survival « Robin Writes

I am so, so relieved that this is over! Imma have to smack my doc one of these days for telling me to “get more exercise.” Good grief. Each of those 4×4 posts weigh nearly 40 pounds, and the six-inchers are close to 90. Plus all those boards—ack. Not to mention the lifting and bending and, um, screwing.

My wonderful husband finished up the boards we had to trim a bit. Quite frankly, I was beat, and he said it would drive me nuts anyway. See, I try to help as much as I can, and I don’t mind the work at all, but I really, really hate standing around while he does something that I can’t help with. So, this way worked best.

We do still have to hang the gates; one we picked up at auction and it needs to be painted first.

Then on to finish the greenhouse—we actually started last week, but the wind picked up a bit much for putting on the plastic, so we stopped for the time being. And since then, we’ve had both wind AND some rain.

So I’ve been working on some business stuff and cleaning tack—only the saddles so far—and playing at Suzi Homemaker. Not to mention adjusting to the time change; not me so much as those darn cats, who are always “starving” anyway . . .

And there’s my ongoing Battle of the Leaves.

See, we used to live in the Big City, where everyone rakes and burns and bags them, and I’m not a fan of any of that. It’s best for the ground/grass/earth/your back/your peace of mind to just mulch them up and leave them.

We went from one acre with 20+ trees to 35 acres with—never mind, I will NOT be counting! But I do try to keep them off the decks and as soon as a few more fall, I’ll be mowing all around the house. I picked up (at auction, of course!) a battery-operated blower. It’s awesome, no cord to drag around and fairly light, but those batteries do run down pretty quickly. It’s a rather handy gadget.

The wood furnace got inaugurated last night. We’d tried it once before, but the wood was a bit too wet to catch. It sure got going this time! When I stepped out of the shower, I noticed the faint haze of smoke—everywhere! My husband closed the damper most of the way and I opened a few windows and that pretty much took care of that.

But the heat that thing puts out is incredible . . . almost couldn’t fall asleep last night, it was 75 in here—a far cry from the usual 65 or so!

PS—Keep your fingers crossed, I found a horse trailer! Hopefully we’ll get to see it today!

The time change happened, like clockwork—ha—yesterday. And we woke up, here on the farm, to 38 degrees with a windchill of 34. I don’t know about you, but anything below 45 just screams “winter” to me!

The Farmers’ Almanac gives us seasonal dates like these:

Fall: September 22

Winter: December 21

Spring: March 20

Summer: June 21

These may change each year, based on shifting sunlight, not temperature. Most of us, I think, see September as fall, November as winter, March as spring, June as summer—all beginning on the first of each month.

Maybe that’s why so many have SAD, because this makes winter last four months . . .

On the other hand, I’ve done plenty of camping in March and it sleeted. As in the last three years, in recent memory.

This year, it’s easier to think of November as still fall: there are plenty of leaves on the trees, my azalea bush and morning glories are blooming like crazy, new grass is sprouting up in the pasture.

But that 38 degrees trips me up . . .

And of course, today being a Monday doesn’t help at all and totally explains my fuzzy brain. Okay, not totally, but whatever.

Prepping is a lot like homesteading—a big duh, actually, because so frequently they’re one and the same. But you have to schedule things around the weather already, so the time change and shorter days just adds to the mix.

Instead of getting up and moving by 8:00, or even 7:00, you have to push a little harder and do in the daylight whatever needs to be done. Indoor things—unless you have a huge spotlight—can be done later.

For me, that mixes it all up. As a creature of habit—stop laughing, family—it’s really hard.

I usually spend an hour or so at my desk, then take care of stuff around the house, then move on for the rest of the day doing chores and projects. Now, I have to get my rear in gear much sooner and do stuff backwards. For me.

The flip side is that, once the outdoor projects are done for the winter, we don’t have to worry about a lot of work in the snow and ice and subzero temps. By the way, “subzero” for me means anything below 40, or 50 if there’s a lot of wind . . .

Yeah, this post sucks. I’m all over the place. My point is that there’s a reason for the saying “burning daylight.” And that said, I’m outta here—time to return to the fencing!