKING at them..."

    then I read "with the produce" and thought "what produce?"

    haha! I guess my new "diet" has twisted my mind.

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  4. "Steady, steady, steady" I should have that posted all over the place, at least wherever projects need to be completed.

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  5. Happy birthday Don!
    Oh that rushing. I semi retired from contracting to focus more on our little homestead....and I've been rushing, feeling that the clock is ticking. I do need to find this speed called steady :-)

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  6. I had wondered why you had been so quiet lately, it has now been explained! Being really busy can be a pain but the alternative would be worse. I look forward to your coming sale to those of us who read your blog. I see also that your WONDERFUL WND article was posted on the survival blog. I think that it needs as wide an audience as possible.

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  7. Happy Birthday, Don! What a beautiful time of year to celebrate your birth and to be working outside in northern Idaho.
    My husband used to tell the children and me, "slow is smooth, and smooth is fast", but he retired the end of June and joined us at our new place in Idaho and he "hurries-hurries-hurries" trying to get as many things caught up before the darkness of late fall and early winter arrive, along with the cold. He so enjoys crossing chores off his list, lol.

    Enjoy your beautiful day, Don and Patrice!

    sidetracksusie

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  8. Happy Birthday Don.

    Carl in the UP

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  9. Happy birthday, Don Lewis!

    A couple of weeks ago my husband looked around our place and commented on how things never really get caught up, and I said, "Honey, it just means we have a farm."

    A. McSp

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  10. We try to work a couple hours on 'The Homestead' each day. I jokingly remind Montana Gal that "It's the journey, not the destination that is important". Not sure how much longer that is going to work. :)

    But every day is better. Of course that's easy after living all last winter in an 8 ft. x 10 ft. shipping container with no water or septic! Yes, we are still married. ha ha.
    Montana Guy

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  11. Because I don't know where else to put this, I thought I'd add that we've found out that you're right - it's hard to be self sufficient. We've lived in our new place for 9 months and wanted to do chickens and a garden first. I was SO proud of our garden - it's neat rows of baby green things shooting up. Then, a storm to end all storms, torrents of rain washed all my seedlings away and the garden never recovered. As for chickens, we had 21 last spring and since then we've lost 2 to owls, 16 to raccoons, and the remaining 3 have mites. Listen to Patrice, y'all!

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